Here is your Thursday STORY on: ADAPTING TO CHANGE: QUOTE: “Empathize with one who is angry and watch the anger melt away into acceptance.” (Eva Gregory) Starting with a quote on this occasion has helped set the mood. A major part of wisdom is control, not dominance but allowance. The greater control comes from letting go. Rather than seeing control as ‘hands on’ we ought to view it from a different perspective as ‘hands off’. As in the quote above empathy is not control it is an understanding. To understand allows a greater force to work. If we could adapt that to our own life rather than the quote’s suggestion as seeing others, we could temper many a storm. As with adapting to change, could we not allow the change to happen and adapt rather than fight its effect? The greater energy flow would arise by letting go, rather than mustering up the strength to fight. Our emotion state of mind is at its strongest during a period of calm and settled existence. Stir that up and our decisions become more erratic and dysfunctional. So the power arises from the calm rather than the futile lashing out from the anger. Today’s story illustrates how we can disarm the anger; the anger of doing wrong. The route is through letting go rather than dominance. DISARMING THE ENEMY According to an Associated Press account, in September 1994 Cindy Hartman of Conway, Arkansas, walked into her house to answer the phone and was confronted by a burglar. He ripped the phone cord out of the wall and ordered her into a closet. Hartman dropped to her knees and asked the burglar if she could pray for him. "I want you to know that God loves you and I forgive you, '' she said. The burglar apologized for what he had done. Then he yelled out the door to a woman in a pickup truck: "We've got to unload all of this. This is a Christian home and a Christian family. We can't do this to them." As Hartman remained on her knees, the burglar returned furniture he had taken from her home. Then he took the bullets out of his gun, handed the gun to Hartman, and walked out the door. Praying for our enemies is incredibly disarming. (Unknown Author) QUOTE: “Whenever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves, after the first suffering, how can we turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.” (Leigh Hunt)