All day long, day after day, sometimes that’s how it feels: chase.
Long lists made longer by hundreds of email, how can that be? Feels like more to do every moment: chase.
Dishes and laundry and honey-do: chase.
Dream of a race, gun goes off, I can’t run fast enough, slow off the line, sloth-like: chase.
When it’s like that, here’s the answer:
One thing at a time. KEEP GOING.
Like each day, this year, dark and light. Just when the darkness seems endless, a glimmer in the distance, hope.
Faith helps. Sometimes. Other times not so; much too much it seems all the struggle and challenge and unexpected twists.
Run through, stay true, to the path, the course, the way.
The Way, and they say, and in the dark, I find my way, to the light, to be the light, to do what’s right.
From Dark, to Light.
These traits emerge anew. Found in words from Psalm 33. I discovered the verse via my cousin who lives in western New York. I think I need to read the whole psalm; thanks for the inspiration, cuz.
“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.” – Psalm 33:20.
So simple; and sometimes easy to feel, and follow; and sometimes so damn hard, so fleeting.
When we can find that trust, that faith, everything else follows; we are stronger, we have more courage, going forward is easier.
Faith and trust, let it be. Let us be stronger too, in that trust. And thus, easier.
Just easier.
Do you like to tell stories? Like to listen to them? Both?
Listening to my daughter tell a story recently, it occurred to me…
If you’re a parent, listening to stories is a key skill for the vocation. The more you listen to your kids, the more stories they tell, the more you learn about them.
What else? The more confident and creative they become, too. The closer you’ll become.
In fact, you’ll also realize listening is good for you too. And not just with your kids.
Imagine the positive effect of listening more actively at work? With your friends? In your club? In our politics?
So listen up, listen to the stories, listen actively and learn. The effect? GOOD.
A game from the past. Brought to present. These two love it.
Simple. Fun. Interaction. No screens. Bonus.
Matching cards. Counting. Friendly banter.
Over and over. Go Fish.
Thankful for this holiday weekend and some extra time to be a dad, and more time at home with the family. Maybe a walk, maybe some LEGO play – they’ve been into this a lot lately – and a few hands of Go Fish with the kids.
“Do you have any 8?
Nope. GO FISH.”
Every day start this way:
What are you thankful for?
List it all. ALL of it. Rattle it off in your mind, or make a quick list on scratch paper if you prefer.
What might you be thankful for?
Hmm…
Like shoes on your feet,
Clothes on your back,
Food to eat, quality and quantity and variety,
A roof over your head,
People in your life that love you, that you love,
Your history and your path, however grand or humble.
That warm blanket, that news app, the cool car or bicycle you have, the rocking chair in the corner next to the window…
We all have things to be thankful for. Count them. Every day. And fill yourself with GRATITUDE.
Where do you work? When do you get there? When do you leave?
What does your work space look like? How does it make you feel?
Does it reflect who you are? Or is it neutral? What does it do for you?
Is it a place you enjoy? Do you like being there?
My two cents? Be content to work wherever you can, where ever you can find space. But given the opportunity, make it your own, however humble, leave a bit of yourself there, welcoming to you, to all.
It’s Thanksgiving time here in the US, time to feed the people again. Perhaps the most American of holidays, at least we try to make it that way. Everyone has things to be thankful for, everyone should have the opportunity to feast a little for the holiday.Everyone has things to be thankful for, everyone should have the opportunity to feast a little for the holiday.
Food drives to provide Thanksgiving meals, these happen all over the country. Generous people helping others, it’s one of the most heartwarming, and hands-on way to connect with others, if only through a little charity.
And so right here at home, here’s how it goes, Thanksgiving food boxes for 150 families. Via the Cupertino DeAnza Lions Club. GOOD.
…without the cloth. “ This idea, this image, from the sci-fi film “Contact”, Matthew McConaughey’s character explains himself this way…
…and it resonated with me then, and it resonates with me now.
Most of my life I’ve felt a sense of personal relationship with God, the Devine, somehow, someway. But I’m no priest, no minister, no mystic…I’m just a guy. I’m just a guy going though life. I’m a dad trying to do right by my kids.
I’m just a guy trying to do right I’m the world, with those around me. I’m just a guy feeling God is right here with us, right now.
I read scripture and sometimes it just resonates, it seems to transcend the hundreds, maybe thousands of years since it was written. Like this, “… and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
I don’t need a special cloth to understand some of it, maybe a lot of it. Let it speak to you. You might be the same.
