Gettin' Clean

Clean - Day 1

Today is the first day of the Miller family's attempt to detoxify.  

2012 was a terrible year for my health.  My seasonal allergies just about killed me - weird symptoms: short of breath and aching chest (kind of like what I would imagine an impending heart attack), extreme fatigue, dizzy and light-headed, anxiety like I've never known before (racing brain, jumbled, incomplete thoughts, inability to concentrate, etc), cold, tingling extremities, sensitivity to light and general emotional malaise.  I spent much of the year just surviving - hoping no one would notice.  

Ain't That Simple

It just ain’t that simple.  Life.  It’s complex.  Seriously, and I’m sorry about this, I know I often find some comfort in this effort, but - there really is no way to break life down into a few easy steps.  It’s not something we can wrap our brains around.  If I’m paying attention, really aware of all the different pieces of any experience, I can’t even wrap my head around one event.  In the end, even in the beginning, this is better.  Infinitely better.  Imagine if we really could understand – boredom would overwhelm us.

To illustrate complexity in a simple event, let’s take pounding a nail. 

More Dramatic

The sign at our new house being removed

The Miller family has left the compound.  We have been waiting three long, eventful and uh, “character building” years for this event.  It’s a long story with unexpected twists and fascinating characters.  It is not nearly over or nearly understood but the setting has changed dramatically.  Together we are thankful beyond explanation both to God for his provision and our friends and family for their support and very practical help.

7 Great Sayings?

Consider well...

Just joking.  What I really think is that these are seven common sayings that could use a bit more consideration. 

It can be observed that, sometimes, these statements are not true.  In the great and wonderful created world we live in, someone set up some rules.  They are always true.  According to this logic, if something is true in part, it will be true as a whole.  If it is false in part, it is probably false as a whole.

Most of these statements are not rules, they are assumptions made regularly with less consideration than warranted.  Rather than ranting on my soapbox and incurring wrath for my overly dramatic treatments, I have a question to follow each.  Just consider them a bit.  Maybe they aren’t that obvious. 

Is FB Like Porn?

I’m having a change of mind.  I may be having a change of heart but it takes a bit longer.  This change of mind is in testing phase and my heart rarely gets totally involved with my mind unmade.  For all recent history, skepticism dominated my perspective on social media.  I’ve agreed with many that it fosters shallow, disconnected, voyeuristic communication.  It’s lazy.  Too easy to sit glassy eyed, surfing and commenting to be funny or interesting.  Too possible to replace real and risky with safe and anonymous, even secret.  I can watch the offerings of another supposed life and never be noticed by them, somehow, mysteriously included but never drawn in. 

It’s like porn. 

Score Matters?

Monday Columbian sports page headline reads, “Score Is All That Matters.”  I call BS.  Since I have a BS degree, I can do this.  In the online version a less dramatic title headlined the article.  I like the print version better; it’s controversial, not just informative.  I think it comes from the journalistic confluence of art and fact.  The sports editor also wrote a commentative article entitled “Chance to Win Not Same As Ability To.”  I agree with these titles… in context.  But that’s important.  Truth spoken and agreed to out of context does more damage to faith and hope than any circumstance. 

Tastes Great, Less Filling

I used to work too much.  I still do every chance I get but I try to spread the chances out a bit more.  It’s an opportunity I’m taking advantage of since my 1.7 decade contracting business augured into the ground like a giant run-a-way drill bit drilling holes for pole building posts.  Why work hard when you can live off the benefits of investing your life in the system of entrepreneurial business ownership?  I’m not sure a question mark is appropriate at the end of a rhetorical, sarcastic comment. 

There Will Always Be a Duck

My grandpa used to ask me, “What’s the difference between a duck?”  His bushy eyebrows would wiggle and his face would light up with the joy and mirth of this wonderfully terrible, incomprehensible joke.  I would say, “a duck and what?” with consternation and a hesitant contempt for this question.  I was never quite sure if I was missing something.  He always repeated the questions until I sighed, rolled my eyes and said, “I don’t know, what’s the difference between a duck?”  With fluent glee, he would nearly clap his hands and say,

I Wish Tinker Bell was Real

I wish Tinker Bell was real. I wish I could squint my eyes really hard and clap my hands with joyful exuberance and she would wake up. I believe Tink, I believe! I’m doing it right now just to see what it feels like. The exuberance is a little muted because everyone else is asleep and I don’t want the dogs to start barking. This blog gets me in enough trouble already.

But wouldn’t that be nifty... if we could make things real and alive just by believing in them?

God Makes Me Suspicious

I am suspicious. I have morphed over the last few years into a bit of a cynic. Maybe even a skeptic. Those who have known me for a long time may still chuckle at this claim but I swear it’s true. I really don’t think everything will work out anymore.
But, that’s not how I’m using the word suspicious. I have found it to be useful in describing the way I relate to the cosmos swirling around me and the involvement of God causing certain of its elements to collide with my trajectory in seemingly intentional ways… quite often.