Sometimes it amazes me, even intimidates me a bit, when I pause to realize how open I am with you in this column.

When I started writing in 1986, my objectives were few. Certainly I wanted to continue to promote health and healing. Having been a nurse for more than a decade, I'd had many opportunities to observe how physical pain could often be more easily addressed than what I came to recognize as "the pain behind the pain." I decided that encouraging better communication would be one way to help alleviate that pain.

Communicating openly myself was a way to begin. In the early years, this column was dubbed "From the heart..." I don't rightly remember when editors dropped that and just started putting my name with a headline of sorts. Doesn't matter, a rose is still a rose and I still write from the heart. Which is the way I encourage others to communicate.

Have I succeeded? Only time will tell. Might take all of eternity. That's okay. I'll be around. And that brings me to another reason I write.

I want folks to look for an eternal perspective in all things. Hard to see, huh? Maybe. But, with issues of real importance, the eternal perspective is there. Note I did not say urgent issues. There is so often a tremendous difference between urgency and importance. Recognizing the difference between the two must be a top priority if we would have our lives count for eternity.

And what does eternity matter? Why can't I just believe the here and now is all there is?

Since early childhood, I have given that question much thought. I have concluded that for those who follow after us on planet earth, we make a difference either way. History's influence is ever felt. I cannot prove there is a tomorrow beyond the grave, but I choose to live my life with that eternal perspective. In my heart, I know God is real.

That brings me to the primary reason I write, which is to tell others how much God loves them. There is no greater message. Never has been. Never will be. There is no limiting the person who knows he or she is loved.

Love lifts, motivates, empowers. When we are loved, and know it, we are healthier and happier. Even a newborn baby responds positively to love. You may say it's easier for an infant since they have not been as traumatized, disillusioned or hurt. Get real. After nine months of warmth and safety, cuddled in the womb and cushioned from the impact of the world, birth takes place. It has to be a rude awakening. But when the birthing is over it is downright awesome to observe an infant's response to the loving caress of a mother, father or another compassionate caregiver.

It is never too late for someone to respond positively to being loved. Oh, I know there are many who would argue with me about that one. "Just check out the prison population," I've been told more times than I care to remember. "Look at politics," they say. And, "you think there is redemption for the corporate world?" I am often asked. I'm not sure I understand all the queries I get, but I do understand love. God's love.

I did not always get it. I think the tide turned for me the first time I met someone who loved me unconditionally. She was practically a stranger when she first invited me to her home for a Thursday morning bible study. There was something different about her from the very beginning. There was an acceptance. There were no expectations on her part about what I should think, believe or "know."

When I entered her presence, my ever-questioning heart, soul and mind were welcomed right along with the rest of me. It was God in her who loved me; it took a while to realize it. In fact, it was on the day we buried her that the full realization began to set in. I've not been the same since.

So profound were the revelations that began to come my way that I cannot keep them to myself. Writing is a relatively comfortable platform from which I can share some of them. And so I write. It's been a while since I thanked you for reading. Thanks...