Category: hmm… thoughts

  • Seek everyday beauty

    Life is full of unexpected, frivolous, everyday beauty.

    But you’ll only see it if you slow down enough to notice.

    You don’t take time to notice beauty. You make time.

    May I seek this today. Amen.

    UPDATE

    Shortly after I posted this I put Jackson in the Baby Bjørn and headed off for a trip to the bank. (Praise God for checks!) Our bank is about half a mile away, an easy walk. I cruised over there, made my deposits, and was cruising home. About half way back it hit me. I wasn’t acting on my prayer. I was rushing right by so much ordinary beauty. Worse yet– poor Jackson was just along for the ride.

    So we stopped. Right on our walk. And looked at leaves on trees. The tiny creases. The pretty colors. I put leaves in JT’s hands. We looked at them closely. Next came flowers. Yellow ones, purple ones, burgundy ones. We took turns smelling the flowers and grinding the petals between our fingers.

    Prayer is a verb.

  • Seize the Moment

    As I watched this short film I couldn’t help but think of this phrase: Seize the moment.

    Andrew Clancy took his camera everywhere he went in New York for a year and captured the things going on around him. The result? A beautiful tapestry celebrating his year.

    Memorable moments of beauty happen every day of your life. But often times we are walking through life focused on the next thing instead of seizing this day a sa beautiful gift.

    Even the most mundane day can be viewed as art if curated. Are you curating your moments? 

  • 4 Things Talent Can’t Overcome

    Let me say this first– talent is overrated.

    I’ll take someone driven, or visionary, or hard-working over just talented any day. I actually think we falsely label hard-workers or fast-learners or fail-fasters as talented all the time as a way to make ourselves feel better about our inadequacies.

    That said, talent isn’t everything. In fact talent can lead to nothing quite easily!

    Here are 4 things talent can’t overcome

    1. Laziness – It doesn’t matter how good you are at something, if you’re lazy and you don’t deliver on time or do the right things… you’ll fail every time.
    2. Bad timing –  This would be a horrible time to develop a talent on the accordion. Or get really good at writing code for the Palm Pilot. Success in the present age is about timing. It’s not good enough to be talented. You have to be talented at the things that people are looking for.
    3. Immaturity – Maturity brings the wisdom to know what to do with talent.
    4. Character flaws – No one cares how talented you are when you’re a jerk or a liar or if you step on kittens tails.

    The other side of this coin is pretty fantastic. We all have something which could be labeled a talent. That’s the very nature of a free market society. I have skills/talents in one thing and you have talent/skills in another. So we trade goods. Or I trade your good for cash.

    If we all had equal aptitude life would be pretty boring.

  • Behold, unexpected joy

    There is a baby boy on the floor next to me, crawling around the living room, exploring. Everything in this babies life is defined by one emotion: Joy.

    We hold him but his joy is something you behold. It sneaks up on you and slaps you when you least expect it. Bam! Joy, joy, joy, and more joy.

    Jackson’s joy tackles you down and forces you to smile. It doesn’t matter how bad he feels or that he’s cutting a tooth or that he’s hungry or has a dirty diaper. He flashes a smile and a hug which melts you faster than a snowflake on the hood of a hot car.

    There is something about Jackson, something deep inside of him that sets him apart. I can’t wait to watch him grow up so we can discover more and more why God gave him this radiant, magnetic joy.

    Here’s the thing: JT is a baby. There really is something distinctive to him. But imagine how much joy radiates from the Father? In Him we find delight, which supersedes joy. (Psalm 1)

    Allow joy to radiate on you today. Allow yourself to be drawn magnetically to the Lord. It’s a choice, it’s something you allow in your life, it’s a filter on your soul you consciously remove.

  • Keeping San Diego State classy, one lawn at a time.

    Megan’s comment: “Their grass is greener than ours.”

  • Coyote Fear

    Click to view full-size

    Yesterday, I opened my front door to this letter. Everyone in my neighborhood did. Take a second to read it.

    There are so many things wrong in this letter. At its core it teaches us a lot about the power of fear in our lives.

    • The letter is completely anonymous. It’s a letter about fear from a person too afraid to reveal who they are.
    • A concerned neighbor expressed a legitimate concern. Coyote are dangerous to pets. Let’s agree that this note came from a very good place, right?
    • The solution offered is counter-intuitive. Hiding your animals and yourself in your house will not scare away predators.
    • The neighbor doesn’t talk about the one obvious solution: Calling animal control.
    • There’s a cynical side of me that wonders if this isn’t really about coyote, it’s a passive-aggressive note about keeping your pets indoors at night. Maybe this neighbor was awakened by a dog barking or two cats fighting? And there are plenty of neighbors feeding lots of stray cats.
    • The note talks about facts, says there is evidence to back up these facts, but provides no specifics as to where you could see the facts.
    • The notes use of hyperbole is impressive, poetic even, like a chapter of Inferno.
    • “Every cat left outside will be attacked, killed and eaten.” That’s my favorite line. It reminds me of the nightly news.

    Fear is big, bold, all caps… and delivered on your doorstep while you sleep.

    Remember: Jesus is not the author of fear.

    The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ~ John 10:10

  • Consistency

    It’s been a few months now. Three or four days per week I climb out of bed a little earlier, put on my fancy running shoes, grab the leash, and go jogging with Stoney. (Our 8 year old yellow lab)

    The first month or so was mostly trotting, gasping for air, and just trying to make it around the route without puking. Literally, I pushed myself too hard one morning and had to stop and sit in the grass because I almost lost it. Another morning I pushed myself too far and came home and dry heaved.

    It hasn’t been pretty. It still isn’t pretty. And it will still be a long time until it is pretty. (If it ever gets pretty.)

    The goal was never really weight loss. It’s always been to feel better. I didn’t like climbing 3 flights of stairs and being out of breath. Or feeling too tired to want to play at the park with my kids.

    But weight loss has been part of the process, and part of the process I like. I suppose I’ve lost a few pounds. But I have a lot more to lose before I’m willing to brag about it.

    No Short Cuts. No Yo Yo’s.

    One of the weird things this journey has been the clash of my strategy versus the popular strategies out there.

    People want quick results so they do crazy things. Everyone has a favorite extreme exercise. Or a diet. Or a killer chemical combo. Those are all short-term methods that they use to take off 15 pounds quick. (I always wonder what method they use to put it back on?)

    That’s what I’m trying to avoid. I’m trying to focus not on the weight but on the habits that lead my body to feel that way. I don’t need a gym membership or a dietician or anything else but new habits. If I can go for 3-4 jogs per week, 3-4 bike rides, and eat more veggies than cheese, I’ll be just fine.

    I don’t need a short-term fix. I need new habits.

    Ultimately, I want slow and consistent improvement. Heck, I’ll just take slow and consistent without much improvement.

    But a little is nice, too.

  • Office Adventures: Moses saves Ben’s life, part 1

    This is the opening shot to a film. Write the first scene.

    Go!

  • Kicking Fat Adam to the Curb

    5:30 AM comes early on a Friday. I look at the time on my phone, “You’re kidding me, right?”

    Tired, groggy, and not feeling it I roll out of bed.

    It’s time for my run. Three days per week for the last 6 weeks. Meh, this isn’t fun anymore. Stoney is the only one stoked about this morning routine. He’s having the time of his life with all of this running.

    A few early morning demotivating thoughts cross my mind as I tried to find my shoes in the dark:

    1. I’m not a role model for health. Why don’t I just go back to bed or make some coffee and find something better to do.
    2. I’m not getting much faster or running any further. The same mile and half hurts just as much today as it did May 1st.
    3. I could just walk. Not like anyone will know or care. For that matter I could walk to Starbucks and no one would know or care either.

    Then I walk by the mirror. And that puts a few motivating thoughts in the mirror:

    1. I am a role model to my kids for health. A big reason they want to play inside and do nothing all day is because that’s what I like to do.
    2. Where did those extra 40 pounds come from? Seriously, that’s not cute.
    3. My running clothes barely fit any more. The same is true with all of my clothes. My shirts are a little less full and I’m pulling up my shorts all the time. I’m kind of digging that.

    Fat Adam yells at Skinny Adam every day. For too long he has won out. It’s time for Skinny Adam to stand up for himself and leave Fat Adam behind.

    Next goal? Stop talking about myself in the third person.

  • 2 Truths and a Lie

    Two truths
    1. Bigger isn’t better.
    2. Wider doesn’t make things deeper.

    A lie

    Bigger is shallow, deeper makes things smaller, our way is best.

    Axiom

    There are good systems used for evil and evil systems used for good.