Last weekend was our church's annual Men's Retreat, with the theme of "Living Intentionally." Though I was only able to attend a portion of the time due to work, some of the conversations crystallized long-percolating thoughts. To wit (gosh, I've always wanted to say that), living in a culture of seemingly near-infinite choice, I am usually the ( Read more... )

Apparently I'm doing some sort of coffee shop tour, if the past couple of mornings are any indication. Caffe Vita isn't an unusual spot for me, since it's just around the corner from my office. Journalling again in these old haunts is the real change, I suppose ( Read more... )

Yesterday was largely eventless, which is what I'd like (and very well might need) more days to be. Beautiful springtime weather was a nice bonus, too. And while today is far more full, it's not looking as overfull as many Sundays can be, so this weekend may just turn out looking like a weekend all the way through ( Read more... )

So, if the whole deal with leap year is that we get an extra day, why do I feel weeks and months behind at all times? That's clearly much more about me than it is about the calendar ( Read more... )

A snow day is just what the doctor ordered. Some doctor somewhere, anyway. Liz the barista is holding down the fort here at Diva Espresso, which gave me a chance to get out of the house and refill my coffee tank ( Read more... )

Oh, dusty, neglected LiveJournal-I'd love to treat you better in 2012 than I did in 2011. I'm sad that I've recorded so little in a year with so much, and, as with most neglected things, it's going to work better simply to begin again than to try to catch up. Lost a couple of friends here in my absence; completely understandable but a bit sad.

barlow_girl ( Read more... )

Hello, 2011. We'd planned to celebrate the new year with friends, but I didn't feel greatest and we wound up opting out and watching Die Hard: With a Vengeance at home instead. 2010 didn't care much about our change in plans and made itself scarce right on time ( Read more... )

If you want to grow anything worthwhile, it's all about the soil. That's why you have to rotate the crops from time to time. Anything that stays in the same soil too long withers and eventually dies. I think people are the same way. If we stay too long in the same soil, we start to dry up inside. Soon, there's nothing left but the shell, and after ( Read more... )

After taking things much easier yesterday, I've enjoyed a pretty solid office day today. Nothing earth-shattering, which is good, because I'm not at all in the market for that this week.

barlow_girl and I have really been enjoying praying through the Psalms together this Lent. I'm the king of good intentions, but I need some kind of structure to do anything ( Read more... )

I've always loved how, particularly in the Old Testament, people respond to being called with, "Here I am" (or some equivalent thereof). Read it this morning in Genesis 37:13, but it's regularly peppered throughout the Bible. I don't want impart some deep and wildly inaccurate meaning to the phrase; quite the opposite-I love its simplicity ( Read more... )