"Consider the Ravens..."

   Maybe it's the time of year or maybe it's the season of life I'm in, but lately there have just been a lot of decisions to make. I suppose it's always been true, but I feel it more lately. Maybe you can relate. What's for dinner? What am I wearing tomorrow? Do I need to do laundry today or can it wait until tomorrow? What about groceries -- am I good for the recipes this week? Should I go to the gym before work or after? Well, how am I going to do my hair tomorrow? Oh shoot -- was that Amazon package supposed to show up today? Maybe I should go home early so it isn't sitting out. No -- I have to get these papers graded. Well, maybe I can get them done on my prep tomorrow. Ugh -- I'm too tired to exercise. Did I go enough times to get the health insurance kick-back yet? Decision fatigue. It's a real thing.  We've all been there. As a teacher, I think I feel it more than ever because aside from the questions listed above, I'm also managing quest

 Maybe it's just me, but my favorite music tends to come in waves in my life. Favorite songs don't usually emerge one-at-a-time, but in small groups.  For a short while, those few songs seem to say everything I can't quite find words for. Since I listen almost exclusively to Christian music, the songs I gravitate toward tend to be applicable to things I'm praying about. So as I'm listening (or doing car karaoke) to them, my heart is also praying the words.  And then, inevitably, they just kind of fade into the background. Their lyrics aren't floating around in my mind 24/7. I don't wake up humming the choruses. I don't put music on for a few days and just kind of forget what used to be such a regular rhythm. And soon, songs I once listened to daily become estranged melodies that make me say, "Oh yeah! I forgot about this one."  But occasionally, before a song gets through its full lifetime on my playlists, I will start skipping it.  It's su

 It's been a while since I've posted. A career shift and a much busier schedule has preoccupied my mind and blog posts just don't come to mind as easily. But I've been thinking about something today and wanted to share.  It's Halloween -- a day when many are dressing up and pretending to be someone they're not as a cultural game of acquiring sugary snacks and saying hi to the neighbors. It looks different this year because of the pandemic, but the holiday is the same.  I, however, am not of the trick-or-treat demographic. So, I'm at home reading and writing and thanking God for a weekend with nothing more than a small group dinner on the calendar. Aside from work, life is really simple right now and I'm okay with that.  But somedays, if I'm honest, there's a restlessness in my heart. Being in my 30's means that my peers are mostly in very active life stages with the families they've built and the careers we're growing into. I'm wa

When I lived in Manila, I had a couple coworkers from commonwealth countries who would occasionally use the phrase "slogging on." It usually provoked a smile out of those listening because the word is not commonly used outside of commonwealth dialects like British or Aussie English. When asked for a definition, the reply is something along the lines of "pushing through even though it's really messy and imperfect and probably uncomfortable or frustrating." Synonyms might include trudging, plodding, walking heavily, or laboring.  We're halfway through 2020 and I can't think of a more appropriate word for how we're handing it: slogging. Absolutely slogging through 2020 -- every last one of us! Everyone on the planet has entered a reality we could hardly fathom just 6 months ago. There are no easy answers, but everyone seems to have an opinion. The stakes are high on many fronts and in a few areas like public education, there simply doesn't seem to b