Annerisms

Life is happening...This isn't sometimes, this is always. Life is always happening, whether we believe it or not. Every moment has a purpose, there is meaning in everything. Sometimes a thing means nothing and sometimes it means everything - then, there is the "in between" to be accounted for as well. I'm currently reading A.J. Jacobs book, Drop Dead Healthy. I've read his two previous books so I have an idea of his writing style. He continues to amuse and enlighten me. I'm not necessarily on a quest for perfect health but I am beginning to create a new path for physiological health. I've not been taking care of my temple very well. I may have overlooked it while focusing on my mental health, forgetting entirely that everything is interlinked. I am really interested in slowing down and digesting more of life in a moment-by-moment basis. It may sound weird but it's really where I'm at right now. I thought I was getting to the core of understand...

Just like children, anyone who regularly engages in the work of art develops a life filled with wonder, yearning, flow, and serious play all over the place. For a long time, I thought this was childish but I know now that this is maturity. When I let my inner self free and stay in the moment, incredible art is created. When I can stay in this place of wonderment, these created pieces of art (which can take the form of friendships, work projects, health, new ideas, etc.) further conceptualize.  Maturity is not the sagacity to know the "right" answers or to appear unfazed by the ups and downs as much as it is the capacity to tolerate paradoxes and complexities, to grow within them. Such maturity provides the strength to hold onto  long term goals throughout the jitterbug of ongoing process, to adhere to overarching themes even as we are engrossed in the details. Maturity allows us to hold conflicting values and ideas and at the same time, combine them in productive, innova...

Let me just start off by suggesting that you stop taking life so seriously. Be aware that thoughts will change and shift just like the wind and the water when you're in a boat, thoughts are no different than anything else. Okay, so that's the premise I'm sailing on this morning.  Are you ready? This past weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. The reason for its high ranking is based primarily on simplicity. I didn't do anything extravagant. In fact, I was barred from extravagance because I pulled something in my lower back as well as contracting poison ivy when I was in Flagstaff. Both have limited my physical movement. I'm not one to share injuries because I view physical injuries as a type of weakness. (Don't read too much into that!) But I share it with you here because it is part of my lesson. I absolutely had to slow down. And when you're not at your best physically, something happens internally that allows your le...

Yeah, I said it. And, I mean it. Parenting isn't black and white, nor is it for the faint of heart. Nor does it come in a one size fits all. For all you grammar aficionados that last sentence is incorrect and I know it. The word "nor" is a conjunction and is used before the second or further of two or more alternatives to indicate that they're each untrue. It's against the rules to use it as a standalone. But, I used it anyway, because it furthers my point about parenting which is: there are no precise rules to follow that will make you a parenting aficionado. If you want to be a good parent, let go of the idea of being a good parent. I can't tell you how many books I've read on parenting. While they have given me some really good ideas and a hell of a lot to think about they haven't given me the golden key to parenting. I'll be honest with you, I don't understand entirely who I am with my children. The most I know on any given day...

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith than can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." I Corinthians 13 Such is the power of love. Without a doubt, love helps us to heal. We can nev er really measure or feel the full effect of our love upon another. In fact, we can only imagine what the effect might look like and that imagining turns into a story. Therefore, we can only have a story. And, here's the beauty, our story is most likely not their story. You get the full impact of that? Because if you do, then no love relationship can ever be absent of intrigue and mystery.  No one can ever know the way in which love seeps into our minds and hearts to reorder our thoughts and f...