She is ALIVE

I guess I could be annoyed with her running up and down the hall, dragging her popcorn vacuum and screaming at the top of her lungs. Instead, I continue to be amazed at the depth of her character and how alive she is in each moment. Her sadness and disappointment fall out on a mat before her when she approaches in such a state. Her laughter is a shrill that calls me to join in. Her anger comes from deep within (usually) and her joy is this, this all out parade of madness that celebrates her pure satisfaction with being here. God I love her! OK, twenty minutes borders on annoying, but I still love her.

Niecalicious!

Two of the sweetest girls I know are text-crazy reality TV addicts! Ugggghhhh! I have to watch my nieces go through this. I tried to be the "In my day, we actually talked to people and watched real entertainment" guy. Of course that fell like a brick! We spend the weekend with them at our house and we hardly engage with them. You know, when they were interested in painting their fingernails, I went along. They could paint mine too. I watched more Hannah Montana than I care to admit. I can talk iCarly with the best of them. But, man, do I have to watch Jerseylicious to join the party? And Boys! It's nonstop. There are so many boys and they are sooooooo hot! Gag me! But I think I will have to suck it up and listen. I am genuinely interested and I do want them to be happy. I am just worried they will be too busy talking and texting about their happiness to actually experience it. Peace Out!

Commentary...or not

I am tempted to comment on the Tuscon shootings. (Why should I be the only one to be silent?) Horrible!

Is there more to say? Is there blame? A lesson to learn? A warning for us to make the bars even stronger and the glass even thicker behind our castle walls? It's bad. It's ugly. It's real and so is the hate and the violence all over our world.

Live! Live and love and do what we should have been doing before the shootings. Try to have a few less enemies; less reasons to hate and distance others. Try to make a few more friends; strangers who we welcome into our hearts. I've said enough.

Everyone is Beautiful!

There have been a few moments like the one I had today. It was genuine, touching, surreal. I was in Walmart (of all places) and suddenly EVERYONE was beautiful. There is no attraction or lust that can match this feeling. I am rarely clear enough to host such a moment and I don't know why it happened today. I was picking up a cake and was soaring from the kindness of the bakery woman. She wasn't sugary sweet. She was just sincere and seemed like she wanted to help me, almost like she was waiting for me to ask. As I turned from her and walked through the produce, the children in grocery carts and the man in the flannel shirt and the mother rushing through with her teenage son...they all wooed me! I wanted to tell them all that I knew we were connected. I wanted to just stay and see who else walked by.

I call it a "Merton" moment (Google Thomas Merton's Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander). He says it better than I ever could. But the point is I felt it. I experienced it. It has been so long! I came home and treasured the rest of the night with my family. I watched my wife enjoy her birthday and my daughter enjoy the cake. I felt playful and real and ready. God is with us!