Let's Talk About Words

    Lil Wayne was quoted as saying, "I know it's an experience that I need to have if God's putting me through it." Although that quote could apply to many of the experiences of life, I think that mistakes and things that embarrass  me can teach me much about life, as well as about myself. Sometimes in life I am presented with a situation or a person that I encounter time and time again. Just bad luck or  coincidence? Or is there something I need to comprehend or acknowledge?  Maybe I need to learn compassion or forgiveness or just understand that no one is perfect, myself included. I believe that embarrassments help us to learn. Read my words  and see  my quotes  at Sharing my truths or follow my FB page at Author Susan Marie Schulhof

     "Among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliance than justice."                                                -Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra     Mercy by definition is compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to harm or punish. When a person has harmed me, an urge to hurt them back, through my words and actions, rises up within me.  Can I offer them mercy or do I punish them?  It feels fair to wound them back, an eye for an eye as the saying goes. Even if they show remorse and say that they want to do better, it is still difficult not to retaliate. No one likes to be hurt or harmed, but where does this retribution get me? I feel bad because I have harmed another; the offender may even feel justified and think "See that is w...

      Norman Cousins said, "The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference." When I started volunteering at WINGS years ago, I attended a two hour training to understand the women and children staying in the home that I would be volunteering at. As I saw the slide show and listened to the woman speak, I realized that if it had not been for my mother's help, I could have found myself homeless and without a job when I got divorced in 2001. Even though I had a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, I had not worked in 9 years plus my daughters were only 5, 7 and 9 at the time. I had no money saved and received very little child support. I learned that these women were not on drugs or trying to get free food and shelter. They did not have anyone to help them watch their children; they did not have the money to buy a car to be able to drive to a job. It was a vicious cycle of lacking causing more lacking. In a world where we hear story after story ...