Marble is known as "the home of positive thinking." That is due, of course, to the world-famous book written by our former pastor, Norman Vincent Peale. Marble has for years been at the forefront of a movement that is once again picking up steam in both the theological and psychological arenas of the world. People are once more discovering and embracing the authentic power of positive thinking. Dyer and Chopra and Osteen and Dave Shearon and Barbara Frederickson are all selling countless books, restating the case Peale made over a half century ago.

Yesterday afternoon I bumped into a man who hosts a radio talk show on a station in Connecticut. We began to discuss the state of things in the world and how easy it is for people to succumb to despair unless they have something encouraging to hold onto...

While Page and all the kids are in North Carolina, I decided to try and be a little better about what I eat. Until such time as a magic let’s-get-svelte pill hits the market, I guess I have to assume some responsibility for what I do (and do not) ingest.

As you may know, food and I are on very friendly terms. Aside from liver and pickled beets, I’m not sure I’ve ever met a food I couldn’t be friends with. So, when I set out recently to eat more intelligently, it was not easy determining which food groups
to ignore. I’ve had such a warm, long-standing relationship with carbs and sweets that it seemed almost unthinkable simply to
abandon them. So, I hit upon another idea. What if I eat all the things I’ve always loved ... BUT I only do it once a day? Just trim my number of meals from three to one, and (theoretically, at least) I should be taking in only 1/3 of the calories. It’s a brilliant plan! I can still have pizza or hamburgers or fries, anything, just less frequently. Why had I not thought of that years before!?

I read numerous on-line devotionals from a wide variety of theological perspectives. Almost every perspective has something of value to say. I particularly enjoy devotional sites that are more poetic and contemplative than didactic.

Marble’s own Esslie Hughes regularly locates and e-mails wonderfully contemplative devotional material. Recently those of us on her mailing list received a poem written by Mary Oliver. The final verse from Ms. Oliver’s poem entitled The Summer Day says:

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?