Muses

Groundhog Day 2010. Madison, Georgia.

A picture paints a thousand words.

Groundhog Day 2010 ~

Lovely.

Lovely.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This was this morning heading home after depositing my fighting children at school.
 
 
 
A more artistic interpretation.

A more artistic interpretation.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here’s what it looks like out my window this very moment.
 
Through the screen that has no use because I can’t pry the window open after a hundred years worth of layering paint glommed on there.
 
 
Hmm.

Hmm.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wow. I never noticed that screen before. Great. Now that is all I am going to see when I space out while trying think of SOMETHING to put on paper. A screen.
And I was worried about seeing nothing but gray and rain.
 
Now I’ve got gray, rain and this hideous screen that I never even noticed till I took that silly picture. I’ve got to talk to my groundhog about this. Who didn’t see his shadow. How on earth could he through 12 billion stories of cumulus, nimbus, stratus pressing down on us all?
 
Thank God.
 
Not about all the air pressure, but that the groundhog did not see his shadow and winter will be out of here by tomorrow.
 
At least that’s what I’m expecting. Any more groundhog reports out there?

It’s okay to letgo…

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I once heard a psycologist say that if you think of an object and lock it into your mind, you will start to see it everywhere.

Like clowns.

Say that you decided upon clowns as your object (this would only be if you weren’t deathly afraid of them as I know some of you are). Within the next week, you start noticing the word “clown” written everywhere. It jumps off the page.

Pictures of clowns start appearing all over the place.

Of course, those words and pictures were there all the time, but because of your heightened awareness ~ they are all you see.

I’m going to stop talking about clowns, because I’m home alone and it is starting to get dark and…it’s getting a little creepy thinking about smiling white faces.

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It was a simple tweet that asked a simple question. “What is your word of the year?”

“LET GO” popped into my head.

Problem is that “Let go” is two words and even with Twitter’s 140 character limitation, there wasn’t anyway I could make that phrase into one word.

But I did anyway. I tweeted that my word of 2010 was LETGO. My fellow follower agreed. She said “letgo” as my one word for 2010 worked for her.

Letting go and it’s themes have been appearing everywhere.

A respected businesswoman with whom I am acquainted was struggling with lots of worry about selling her business. She said, “You know, when I just dropped everything and stood back…it all fell into place.”

I ran the Disney Marathon and in writing about the experience the morning after, I had a billion different memories which could have gone a billion different directions. As I started to whittle down from 1000 plus words and kept cutting and cutting, when I looked at what remained…it was letting go. Discarding all the clothing I had packed on myself…not hanging on to things because of fear.

 Weird.

Then last Sunday at church with my extraordinary cool group of woman I share study and coffee with each Sunday, we were talking about sins that keep us from God. One very hip, pulled together chick admitted, “Letting go. I’ve just got to get better about letting go of things.”

I don’t know what LETGO means to you. I’m not sure I know what it means to me, but someone is trying to get that message through my thick skull.

If I had to guess, for me it’s about not worrying as much, trusting a mega-ton more, trying to live a godly life…all the while trying my hardest to do my best…then

Jump. Freefall. Let go.

Today, I was e-mailing back and forth with a writer friend. We probably haven’t communicated in a month and as an afterthought her last email to me had the link to this video, and her words were..”Got a great music video for you. Watch it all the way through! …Jan.”

What is your word…the word that is been following you???

Another weird theme developing in my life. MARCHING BANDS.What the heck is up with that? Don’t know…but I will just letgo and enjoy.

Btw, the band is OK Go and the marching band is Notre Dame’s finest…

 

OK Go |MTV Music

Okay, Jesus. Do you take your coffee black? Or maybe a little non-dairy creamer?

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Last night sitting with my two youngest  eating dinner,  it was time to bless the food. Or it was time for them to fight about who was going to say grace.

Our daughter declared it her night, closed her eyes and immediately began thanking God for everything that had occurred in her life that day. Then she abruptly stopped, opened her eyes and looked at our six year old.

“Joe. That is very rude. Would you do that if you were eating with God?

It seems while Hannah and I bowed, Joe shoveled macaroni and cheese into his mouth.

This is a big violation. Eating during the prayer. Honestly, I think it is more about a sibling power struggle than insulting our Lord, but I had to agree.

“Joe. You know we don’t eat during the prayer.”

Hannie’s words stuck with me. “That is very rude. Would you do that if you were eating with God?”

Well, if dining with our Lord, I certainly wouldn’t have served mac and cheese out of a box (though Kraft Three Cheese with the shells — is quite yummy) and chicken tenders. If I had advance notice that is.

That got me thinking. Would I be doing _(fill in the blank)   if I was hanging out with Jesus? Not the baby Jesus sitting there all pink, snugly and warm in a little car seat contraption. More like the 30 year old adult Jesus. One who could drive, enjoy a chocolate milkshake and pull for the Gators.

This is not about guilt or worry. More like a little check on behavior and thoughts before they become anything I need to feel guilt or worry.

It has the potential to be very freeing. Jesus will be most merciful and forgiving about the dishes that aren’t immediately out of the sink by mid morning, because he too must certainly enjoy getting his run in first.

Jesus is into relationships. And He was into doing the will of his Father.

What is the will of his Father? Funny, the more you invite Jesus into your day ~ the more the will of the Father becomes apparent.

I am writing all this while everyone is asleep and the house is quiet. This seems doable, no sweat.

Time to stick my coffee mug in the microwave one more time. Come on, Jesus. Do you like yours  black? Maybe a little Sweet and Low?

No. If Jesus and I are having coffee together this morning let’s get crazy and pull out the Folgers Cinnamon Swirl and make a new pot.

Have a great Friday…. Good Grief. It’s Friday!

Oh btw, how do you think Jesus takes his coffee?

Not a laughing (or texting) matter.

Texting While Driving

Texting while driving is serious stuff.

I’m guilty.

Now, I’ve stopped from actually texting while moving – but if honest, I do check e-mails and text messages while driving. It’s horribly wrong.

If you are doing it while driving, things can go horribly wrong.

This doesn't usually happen when I turn into my driveway.

This doesn't usually happen when I turn into my driveway.

Studies show that one in five text while driving (They are the ones that admit to it). That figure rises to one in three for drivers between the ages 18 – 34.

Most of us won’t get behind the wheel of a car after too much to drink, but texting while driving more dangerous than driving after drinking.

This from Car and Driver…“Alterman (The test driver) fared much, much worse. While reading a text and driving at 35 mph, his average baseline reaction time of 0.57 second nearly tripled, to 1.44 seconds. While texting, his response time was 1.36 seconds. These figures correspond to an extra 45 and 41 feet, respectively, before hitting the brakes. His reaction time after drinking averaged 0.64 second and, by comparison, added only seven feet. The results at 70 mph were similar: Alterman’s response time while reading a text was 0.35 second longer than his base performance of 0.56 second, and writing a text added 0.68 second to his reaction time. But his intoxicated number increased only 0.04 second over the base score, to a total of 0.60 second.

As with the younger driver, Alterman’s slowest reaction times were a grim scenario. He went more than four seconds before looking up while reading a text message at 35 mph and over three and a half seconds while texting at 70 mph. Even in the best of his bad reaction times while reading or texting, Alterman traveled an extra 90 feet past his baseline performance; in the worst case, he went 319 feet farther down the road. Moreover, his two-hands-on-the-phone technique resulted in some serious lane drifting.” http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1076338&topart=safety

Most adults realize manipulating a keypad while driving is unacceptable behavior. As tempted as I am to think, it’s just a “<” and a “3” to my husband; I’m not doing it any more. People die in car crashes.

When you are young, that kind of stuff  happens to someone else.

If the thought of your teenage getting behind the wheel with their cell sends you running up the side of overturned vehicle, what about this idea? There is a new application for cell phones that will prevent texting and driving.

Textecution works like this. When the phone is traveling faster than 10mph, Textecution disables the phone’s texting feature so text messages cannot be sent or received. Once the phone is at rest, or traveling at a speed slower than 10mph, the driver can send and receive messages.    http://www.textecution.com/

I am going to look into it — for my teenage driving son…

 and for myself.

 

A Jacksonville, Florida local news report on how Textecution works..

           

           

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