Answers?

I think I had a bit of an epiphany a couple of nights ago. I've never had an epiphany before, that I know of, so it's hard to be sure if I really experienced one or not. If anyone has an epiphany test, please pass it on to me.

Anyway, my epiphany consisted of these thoughts. When I write something, really put my thoughts out for others to peruse, I want it to matter. I want it to be information or insight that people will read and be changed somehow for having read it. I don't want to write just to be putting "something" out there.

I also wrestle with one big question..."Why would anyone want to read what I put down?" The details of what goes on inside my head are not really all that appealing, even to me sometimes, so why would another person want a glimpse of that? I am not confident enough that people want to hear from me.

The epiphany came when I was watching a Cubs baseball game and Mr. T was in the broadcast booth. He was talking about going to visit hospitals and spending time with people and bringing what he had to lift their spirits. Nothing against Mr. T, but why would you want to be visited by a large man in a do-rag and too much bling when you're in the hospital? How would that lift your spirit?

The point is, I have enough in me to say and to write and I just need to do it. I will do my best to get past talking myself out of offering opinions or ideas. I will not worry about how I might be exposed if I write what I really think. I'm going to do it.

Starting with the next post.

Peace.

3 Words Again

Nice holiday weekend. At beach twice. Wrightsville beach Saturday. Figure Eight today. In-laws here. Missouri kids too. Former youth group. Big church Sunday. Most people ever.



Work again tomorrow. Seven days left. Afterschool, that is. Summer programs next. Should be fun.



Not much else. Slight writers block. What to write? Do people read? Questions like that. Just write something. Isn't that right?



Peace.

Seriously

I just read my last post. Wow.

I would like to be a writer. I've talked of that in this space before. I would like my writing to inspire people to dream. I want individuals to be deeply changed after reading what I put before them. I desire for people to see the image of God, the creator of the universe, shining through the words that I put together.

So I wrote about poop.

That's an inspiring, life-changing, never-be-the-same kind of topic, isn't it?

I have found myself working long hours lately and I come home very tired. I have dinner, play with the kids for a short time and put them to bed. I seem to be constantly thinking about things I need to do at work. I seem to have lost some humor somewhere along the way. I don't wonder about things. I don't play much and when I do, I feel a little guilty about it. I don't think I laugh as easily as I once did.

I think I need more poop stories in my life. I need to have rambling conversations with my four year old boy. I need to tickle my daughter until she gives up that deep, belly laugh that starts somewhere near the center of the earth. I need to play basketball and talk trash with my ten year old son.

I have seen it happen in people around me. I have worried about it happening to me. There comes a time when poop stories aren't funny anymore. (As I understand it, poop stories aren't ever very funny to the female portion of the population. That's a separate post.) I don't want to get there. I want to laugh about things that might be slightly inappropriate for an adult to laugh at. I want to have the joy and imagination of a four year old who thinks that something is trying to escape his body and is prevented from escaping by other things that will eventually try to escape in their time.

We have to laugh. If we don't laugh, life becomes a drudgery and a duty. Jesus said He came to give life and life abundantly. I believe that includes laughter. I need some more laughter these days.

Got any good poop stories?

Peace.

4-Year Old Brain

Declan Jett: "Dad, I had a poop that was trying to come out when I was outside."

Me: "It was trying to come out?"

Declan Jett: "Yeah, but the other poops pulled it back in."

Me: "Is that when you went inside to the bathroom?"

Declan Jett: "Yeah. The other poops were holding it in and then it broke."

I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Peace.

Beaches

When I lived in the midwest, a trip to the beach was something that I didn't really think about all that much. I loved to go to Florida or Alabama and see the ocean but I wasn't thinking about it much when I wasn't there. Now that I live 20 minutes from the beach, if I don't go for awhile, I really start to miss it. In the winter sometimes now, I tell the kids that we need to run by the beach and make sure that the ocean is still there. Jett is the official taster to check the saltiness of the water.

We went to the beach today for the first time this season and it was great. The ocean has such a calming effect and it puts my own little life in perspective. There is so much going on in the water and across the water that my issues seem to shrink a bit. Life is so much more than my small world.

It's good to be reminded of that occasionally.

Peace.

Craziness

Let's see, the last seven days...

Wednesday left for Greensboro, NC for a conference on after school programming. Good stuff there; inspiring, infomational, fun.

Home Friday to see the fam. It's amazing how much I miss them in such a short time. It's nice to have one night of quiet to get to chill a little, but then I need the noise that those other four incredible people bring into my life.

Saturday brought three soccer games stacked one after the other and an end of season party to follow the last one. Between the last game and the party, we took a quick trip to Urgent Care so we could get Kendall's scalp stapled back together. She basically fell out of a tree and smacked her head. No concussion, just two staples in her head for about ten days. Went on to the party, picked up the obligatory "we finished the season" trophy and finally went home.

Sunday brought finishing up the talk for church Sunday night. And lots of laundry. Farmed out two kids to various locations and went to hang out with our friends that we haven't seen in two weeks. I really miss the people from church when I don't get to see them much.

Monday and today both saw ten hour work days and home for the night.

Crazy, but a great life.

Peace.