Category Archives: Blog

One Thousand Posts

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1000_by_aveqiu1On July 30, 2006, one month after re-settling in Canada, I posted my first entry on a new blog that I had chosen to title, “Wandering & Wondering”. Nearly 106 months later, I am still here. This post will be #1001. Apparently 8 years is a millennium in blog-years!

Over that span, the diversity of content has definitely taken full advantage of the tagline at the top of this page: “a disorderly pile of who-knows-what”. A few posts have been profound, most have likely not. Some posts have ended up as I envisioned them, many not quite. A handful of posts have generated significant discussion; most have faded into cyber-oblivion with no response at all. Regardless, the experience of posting something — anything! — every third day has been a pleasure, one that I don’t intend to give up anytime soon.

1000-gamersThose who have joined me along the way, you are warmly welcomed. I’m so glad you’re here! For those who have wandered and wondered all the way along, I have no ability to reward you sufficiently for such outrageous companionship. You are clearly special people – certainly special, as in “wonderful”; likely also special, as in “needing more hobbies” as well. 😉

For tonight, it’s time to hit “publish” on this post. Now begins the quest to make the second thousand posts better than the first.

Grace and peace, my friends!

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Time to Move It!

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Typed-WriterOver a year ago, I made a public declaration on this blog.

On the heels of that move, I wanted to write more.

Some time later, I altered sleep habits to create more time for it. And the production of blog posts went up.

Now it’s time for another change.

What I really want to write is a book.

What I really want write is several.

And what I really cannot handle is pumping minutes and keystrokes into blogging AND books. Something has to shift.

So, here is my compromise.

I will continue to blog with the goal of sharing three times weekly:

1) A video or quote discovered along the way.

2) The Six-Pack each weekend for further resource sharing.

3) One original post per week, likely related to or taken from what has come out of my writing time each week. Sometimes these will simply be shared; other times, I will solicit feedback and response from your sharp eyes and minds.

I’ve made baby steps toward being more faithful to my declaration. Time to kick it up another notch!

 

Butter on Bread

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In our home, “Lord of the Rings” is the standard by which every other film or story is measured.  Within the earliest portions of that tale is a conversation between Gandalf the wizard and Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit.  Bilbo has a secret plan:

“I’m old, Gandalf. I know I don’t look it, but I’m beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel… thin. Sort of stretched, like… butter scraped over too much bread. I need a holiday. A very long holiday. And I don’t expect I shall return. In fact I mean not to.”

Butter spread thin over bread: There’s an easy image to grasp.

Unlike Bilbo, I’m not sure I really need a vacation, and I don’t feel old, and I’m not sure if I look it, and I don’t intend to leave.

But I do feel like butter spread too thin.

Current days are wonderful ones: I work a job in which I find significance and satisfaction much of the time, I love a wife who is better than I deserve, I cherish three little ones that are true treasures to me, and I enjoy a circle of friends who add much to my life.  I am healthy, wealthy (by every reasonable standard), and wise (in the sense that my mind DOES work)!

That said, life is full and fast right now.  Every day ends with a dozen things I should have done but didn’t.  One of those is blogging.  That bugs me because I love stringing ideas together and pressing them into words.  I enjoy drafting posts; I love editing them.

And I cannot get to either lately!

Despite my desires to grow the site (I’m working on completely new design–another task that has been temporarily pushed to the margins), time is simply not available at present.

So in an effort toward some inner quiet, I am striking this item from my daily list for a couple weeks.  Perhaps stating this here publicly will allow me to be less disappointed with myself each time I fail to make it happen in a day that provides next to no flexibility.  I know this is a season: Short nights, long days, three little ones under four, a string of wedding weekends and family visits.  Eventually, my early hours will again be dedicated to blogging and not to tackling work that won’t fit into the normal office hours.

But that is not now… not quite anyway.

My activity on Twitter will continue to be steady (the time commitment isn’t nearly the same), and I will strive to keep the Saturday Six-Pack rolling over the next two weeks as an outlet to share worthwhile items I find online.  And as soon as even a sliver of light peeks through, then I will begin tackling the list of ideas I have for original posts aimed at fueling you along the journey toward deeper life and clearer perspectives.

If you wish to subscribe to my Twitter feed (for a steady stream of article links and thoughtful quotes) or this site (to be aware of when full activity resumes here), head over the right side of this screen.  I look forward to interacting with you.

Grace and peace, my friends.  Live today in the assurance that God will always give us sufficient butter for our bread!

Jumping into June

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After allowing all of May to slide by with a mere ONE post–and about politics, at that(!)–I’m pressing forward into June, intent on filling the calendar.  All those things that I WANT to blog about along the way, this is a stretch of road during which to make some of that happen.

Up Again

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“It’s not how many times you fall down; it’s how many you get up.”

I heard that somewhere.  I’m sure whoever said it wasn’t speaking of blogging.  But since they aren’t here to defend proper context, I’m using it.  March 2010 was the month of zero posts for me.  Wow–that’s a feat.  Even more impressive (or depressing) after my December commitment.

Time to get back up.

Though I aim for consistency (in any way), I’m discovering that I’m more like Chelsey than I might have thought–aside from super-creative and married to Pete and a mother.  In those ways, I was clear about our differences.

So as something of a middle ground, I’m aiming for four posts per week from here until June 1.

That might sound ambitious on the heels of my recent failures, but it’s easier than it looks.  For all of May, I’m signed up for another travel class that presses me into a self-imposed write-or-I’ll-kill-you frame of mind.  So it’s really just April when I have to navigate my you-should-write-but-you-don’t-really-have-to tightrope.

Let’s press “publish” and get this thing started.