Stillness as an active verb

I’m thinking this’ll be short because my brain feels pretty empty. Plus I start this not knowing when A will call—she told me she’d call after she got home, amended to got back from shopping for cat toys as (I presume!) funded by L’s mom. L’s mom is nicer than I am. I skipped communal […]

Not the Friday I’d expected

This has been interesting. I caught some bug, perhaps the flu, and spent all Friday in bed with books, magazines, and water. Reading all day wasn’t especially interesting — I do that anyway, more frequently than my conscience prefers. But running a (for me) fever, aching all over in a non-committal way, feeling too tired […]

“Measure not the work…

…until the day’s out and the labor done.” ― Elizabeth Barrett Browning Greetings, sports fans! (That’s what my father used to say to us when we were smaller. I’ve never asked why the ‘sports fans,’ since he’s not especially sport-oriented. I like it regardless!) Today’s post is a finger exercise. Jen Louden brings all sorts […]

You keep using that verse…

…I do not think it means what you think it means. —paraphrase of Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride I keep returning, over and over again, to the images of transformation I read in the Bible. Not the “do not be conformed” phrases, but the metaphors. Humans as clay in God’s hands. Humans washed of […]

Saturday chi, from the outside

As B & I were running around last Friday, gathering up our supplies for celebrating My Sweetie for Father’s Day, we were commiserating on the challenges surrounding celebrating My Sweetie, since his general idea of a great day involves…well, you’ll see in a minute. She told me I should write it down. The chi of […]

June is hot and I’m in the handbasket

“A schedule broken at will becomes a mere procession of vagaries.” —Nero Wolfe in Murder by the Book, p. 194 I was reading escapist fiction. First thing in the morning, which is a very escapist thing to do…particularly in summertime when I’ve told myself I’m going to mow and trim the yard. The day only gets […]

Ms. Murar was right.

Karen Murar, my 11th grade English teacher and literary magazine advisor, told… no, warned me that teaching was a creative act, and so would take away from my poetry. Said another way, she warned that one has a finite amount of creative energy, and when it’s used up for the day, oh well—regardless of what it was […]

Geeking out on productivity

Looking for the links from our Time Management for GS Volunteers class? Hungry for more than what we had time for? Here you go! Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun video from Box of Crayons Planners for not-so-nine-to-five life from Productive Flourishing How to Stay Focused in a World of Distractions* podcast from Michael Bungay Stanier of Box […]

Be the change

I get this itch to give advice. Despite knowing it’s ineffective and so frequently pointless. Today’s advice: hypocrisy is the cornerstone of effective parenting. Not THAT kind of hypocrisy, where you tell your kids not to smoke and then light up. The opposite kind. Where “we don’t have dessert before dinner,” so you abstain from the […]

Another walking meditation

By “another,” I mean “not a labyrinth.” I love labyrinth meditation. But that’s not what I’m talking about now. I mowed our lawn tonight. It’s the second time I’ve ever mowed a lawn. It’s more than thirty years since I first asked to mow a lawn (yard work made more money than babysitting in the […]