It took me a long time to move away from the image of God I took away from early Baptist Sunday School days — an old man sifting up in the sky.

This is where I am today. God is the God of love. of a baby's smile. God is the God of mustard seeds, black holes and of all the laws of the universe — those known and those yet unknown. God is not bound by our rule — logic, grammar, etc. Pronouns of any kind or gender hardly fit. God chose to become more personally known to us through Jesus — who was and is fully human and fully divine.

Find yourself a lifelong partner. Make sure that partner has room to grow and change. You will need similar space. Make sure that communication channels are always open and used. Sometimes this is hard work, but the rewards are immense. May you be blessed with children

Find those things that are deeply satisfying to you and provide space for them. I have three.

Early morning coffee when the house is still, quiet and dark (except for the glow from the stove in winter), A time for daily prayers — and soft classical music.

An early morning walk.

A nap after lunch.

I believe that wisdom can he packed in small chunks — pungent, witty, disturbing, provocative. Here are some of my favorites:

• "Noblest is life's effortless spontaneity – Middling is meditation and contemplation – Lower is the pilgrimage to holy places – Lowest of all is the worship of form " Hindu Proverb
• "Friendship is unnecessary. Like philosophy, like art, it has no survival value, rather it is one of the things that gives value to survival." C S. Lewis
• "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Will Rogers
• "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity." Anon.
• "Love is a renewable resource." L. Williams
• "Truth is one; the sages speak of it by many names." The Vedas
• "A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. " Mark Twain
• "... the public will choose to believe a simple lie in preference to a complicated truth." De Tocqueville
• "Even the finest scenery loses incalculably when there is no one to enjoy it with." Mark Twain
• "Alexander did not untie the Gordian knot, he cut it." L. Williams
• "You can get a lot further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone." Alphonse Capone
• "Most problems are caused by solutions." Eric Sevareid
• "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Chris Fordham
• "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been achieved." Anon.
• "You don't learn anything the second time you are kicked by a mule." Anon.
• "Questions may be more important than answers." L. Williams