New cars come with lots of bells and whistles. Drivers have options to put more and more control in the vehicle itself. Cameras and sensors aid in parking and changing lanes. With the press of a button, cruise control monitors your speed, and can now apply the brakes. As the driver, trusting it is scary.…
There is a song from the late 1980s by David Wilcox called “Leave It Like It Is.” https://www.google.com/search?q=leave+it+like+it+is+lyrics&rlzThe song is about a jar of blue paint that falls off a kitchen table and breaks. In the splattered mess, the homeowner sees beauty. Instead of cleaning up the spill, the paint is left to dry. What…
Hip-hip Hooray! This Saturday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. I don’t think of myself as a tree-hugging hippy, but I value the Earth and its natural resources. Earth Day reminds us of our planet’s importance and that we must take care of it. The actions of humans are the cause of environmental issues. We are…
Over Spring Break, my daughter’s friends decided to take a road trip. They were in search of a chuckwalla. With little money and an equal amount of thought or planning, the group went off to tent camp in the desert. Mesquite, Nevada, was their destination, and finding a chuckwalla was their mission. Why there, and…
“Hazards Exist” signs warn of obstacles on ski runs, but life is no different with its unforeseeable challenges. The “Hazards Exist” signs make me laugh to be honest. As though posting a sign at the top of a mountain will prevent skiers from attempting to ski down the mountain. Of course they’re hidden obstacles! Challenges…
There are only two options to a couple things in life. Size and age are topics that fall into this logic. Over time our body shapes change, but there remain only two options, our clothes fit or they don’t. Same thing goes for age you’re either dead or alive. When making the most of life…
The choice to change ourselves isn’t an easy decision, and the action required of oneself is even more daunting. Choosing change requires us to love ourselves, and be brave when facing our fears. We must be willing to let go of the familiar and venture into the unfamiliar. Twenty-seven years ago, my mother did just…
Viewing life as a glass half full or a glass half empty seems to be a limiting approach in my opinion. The options are left to nothing more than a positive or negative outlook when really there are other perspectives to consider. Instead of assigning negative connotation to a glass half empty, I choose to…
The other day my four-year-old neighbor approached me with an outstretched hand. On her palm lay a large, listless grasshopper. Lucy said, “Look what I have. It’s a grasshopper. I pulled it off another grasshopper. They were stuck together!” To which her mom replied with raised eyebrows, “Now you have a grumpy grasshopper.” Little did…
Recently, I was asked what I think it means to have grace. My answer was that grace and kindness are much the same. Both are gifts and there is no better gift than being kind. Having grace is a means to obtaining peace. The more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me…