I recently spent a weekend in North Myrtle Beach with my family. One morning, I went for a walk on the beach with my wife and son. We walked to the Cherry Grove pier. The walk was pleasant even though it was a cloudy day. We made it to the pier and turned back toward the resort where we were staying. About halfway back, it occurred to me that the walk going to the pier seemed much shorter than the…
I was thinking earlier tonight about a seminar I went to several years ago that included a session on the way families work. One of the things I learned is the importance of being what the teachers called a “non-anxious presence.” It seems that often issues that arise within families can be handled if one of those involved can keep his or her anxiety level down. That “non-anxious presence” can serve as a calming agent of sorts. I often thought…
Sometimes I get too stressed over stuff that’s not worth it. Last week, our band was supposed to play during a church service. We had all the songs picked out except the one that would be played right before the sermon. Of course, that’s considered the most important song of the service. We try hard to make it fit with what the pastor’s going to say in the sermon. Usually, the bandleader’s pretty good about finding a song that goes…
I finally got a new car. Well, it’s not a new car. It’s actually a kind of old car — a 1995 Volkswagen Jetta — but it’s new to me and has a lot less miles than you’d think. It’s not my dream car, but I got a good deal on it. As a matter of fact, I got a real good deal. Unfortunately in this case, the deal wasn’t quite as good as it seemed. The car actually broke…
I was reading an article the other day on the Sports Illustrated web site about Larry Bird. The article was an excerpt from “When March went Mad: The Game that Transformed Basketball,” a book about the 1979 NCAA basketball championship between Bird’s Indiana State team and the Michigan State team lead by Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The article focuses on Bird and how he came to play basketball for Indiana State. He had originally signed and attended Indiana University, but went…
I was in a study group the other night when the leader pointed out that the spiritual life is a paradox, requiring both solitude and contact with others. He was, in effect, encouraging us to spend some time in quiet meditation between our weekly sessions as a group. Good advice. Every once in a while everyone needs to get away from the chaos of daily life. I think burnout is in large part caused by the way we keep our…
I’ve been finishing a major project over the last week or so. I’ll be writing more about it in future posts, but first I thought I’d share a lesson learned during the process. During the early and middle stages of the effort, there were a number of times, I thought about details that needed to be done. I kept telling myself that I’d do them later. I thought it’d be easier to work on them all at the same time…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my thinking. Specifically, I’m trying to have more positive thoughts. That’s why an ABC News feature on a German spiritual thinker caught my attention. Eckhart Tolle has sold millions of books and was the subject of a 10-part online series by Oprah Winfrey, according to the network. Tolle teaches people how to “shut off the noise in their heads and be happy,” the article said. In answer to a question from ABC’s Dan…
Since my car died, I’ve started looking for a new one. Well, not a new one. I prefer to get a used car because I drive a lot and new cars lose value quickly when you put a lot of miles on them. So I was looking at craigslist yesterday, focusing on the two areas closest to where I live. I saw a few possibilities, but nothing real promising. Then I decided to look in a region of my state…
My car’s dead. Kaput. Done. Finished. What’s worse is I’ve only had it a couple of months. I bought it after my last car got totaled in an accident last year. It was a good car while it lasted. It just didn’t last long. First the water pump went. Got it fixed. Then the head gasket started leaking. Now it won’t stop overheating. It’s not worth fixing. That’s what the mechanics tell me. It’s been suggested to me that I…