I’m not a naturally thankful person. I know I’m supposed to be. I’ve heard gratitude is the path to success, or at least to contentment. Still, I’m much more likely to notice the things that are wrong in my life than the things that are right. I’m much more likely to focus on all I […]
Yesterday was Labor Day in the U.S., a holiday we ironically enjoy as a day off work. It’s traditionally our end-of-summer celebration, a day we join family and friends for a trip to the lake or the park and eat barbecue and drink beer. It’s a day most of us spend as little time as […]
I recently heard a quote from the Talmud that resonated with me: You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. I am not a religious scholar. I could not tell you the difference between the Torah and the Talmud, although I’m sure I’ve heard it described. […]
I know how to do something halfway. It’s so easy just to phone it in, to do as little as I can get away with, especially when I’m facing competing requests from my job, my family, my scout troop, my church, and my doctor. Especially when I’m feeling overwhelmed and thinking it will take longer […]
This post scares me. That’s how I know I need to write it. We talk a lot about giving our troubles to God, about trusting God, about how having faith in God can change our lives. Many of us pray to God for favors as small as letting our team win, or as big as […]
We spend a good portion of our lives lying to ourselves. I’ll spend a few decades working for other people, we say, so I won’t have to work anymore. And the day we stop working, we start dying. Goals Status: Marathon: On Track. Daily runs are up to 3.5 and 4 miles. Two Square Yards […]
This is my fifth post for the Your Turn Challenge. Status of my goals: Marathon: On track. I finished week 2 of the Couch to 5K program today. Two Square Yards of Earth: Behind Schedule. No change since yesterday. 100 Posts: Behind Schedule. This is my seventh post this year, of eight planned by the […]
I heard about this one on a podcast recently. Unfortunately, I can’t remember whose podcast or which episode–I listen to several episodes of a number of podcasts every day, and I’m not very good about taking notes–but the principle stuck with me. You may have heard of this principle already. It’s the cure to a […]
A few days ago, I saw a mock high school commencement speech that made me want to grind my teeth. The speaker, a well-known comedian, spent ten minutes or so belittling his audience, telling them, in essence, that most of them are pathetic losers who will never accomplish anything, never amount to anything. He talked […]
It’s easy to get wrapped around our own limits. We’re too busy, too broke, too tired to do more than plug along, one day at a time. We’re too short, too tall, too fat, too thin to do the thing we really want to do. We’re the wrong color, the wrong gender, the wrong faith. […]