Lent begins today, Ash Wednesday. Looking back at a few years past, I find many of my struggles are consistent, so my disciplines will be, too. Some initial thoughts:

Objective: Laying down and taking up things during Lent serves to create right space for God. It's all His, of course, but noise and distraction keep me from talking with and ( Read more... )

Regrettably, I've got a bug that just keeps hanging on. Started to feel it a little before we headed out to ultimateswing's wedding in Arizona last weekend, and it's still with me. Thankfully, it hasn't kept me out of work; the worst part is that the sinus side of it caused me to lose some hearing on our return flight last Sunday, and that still hasn't been 100 ( Read more... )

Keep hoping to write more routinely, not just for its own sake but also for the rhythm and reflection it represents. Life as I want to live it and life as I actually do are still quite different, however. Reality looks a lot more like taking what I can get ( Read more... )

We started 2010 with a whirlwind trip to visit both our families (first in Alabama, then in Iowa), and I'm just now starting to feel the beginnings of a normal rhythm settling in. Don't think I'd have changed a thing-travelling in January is so much simpler and less expensive than taking the same trip in December, and it was the right time to spend ( Read more... )

Since the sun is rising later, I'm getting more time on clear mornings to sit outside and write before being blinded by it. Would love to learn to use that time well, because I'm just better when I'm regularly taking the time to write ( Read more... )

We had a great visit by quiltlady (barlow_girl's mom) this past weekend, affording us the chance to play tourists in our own hometown. Friday we toured Theo Chocolate and rode the Ducks, and Saturday was mostly downtime for me while she and Amy went to the farmer's market, checked out some yard sales and fabric stores, went for high tea at Queen Mary, and attended ( Read more... )

Trying, trying again on having a bit of discipline with my morning, simply setting aside time before anything else for Scripture reading and whatever prayer, journaling, etc. may arise from that. Realized at ManTime that I really need this space in to grow in my relationship with God-which, not coincidentally, affects my relationship with all ( Read more... )

My friend Kendall has recently adopted a morning routine that includes journalling; hearing about that and its rewards reminds me of how rich that kind of simple discipline has been for me in the past. For years I've struggled with (and against) creating spaces for stillness in my life. Part of me would very much like to stop kicking against the ( Read more... )

Beautiful day-taking in some fresh air with a beer on the patio. Too often, I don't stop or slow down enough to get perspective. Even my laziness is too wired and distracted. But now there's a nice breeze blowing, and even the clamor of everyone commuting home is somehow comforting.

(Lots of people running. Why do they do that ( Read more... )

So the thing with work (sometimes) is that, when I decide to really dig in to one project or another, it opens into a gaping maw that can eat my whole day/week/month life. It's not really stressful so much as it just manages to fill any and all time I devote to it. The feeling of freefall is disconcerting, but it's mostly just a feeling-really, the ( Read more... )