Visiting the past brought joy in the present
I spent much of last weekend revisiting the past. Not by taking a road trip to the town where I was born and raised, or to other places I’ve lived since then. Instead, I just kept running into situations that took me back to something or someone I haven’t thought about in a while. On Friday, I was at an all-day workshop with participants from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, as well as states as far away as Texas and California. [...]
A seven-day challenge leads to a new habit for life
I just completed a 7-day challenge issued by one of my cousins. She had been tagged on Facebook and challenged to post a Bible verse – and to tag and nominate someone else to do the same – for each of the next seven days. I was one of the people she chose. I took on the challenge, although I decided to skip the part about asking others to do the same. Even though I could easily think of seven [...]
A trip and a fall lead to new awareness
I tripped and fell in the parking lot as I was going home from an event one evening last week. I didn’t break any bones or have any significant injuries, but as I hit the pavement I felt immediate pain in my left hand and wrist, and in both knees. It was mild enough that one of my first thoughts wasn’t about how badly I might be hurt, but about the fact that I probably tore a few holes in [...]
New Experiences Lead to New Discoveries
I did some analysis a few days ago on a project I’ve been working on, and was surprised at what I discovered. Actually, it would be more accurate to describe it as “a project I started almost a year ago that was going well, then got stalled and abandoned, and now feels like just another one of those projects I started but never finished.” Do you have any of those? The project was a personal challenge inspired by a friend [...]
A few mistakes can lead to our just desserts
We had friends over for dinner last weekend, and our meal included cheesecake for dessert. It was from a recipe I’ve had for a long time, although I’ve never actually made it before. It was labor-intensive and time-consuming, with a lot of prep work required and some tricky steps along the way. There was one point at which things didn’t look the way they were supposed to, and I started worrying that instead of cheesecake, we’d be eating cheesecake soup [...]
A new understanding comes out of the closet
“The more we simplify, the easier life is.” That was the bottom line, literally, in an email I received from a friend recently. Her email was about an article she had just read that had to do with cleaning out our closets. The first thought that popped into my head was, “When did she see my closet and realize how badly I needed this advice?” For the record, she’s never been near my closet, and that’s not why she emailed [...]