Posts tagged Blogger
Go somewhere.
I spent my day thinking warm, snuggly thoughts of blankets and hot tea and Jane Austen movies on Netflix. 
I knew that as soon as I walked in the door, I would be hard pressed to do anything other than snuggle with the dogs, turn on the TV, cover up, cuddle in, and drift in and out of a hazy almost-sleep until Josh got home from class.
So when I got home, I said hi to the pups. I took them outside in the rain. We all ran back inside. And I put on my boots, zipped my coat, and headed right back in to the storm.
It is so easy to call an end to my day when I get home from work. To eat dinner, put on PJs, and snuggle in for the night.
But when you are a person with goals and dreams and plans as big as mine, you really don’t have time for that nonsense. And as I am learning, sometimes that means you have to give up the comfort of a full belly and a warm puppy and a cozy blanket for a hard chair and headphones in your favorite coffee shop. Whatever it takes to make you sit up straight and get things done.
Do you feel my pain? Can you concentrate on your work after a full day at your job? Where do you go to stay on task?
What Are You Reading? 100 Years of Solitude
Although it took me WAY longer than it should have, I finally did finish 100 Years of Solitude. (You may remember I started reading it five months ago when I started this little online book club.)
By the end of the book, I felt like poor Ursula—and oh, how I loved Ursula—in her old age. All the characters, their lineages, and their stories blurred completely together. It was all I could do to keep things straight until the end, and I definitely relied on help from the family tree printed in the front of the book.
Muddled though it left me, I do feel like I achieved something by sticking it out with this book. I was tempted to overthrow it for something simpler several times, but I knew it was just too big a story to leave unresolved.
In a lot of ways, this book felt a little Biblical. The family tree grew gnarled, crooked, knotted with begats and with roots so long that the ancestors had become more like legends than family members.
I knew as soon as I finished 100 Years of Solitude that I would need to read it again. This first time was really just to understand what I was getting myself into—and I did sometimes feel like my shoes were made of cement or stuck in mud as I slogged through the densely woven web of stories. I’ll read it again, maybe next year, to actually process, understand, and enjoy. For now, I’m just glad I finished it at all.
I’ve got one more book to tell you about before the book club picks up in real time. Until then, what are you reading? Do you have a book to recommend?
If you’re interested in becoming a reader with me, leave me a comment and let me know! I’ll add you to the list.
CHRISTMAS Ukulele Wednesday! White Christmas
I’m back! And so is Ukulele Wednesday!
I’m feeling the Christmas Spirit, so I decided to record a Christmas Classic! I hope you like my version of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”
Thankful Sunday (It Still Counts!)
Thankful Thursday slipped right by me this week, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to tell you all how thankful I am, because one of the things I am MOST thankful for this week is…
You.
Thank YOU for reading this blog and following along on this little journey of mine. I was overwhelmed by the kindness you all sent my way last week through this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and email. So many of you sent words of encouragement and excitement over my big announcement, and each message meant the world to me.
I’ve written before about people and their behavior on the Internet - specifically about how, in my position, I tend to see people showing their very worst sides from behind the veil of Internet anonymity. When you can count on seeing such open, unchecked hostility as a part of your daily routine, and when that hostility is often aimed at you for no real good reason at all, it can be hard to maintain your faith in the innate goodness of people.
So when I posted the announcement about my new job and the adventure I’m beginning as a real, working writer, I may not have been expecting any hostile comments…but I certainly wasn’t counting on the wonderful outpouring of support and celebration that you guys sent my way.
Thank you so, so much for being such wonderful friends.
The true method of knowledge is experiment.
William Blake
I’ve got a husband who is kind, quiet, loved by even the most skittish of puppies (pictured above), and brave.
I’ve got a husband who is loyal, competitive, and never a fair-weather fan.
I’ve got a husband who is a musician, a writer, a thinker, and (now) a teacher.
I’ve got a husband whose patience is a wonder, whose enthusiasm is contagious, whose genuine goodness is obvious to us all.
I’ve got a husband who is starting a brand new job tomorrow, and even though he might be nervous or unsure or even doubtful, he is lifting his scruffy chin and packing his books and heading to school to teach a brand new group of kids.
He will be learning right along with his students. He won’t know all of the answers right away, but he will teach his students the power that comes from solving problems yourself. He will be the kind of teacher a kid is never afraid to ask for help.
He will teach them to be great without even meaning to: quietly, without boasting or shouting, because that’s not his style.
He will be honest, attentive and kind. He will be fair. He will show his students that reading is not boring, that science is not too hard, and that you can learn anything if you are willing to put in a little elbow grease.
I can’t put into words how proud I am of him - I can only say that he has taught me (is teaching me) so much about what it is to be a good person. He is kinder than I’ll ever be. He is brave and he is wise and he is going to be a great teacher, just like he is a great friend, a great pet-owner, a great husband, and a great man.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for him all day (but he’s not going to need my luck).
I can be pretty judgey sometimes.
Once in college, I had to work closely with someone who I had serious trouble tolerating. I went to my professor to whine and gripe and ask for a new partner, and she gave me a piece of advice.
“Try to find one thing about him that you like,” she said. “You don’t have to like him. You just need to find one thing. Find one small thing that you like about him, and it’ll get easier.”
The next time I worked with him, I tried. I sat for an hour trying to find something to like, and I couldn’t do it. The next time we met, I tried again and I left still hating his guts.
We didn’t become friends. I never actually found anything to like about him. I tried to think of one positive trait to write about here, and I couldn’t.
Luckily, my professor’s advice still helped. The act of sitting across from him and trying was enough to make me realize that everyone has potential. Even if I couldn’t find anything attractive about him, I was sitting and believing that if I looked hard enough, I could find something.
People aren’t always going to be the kinds of people we like. Situations aren’t always going to be favorable. But we owe it to ourselves to give those people and situations the benefit of the doubt. If we allow for the possibility that there is some good to be found…that small allowance is enough to at least start improving things.
Sometimes we get lucky, and there actually IS something there to work with. And if not, the act of looking for that one small thing can serve as a reminder to check our judgey-ness.
picture via artfulblogger on flickr.
