Category Archives: charity

Receiving the promise. PAULS BEAUTIFUL WITNESS

04 Friday Dec 2015

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Dec 3, 2015

This writing took days with prayers and reflection. some things are difficult to capture so I pray that it will do justice to my friends . A family who inspires love, peace and joy no matter what life situation they are in.  God Strong! xo

 

 

Today, Wednesday Dec, 2  2015 I am trying to carefully write with my heart, with my faith and with the full knowledge that God is control of every situation in our lives. First off , thank you all for your prayers for my nephew Stevie, it has been a difficult process with his adjustments in his medications. God bless my brother, and sister in law and their daughters for witnessing untiring patience, love and service to him. He is now coming out of the other side of this situation so please keep the prayers coming. Thank you. Amen.

This morning I opened my instant messager and found two beautiful letters regarding my family friend. Paul S. Thank you for the prayers for he and his family. Paul is a firefighter, a son,brother,husband and dad to 3 beautiful kids. Most importantly is the fact that Paul is a man of faith. The way he has stood up to this disease called pancreatic cancer which traveled to his liver is astonishing. He is a hero witnessing God and is rediating a sense of joy in his life and to so many who meet him and his lovely wife for that matter.

I am set to visit him soon and as I prepared and prayed today I was thinking what can I / should I say?  I then felt in my heart that this is not about planning words. I just decided that God knows what Paul needs so he will give me the words that will reassure Paul. So I am at peace with that matter now. I just want to support my friends the way they have supported my family in the past.

From my personal human perspective this disease and situation stinks. It does not make sense that God would take a man in his prime who  is such a harbinger of good, love and service to so many.

Having lost my 2nd son to heart disease and my mom and grandparents too I know the only way this loss can be reconciled is by allowing ourselves to accept the reality of our loss, the time that we need to grieve. God has to be part of this process. Once the initial pain of the loss is less emotional I found that I could then find myself able to not blame God. I began to thank God for having had my loved one or friend in my life. After all, I am a better version of myself because of that love and relationship.

Today was a gray day and I spent a lot of time thinking of him transferring into a hospice facility.

i know Paul and he will smile and crack the jokes with his family and friends until he reaches eternity. Because he is God strong. He lives for his family and any person in need.

Perhaps God has me here still in this moment to be a witness to what God can to do and to shine a light on Paul and his family and the way we can look at how faith in action can and will benefit our families even in the harshest of situations.

i will also say this, This could be me tomorrow. It could be you out of the clear blue, who knows ?  I know one thing I will continue to tread with Paul in defiance to cancer, or any Spirit of defeat. Remember we do not loose when we are called from this life rather we receive the gift of everlasting life with our family and friends that have gone before us.

God has told us that through Jesus taking our sins upon the cross and his sacrifice   For us all that we will receive the gift of Heaven where every tear from this life will be wiped away and we will be restored.

ALSO, Don’t for a minute that God can’t do whatever he wants. It is the time of Miracles. Someone was talking to me recently and asked me what if a person does not get the miracle. I was being challenged to a certain degree because I happen to be in this moment I a Miracle. My response to them was as easy as the air that I breathe.

I said, we are all Miracles just by mere fact of our births. The next thing I said was that I believe that the Miracles in our lives do not always come the way that we want them too. Many happen to us and are unnoticed. My final thought on the matter was that I had read somewhere recently that we do not always get the Miracle that we desire but in that case we should be the Miracle to others.

Guess what, Paul and his family have been unified and turning everything over to God. Showing everyone who is contact with them that their is a God and they believe. So, their witness has effected everyone they have met.

Paul and their entire family are witnessing their faith in God by the way that they live and love.

Thursday Dec, 3 2015

We received word fro Pauls family that he would enjoy a visit so Janet and I went off to the hospice center and it was beautiuful. we were greated by his beautiful wife, children and family. Pauls room is beautifully decorated for Christmas. a bunch of friends surprised him showed up with a tree lights , you name it and it is so beautiful ! Paul was hiumself sitting up in his bed. God, it was so good seeing him. We shared and he is absolutely so God strong. I asked him questions about how he felt. He said great. he was genuine. His family are all in the moment giving it up. obviously no one is happy but then again as humans why would we be .   But what keeps this situation from becomeing totally devistating is God ,his son Jesus and the fact he has given us life beyond this. I call this act one.

My writing of  these words is done as a tribute to their families  unabiding trust in God. We discussed the Miracles that can happen and we prayed to God for whatever healings he may want Paul and his beautiful family to receive.  I actually gave my blog card to them and told them that I was writing of Paul and their journey because it is really a celebration of Gods love in action. This is what this tired world needs more of. Amen

In closing for Paul, Linda and family, Thankyou and God bless you for showing us the way through your brilliant light.

The reason why Paul his family and all of us should have no fear. its almost Jesus birthday.  And he has come to redeem us. Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pGld28bJMw

Love

Danny , Janet and family.   xo xo

 

 

 

 

Ring Christmas Bells

30 Monday Nov 2015

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It was a beautiful Thanksgiving and the rest of the weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. My friend Paul and his family was on my mind as well as my nephews ongoing medication saga. My energy remains low to this day , I am told that it is not surprising whereas every step I take is using 4 times the energy of that of a healthy person. So,  I basically was in my home all weekend with the exception  of church. I went to bed last evening around 11 and fell right to sleep. I woke up at 3:00 am just laid in place thinking and praying about the things that came to my mind.

I never went back to sleep in a meaningful way so I turned on my kindle and just laid there looking out my window. The tree was moving gently in the wind , I could see the squirrels nest now that the leaves have fallen. The next song came on and I thought what a beautiful song to start my day with as I was getting up.

When I wrote last week that I loved the brightness and light of this Season I was not referring to day light savings time when it dark at 4:00 . I love the Advent Season , the hope and  I love the Christmas decor that reminds us that our King Jesus Christs celebration of his birth will be later in this month.

so,  the bright lites that we decorate with along with our Advent candles help to supercede the stuff of this life that are trying.

 

so, enjoy this beautiful song and listen to the words of love and hope that it provides for us.

life is to be celebrated.

God Bless You,

Danny

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQBpmaIRaiU

 

 

 

 

When God Calls Me Home

29 Sunday Nov 2015

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i came upon this today after I attended church. I thought of our lives and the way that God helps us and desires for us to understand him as our loving Father.

this was beautifully  done ,may you find comfort in its words and its delivery

God bless you,

Danny

A time of prayer, a time for concern. This thing called life.

28 Saturday Nov 2015

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This is the time of year that I favor. I love the change of the Seasons and the Holiday/ Christmas Season so much. It ushers in a freshness of air , an abundance and light. It culminates with the Calander change into a New Year with new opportunities. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Well, there is one  thing that keeps on going even during this period. It’s called sorrow. Sorrow for things past and most importantly in the present moment.

This Season is no different. I am in contact with many people weekly who are living their own cancer journeys or have friends and relatives who are and I spend a lot of time supporting and loving them through it.

I would please ask you to pray for the following people and their families and caretakers this day.

Stevie.  Terrible emotional turmoil and medication issues. We pray to the Lord.

For Paul S. Who is a fight for his life with pancreatic cancer / liver. We pray to the Lord.

For all of the people suffering from any type of medical situations whether they be emotional , or physical I pray that God will reach down and remove their afflictions.  We pray to the Lord.

Last  evening late one of my children’s friends who is home on school break popped  in to visit and he found himself in my family room and my wife and I had the opportunity to speak to him . He is a great kid and we spoke of his recent loss of his grandfather and the feelings surrounding that life event. I was honored to witness the words spoken by him in regards to his grandfather and the legacy of love that he lived. I also understood the loss that his grandmother and the entire family was feeling.

This thing called life is very real. We here have a very dear family friend Paul S and family who are fighting the good fight against cancer. As I said last night to the young man Ryan in my family room. They are witnessing the strength and faith in God to so many. They are showing love faith and trust in their God.

3 blocks away from me in this moment is my beautiful nephew Stevie who is battling the most oppressive of all mania caused by medication issues. My nephew is a Saint living a difficult life walking head first into a raging strong. Stevie is not lost because he has a family circling the carriages around him and supporting him from the total onslaught of the storms fury. In this moment there in their home is my brother, his wife, their two daughters, their son in law and mother in law riding out the storm with him. They have been in this hurricane for 25 years.

Guess what, he is counted as our families most beautiful members, a young man who sees only good, who’s heart is pure. He is love personified.

My brother and his wife and family have a journey that not many could have lived with daily. But you see the one thing and perhaps the most important thing is that they know God he is their refuge. He is the reason.

So, there are 3 examples of why we need one another, Paul. S, Ryan and family and Stevie, our families angel.

Please pray for them all this day. And, let us all keep the small stuff in its place and praise God for his love and goodness in this thing called life. Amen.

So, please listen to and read the lyrics for the following song and then say a prayer for the people mentioned in this writing. I also will pray for your needs as well. God knows who you are and what you need.

God Bless us all. Amen.

Danny

 

Praise You In This Storm – Casting Crowns – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5bLvVjJ4MA

Because anything is possible if it be the will of God.

26 Thursday Nov 2015

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A friend on Facebook that I follow, pray for and that I am inspired by. He has a strong fighting but loving Spirit that I relate to.

A God Strong man and inspiration . God bless Iran and his lovely daughter.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13510735

Not Talking Turkey.

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

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I like all of you am rolling in and out of the minutes, the hours, the days, the months and yes the years. I do not know if the expression that I heard so many times that times goes faster when your older is true, but it would appear that way at this time. I don’t really know why but it seems to be going faster and faster.

Life and events around the world are unfolding at lightening speed.

I am so grateful that I am here still despite the things that I have and am enduring daily. The saddest parts of my days is the constant crappy news that I read and see on the television or finally hear or the radio.

I was at the Y today at the live strong program and was on the exercise bike. It is equipped with a elaborate computer info center and television screen. As I went through my exercise program the television was on and the sound was muted. I glanced at the screen and the text of the conversation was scrolling along televisions picture. So the twilight zone I found myself in was this. The crap about the election and all of the people that I do not trust . I do not care about party don’t like anyone. The news about terrorists. Warnings of bombings, beheadings etc. You can’t say Christmas. The text just kept going in the meantime one of the other cancer patients sat down beside me on the next machine and smiled. She said hi Dan and I looked at her beautiful face. She was sitting there with her head scarf on. She said how are you and I composed my self quickly by the grace of God and said good with a big smile . The inner turmoil of all of the evil in this world was not going to be vented onto the beautiful lady. Within one minute one of the program counselors came by to check in on us and when they engaged and he  assisted her I was able to say a couple of prayers to allow me to be restored to a peaceful place.

The point is this.  I am sure this is not what God had in mind when he created the world. What is it that makes people be so cruel to oneanother. No one is any better than anyone else. I just looked at my friends there who have been fighting so hard and struggling along with me at the Y and thought these people are the best. They are the hero’s, they struggle and they reach out to anyone and everyone with a smile and a kind word. They are not me centered they are not complaining they are laughing and loving. There is a Spirit of joy.  We are not all of the same faith or belief necessarily but that makes no difference either.

Its a sad commentary that society finds itself here in this moment. I pray everyday for common sense and civility to be restored.

I am grateful for everything I have and hope that this Thansgiving this world will wake up and begin the healing process that only goodness and Godliness can bring.

I am beginning to appreciate that the fact that cancer came to destroy my life but it has only blessed me in ways that I could never have anticipated.

I am not a victim of cancer anymore than anyone of my friends that has been through it, who has survived it or who has succumbed to it.

There is a Spirit of God that is joy, that is love that is hopeful and will not be defeated by any story or any of the many idiots on the TV .

I will close with this term ;

my mom use to say.

Knowing what you stand for, Limits what you fall for.

Important words to live by these days.

God bless you all. Happy thanksgiving.

Danny and family

please pray for our friends with illness and cancer especially our friend Paul S. and JD

and pray for my daughters friend a young man from Connecticut  Santiago who took his own life. He was a wonderful young man and will be missed.

May God bless him and his family. Amen.

THE END OF THE WEEK

21 Saturday Nov 2015

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Today is Saturday, the end of a very long week. My week started off with Dana Farber which went very well, thank  God. I ended the week on  a bit of a low note when my coverage for physical therapy ended once again. This time it is final for this diagnosis after having exhausting the appeal extension. I know that God got a plan to get me from point A to point B.

I am sitting in my chair today tired and I recently found a few DVDS that my son gave me over the last 3 years. I at the time was really into watching movies. But, I loved the fact that he was trying to bring some type of normalcy into our messed up family life. I love my wife and kids for putting a safety net around me by pushing back the tears and rolling out normalcy to the best of their ability. My siblings and my parents provided me the same type of environment. I think that I am beginning to truly see and understand through much prayer and reflection how effected and life changing this experience has been for everyone. In the moment that I was fighting the cancer I really thought about little else . I drifted daily through my life not worried about stuff.  I certainly did not understand the full effect that my diagnosis made on everyone . I was at peace because God gave me that peace. A peace that I sit here with today.

Their fear as I have come to understand  is they are afraid of the reoccurance that is almost always connected to the Glio brain cancer that I had. ( but I did not own). I never excepted it as mine. God told me as I have said before.,

AND, I am here in this moment by his election. Guess what? So are you all.

I am not sweating the small or the large stuff for that matter. It’s just life.

The following song say’ s it all.

God bless you all,

Danny

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VAhymOYqcsE

Livestrong

19 Thursday Nov 2015

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I came in from the Livestrong program today with a new sense of purpose to get this program out to every cancer patient that is out there. Whether past or present patient.

This program does show us as individuals the fact that our new normal can be better that what conventional wisdom may have us believe.

so, please, please share this video and information with everyone. There  is no cost to the patient. It is an amazing gift to us. Reach for the stars and expect healing and miracles to transform your daily life and your interior sense of wellness. Amen.

 

We can make a difference if we choose to.

 

God  bless you,

Danny

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t feel like it.

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

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I have recently realized that I have developed a little voice in the back of head that say’s I don’t feel like it.

i do not know where it is coming from but I know it is not a healthy phrase. It is a thought that requires action. So, what do you do with that statement?

I am learning to say to myself that it is not victory speaking, its laziness. You see,

when I was at my sickest , I couldn’t . That was understandable. As I began to rally my body to fight I was trying with an attitude of this cancer does not define me.

As, I made it to the top of the mountain and started to see flatter ground ahead it seams my almost 4 years of the the battle had me on my kness and a little phytigued.

What instigated this writing today is this. My brother,    I will just call him Saint Steven in this writing 🙂 called me last evening and said hey Dan , I was wanting to see if you would join my men’s prayer group ? it meets twice a month at the church. I said thank you, and that I would let him know. Well, off to bed I went  after my evening prayer and meditation I fell right to sleep. I always thank God even for the comfort of my bed and the warmth in my house. They are his gifts to me and my family anyway.

So, anyway as I was waking up this morning I had the thought coming from my back of my mind  I don’t feel like it…. I laid in bed thinking this thought and it was surrounding 2 different things…

Number 1.   The Livestrong program. Too tired…. Poor baby 😦

number 2.     The men’s group .  Too tired….. Awe da poor baby 😦

i the martyr, got ready and went to the Livestrong program that God graciously gave me to restore my person to a better wholeness. And, I am most definitely going to the men’s group to share, pray and support my brother and the other men . And, guess what it’s when we share our gifts, talents and selves that we then are healed, blessed and connected.

So, that phrase  I don’t feel like it ,    is a negative and dangerous little phrase to live by. It’s a lie from the pit of hell.

i am not saying that sometimes I could be too tired but today was not that day. Livestrong lived up to its name today and the love and support I received was a beautiful gift to me and everyone getting served by these beautiful people.

What a shame it would have been if I had given in and stayed home when God had so much better in store for me.

The bottom line my friends is this. We are brothers of a king. We are born to greatness. God wills it for us everyday. It’s our gift that we can choose take. Not because we deserve it but because God is so magnificent to us. Amen

 

God bless you all with brotherly love,

Danny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIQn8pab8Vc

My six month visit.

16 Monday Nov 2015

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Today was a day of anticipation. This morning I was up at 4:00 am and got ready for my Boston visit to Dana Farber. This was my first scan in 6 months which is a miracle in itself. I remember being there in Dr. Reardons office last July and him saying to me after that scan result. You know Dan, your out of treatment over two years now . He said with a smile. He said, you know what that means?

My response was no. He said that it was absolutely astounding that with my particular Glio that there had even been the slightest step back or recourrance of the disease. I just said its God. He does not want me yet.

Well , today I went to Dana and was the first person in the garage at 5:15 am just me, myself and I sitting in the quiet palatial front patient waiting area. I began to do my personal inventory, I missed my wife sitting with me there but had decided last Dec when I had my license to drive reinstated that I needed to go this alone. Every appointment that I attended at Dana Farber had at least 4-5 family members there to support us. I used to say here comes the  Riley gang.

I I told the doctors , it’s like the bible they are my witnesses. They laughed and always go the chairs needed for everyone.

Today, I was alone. Just me and my cane. No more wheel chair, no more walker just a slow and sure walk towards the blood clinic at 6:00 am and the off to the lab for my 45 minute brain scan finally I made my way to Dr. Rear dons office for my 8:00 am meeting and results.

He was great as always and said the result was great and there is no tumor activity nor is there any scar tissue. He asked me about my life and what issues I may be having. I told him that I am pushing myself. He was thrilled to hear that I followed through with the Livestrong program at the Ymca.

i just said that I am phytigued a lot. He said we can try to do something to help the body. So he prescribed something and I went to get it and was told that he would have to call the insurer and have them approve the reason and need for it.

My wife currently pays into her plan  and it is part of her work benefit  the insurance cost my wife and her employer pay is 24,000 a year.

So, we wait and see how this shakes out. 🙂

in the meantime thank you all for your prayers.

i am truly grateful to my God for allowing me this time with my wife, dad, children and my family and friends. This will truly be a joyous Thannksgiving and blessed Christmas season.

its funny this morning as I laid in bed before getting up at 3:30 I turned my kindle on and it was playing Christmas music. It was a tad early but the music brought moments of long ago, my mom, grandparents and friends who not await me when I join them. I thought that was a beautiful sign that they were there and know my own personal fears, doubts and securities as to what might have happened today at that office. I feel the prescience so offen of the Blessed Mother with me , a sense of comfort to me.

none of us is ever alone , love surrounds us.

God Bless You All,

Danny