Like Rolling off a Blog

When one is addicted to something, an intervention might be in order. My family has threatened to intervene where my Facebook addiction is concerned, but it hasn't come to that ... Yet. As a matter of fact, I beat them to the punch. I decided it was time to detox from all the poison being spewed (to and from my page).  I enjoy reading opposing views, but when it gets vitriolic, my blood pressure takes a hit. Mind you, that does not mean I won't return, and very soon, but part of me just needed to know that I could indeed step away if necessary. It seems appropriate to resurrect my Facebook page on Resurrection Sunday, perhaps with a cleaner and clearer vision of the life it should reflect.

It took a Facebook (microblog) post to remind me that I even had a bonafide blog (as in "no character limit"). With the advent of social media that focuses on the 140 character (Twitter) or more (Facebook) posts, how beneficial is a full blown blog these days? I know, bloggers have become on par with former media moguls of print and radio. Perhaps reviews deserve a blog of mammoth proportions, but do microblogs serve just as well? There is something to be said about having to distill one's thoughts and feelings into the fewest amount of characters possible. That's all ... I think I've used up my word and character limit for the moment.

This blog might hurt. I know the impetus for it sure did. I roiled and boiled and thought and considered on my entire hour commute, ruminating over what I felt was an unfair treatment of women of my age. Recently, a coworker and I were discussing how we feel that we are becoming "invisible" and were trying to figure out when that happened. When did we walk into the room and no one cared we had arrived? When did we go from gaining appreciative looks from passersby to a slight nod of the head, if any acknowledgment at all? And if wrinkles caused pain, we'd be in a world of hurt. Wait... maybe we are in a world of hurt and nobody is paying any attention. Many of us use Facebook to reconnect with people from previous schools, workplaces, and geographical locations. With that in mind, I belong to a group of former students (we didn't all graduate from there) of a DoD high school. This morning I was notified that someone had posted on that group's wall, and here is what...

Nearly 400 years ago, the Separatists shrugged off the King's edicts and headed to the New World (that's the encapsulated version). So what is it that still draws us to royalty? What causes us to long for the pomp, the queenly wave, the historical weight of it all? Would it surprise you to read in the Old Testament that God never intended the people to have a king? HE was to be their only King, and therefore set up judges to rule according to His edicts here on earth. But the people clamored for a king. "All the people around us have one, why not us?" The Lord relented (as He is prone to do to prove a point), and from then on the king was the "Lord's anointed" - the one chosen for the position. No one was to lay a hand on the Lord's anointed. Then the world was turned upside down. THE Lord's Anointed One came, sovereignly, to take the place in our hearts of any other earthly king. No one is to usurp His authority. And yet we strain toward earthly...

Trying out Ping, Lara. But how do you know my taste in music?

Who can say what causes one day to be all smiles, another to be all weepy, and still another fairly stable? I can be getting ready for work in the morning, hear a song on the radio, and dance around - making the dog wonder what this human can possibly be thinking. But then I can hear that same song (in this case it was Steven Curtis Chapman's "It All Belongs to You") and start to weep as I dance. God, in His powerful and yet unobtrusive way, will break through my self-absorption and use someone's words or melody to get my attention. Is it the happenstance firing of a neuron? Something about the turkey chili and black beans? When I'm tempted to pull all experience apart and look at it logically, I could very well totally miss how God is intervening. So, synapse or Spirit, this morning God got my attention. It all belongs to You, God! And it still causes me to weep.

We wanted to go see the movie, Unstoppable , this weekend, but don't think that will happen. Too many other things on the calendar. Nevertheless, I still feel like I've been on a runaway train. Why do I allow this to happen? All fingers point in my direction. It's no secret that I'm on Weight Watchers, and am quite pleased with the results and with the fact that I have a maintenance plan. But every once in a while my appetite and desires get the better of me. I binge. I hate that word. It sound disgusting. And I guess it really is. I have looked for...and eaten...as much chocolate and nuts I can find today. Out of my bonus points for the week (and my week started this morning), I have 7 left. Truth be told, I've probably under counted, and I really don't have ANY left! Here's the good news: I know basically where I am. In the past, I would have been content to ignorantly eat everything in sight and pretend I was still going to maintain. I DO have a plan. I D...

Is nothing sacred anymore? I have no one to blame but myself. My name is all over cyberspace, and to some people that would be a good thing. To others, it's just downright scary. No doubt you've heard of an "ego search" or "ego Google" or some reasonable facsimile. Type your name into a search engine and see what comes up. You may be pleasantly, or unpleasantly, surprised. Over my lunch hour I determined to do just that...the ego search. And boy was I shocked! Addresses dating back 25 years, my age (correct, I have to admit), and photos! Yipes! Some people pay good money for this kind of ubiquitous publicity. I think mine is under the heading of "not-so-discerning" sharing on the Internet. Go ahead and make your day. Search for yourself. And if, by chance, you find yourself, I hope you like what you find.

Have you ever seen something that made your legs go weak? These seem to fall into certain categories for me, but mostly it is of the physical infirmity kind. I'd never be a good nurse! Anyway, I was returning from our monthly Highlights meeting this morning, heading for the street and thinking that this would probably be the last day I'd want to wear the shoes with open toes. It's getting a bit chilly, and I could feel the breeze sneaking into my instep. Just as I was reaching the curb, a woman passed in front of me. She was shuffling along, and if she had been pushing a shopping cart, I can assure you I would have safely assumed she was homeless. Her footwear was flip flops. I glanced at her feet as she shuffled by and saw that her leathery heels were split wide open. May I remind you that she is wearing flip flops and has no "heel" on her shoes. As I crossed the street I began to sway and had to shake myself of it lest I collapse on the pavement. The sight did i...

Layers upon layers of meaning can be extracted when reading Scripture, but that's not what I'm talking about. When I was studying psych and sociology in college, we had a discussion group that invariably turned to dreams and their interpretations. Do they really tell us anything today, or are they just manifestations of the latest meal we ate? I woke up in rather a strange mood due to my last dream. For the past several years my jaw has been shifting. Don't know why, and I don't want to acknowledge that it might just be the aging process. Anyway, it has taken my teeth on a journey I really dislike! So, before I awoke this morning, I dreamed I woke up, went to the mirror and gasped because I only had a sliver of a tooth where my left front tooth should be. It bled and fell out. I held it up to the light, and saw that inside was the image of an early stage pregnancy. Oh, weird! But I started sobbing and sobbing and ran to tell Mark that I needed to get to a dentist right ...

Just had to share this, courtesy of a mild tweak of Britany's pass-along recipe. First of all, make the cake mix base... 1 box devil's food cake mix (If you use low or no sugar devil's food cake mix, you can count the cake part as 2 points. I didn't know this when I started, and so made it with regular devil's food cake mix, which makes the cake portion 3 points.) 1 box angel food cake mix Frankly, I love the symmetry of that combo ... Combine both mixes completely in a gallon ziploc pouch. Save for making an assortment of individual cakes. Now, time to create the cheesecake surprise! Place 1/3 cup of the cake mix in a large mug (I like to use a very large cappuccino mug) Cut Weight Watchers reduced fat cream cheese brick into 8 equal portions. Drop one portion (1 ounce) into the cake mix in the cup. Stir in 3 T cold coffee (hot works, too) or water. Stir until dry is incorporated. Microwave on high for about 1 minute 10 seconds (play with your timing according t...

I am admittedly and woefully behind in reporting on Pearl in the Sand . I finished it quite some time ago, in fact. Well written, well researched, and brought me to tears - but I don't want to say at what point in the story, so as to give too much away. It was a romance in the best sense of the word. Not sensual, although containing it. But the tending of the heart and soul...that is what was so touching. Great work and I highly recommend it. Now I'm on to Influenza Bomb . Quite a departure from a romance!

I am not a speed reader. I digest my books. When I was in school, I learned skimming tricks, and outlining, and all the key idea grabbing techniques. But you can't do that with fiction. In fiction, if an author is worth their weight in words, every thought needs to count. So skimming is a dangerous practice. Right now I'm reading through Pearl in the Sand , by Tessa Afshar. It is getting rave reviews, and it is to my benefit to like it (since I *ahem* work for the publisher). I'm not normally a romance reader, so we'll see how this goes. I have a stack of mostly fiction by my bedside, and as soon as I am finished with one, I stack it near the door...to either send it on to my voracious-reading-relatives or to our church. Someone is about to get a whole bag full! Any takers?

With the advent of Facebook's micro-blogging (i.e. saying whatever comes to mind whenever it happens), the true thoughtful extended blogging has taken a back seat. Truthfully, this post is just a placeholder to point you to FB, and so that Blogger doesn't think I've dropped off the face of the Internet. See you soon at one or the other.

Blogspot is cool for another reason! I can let it do my dirty work for me. I'm in a training class for creating a Facebook page, and we're using BlogSpot to convert our HTML for us. Very cool!

It's hardly fair, I say, I say, It's hardly fair, I say For life to travel blithely on As if a normal day. A life is gone, the widow weeps I know not what to say. We know the truth, but maybe she Knows not the narrow way. "Whate'er it takes," he used to say. He often would repeat That if his wife would closer be, He'd glad accept defeat. It's our turn now, it is, I say For us to meet her need. What would be worse, in this or next, His word she wouldn't heed? Don't turn away, o, grieving one. Don't turn away, I say. It's only in Christ's sacrifice You'll meet again one day.

No, that's a big fat lie. What I hate is the hold food has over me. Why does something so simple as daily food consume (pun almost intended) my thoughts? Why do I have to think about what I'm going to eat? When I'm going to eat it? How much? It's because that simple daily food consumption is not so simple. The need has turned into entitlement and on to gluttony. I get the impression that most sin is the living-outside-the-boundaries of a God-given need. For example... adultery/ fornication/ homosexuality are outside the boundaries of the God-given satisfaction of sex. Greed is the o-o-b result of daily needs being met. And gluttony is the o-o-b result of our daily need for food. This morning I went to a Weight Watchers meeting with Ingrid. I really like the facilitator. She is upbeat, balanced in her approach, but what rankles me about the meetings is the focus on food...recipes, what people did and didn't eat, how to eat more and get away with it. This is the very ...

As the old adage goes: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Not that I would be superstitious. No, it's tradition! So the morning of January 15, 1977, I dragged my maid of honor (well, matron, I guess) to a Penney's store and found a blue garter that I could throw away. Hey, it qualified for the traditional garter, something new, and the blue. And the garter I wore on my other leg (that I wouldn't dare throw away) had belonged to (borrowed from) my mom. So ... in my estimation at the time ... old. It was the first year that the Air Force was celebrating the commemoration of Martin Luther King's birthday, so our wedding had to be postponed by two hours. No problem. My m-o-h had helped me move stuff into our new townhome, and Mark would move his things in after the honeymoon. In the meantime, that townhome became my home base. And that morning was when I remembered that I had forgotten the new blue garter. Due to circumstances that I will not ...

I cannot weigh 2009 in a balance and come up with any semblance of equality or tipping. The hurts were deep, but the joys were soaring. And to say that one would outweigh the other is not going to work. Life just doesn’t work that way. I get a visual of a giant hand shaking a tray of hilly sand. Once shaken, it all levels out. As a literary device it might work for some illustrations, but not for the emotions and spiritual lessons of a year like 2009. Death was waiting at the doorstep in January. And yet in February, a job of mammoth proportions was given out. Anxious waiting and financial stresses. And yet the year ended with two new grandsons, beautiful and healthy. No, you can’t shake this year down and make it level. But my favorite Bible verse still applies. I love it. I cling to it. I repeat it even when I don’t believe it. Romans 8:28 (NASB) And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose....

2010 is waiting on my doorstep. I think I want to open the door to see it. But right now I just don't have the time, and I'm running in circles, doing and not doing stuff. Both the "doing" and the "not doing" are causing me anxiety. "Just stop it!" I say. Doesn't work. "Pray" I say. Does it work? Is it supposed to "work"? That sounds rather formulaic to me. Prayer is communication. Private, personal, supposed to be two-way, if I would just listen. So part of prayer is silence? Maybe that's what I've been missing. The listening part. Prayer, blogs, Facebook...it's all a pouring out. The soul stretched out for all to see. Except for the prayer part. My soul is always stretched bare for God to see. The difference is that He sees the REAL me, not the one I'm trying to show others. The "got it together" person. Or the "always anxious" person. He sees who He made me to be...who I am right now......