While taking a walk along the beach the other day with my wife and son, we noticed a fellow surfing in the Atlantic Ocean. I spent the first few minutes watching the guy thinking about how cold he must have been. Water temperature in the area averages about 55 degrees in March. But the more I watched, I noticed the way the surfer would time his attempts to ride waves. As a suitable wave approached, he’d paddle with the wave…
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…