Light Thoughts

       I have been thinking about change because I know a couple who need to make some changes but won't.  Also, I have been trying to make some changes in my diet so I am eating healthier.  My conclusion is that change is hard.        The other night Kathy commented how perfect the dining room table was.  I had wanted to get something different because what we had was counter height and very uncomfortable for Kathy because of her ongoing leg problems.  As a result, we we eating our meals in the living room.         We looked at dining tables for a while but I just did not want to pay $1000 or more for a table.  Then we gave up for several months.  One day I decided to look on Facebook Marketplace.  In a day or two we found a table about a mile from us that was perfect for  $120.  We sold our old table on Marketplace in two days and came out a little ahead.  We did not know th...

       It had been a fairly good morning.  I had arrived at my last school and was letting the kids off the bus.  One of the younger kids had apparently forgotten what the aisle was for and was walking from seat to seat.  I told him to stop walking on the seats but he continued on like I did not exist.  What nerve!        I don't know about you but being intentionally ignored tends to get me a little worked up.  So he had thrown down the gauntlet and it was my move.  Like they say, "Oh, it's on now!"  My move was to stand in front of him when he reached the front and ask him to move into the front seat.  I had intended to just tell him it was important to follow instructions and what he was doing was not safe.        His response was to yell, "No!" then collapse into a heap at the front of the bus.  He wasn't going to move and there was 30 or so more students behind him wanting t...

     I tend to see making decisions the same way as when I was in school and we would have a test in class.  For most of these tests there was only one right answer and if you got enough of them wrong, you failed.  Each question on the test was significant and you needed to get it right,  just in case you might miss some of the other questions that were coming up.      We talked recently, okay, I wrote and you read, about mistakes and how we need to see them as opportunities for growth.  But the truth is, like many times in school, mistakes bring you pain.  The shame of failure or maybe even the pain of having to take the test over again or maybe, even the class.      Needing to make the perfect choice every time can be very fatiguing. I like the approach of a family who made the decision to move so the dad could take a better job.  His announcement to the family was "We are going to make this a good decision."...

     I have not always been humble but in all humility I must say that these days I am more humble than I used to be.  Okay, so I know saying I'm humble seems to automatically disqualify me from being humble. But in my humble opinion, I would tend to disagree, although I will concede that saying you are humble does not make you humble.  Confused yet?      Many of us tend to see humility as taking the lowest position and thinking of everyone else as more important than ourselves.  So we hear things like I am your humble servant. But being a servant does not automatically make you humble.  I am not claiming to be the final word on what humility is but I would like to share some thoughts if I may.  Actually I believe that true humility starts with the way we think and the way we perceive things.      As I have said before, I am a cover driver for the school district I live in.  Cover driver sounds more important t...

     In my estimation, there are two kinds of shopping.  The first is going after something you want or need.  You know what you want and you are just looking for the best buy.  The goal is to get the best product at the best price.  I was telling someone recently that a good shirt has two requirements for me.  It has to be a good quality shirt that I like and it has to be on sale.  Often the shirts I really love and wear a lot are the ones I paid the least for.  For instance I have a plaid shirt I wear as an everyday shirt and it cost me $5.00 at Walmart.  It looks good on me, really it does.      The second kind of shopping is more like dreaming.  You wander around the stores looking at things that you might buy if money was no object.  When we go to the mall I always like to go by the pet store and look at the puppies.  They are usually way more than I am willing to pay and my wife isn't really a do...