Tonight was like the afternoon of 9-11. There was not a plane in the Phoenix sky. And why? Because President Obama, after giving the graduation address to Arizona State University students was departing in his Boeing 747. When the President flys, no one else does. The airways are clear.

The only place we should be in life is where we are needed.

We share with strangers because they are not a long term threat to us. Then they become our friends, and they know too much.

Look in your pocket. Do you have some money? Look in your other pocket, do have some minutes? We can save money, but not time. Best we get about doing what needs to be done.

No one; absolutely no one meets our needs but ourselves and God. To believe that others are to fulfill our wants or needs is folly.

Sometimes we think we are hot stuff. The Red Knot bird flies 4 days and nights without landing. In 16 years a Red Knot has flow enough miles to have gone to the moon. (Public t.v.) Are we that good?

If you want a friend in Washington D.C., get a dog. Many a president has had a dog.

What is the most important human thing you need to know when standing on the deck of a burning ship?

They were beaten and bloody, weak and hungry, but they prevailed. How could they? How could they? They held focus, “eyes on the target” and the ancillary disappeared – the discomforts and fears. Thus the goal was not only lucid, it was obtained.

When in harm’s way, it is best to have cover. Who is your cover? Everyone should have both human and divine cover.

Said by a woman secure in her life: “With my friends, I am perfectly happy to have you as my enemy.”

A “Go bag.” is what you have in your closet that has what you need to hop on an air plane or leave in a car in a moments notice. Grab the bag and go. Money, passport, charge card, photo identification, non-wrinkle shirt/blouse and pants/skirt, socks, glasses, tooth brush and paste, comb/brush, razor, soap, pull-over hat or cap, Bible. When a friend calls, are we ready to go to meet his/her need?

“Burn Box”: It is a cigar-like box that contains things, mostly documents that are private to us that we might need to defend ourselves or would need in dire circumstances. When we die, on and when someone finds the box, it has written on the out side, "Do not open. Burn." Do we each have a friend that could do that? The point is not so much what is in the box as to, do we have friends that can do what we ask, even after we have passed on?

Shame is a gateway to grace.

Humility is the preferred path.

We don’t fail because we are knocked down. Mercy no. Not even if we are knocked down 12 times. We only fail when we do not get up.

Sometimes we need to resist the temptation to do what we want to do because it is not what He/She wants us to do. Ask Jesus.

There will come a time when we are on our knees, and we will hear, “Thou are my beloved son/daughter in whom I am well pleased.” That time will surely come.

It is never about the past. It is always about now.

If my soul were not somewhat beautiful, my not so handsome face and my less than appealing stature would have me banished from mankind.