The loss of hope and the increasing brutalization are, unfortunately, not the only evils that have befallen Western civilization since 1914. Through honouring our covenants, we enable God to pour out the multitude of promised blessings associated with those covenants. However, is not excessive melancholy just as undesirable, and as much of a stumbling lack in the path of spiritual progress as, for instance, excessive drinking—or any other fault? What is being gained by these self-demeaning tactics? Is anyone benefiting from them? The time has come to ask himself these questions. Certainly, he is not alone in having made mistakes—everybody makes them! If everybody continued to punish themselves over and over again, needlessly remaining on the level of their own errors, consider what would happen? What then is to be done? Only when he is willing to change his attitude towards it, will his gloomy situation improve. He must make a deliberate attempt to cultivate happiness! Just as he raises the window shade in the morning to allow sunshine to pour into the room, so he must open himself to the higher power and let hope invade his heart! Jesus Christ taught through stories and symbols—a mustard seed to teach the worthy of souls, a prodigal son to teach the character of God. His parables were symbols through which He could teach deeper lessons to those who had “ears to hear.” However, those not seeking the deeper meaning would not understand. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

As long as he continues to cling to despondency and to misunderstand, he is shutting out God and preventing His message from reaching him. Every say is a new day, with new possibilities of a fresh, determined, and more courageous approach to all daily difficulties. Let him forget the past, and start planning for a happier tomorrow! No one else can do this for him, but he can draw faith from the knowledge that his efforts will count towards his joyful resurrection. When God the Father offered His Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice for us, Jesus Christ Himself became the highest symbol of our Father in Heaven’s undying love for each of us. Jesus Christ became the Lamb of God. We have the privilege and blessing of being invited into a covenant relationship with God, in which our own lives can become a symbol of that covenant. Covenants create the kind of relationship that allows God to mold and change us over time and life us to become more closer to the Saviour, drawing us closer and closer to Him and our Father and eventually preparing us to enter Their presence. It is an heroic and stoic goal to set before a man, that he shall not be dependent upon others for his happiness and that he shall be emotionally self-sufficient. However, it is a goal reachable by and, in the present kind of faulty human society, useful to, only the few. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

Each person on Earth is a beloved son or daughter of God. When we choose to be part of a covenant, it enhances and deepens our relationship with Him. As we make covenants with God, our relationship with Him can become much closer than it was before our covenant, and it enables Him to bless us with an extra measure of His mercy and love, a covenantal love referred to as hesed in the Hebrew language. The covenant path is all about our relationship with God—our hesed relationship with Him. Our Father wants a deeper relationship with His sons and daughters, but it is our choice. As we draw nearer to Him through a covenant relationship, it allows Him to Draw nearer to us and more fully bless us. If man reaches finality of decision and recognizes that enlightened self-discipline is to be achieved and not resisted, he takes the first step to true happiness. So long as we believe that some other person is essential to our happiness, so long shall we fail to attain that happiness. Happiness is not the monopoly of the successful One of the happiest men I ever knew was an aged tramp who wandered from poorhouse to poorhouse across the country. His eyes were blazing with a strange light. Happiness? It is so important and so necessary? Are not strength, understanding, and peace of mind more indispensable to a human life? #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

When inner conflict goes out, inner harmony comes in. There can be no happiness without such harmony. Only they who have brought all the different sides of their being into equilibrium, as well as they who have lived filly between opposite poles of human experience, can appreciate the quest for serenity over the quest for happiness. Goethe in Europe was one man who appreciated this superiority. It is as erroneous to expect perfect happiness through another person as it is to expect perfect salvation. Each must find the one or the other for himself in himself. No one else can bear such a great and grave responsibility, or ought to bear it. No human relationship can adequately or properly be substituted for what everyone must in the end do for himself. He who asks for happiness asks for something he cannot and shall not get while his body breathes. The wise man does not ask more from life than it can yield him. If it cannot give happiness, it can give peace. “Are you happy?” is a question people often ask him. However, he has not sought happiness. He has sought to find out why he is here and to fulfill that purpose. The aim of getting as much person happiness as one can out of ever situation is no longer the dominant one. Other and loftier aims now coexist with it in some cases or even displace it in others. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

During no one’s lifetime are all desires fully realized. To look for a happiness that is complete is to look in vain. It is more philosophic to look for peace of mind. Happiness may leave a man in a single moment or come to him in the same way. However, if he identifies it solely with the ego and nothing more, only then can this happen. If a man has inner peace, he does not have emotional disturbances or mental agitations. Who then, really enjoys living—the disciplined philosopher who has the peace, or the undisciplined sufferer from the agitations? The emotions are uppermost in primitive man. With time and evolution, reason begins to mix with them and eventually to rule the lower ones. With further time and further evolution, intuition appears as the fruit of the finer ones. This is the place of emotional life in man. Few persons can separate—in their consciousness—emotion from thoughts. The capability of doing so is essential both to self-knowledge and to self-conquest. Therefore, it is important to every Self-actualized Christian. We must keep the emotional issues separate from the intellectual ones. However, this is not to say that the intellect is to live an emotion-proof existence. Such separation always needs to be kept up only so long as the lack of it is likely to impair the quest of truth. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

This danger arises only during the earlier stages of man’s seeking. When he has attained a balanced personality, cultivated a serene disposition, and master the egotistic urges within himself, then emotion and reason join forces with intuition in producing the quality of intelligence. Henceforth, he feels what he thinks and thinks what he feels, his emotions are rightly directed and his thoughts are truthfully formed. They work together harmoniously, satisfactorily, and unitedly. He who seeks to arrive at the truth about a matter must banish his personal inclinations and egoistic desires about it during the time that he contemplates it. He must make his emotions submit to the facts which displease them and he must compel his reasoning to accept the conclusions which surprise them. Otherwise, his emotions may betray him and his reasonings delude him, so that white will appear black and illusion will appear as reality. There is a special quality which we will do well to develop during this particular period in which we live, and that is calmness. For whenever we turn our gaze, we perceive great upheavals of thought and emotion, great stirring of violent passion and bitter hatred, mass excitement and mob restlessness. In such a disturbed atmosphere we are liable to be swept off our feet against our better judgment and may thus injure the true interests of ourselves or of our country. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

We should remember that to keep a cool head is the way to act wisely and successfully, whereas to yield to hot impulsiveness is to act rashly and often wrongly. We should also remember how unfortunate younger folk of Germany were cunningly swept into the Nazi current of blind impulses and become the bomb-fodder for the insatiable ambitions of Mr. Hitler. Let this be a lesson on the need and value of calm judgment and levelheadedness. We may also draw a further lesion from Germany, that is, the importance of practicing food will to all. Had it realized this virtue, the continent of Europe could never have arrived at the present unhappy condition of its people. The more we try to be kindly and helpful to others, no matter what class or creed they belong to, the more others are kindly and helpful to us. Therefore, even from the purely selfish point of view it, pays good dividends to practice goodwill. Moreover, it will help us as much as anything else to get on in life, for it will bring friends, gratitude, and even opportunities. Once engaged on this Quest, it becomes necessary to attend closely to the emotional and mental movements within himself, rejecting the lower ones and consenting to the higher. He must study carefully the differences between them, so that he may be able to recognize them. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

Not through fearing their bad effects, but through willing consent to the truth that his real being is above them and that it is better to live in reality than in illusion he must come to the discipline of passion and emotion. God sets the conditions and obligations of the covenants we make. When we choose to enter into that relationship, we witness to Him, through the symbolic actions of each covenant, that we are willing to abide by the conditions He has set. Through honouring our covenants, we enable God to pour out the multitude of promised blessings associated with those covenants, including increased power to change and become more like our Saviour. Jesus Christ is at the center of all covenants we make, and covenant blessings are made possible because of His atoning sacrifice. Ultimately, we can look to the example of the Saviour, who prayed so very often. However, it has always been intriguing to me that Jesus Christ felt the need to pray at all. Was he not perfect? Well, I have come to realize that He too with us, wanted to “seek [the Father’s] face, believe His Word, and trust His grace. Time after time, He retreated from society to be alone before piercing Heaven with His prayers. At other times, He prayed in the company of a few companions. Then He would seek Heaven on behalf of multitudes who would cover a hillside. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

The first script programming takes place during the nursing period, in the form of short protocols which can later be worked into complicated dramas. Usually, these are two-handed scenes between the baby and his mother, with littler interferences from onlookers, if any, and with such breast-fed titles as “Public Performance,” “It is Not Time Yet,” “Whenever You Are Ready,” “Whenever I Am Ready,” “Hurry Up,” “He Who Bites Gets Brushed Off,” “While Mother Smokes,” “Pardon Me, The Phone Rang,” “What is He Fussing About?” “There is Never Enough,” “First One Then The Other,” “He Looks Pale,” “Let Him Take His Time,” “Is He Not Amazing,” “Golden Moments of Love and Content,” and “Lullaby.” Slightly more complicated are the corresponding bathroom scenes in the same families: “Come and See How Cute,” “It is Time Now,” “Are You Ready,” “You Can Just Sit There Till You Do,” “Hurry Up,” “Naughty Naughty,” “While Mother Smokes,” “While Mother is on the Telephone,” “Enema Tube,” “If You Don’t I’ll Give You Castor Oil,” “Here is Your Laxative,” “You Will Get Sick If You Do Not,” “Let Him Do It His Own Way,” “That is a Good Boy,” “That is a G-o-o-d Boy,” and “I Will sing While You Are Doing It.” Three-handed protocols are more frequent at this stage, including: “I Told You He Was Not Ready,” “Do Not Let Him Get Away With That,” “I Will Make Him Do It,” “You Try,” “You Are Disturbing Him,” “Why Do You Not…Yes, But,” and “He is Sure Coming Through This Time.” The Phantom in the Bedroom, may begin to appear: “Dr. Spock Says,” “Tessie Had Her Trained By the Time,” and “Sister Mary Was Only.” In later life these will become “Freud Says,” “Nancy Always Has One,” and “Helen Has It Every Night.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

It is already fairly predictable who the winners and the losers will be. “Is He Not Amazing?” reinforced two years later with “That is a God Boy” will usually do better than “What is He Fussing About?” reinforced one year later by “Enema Tube”; similarly, “Lullaby,” first at nursing and later in the bathroom, will probably prevail over “While Mother Smokes.” Already the feeling of O.K.ness or not-O.K.ness, which separates the now and future princes from the now and future frogs, is being implanted, and several types of frogs and princes (or for the ladies, goose girls and princesses) are being set up. “Is He Not Amazing?,” the Forever Prince with the success script, is often but not always the first-born. The Conditional Prince, “Come and See How Cute,” or “Hurry Up,” for example, can remain a prince as long as he stays cute or hurries up. The Conditional Frogs, “He Who Bites,” “Naughty Naughty,” or “He Looks Pale Needs a Laxative,” can stop being frogs by not biting or not looking pale; the Doomed Frogs, on the other hand, will hardly ever make it with anybody. Touching are the frogs who try not to care “While Mother Smokes” or “Has a Highball.” Only a disaster can turn the Forever Princes into frogs; only a miracle can transform the Doomed Frogs into princes. There are three conditions necessary and sufficient for psychotherapy. They are: empathy, unconditional regard, and congruence or genuineness. “Congruence,” implies that the therapist attempts to drop any personal or professional artificiality, any maneuvers or postures, and the he be himself. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

In our work with schizophrenics this condition has become more and more important. Gone are formulas—even that most characteristic of client-centered modes of responding, which was called “reflection of feeling.” As the term “empathy” implies, we strive as always to understand and sense the client’s feelings from his own inward frame of reference, but now we have a wider scope of different behaviours with which therapists respond to clients. In fact, I believe that it was in part the undesirable tendency toward formulas and stereotyped ways of responding which led to the formulation of the condition of “congruence” as essential. To “be himself” has also meant that the therapist has become more expressive. The therapist much more often expressed his own feelings, his experiencing of the moment. The client expresses himself, then naturally the therapist’s present experiencing consists largely of an empathic sense of the client’s meaning. However, when the client offers no self-expression, the therapist’s momentary experiencing is not empty. At every moment, there occur a great many feelings and events in the therapist. Most of these concern the client and the present moment. The therapist need not wait passively till the client expresses something intimate or therapeutically relevant. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

Instead, he can draw on hos own momentary experiencing and find there an ever-present reservoir from which he can draw, and with which he can initiate, deepen, and carry-on therapeutic interaction even with an unmotivated, silent, or externalized person. Also, “congruence” for the therapist means that he need not always appear in a good light, always understanding, wise, or strong. I find that, on occasion, I can be quite visibly stupid, have done the wrong thing, made a fool of myself. I can let these sides of me be visible when they have occurred in the interaction. The therapist’s being himself and expressing himself openly frees us of many encumbrances and artificialities, and makes it possible for the schizophrenic (or any client) to come in touch with another human being as directly as possible. However, it would seem that many of the erstwhile guidelines for therapeutic behaviour have disappeared. Only the basic attitudes are specified, not how one manifests or expresses them. If one knows how to function effectively, one has a sound basis for the development of a healthy personality. The ability to perceive reality as it “really is” is, therefore, fundamental to effective functioning. It is considered one of two preconditions to the development of the beautiful and noble person. Our need systems heavily affect our ability to perceive reality—we often perceive what we want to see rather than what is really there. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

Our behaviour is always undertaken with reference to the Worlds as we believe it to be. Unless we somehow learn from individuals how the World appears to them, what they are paying attention to, how they interpret the things they see and hear, and what their expectations are regarding the World about them–we can hardly make sense out of anybody’s behaviour. If we see someone run in terror from an automobile engine as it starts up, because the automobile is simply something to get us from place to place, we will be puzzled. However, if the person is a primitive who has never seen an automobile, that person may perceive it as a punishing instrument of the gods that is about to engulf someone. If we know how the person perceives the situation, we can understand the situation better and offer help. Unless the person takes steps to verify them, a person’s perceptions and beliefs will be inaccurate or distorted. Reality contact is not a given; it is an achievement! Efficient contact with reality must be worked for, because there are powerful forces at work at all times, tending to distort perception, thinking, and recall. One thing people do not perceive, however, is that a cause of the deterioration of the Western civilization is connected precisely with its greatest achievements. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

Since technology has advanced so rapidly, Western people have a standard of living which would have seemed unthinkable one hundred and fifty years ago, or even forty years ago, for that matter. However, the satisfaction of real and legitimate needs has changed into the creation and satisfaction of a powerful drive, namely “Commodity hunger.” Just as depressed individuals often are seized by a compelling desire to buy things or in other cases to eat, modern man has a greedy hunger for possessing and using new things, a hunger which he rationalizes as an expression of his wish for a better life. If they are not directly enriching to life, he claims that the things he buys help him to save time. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he saves, and spends one part of his income to kill the time he is so proud of having saved. We see this phenomenon most clearly in the richest country of the World, in the United States of America. However, it is quite clear that the trend in all other countries is the same. The goal everywhere has become maximal production and maximal consumption. The criterion or progress is seen in the figures for consumption. This holds true for the capitalist countries as well as for the communist countries. In fact, the rivalry between the two systems seems to center around the question of which can produce a higher level of consumption, rather than a better life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

As a result, man in the industrialized countries transforms himself more and more into a greedy, passive consumer. Things are not provided to serve the perfection of man, but man has become the servant of things, as a producer and as a consumer. Things have gotten so bad that people are willing to let their hands be pulled being their back and have the cuff slipped on. As they ride to the county jail in a squad car, over the goods and services they stole out of greed, they think about how efficient the process is. As radio messages crackle back and forth between the cruiser and headquarters, they stand under the hard glare in front of a reception panel. The door of a hold cell clicks open and slips shut behind them. There is a concrete floor with no benches. The guards gather around in New Testament style and look curiously, laughing at the new martyr. “For you, we throw away the key. If we have it our way, you’ll never get out. Their cellmate, dozing, head on knees, is roused to interest. “How come they tell you that, man. What you done? “God knows,” he replies. Then came those weary, lonesome jailhouse blues, thinking about how he will not be in his wife’s arms tonight due to consumer greed. The industrial system has had very unfortunate effects in still another direction. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

The method of production has dramatically changed since the beginning of last century. Production, as well as distribution, is organized in big corporations which employ hundreds of thousands of workers, clerks, engineers, salesmen, etcetera. They are managed by a hierarchically organized bureaucracy, and each person turns into a small—or large—cog in this machine. He lives under the illusion of being an individual—while he has turned into a thing. As a result, we observe an increasing lack of adventurousness, individualism, willingness to make decisions and take risks. The goal is security, to be part of the big powerful machine, to be protected by it, and to feel strong in the symbolic connection with it. All studies and observation of the younger generation show the same picture: the trend to look for safe jobs, not to be concerned so much with high income but rather with satisfactory retirement provisions; the tendency to marry young and to shift quickly from the haven of the parental family to the haven of matrimony; cliché thinking, conformity and obedience to the anonymous authority of public opinion and of the accepted patterns of feelings. I supposed it is a better life than being confined to N tank, protective custody for bad actors, noncooperators, snitches, low-riding arm robbers, messianic acid head, baby robbers and assorted sex thieves, while someone softly calls threats down the tier at fearful titillated inmates trembling in the corner of the cell in the cold prison mist. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

The Sacramento Fire Department provides timely, accurate, and relevant information to the residents of Sacramento regarding fire safety, emergency preparedness, and department activities. They aim to ensure the safety and well-being of the community by enforcing fire codes, conducting inspections, and saving lives and property of the citizens of Sacramento. “I’m only at Engine X a month, and at that time I’m an eager beaver because I want to do the best I can and want to be right at the front. I mean, I’d rather be the pipe man, not the backup man, but they rotate all the jobs, so it’s a big letdown when I’m not the pipe man, because that’s obviously the best job. We went to a fire in a run-down hotel. The fire was in one apartment on the sixth floor, and we got word that one of the occupants might still be in the apartment. There were no standpipes or sprinklers, so we stretched a line up the aerial ladder and into an adjacent window. And we picked the right window. There’s a tremendous amount of smoke in there, and everybody’s got their masks on, because you couldn’t move in there without them. Everybody’s moving around trying to make a search as well as stretching the line further in. And I bump into that occupant. I put my arms around the guy and drag him out into the hallway. He survived.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to providing the highest level of service to the community by ensuring safety and preparedness. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. We are blessed with a great and noble heritage that offers a pathway to truth that veers dramatically from the so-called ways of the World. We need to remind ourselves about the value of heritage, so we do not underestimate its worth.  I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  We all have life events that, when we recall them years later, acquire new and important meaning. Please raise your children to love America and to love God and Jesus Christ. It is essential to buy American made cars and other goods and services produced in America. As always, in order to ensure tranquility on our community, respect law and order and treat your elders with dignity and respect. Make a point to be a good neighbour as to keep harmony in the community. We are imperfect people trying to follow the perfect example of Jesus Christ. We love each other, help each other, and try to follow Jesus’s teachings the very best we can. In any community of Saints, we all work to serve each other in the best way we know how. Our work has a higher purpose because it is work to bless others and to build the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18

The Winchester Mystery House

There are countless stories about The Winchester Mystery House’s ghosts, some more believable than others. Some say that the ghost of Mrs. Winchester still haunts the mansion’s grounds. And even more people claim to have experienced paranormal activity, such as sightings or heard strange noises at The Winchester Mystery House.

There are said to be all sorts of weirdness going on at The Winchester Mystery House – from apparitions of people who have died in violent accidents to cold spots that appear only when no one is around. Some even claim to have heard voices and seen shadows moving about during their visits.

Whatever the case may be, there is no denying that The Winchester Mystery House is a truly mysterious place… and its ghosts just keep getting creepier!

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/