3FoxesAndAWordProcessor

 Humans are, if anything, creatures of habit. We like our routines - even if that routine is resisting routine. One thing that stands out is how we react to things that shake up the routine. Is your initial reaction to a party invitation excitement or to scramble for an excuse to politely avoid what is sure to be a gathering of extroverts? (I'm an ambivert, so it will depend on who is there and the type of food being served.) Whether the event is good or bad will shape your reaction. And it's important to note, if you have young people around, they are watching and learning from you. Scripture tells us to train a child in the way they should go. A part of this training is to do our best to react appropriately to changes to our "perfect world".  A gracious answer to invitations, showing care and consideration when attending events - aka knowing when it's time to go home, when you should bring a dish, and avoiding talking about politics if you know it will cause a f...

 Often, we measure a life by major accomplishments and milestones. Graduations, marriages, births, career triumphs, death.  The fleeting moments in between tend to blur in the midst of the larger moments. The small number of achievements get more attention than the enumerable mundane moments, even though the bulk of our lives is spent in these quiet moments. Moments in time, forever in the past.  My husband passed away on October 30th. And while he had some awesome achievements in his life, hiking the rim of the Grand Canyon, mapping caves, fighting forest fires ... those aren't the things I miss. I miss the simple moments. He would always try to make us smile. Sometimes by pulling a prank, like the time he tried to swap my coffee for instant. Did he really think I wouldn't know?  I miss cooking something new and waiting to see if he liked it. I love cooking for others and watching people enjoy what I made. My kids are too picky to appreciate new recipes, preferring ...

      Have you ever watched the news after a disaster and seen how swiftly aid comes from every corner of the world? People come from all over the world to try to help in any way they can. It truly is an outpouring of love. In our day to day life, this can also be seen. Sometimes it is as simple as the person ahead of us paying for our coffee, or when we let someone go ahead of us in line at the supermarket. Love manifests itself in many ways.     On the other hand, we all too often get caught up in our day to day lives. Maybe we even get short tempered and lose our patience. We are after all - human. When we have a bad day, it can be difficult to see past the moment and focus on the positives. We humans often have a habit of looking inward, or looking at the world. To quote one of my favorite authors, " If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest." - Corrie Ten Boom.   ...

  **This was originally posted in December of 2021, but disappeared for some reason. I am reposting it now.     Kummerspecken … often in English I find there is not a word sufficient to cover what we are trying to say. German has many interesting words … for example they have a word for that moment when you get off work, and the relief you feel knowing it's the weekend. Kummerspeck is along those lines. It literally translates to grief bacon. What an odd mix, but oh so appropriate at times. Now, the Germans will use it to refer to the weight you might gain while grieving. Yet, I find another meaning in kummerspeck. Kummer is an extreme grief. It is the grief that tears your soul apart a thousand times over in a vicious cycle. It is in my opinion, a bit beyond the English word grief. When my father passed it was as if I were being keelhauled in a tropical storm. I could occasionally, reach the eye of the storm, and feel a moments peace, but then it was back to r...

 You never know when what seems like an everyday moment will be life changing. Simple things that we take for granted every day. I can think of at least 2 times when what seemed like a normal conversation changed my life and may have even saved it. The first was when I was graduating from 6th grade, and we were about to move. I was discussing my dad's plans to move to North Dakota with my teacher. She had lived in South Dakota and told me a story about how she fell into a snow drift, and managed not to panic, and dug herself up and out. Less than a year later, I fell into a snow drift and I remembered her story. I didn't panic. I dug. I survived. Snow went down my snow suit, and I was a good five to ten minute walk from home. I made it home and quickly got out of the wet clothes. Anyone who knows how deathly cold it gets that far north will understand the dangers. That one simple conversation saved my life, and Ms. Djonne will likely never know the impact the story had on my li...

     Patience. That word again? I can be patient after I've had my coffee. Wait? You mean I have to wait for it to brew? I don't want to wait!    I am not a very patient person. I am always needing to move, needing to act, needing to problem solve, needing to do anything but be still. Do you see the problem here?    Recently, all I've done is wait: for my husband's CAT scan to be scheduled, for him to agree to get a cat (21 years, still nothing), for the scan results to reach the doctor—which took a week because we had to set up a patient profile, a detail my husband didn't pass on. Then there were more days waiting for a doctor’s appointment, and finally, struggling to schedule a biopsy.    We finally got the biopsy results, then waited again for the oncologist. We had already gone in for fluids, steroids, and medication to lower my husband's calcium from a dangerous 15. We FINALLY made it to the diagnosis appointment. And now, more waiti...