Back of the hand

[As the LORD your God has charged:] These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. Tie […]

Aphorisms define boundaries

Hearing loss is like wearing increasingly dirty eyeglasses—you don’t realize how your perception is fading away, but those around you think, “How can you put up with that?” Says the woman who, as a girl, would only wash her glasses when reminded to. I would pull them from my face and look at the lenses, […]

Nope, not done

Today, as I planned (!), I defined my GSSD project. Upon reflection, much of which involved noticing where I tensed and where I relaxed, what made me breathe more deeply or more shallowly, I came to this project statement: Create and validate a Kimbol-specific, flexible day structure that accommodates operations, creation, and serendipity so that […]

What’s in my box?

Back maybe as long as a decade ago, we Girl Scouts of Central Texas offered a “Meeting in a Box.” Leaders could drive to one of the Service Centers (staff offices) and sign out an physical lidded storage box that contained all the stuff for a particular age’s troop meeting. Feathers, glue, foam cutouts—sure—but also […]

Tell me a story

This morning happens to be as unstructured as yesterday morning, though (blessedly!) I’m accountable in the afternoon and evening. (Somewhere around 2pm yesterday I realized I’d slipped into a replay of “I Work From Home“… shudder.) So within my circumstantial structure I decided to (a) see whether I could avoid the pocket computer and (b) […]

Now, later, already, not yet

As I waved my parents back to their home around the block, I laughed, “Now I can knuckle down and do my homework.” Instead, I picked up the pile of mail from yesterday. The stack I hadn’t sorted, because I get home from class so late. I sat down with it: circular>recycling, circular>recycling, circular-with-coupon>tear coupon, […]

Brains run on carbs?

The good news is that the strands of rain streaming from the sky outside the Student Lounge window mean that the oppressive sleepiness spreading from my sinus cavities has passed. Mostly. I wish I knew why pending rainstorms give me a knee-buckling case of the sleepies, because I don’t think this makes any sense. How […]

Fill my plate, fill my cup

On the night the newest degree-seeking students at my seminary were formally enfolded into the community, the president pointed out that a seminary degree is not for an individual’s edification, but for the enrichment of that person’s community. This stung. Frankly, I hadn’t looked beyond the hunger of my mind and heart for the nourishment […]

Building supports

INFJ: “I know I could make more money as a consultant, but I’m still in the government because I can’t be bothered with selling myself. I need a structure to support me.” —sidebar “Why Fs Are Underpaid,” p 71-72 of Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work, Based […]

Premise-ing

I like the metaphor of quest. … [If you approach your work as a quest,] You’re working from a clear premise but you don’t yet know what the promise is. —Dr. Jason Fox, interviewed on The Great Work Podcast In a world shifting to Project Land, I find it disconcerting to be… let’s say… post-project […]