Playing to win a game we all know we will lose: It’s the game that makes winners of us
I just love to compete! folks say to me, pretty much never. I’m not the competitive type, they say, pretty much always. And then they cut each other off in conversation. One-up each other in accomplishments. Go off about something on Facebook. Cannot believe that offending patron! Swerve around that maniac who is texting while driving. While on the […]
Doing the Shuffle
I walked past the shuffleboard courts this morning. Empty, as they have been since I arrived and as I trust they will be when I leave. It’s an old person’s game, I guess. No cue’s or disks around or I might have taken a turn, just to see if I could still gauge the distance […]
Every last little one
The little ones who cling and cooperate who listen to instructions who raise their hands and smile to answer questions… They fill you up and keep you coming back. They’ll do fine. The ones who resist and refuse who defy you to “make them” who turn a cold shoulder or don’t turn at all and […]
Use Your Words
Two kids play in the sandbox until one wants the toy the other has and helps himself. Dispossessed kid shoves the other to reclaim the toy. “Use your words, child!” Happy family out to dinner and the time is getting late. Junior fidgets, whines then tantrums. “Use your words, child!” Children changing classes through crowded halls. One […]
Thank you tosses and goes, Gratitude stays and helps
“I can say what I want. It’s a free country!” the kid said, shoving his friend a little harder than a friend shoves a friend. The rest of us standing in line to board the flight pretended not to notice these boys ‘doing what boys do’. That kid is feeling pretty free. I’m thinking he probably has […]
What is your place of abiding?
“Jesus came for a far more radically transforming purpose than to serve as a role model. Jesus came to invite us into a living relationship with him, to abide, live and move in his spirit, as the branch abides in the living vine. Just as the bird does not imitate the air or the fish […]
Coming Out of My Own Closet
Two hours down and I have only gotten through half the stuff in my closet. At the urging and with the help of my youngest daughter who conveyed handfuls of items to try on, each piece of clothing received a yea, a nay or a “second chance.” The pile of “no’s” grew precipitously, demanding a second bin even […]
If we let them
When they’re young, children need to learn how. How to tie a shoe. How to make their letters. How to ride the bus. How to strike the ball. How to throw the pass. How to swing the bat. How to greet a friend. How to get themselves to sleep. How to decline politely. These, they […]
walk the walk and let ’em talk
After three long days of sitting in scientific meetings telling me Americans don’t get enough exercise, I skip out the front door of the convention center and into a city I don’t know and turn right. Weaving my way around pedestrians, past store fronts, around tree stumps, over uneven cobblestones, I swing wide to navigate past a woman […]
There’s an Invisible Man Under My Sticky Notes!
Is there an invisible man in your life? Hiding under your bed Behind your curtains In the shower Under the covers Behind the wheel of your car? These are all places I’ve gone looking. Not really searching But definitely seeking. Where thoughts can drift and ideas jump out at you. Sometimes they startle and you […]