All posts tagged: finding

Finding Faith Amidst Life’s Trials

Finding Faith Amidst Life’s Trials

Published by Sam Flores

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”Galatians 6:9 By Andrew Hopkins Have you ever felt the joy that comes when God is moving in your life, only to be met by wave after wave of opposition? It feels like the old adage – two steps forward and three steps back. It’s tempting to “throw in the towel” in those moments, especially when they’ve lasted for quite some time. As simple as it sounds, the answer every time is: DON’T QUIT. DON’T GIVE UP. Keep moving forward. You have more in you than what you think. Take hold of relentless faith in an unshakeable God. I run the risk of sounding redundant because I’ve been sharing this story a bunch recently, but, at the end of 2015 I wanted to quit ministry. Long story short, since I started following Jesus in 2001, I had dreams of traveling ministry. By 2015, I was still waiting. I felt like I kept hitting a …

Tuning In to Joy and Finding the Spark

Tuning In to Joy and Finding the Spark

Published by Jenni Sidey

This is Part 1 of a series. Every attempt at the same note ended in frustration. Lauren van Huisstede, an Arizona State University researcher and co-author of this series, loved the rich, resonant sound of the cello. As an adult, she decided to learn the instrument for herself. For months, practice became a lesson in persistence, but one note on the D string—a stubborn F sharp—seemed impossible to produce cleanly. One day, something changed. “I realized I just needed to shift my fingers slightly forward,” she shares, “changing the angle that the pads of my fingers press into the string ever so slightly. I took up my bow, drew it across the string, and lo and behold… a clear, ringing F sharp. I felt joy, peace, and pride.” A clear note, vibrating through the fingers, ringing true. A moment of joy. Her moment of joy didn’t lead to mastering the cello. She was (and still very much is) a beginner. The joy came from discovery, from finally hearing what was possible, and it made her …

Android’s new trick for finding lost items without a tracker rolls out soon

Android’s new trick for finding lost items without a tracker rolls out soon

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Summary Android 16+ users will soon be able to ask Gemini to save the locations of untagged items in Find Hub. Saved locations and optional photos will appear in Find Hub’s new Remembered tab and can also be retrieved by asking Gemini. This isn’t real-time tracking: Gemini only remembers the location you provide, making Bluetooth trackers better for frequently moved items. Android is getting a new way to find belongings without attaching a tracker to them. Google says you’ll soon be able to tell Gemini where you placed something, and Find Hub will save that information for later. You could say, “Hey Google, remember in Find Hub that I put my spare house key in the kitchen junk drawer,” and add an optional photo. When the key inevitably vanishes from your memory, you can ask Gemini where it is or open the new Remembered tab in Find Hub. The feature is coming to Android 16+ devices in the US and other countries where Gemini and Find Hub are supported. Related I turned my notes app …

Finding Calm at the Water’s Edge

Finding Calm at the Water’s Edge

Published by Jenni Sidey

If I wore a mood ring, today it would be blue. Dark and murky blue. That blue the sky gets just before a storm. The color of a Monday that dawned too early with too much on my mind and too much on my plate. Every once in a while, I feel this way. Chalk it up to one of the astrological hazards of Sagittarian life. It happens whenever the archer in me aims so high that the distance between where I am and where I want to be seems unattainable. At times like this I know that, at least for me, there’s only one cure. As always, I tell myself I don’t have time for this. Got to get to work. Got to get going. And yet, myself tells me I don’t have any choice. Before I change my mind, I hop in the car and get it started, hoping it will do the same for me. Winding down the road, I hit the brakes as I come up behind an old Oldsmobile. At …

“Life Crafting”: Finding Your Life Purpose

“Life Crafting”: Finding Your Life Purpose

Published by Jenni Sidey

Let’s face it, we all need a reason to get out of bed in the morning. As humans, we aren’t meant to merely trudge through life, living paycheck to paycheck or just accumulating more meaningless stuff. At some point, for many people, a “chasing the carrot” existence is no longer enough. We may yearn for a more meaningful way of life, a passion, or purpose that makes our heart sing, or beat a little stronger. Finding our purpose can provide us with a powerful motivation to rise in the morning with excited anticipation and maybe even joy. Far too many individuals go through their entire lives without pursuing their true purpose or passion. Finding one’s purpose—a meaningful life—need not be a rarely attained luxury. In fact, living a meaningful life has even been linked to improved health and lowered stress, as well as improved well-being. Would You Go to Extremes for Your Purpose? Like most of you, I like a cozy, comfortable life, which I’ve experienced for much of my life—all the usual things we’ve …

Finding the “Bliss of Blamelessness”

Finding the “Bliss of Blamelessness”

Published by Jenni Sidey

I realized a few years ago that not a day went by without my blaming other people for something. I’d blame a friend or family member for something trivial they said or did. I’d blame people I’d never met (politicians come to mind). I could even blame total strangers—how loud they were talking, how tied they were to their smartphones. And yet, the Buddha called not-blaming one of the keys to happiness. He called it “The Bliss of Blamelessness” (Ananya Sutta (AN 4.52). It’s a tall order to live without blaming, but when I read what he said, I thought, “If it will feel blissful, I’ll give it a try.” One reason I’m working on this is because blaming means I’m in the throes of desire: the desire for the world and its people to conform to my liking. But that’s not going to happen. Clinging to my desires is the major source of suffering in my life. Suffering has a lot of synonyms: stress, unease, or, as I put it, dissatisfaction with the circumstances …

Mr. Rogers keeps finding a new neighborhood

Mr. Rogers keeps finding a new neighborhood

Published by Sam Flores

Catcher Jake Rogers #28 of the Chicago White Sox talks with starting pitcher Anthony Kay #18 before their game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on August 15, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. Duane Burleson/Getty Images/Getty Images North America hide caption toggle caption Duane Burleson/Getty Images/Getty Images North America It’s been a full and frenetic few weeks for Jake Rogers, a catcher for the — well, who knows by the time we’re off the air today? Mr. Rogers recently changed his neighborhood — and his teams — four times in 21 days. That’s a major league record, though perhaps not the kind a player seeks. He told Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, “it’s been…a whirlwind, to say the least.” Rogers had been with the Detroit Tigers since 2017, beloved by fans and teammates for his positive attitude and sculpted mustache. But his batting average drooped this season. On July 29, the Tigers blew a lead against the Baltimore Orioles and lost in extra innings. Late that night, Rogers was told the team had to let …

Antony Szmierek: The ‘pop poet’ finding hope in British mundanity

Antony Szmierek: The ‘pop poet’ finding hope in British mundanity

Published by Sam Flores

It was only during the Covid pandemic that Szmierek decided to start setting his poetry to music and making it public. He gained widespread attention in 2022 with single Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Fallacy. He is now a verified BBC Radio 6 Music darling and music industry insiders cannot stop shouting about his new album, which focuses on themes of coincidence, loss, loneliness and the oft-overlooked birdsong that soundtracks it all. While the themes are not entirely jubilant, Szmierek’s strength is that he manages to translate his own experiences of life in our troubled times into something hopeful. “I feel like my responsibility is to give the happiness [making this music has given me] back,” he says, “siphon that happiness down, or that hope down, even if I don’t feel it all the time.” Source link

Moment man smashes lavatory mirror after finding soap dispenser empty

Moment man smashes lavatory mirror after finding soap dispenser empty

Published by Sam Flores

Credit: Police of the Czech Republic Police in Prague are searching for a man who smashed a mirror in a public lavatory after discovering that the soap dispenser was empty. CCTV footage shows the man punching the mirror in a shopping centre lavatory in the Czech capital after no soap came out of the dispenser. The mirror shatters, with shards falling into the sink. The footage, released by police, also captures the moment the man realises a camera has caught his actions. He then washes his hands in another sink, picks up his bag and leaves. Czech police are investigating the incident, which happened in the Smíchov area, and have asked anyone who recognises the man to contact the police. The man was encouraged to report to any Prague police station, the authorities added. Police reportedly valued the initial damage to the mirror and fixture at 15,000 Czech koruna (£528).  Under Czech property damage laws, the incident will be prosecuted as a criminal offence. The man will probably be forced to repay the damages to …

‘I know what it’s like to be vulnerable’: musician This Is Lorelei AKA Nate Amos on addiction and finding peace

‘I know what it’s like to be vulnerable’: musician This Is Lorelei AKA Nate Amos on addiction and finding peace

Published by Sam Flores

For most of his life, Nate Amos made music just to get through the day. There was plenty of it: dozens of self-produced albums and EPs uploaded – since his This Is Lorelei project launched in 2012 – to what was then a plucky, independent platform called Bandcamp. Now 35, he is perhaps the quintessential Bandcamp artist: part bedroom-pop whiz, part alt-country troubadour, part indie rock rascal with a big, heavy heart. His peers treat him like a lost folk hero from a bygone era. Amos is sitting in the basement of a cafe in Camden Town, north London, cradling an iced matcha; coffee makes him “feel like shit”, he says, and he no longer indulges such foibles. The title of one of those Bandcamp albums, OK N8, is tattooed on his knuckles. A friend inked it a few years ago, soon after Amos got sober. “Exactly when you’re not supposed to be making decisions like getting a tattoo on your hand,” he jokes. His active blue eyes dance around behind a golden-brown fringe and an unruly, woodchip beard. In a tough …