The other day, I was reading a story about NASCAR driver Kyle Busch. He’s not my favorite, but I admire his will to win. In the story, Busch talked about what motivates him. “What I use is the car in front of me. If there’s a car in front of me, I’m going to chase him,” Busch said. “… I want to pass that guy. If I’m the leader, there’s another car in front of me, he’s going a lap…
The other day, my wife was talking to our daughter about how her day at school went. My daughter talked about an exercise one of her teachers had the students do that day. The teacher asked the students to join their two hands together, interlocking their fingers. She then told the students to look at their fingers to see which of their thumbs were in front. When people put their hands together like that, they almost always do it the…
One evening last weekend, my daughter wanted me to go jogging along the beach with her. I had taken a long walk with my wife and son that morning, but I was still up for a nice relaxing run. Unfortunately, a storm came up before we started. So we decided to jog the next morning instead. Bright and early, we headed out on the sand. It was beautiful. We had barely got started when I told my daughter we should…
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 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…
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…