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New Year’s Solutions and High Hopes
Resolutions don’t work. If 41% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions and fewer than 9% achieve their goals by year’s end, how many people will move to Montana this year? Statistics often make absurd connections. Correlation is not causation. Causes of problems are usually much deeper, going far beyond observation. Dictionary definitions: New Year’s resolution: promise to do something different in the New Year resolve: to deal with successfully solution: an action or process of solving a problem The difference between promising to do something to create change and actually solving a problem lies somewhere between a person’s ears. A wise teacher said to me many years ago, “You behave…
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“O Christmas Tree” and Me
Merchants are not the only ones who begin decorating in October. When I visited the Biltmore House and Estate in Asheville, North Carolina on October 19, Christmas trees had been decorated and set in nearly every public room of the 250 room mansion built in 1895. That’s right. 1895. Traditions around the evergreen tree and branches date back centuries to the Egyptians but became popular during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria who married Prince Albert from Germany. In the 1500s, Germany began bringing evergreen trees into homes at Christmas (“O Tannenbaum”) and in the 1800s, the decorated tree tradition made its way across the ocean to America. Here’s a…
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Managing Expectations at Christmas
The words “managing expectations” resonates with me because I expect more than half my worries and disappointments can be traced to unrealistic expectations of myself, of others, and I guess it’s safe to include God in this list. Woe is me. At no time of year do my expectations collide so spectacularly with Reality as at Christmas. The year winds down and my expectations wind up. Earlier this year, I read Minnie Driver’s memoir. Her title was worth the price of the book. Managing Expectations. Those two words formed the spine of her story. Then she added flesh and bones to describe her chaotic childhood and her launch into the…
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Hark! A Predator at my Door
“Can I come get my hawk?” I was still in my robe. Answering the doorbell, my husband could see a young man holding his phone. Minutes before, a hawk had flown into the glass door to our patio. I’d been watching it as both the bird and I stood dazed and confused. It’s common for dove to fly into the glass and when I heard the thud, that’s what I thought had happened. But this thud was more like a crash. Grateful the glass hadn’t cracked, I jumped up, saw this HUGE bird, thankful it wasn’t dead, I grabbed my dog’s collar, and yelled for my husband. “Is that a…
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A Few Good Friends
If you live long enough, you will lose more than a few good friends. Some while you live and others when they die. Ironically, funerals bring together family and friends who you and I may have gone years without seeing. Losing a friend, we press the pause button long enough to reflect on the way friend connections keep us going till we’re gone. Consider how God uses friends to shape our lives, as someone described friendship. “Friends for a season Friends for a reason Friends for life” F*R*I*E*N*D*S If you watched the sitcom Friends when it was the number one show on TV during its ten years, 1994–2004, Matthew Perry…
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Ongoing Conversations with God
The Bible’s place is in your heart, not on a bookshelf or coffee table. The Bible does not open itself by itself, nor does God reveal his truths all at once. You and I often approach the Bible expecting to get what we need out of it and go on our way. My friend’s son came home from his first day in first grade. “How did it go?” his mom asked. “I didn’t even learn how to read.” Big Expectations of God The Bible is the revelation of who God is, his purposes for the world he created, and his plan for all human history. Vast and incomprehensible, God is.…
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You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Fifteen days, ten states, and 3,170 miles later, my first morning back home almost felt as if I’d never left. Familiar and comforting and reassuring, Home Sweet Home. My daughter informs me homeostasis is the term that describes how the brain seeks comfort, avoids pain, and resists change. So why in the world do I want to travel? First day back home, I awoke to 38 degrees, plunging into Fall, cold and wet. I settled into my morning routine: coffee, reading, a visit with my younger daughter and granddaughter Charlotte. I like to begin the day in first gear, not overdrive. So why would I ever leave home? “When I…
