Road Warriors: The Weekly Digest

 

Looking out the window....

Fake Spring #4 gave way to 3rd winter this week.  Cloudy cold days turned into rainy cold days and into snowy frigid days.  Today marks the upsurge to Fake Spring #5.  I shot this picture from my car (I had a few seconds at a red light).  Trees are blooming and the distinct smell of Bradford Pear tree blooms is in the air.

 

A cool experience...

My friend, Emily, and I went on a field trip to Englewood on Saturday.  Two of the coolest places we stopped were Enchanted Grounds and Wooden Spools.  Enchanted Grounds is a coffee shop/game store.  Along with making the best chai latte I've ever had, they sold interesting games.   Their specialty is paraphernalia for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.  However, my favorite was a combination of the board games Monopoly and Scrabble.  I would have a blast playing that. I didn't buy it, but someday...

I heard about Wooden Spools before I moved to Colorado. The proprietress of our local yarn shop recommended it. If I remember right, she perused their store on a trip to Denver.  As the name suggests, Wooden Spools is a needlework store specializing in  fabric, yarn, and notions.  Of course, I was in hog heaven.  I did not leave there without a purchase.  I bought the backing fabric for a project I've almost completed (and hope to show soon).  Lord willing, I will make another trip there.

Something cool I saw this week was this car (pictured above).  I don't know (or care) what kind it is.  What caught my eye was the color.  I'm not sure how well my phone captured it, but this vehicle is a gorgeous shade of periwinkle blue.  I don't recall seeing a car that color before.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as "what a man does with his solitude."  It was one of the Wesleys, I think, who said that the New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion.  We are forbidden to neglect the assembling of ourselves together.  Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents.  The church is the Bride of Christ.  We are members of one another.  - C. S. Lewis, A Year with C. S. Lewis, p. 126.

This quote is going to need some setup.  I asked one of my supervisors what differentiated an Associate from an Assistant Professor.  Mr. Smartyboss put the question to ChatGPT as a joke.  This is the answer it gave, "Ah, the eternal academic riddle! Think of it like this: an assistant professor is like the apprentice wizard still learning spells, while an associate professor has earned enough XP to wield some serious academic magic!"

On the subject of affect labeling:  "...it is the art of labeling that creates space between stimulus and response."  Brad Stulberg, Master of Change, p. 144.

I'm thinking about...

My new course starts Monday (April 29th).  I'm thinking about what my students will be like.  I'm also thinking of new ways to approach the course.  I never tire of the subject, but I also don't want to teach it the same way every time.

What I read this week...

• Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne ✮✮✮
• The Self-Aware Leader by John C. Maxwell ✮✮✮ 
• 3 Seconds by Les Parrott III ✮✮✮

I'm currently reading...

• A Year of C. S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis
• Master of Change by Brad Stulberg
• Spiritual Authority by Watchman Nee
  

This week's blog posts...

• Square Parties:  Monday Mess Making is here.
• Five Minute Friday:  "Lonely" is here.
• First Line Friday #21: Master of Change by Brad Stulberg is here.
   

I am thankful for...

Two of my friends from church were back this morning.  Miss Molly (pictured) is in her 90s and recently had heart surgery.  

Miss Marie (not pictured because she can't be still long enough to be photographed 😁) is a warrior.  She's been fighting dementia for a couple of years.  She missed church for a few months and we wondered whether or not she would be able to come back.  Well, there she was, ready to worship.  Any time she can make it, she volunteers for our prayer team.  

These two are heroes.

From the Workshop...

Please see my latest Aunties Workshop blog post here.

 

Five Minute Friday: "Lonely"

Ironic this word should come up now.  I recently finished a book called The Path Out of Loneliness.  While the author, a mental health clinician and Christian, acknowledges that there is an epidemic of loneliness that started prior to, but was exacerbated by, the pandemic, he gives an exhaustingly confusing set of messages.  On one hand, he champions for seeking professional help while on the other hand, he asserts that expert mental health help isn't needed.  While making an effort to seem empathetic, the author all out blames the sufferer for his loneliness.  It's falls in line with the false premise that basically if you read the Bible and prayed more, you wouldn't be _________.

So, is he right?  I doubt it.  While Bible reading and prayer are essentials to one who is a Christ follower, it isn't the solution to everything.  Christian counseling literature doesn't support this notion (I'm not talking about "self-help" books put together in 15 minutes by some goober in his basement.  I'm talking about reputable books and journal articles).  The Scriptures don't support this lazy brand of faith either.  I heard Pastor Rick Warren (among others, including my own pastor) say that the Bible is full of "one-another" passages that cannot be obeyed or fulfilled outside the context of community.

So, why does this word put such a burr under my saddle?  It's not the word itself, but the attitude it arouses from people which, quite frankly, pisses me off.  For example, I had to explain more than once to my church's Marriage and Family Pastor and his wife that there's nothing available fellowship-wise or help-wise for the "unicorns"--those of use who are older who've neither married nor had children. They didn't know--and it didn't phase them at all.  I'm not being heard.

Apparently we are not family.

But it's our fault we are lonely?

Bite me!

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In case you missed it:  

* My latest Weekly Review:  "As It Sits," is here.
* My latest First Line Friday Post: "#21: Master of Change" is here.
* My latest Wednesday Hodgepodge post, "One Word-Finish," is here.
* My latest book review of Good to Great is here.
* My "24 in 2024" list is here.
* My 2024 reading challenge:  "Full Shelf Challenge V.2" is here.
* My latest Monday Mess Making post on my Auntie's Workshop blog "Square Parties" is here.

First Line Friday #21: Master of Change by Brad Stulberg

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up

 

Title:  Master of Change
Author:  Brad Stulberg
Genre:  Self-Help

  〰First Line〰

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It was shaping up to be the trip of a lifetime, but for reasons no one could have imagined.

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Synopsis:  (From Goodreads) 

A revelatory book on rethinking change, creating a rugged and flexible mindset and identity, and developing habits for life's intensifying flux. From social disruptions like economic recessions, pandemics, and new technologies to individual disruptions like getting married, career transitions, and becoming a parent, we undergo change and transformation—both good and bad—regularly. Change is not the exception, it’s the rule. Yet we endlessly fight it, often viewing it as a threat to our stability and sense of self. Master of Change flips this script on its head and offers a path for embracing and even growing from life’s constant instability. Brad Stulberg, sustainable excellence expert, coach, and bestselling author of The Practice of Groundedness, offers a new model that describes change as an ongoing cycle of order, disorder, and re order—yes, we return to stability, but that stability is somewhere new. Drawing on modern science, ancient wisdom, and daily practice, Stulberg offers concrete principles for developing a mindset called rugged flexibility , along with habits and practices to implement it. Along the way, Stulberg In the end, Stulberg reshapes our entire perception of change and shows us how to grow in its midst—ultimately helping us move forward better, stronger, and wiser than we were before.

 〰First Thoughts〰

My pastor recommended this book during a sermon.  I balked a bit at first, but with all the changes going on with me right now, my hope is this book will be useful.  You would think that with all the changes I've experienced over the past seven years, I would be gung-ho for help with effectively navigating new things.  I think my problem is "change fatigue," which is probably not a thing, but if the wealthy can have "decision fatigue," I can have "change fatigue."

So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?