You may have noticed that nothing has been posted for a couple of weeks. Sometimes, life just gets in the way. While I work on catching up, please consider reviewing some of my previous posts. There are nine years’ worth to choose from!
To help you along, I’ve added a new widget showing which posts have been the most popular, as well as a link to my other blog, Mountain Plover.
Thank you for your patience. I’ll be back soon!
I’m feeling rather random today. Usually I save my “random” posts for the fifth Friday of a month, if there is one. However, I was fairly serious on August 31, exhorting you to do your backups, so I have a random day coming to me. Besides, I don’t want to wait until November. So here you go—three little notes that don’t belong anywhere else. Enjoy. Continue reading
As I may have mentioned once or twice, part of my job includes editing books and articles. As a result, I edit everything. Even when I don’t want to be editing, I find it very difficult to turn off my editing brain. I’ve learned not to correct my friends, and usually I can manage to seal my lips even for Pete, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking, “No, that’s wrong. Why can’t people (spell correctly / use correct grammar / use the right words)!?!?!?! Unfortunately, that tendency even carries over into church. Yeah, I know.
There are a number of worship songs I struggle through merely because of the wording. The music is lovely. The meaning is Biblical. The song expresses my heart. But I get hung up on the grammar or the word choices.
Sometimes I astonish myself. You wouldn’t believe how neat and orderly my pantry is. How clean and well-stocked. All the canned fruit is on one end of a shelf, all the canned beans and olives on the other. Cereal boxes are lined up with spares behind. The canisters holding flour and sugar are full, and free of dust and fingerprints. The floor gleams, with nary a crumb or broken chip in sight.
It’s all the more impressive because 1) I have a lot of editing to do today, and 2) we have around 30 people coming for a BBQ tomorrow night. The sensible, responsible thing to do would have been either 1) to sit down at my computer and start rearranging words and rewording sentences, or 2) to clean the bathroom, then run the vacuum around the living room.
Recently, a friend of mine expressed his frustration about all the problems in the world, and his inability to really solve any of them. I felt his pain. We live in the “outrage” decade. Just read the comments after pretty much any news story, and you’ll see what I mean. Everyone is offended about everything. In many instances, that outrage is warranted; the world is full of injustice. This is nothing new.
Perhaps we’re more aware of it all in an age of instant communication, but people have always been mean and selfish, violent and greedy. Thankfully, most of us manage to live as civilized adults—but there are plenty of exceptions. Nature tosses in her share as well, with hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. And then there’s politics. Right.
Are you feeling stressed? Anxious, sad, or helpless? Are you suffering from high blood pressure, an elevated pulse, or tensed muscles? You need to go play outside!
A number of studies in the past few years have proven something most of us have intuitively known all along—nature is good for us! It’s why we go to the park, take a nature walk, or climb a mountain. We may get physically tired, but the overall effect is rejuvenating.
“Glad to meet you!” I shook hands with the couple behind me at church, mumbling over and over the names they had just told me—Josh and Laurie, Josh and Laurie. I tried to think of some way to cement their names into my brain, but I knew with certainty that they would be gone from my memory by the time next Sunday rolled around. No matter how hard I try, or which little tricks I employ, I’m simply horrid at remembering peoples’ names.
If only they were flowers—or birds! Continue reading
See a little problem?
There are going to be some mighty disappointed polar bear and walrus viewers on this trip…
but the penguins might surprise them!
Really? If so, this is a matter of grave concern. We all use cell phones! But as we read further, something didn’t seem quite right. I’ll let Pete take it from here.
Do you have muscle pain? Need to lose weight? How about anxiety or stress? We just got a flyer in the mail promising help for all these things, plus better sleep, increased libido, reduction of cellulite, pain management, a decrease in jet lag, a stronger immune system, fewer wrinkles, and—just to cover all the bases—enhanced mental clarity and “invigoration” of your mind and body. I can’t think of anyone I know who doesn’t suffer from at least one of these issues, including me. Is there something that can help? It seems too good to be true.
Of course it does.
Compost 