Thoughts for a Wednesday

1 - I am learning a lot about myself.  I tend to get frustrated very easily.  Stressed a lot.  Annoyed by lots of little things.  Overwhelmed by big projects.  Stuck in an endless cycle of procrastination and un-movement.  Held hostage by what Seth Godin would call my "lizard brain" (see this book for more on the lizard brain: Linchpin:Are You Indispensable?).  And he would be right.  I am stuck by my lizard brain.  But what does it take to get unstuck?  What's the first step? Is it acceptance? Patience? Gentleness?  How do you not become the person you see yourself becoming - how do you stop?  And so I am learning.

2 - For all of my Lost aficionados - Are you in love with Richard Alpert as much as I am?  The Office's own, Rainn Wilson had this to say about last night's episode: "''Tonight's episode was one of TV's greatest of all time. I'm gay for the eternal Richard Alpert. There I said it.'' (thanks ew.com for that :))  I heart you Ricardo.  I heart you.

3 - Oh spring, spring, spring, spring!!! Green, green, green, green, green, green. Sun, sun, sun, sun, sun, sun. Warmth, warmth, warmth, warmth. Finally, finally, finally, finally.

4 - Do headbands with flowers and bows attached to them connote a desire to be a kid again?  Or are they just a playful adult way to convey whimsy?  Either way, I love them and am incorporating them into my wardrobe this spring.

5 - This is an interesting article on the recent healthcare bill that was passed.  Other than this, I don't have much to say about the bill right now.  I don't think it's evil, but I don't know that I think it's all good either.  Maybe it's my recent interactions with the banality and inanity of local town government, and thus have a hard time seeing how a federal government can make an industry already inherent with banality and inanity better due to its own shortcomings.

6 - This is also an interesting article I ran across through a blog that I once in a while read called The Great Deception.  She is uber-conservative and Catholic and while I don't always agree with what she has to say, every once in while I come across something that is thought-provoking that she's posted. This is such an article.

And that is all for today.  Right now I am carrying on a project over at my other fun blog, Ruminations and Reflections in which I am going to be doing some multiple quote postings each day.  This is really in part due to the fact that I am cleaning my desk in order to prepare for an imminent cubby move, but want a way to capture all this wisdom that I have come across over the years.  So swing on by if you get a chance to check out some wise thoughts from other random people!

On Community

**I wanted to share a post from my other little blog corner of the world, Ruminations and Reflections. I loved this piece a lot and thought that I might as well post on here as well.**

I am still making my way through the gem that is "The Only Necessary Thing" by Henri Nouwen. I love this piece on community that I read the other day. It is so true - I often think that in each person is God's creation and therefore a reflection of Himself. Here is the piece for your enjoyment.

The Mosaic that Makes God Visible
Nothing is sweet or easy about community. Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows but make them visible to each other in a gesture of hope. In community we say: "Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs - but we do not have to live it alone. We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care."

Community is like a large mosaic. Each little piece seems so insignificant. One piece is bright red, another cold blue or dull green, another warm purple, another sharp yellow, another shining gold. Some look precious, others ordinary. Some look valuable, others worthless. Some look gaudy, others delicate. As individual stones, we can do little with them except compare them and judge their beauty and value. When, however, all these little stones are brought together in one big mosaic portraying the face of Christ, who would ever question the importance of any one of them? If one of them, even the least spectacular one, is missing, the face is incomplete. Together in the one mosaic, each little stone is indispensable and makes a unique contribution to the glory of God. That's community, a fellowship of little people who together make God visible in the world.

~ Henri Nouwen

It Just Keeps Piling On....

Oh blog, bloggedy, blog, blog. I have been meaning and wanting to post thoughts, feelings, and reactions to a myriad of things for a while, but the demands of summer, life, and living with Jesus have been pretty pressing as of late. I hope to post some thoughts up here soon though about my completed trip to Young Life camp, as well as some other things that have been ruminating, marinating, and rummaging around in my head. I am beyond grateful for a 3 day weekend this weekend, and hope that by the time I emerge from it, I will be a little bit more rested for the chaos of next week - which looks to be one heck of a ride! Sorry for only posting twice last month - that is a new all-time low. But be sure, as always to check out Ruminations and Reflections. I'm much better about posting up over there :).

Mild Techy-Genius

One of the things that I love the most about blogging is that I get to dabble in HTML code. Most of the time, this frustrates me to no end, and this foreign language remains a mystery to me. But every so often, a chance occurrence happens in which I DO figure out a neat bit of coding and I am able to apply it to my blog format. Today was one of those rare days in which I am able to figure out how to make the code work for me and do what I want it to do! Check out my other blog, Ruminations and Reflections to see the tiling of one of my pictures at Whitney State Forest, the new blog color background, and title. I'm currently struggling with the Blog Title Color - I can't quite find a color that I love, but the one I have is sufficient for the moment. And please let me know what you think! I'm thinking of maybe trying to do something similar both at the work blog that I maintain as well at my beloved "The Road Goes Ever On". It's been fun to figure out, though it caused at least a couple of hours of puzzlement and bewilderment to figure out! But, many thanks to the folks over at Blogger Buster for their informative how-to articles on how to make this work!

{Insert a Title Here}

The title of this post pretty much sums it all up in terms of blogging lately. I am finding that it can be a frustrating process, because with a blog, you have to be mindful of what you are putting out there for the whole world wide web to see. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but there are other times that I will be writing a post and then stop because as I am writing, I find that this or that thought is really not something that I indeed want to share with the world wide web.

This why so often my posts are just boring thoughts about tv shows or books or nonsensical issues, because to really express yourself is something that you must be careful with, lest it be taken or interpreted the wrong way by whoever might be out there reading what you write.

Thus, that is all to say that I find it hard to think up of creative thoughts to write about, mainly because that takes a little bit of work on my part, and I am one of the laziest persons that live on this planet and would rather not have to put in the creative thought for the blog. If I have to really think about something, I will put off the thinking aspect of it and work on or do something else that will not require me to think. Some might call that procrastination, and they would be correct to a degree. But I think it also has to do with the fact that I can be too analytical for my own good, weighing all sides and options of the issue or problem, before coming to a conclusion. I can be a quick thinker if need be, but that quick thinking only comes under times of intense pressure. And as I am writing, I am discovering that it is focused thinking that I put off, because my mind often wanders in tangential thoughts.

And, I am resisting the impulse right now to delete that entire paragraph, because I am not sure whether or not all these thoughts should be shared!

So, I am going to try an experiment this month to see if I can be creative and post stuff up here and not delete half of it. We shall see how that goes.

And for a daily dose of fresh content, check out Ruminations and Reflections, where it is much easier for me to post daily, since it is all other people's thoughts that I find interesting!

Ruminations and Reflections: New Beginnings

Ruminations and Reflections: New Beginnings

Just in case you didn't see my previous post, about this, please feel free to check out my new blog, Ruminations and Reflections, my new 2009 experiment.

Introducing...

Today marks the launch of a subsidiary of this blog called Ruminations and Reflections. I've been kicking this idea around for a little while about just having a blog dedicated to quotes, verses, and sayings that inspire me or that I find useful or helpful. As I collect all these little papers and notecards with these things on them, I've been finding that I want a repository to collect them all, more for my own benefit, but I thought I would share it with the world at large as well :).

If you run across a great quote, verse, or saying, head over to Ruminations and Reflections and post away in the comments, or email them to me and I will post it on there.

Happy 2009 everyone!