2009
I love order. It brings me great peace to clear the dining room table, to put away folded laundry, to gather all the items strewn upon the floor in the front hall and restore them to their proper place. If I had more time, everything in our house would be orderly. As it is, ...
"For in paradise, before his sin, man could not, it is true, do everything; but he could do whatever he wished, just because he did not want to do whatever he could not do..."
St. Augustine, City of God, Book XIV, Chapter 15
It's a refrain these days, "Penny, I am proud of you." I say it when she walks out of school with her thumbs up, an indication that she has made "good choices" today (this after a few days of bad choices, which included yellow paint smeared across her new white shirt, in her ...
I suppose it is a right of passage for kids. Penny has come into the stage of asking "why?" about everything. A quick example:
"Where's Dad?"
"At work."
"Why?"
"Because he goes to work in the morning."
"Why?"
"Because he likes to teach."
"Why?"
And on it goes, until I give up.
As tedious ...
Peter and I have a running debate. He calls me a pessimist. I respond by saying I'm a realist. Sometimes, he's willing to grant me that title. And it's easy enough for me to respond to the world realistically when it comes to making mundane personal decisions. For instance, ...
Why is moralism so annoying? (And of course, there are times when it is far more than annoying and becomes disturbing, mean, unjust, insensitive, etc.) I've found myself cringing when someone states an opinion with which I agree, such as, "High school students shouldn't get ...
Penny keeps asking me to tell her stories. "Tell story Mama little girl," she says. So I've been remembering moments in my childhood and passing them along. Last night, I remembered that on more than one occasion, I "ran away" from home. I never went far. Once I made it to the ...
Organic is all the rage these days. Organic food, organic clothing, organic coffee. I make a point of buying organic milk and chicken. I try for organic veggies too.
Perhaps it's because of the popularity of organic farming that I have been applying the word "organic" to other ...
I heard it in a sermon a long time ago. Genesis 12:2, in which God promises Abraham: "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." I tend to think of it as a prayer: "Bless me, that I might be a blessing." ...
2010
