Chicago

I found a baby skunk! We were best buds until she actually saw me. I don't know if she was deaf or what but I was following her all around for about 10 minutes while she was digging and gathering food, and then Bam! Stiff as a board she went. I took that as my cue to exit.

[The name Chicago in the language of the Potowatomi Indian tribe means, "wild and smelly."] 

::Tuesday's Tea With Me::

Alright.

Well. I wasn't going to talk about this. Because it seemed rather vulnerable. [deep sigh] BUT... since my friend Meghan had the guts to share a similar type matter, I took my cue from her and mustered up the courage to share.

As some of you may know my New Years Resolution was to take a Facebook sabbatical. Now I had a feeling it would be hard to do. Kind of. But I didn't realize the impact it would have in only a 24 hour period. Without Facebook there to make me "think" that I was connected, I had to come to grips with the reality that I'm really not. Damn! 

So this morning I have been taking stock of my relational life; the connections I do have, the ones maybe I should have, and what in the world I have been feeding off of in the mean time. This whole year has been a theme of increasing the quality of my life in a variety of areas. So here I am facing yet another opportunity for improvement: relationships. How do you develop quality over quantity in that regard?

Stay tuned. I don't have the answer yet. But I'm hoping to develop some insights. :-)

P.S. Grandma brought me over more fresh roses from her garden. Yes!

Little Boys

I love cows and I love little boys. This cracked me up. 

Stampede!!!


Of course hearing "Hey look at that lady taking pictures of the cows" ring across the field leads me to believe that they were wanting to get in on some of the camera action.

An Unspoken Rule

I am totally loving my book right now. I want to share this excerpt because it hit me like a sack of potatoes..

"Aaron caught a glimpse of an insight and latched onto it. He'd broken an unspoken rule --- one person did not reach into another person's life and make decisions for her... or him. It seemed this was a lesson he should have learned long ago. As his thoughts followed that trail, he understood something else. It wasn't his place to pry his parents' grip free of this farm. He wasn't wrong in showing them options for a different life or in sacrificing his time to help them. But his way was overzealous. They were mature adults with the right to hang on to this black hole until they or the bank said otherwise. He'd learned in rehab that a spouse, friend, or parent can't make someone want to get clean. And he couldn't make his parents want to leave this place. He'd banked on having more influence over his parents than he really had."                                           -The Harvest of Grace

 An unspoken rule. One should not reach into another persons's life and make decisions for them. [hand raised in the air.] I'm busted. I'm guilty.


Here's a quote I've been letting soak into the soil of my soul:

"For I am convinced that everything as it is in itself is holy. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. Forget about deciding what's right for each other."                                                                                 -Romans 14:13 

Oh crap. I totally haven't lived this way. At all. I'm telling you I was totally convinced I was supposed to tell other people how best to live their life. I believed that for 29 years. Ha ha ha... That's pretty dumb. I think it's pretty funny right now. What a pinhead. Overzealous is a gentle way to put it if you ask me. Arrogant and presumptuous is another way to say it. I just didn't know. But I DO now. :-D Hip hip hurray! YAHOOOOO!!!! I get it. I get it. I get it.! YES!

It Is Well

I found this old piece of wood when I was out hiking way back in the hills one day. I couldn't part with it so I strapped it to my pack and carried it all the way home with me. 

I decided to make a sign out of it.