23 December 2011
01 November 2011
Just a quick hello
Ah, the ever forward march of time. Last time I posted, this year had just poked its head up and said hi. Now, another year is knocking on the door. I'm heading out to work just now, but I'll try to stop back in and chat a bit. Maybe a cup of hot cocoa and a chat. Wouldn't that be nice?
05 January 2011
Epic Fail
Well, the power of words strikes again. While at lunch in small town Montgomery, Texas, my husband took a picture of what to us seemed like an interesting juxtaposition-a Porsche with a handicapped tag sitting on the dash. He decided to post that picture to FB with an unfortunate caption. The resulting firestorm was what my teenagers would call an "epic fail".
04 January 2011
New day
Have you ever heard the phrase, "like a duck in a new day"? Well, most times that phrase describes me perfectly. Each morning I wake up and find myself facing the world as if I had never encountered it before. Sleep erases the previous day and its concerns. Worry is fruitless because tomorrow never turns out the way I expect it will. Whatever might be painful or might affect me negatively will be gone tomorrow, or very soon after.
One alarming aspect of this tendency (at least to me) is that the population of my reality can also come and go, and I don't even miss them too much when they're gone. Facebook has somewhat mitigated this, though, since every day I can "see" people who rarely physically cross my path and enter the actual scene of my day. They continue to populate the show of my life, since their doings are posted on their walls and come across my newsfeed. I continue to care because I am in this small way connected to them. But if Facebook were to go down tomorrow and never come back again, I very well might not miss any but those who currently populate my world. That can't be good, can it?
I've often wondered what inner workings cause a person to care about things and people they don't personally encounter. I remember a conversation I had with Joel once about some a famous athlete who had passed away. (At least I think it was an athlete. I've slept since then and don't really remember!) He was somewhat devastated and I simply could not understand why. We didn't know this person. We had no connection with him. As far as I remember, I couldn't recall Joel ever even mentioning this person. How could Joel care so much to the point of being almost depressed because he had died? Even more intriguing to me was why I didn't care.
I watched an interesting demonstration video in a child development class I took a million years ago. A small baby was shown an object and then given the object to handle. The baby was engaged with the object and very interested in it, but once it was taken away, the baby did not seem to notice that it was gone. An older child was also shown an object and was allowed to interact with the object. When the object was removed, the older child began to search for it, convinced that it had to be somewhere. Explanation was made that as children mature, they begin to conceive of objects outside of themselves as having permanence. This is what makes the game of "Peek-a-boo" so much fun for children this age, but not for younger children.
So, here we are in a new year. Will I continue with the old pattern of allowing people to flow through my life? Or, will I decide to hold onto relationship and allow myself to form lasting and permanent bonds with the people in my life? I hope it is the latter.
One alarming aspect of this tendency (at least to me) is that the population of my reality can also come and go, and I don't even miss them too much when they're gone. Facebook has somewhat mitigated this, though, since every day I can "see" people who rarely physically cross my path and enter the actual scene of my day. They continue to populate the show of my life, since their doings are posted on their walls and come across my newsfeed. I continue to care because I am in this small way connected to them. But if Facebook were to go down tomorrow and never come back again, I very well might not miss any but those who currently populate my world. That can't be good, can it?
I've often wondered what inner workings cause a person to care about things and people they don't personally encounter. I remember a conversation I had with Joel once about some a famous athlete who had passed away. (At least I think it was an athlete. I've slept since then and don't really remember!) He was somewhat devastated and I simply could not understand why. We didn't know this person. We had no connection with him. As far as I remember, I couldn't recall Joel ever even mentioning this person. How could Joel care so much to the point of being almost depressed because he had died? Even more intriguing to me was why I didn't care.
I watched an interesting demonstration video in a child development class I took a million years ago. A small baby was shown an object and then given the object to handle. The baby was engaged with the object and very interested in it, but once it was taken away, the baby did not seem to notice that it was gone. An older child was also shown an object and was allowed to interact with the object. When the object was removed, the older child began to search for it, convinced that it had to be somewhere. Explanation was made that as children mature, they begin to conceive of objects outside of themselves as having permanence. This is what makes the game of "Peek-a-boo" so much fun for children this age, but not for younger children.
So, here we are in a new year. Will I continue with the old pattern of allowing people to flow through my life? Or, will I decide to hold onto relationship and allow myself to form lasting and permanent bonds with the people in my life? I hope it is the latter.
04 November 2008
Watching the returns trickle in on this election night. We've decided to grab some pizzas a couple of bottles of wine (in case we are disappointed or want to celebrate!) and will be staying up as late as we can without jeopardizing our work quality tomorrow :) What's really cool about this election, besides the obvious historical implications, is that our kids have taken quite an interest this year and are actually split in whom they support, with two deciding to "vote" for McCain and one deciding for Obama. For those of you who know my family, I won't disclose who was who. I'll let them do that for themselves, if they choose to.
So, here's to the future!
So, here's to the future!
15 May 2008
Swinging for the fence
I'm going back to school. I'm still a little numb about the whole thing, but very excited. Going to college straight out of high school was so much the expected thing and I had hoped to finish way back then, but life takes it's turns and you just have to go with it. Of course, I hear all the worn phrases in my mind (and half believe them). I mean, I DO know much more now than I did then and I DO see the future more clearly. Maybe that's just because it's slap up on me!
So, I'm dreaming. Taking one step at a time. I've decided what I want to be when I grow up and it seems impossible. I say it out loud and laugh at myself for the audacity of it. But, the way I figure it is that I'm headed in one direction and only have one swing at it. I might as well do something audacious on the way.
So, I'm dreaming. Taking one step at a time. I've decided what I want to be when I grow up and it seems impossible. I say it out loud and laugh at myself for the audacity of it. But, the way I figure it is that I'm headed in one direction and only have one swing at it. I might as well do something audacious on the way.
27 March 2008
Hello again
A lot has happened since last I wrote. I have faced painful truths and even more painful lies. My love and loyalties have been tested. Idealistic views of life have been shattered and reconstructed into mosaic patterns barely recognizable from the original. I used to think I knew how things were going to turn out. I had plans and dreams. Nothing looks like what I anticipated, but I'm not out yet. It can't be over till it's over, right?
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