Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Snow White?

Well, someone's gone and done it....


Except, around the corner from this woodsy glen....there would be a beach. And a cute little cafe and market.

So, minus the isolation...there you have it. My cottage of dreams.

I could put up w/ having Frodo as a roommate....

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Malignant Mayhem

In my schooling days, I learned many a family/marriage-therapy theory/concept.

The one that stuck w/ me the most: The Benign Assumption.

In short: Giving people the benefit of the doubt. Assuming that other people (spouses/family/friends etc) have your best interest at heart.

e.g.

The driver in front of you cuts you off.

But maybe he’s on his way to the hospital because his baby is sick.

Someone says something thoughtless/unkind to you.

Maybe their heart is breaking (for whatever reason) and they didn’t sleep at all last night.

That mom at the grocery store temporarily loses her cool and yells at her kid.

Maybe her mom only ever yelled at her, too. Maybe she's a single mom, trying her best.

This mode of thinking RESONATES and CLICKS with me like nothing else. I want to live my life this way. And the more I practice, the more it becomes habit. The more it becomes habit, the more it becomes second nature. Or first nature, hopefully.

It kind of becomes a little game, when I see something that rubs me the wrong way, to make up a story (sometimes elaborate and silly) that explains away the behavior and casts the offender in a positive light.

What, the entire world hasn’t been faithfully reading my blog? I bet it’s because my writing is so beautiful it makes them weep…and who has time to cry and get your makeup all in a mess?

So I invite you: Be Benign. At least for a week. Let’s make T-shirts. (In tie dye, yes?)

Because we all deserve a little leeway. Why even bother thinking else-wise?

Friday, April 2, 2010

Happy Easters

“I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest. But the doom of that day did not endure. The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind. And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence. Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.” –Joseph B. Wirthlin

Read the whole talk.

And/or watch a video excerpt.

Beautiful :)

Thursday, April 1, 2010