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A Lesson in Poo.

Monday, July 31, 2017

I've written before about the many times in my life I've been responsible for picking up someone else's poo.

(Look, I hate to be crude, but what else do I call it?)

There were a few times I had to pick up random stray animal poo outside my apartment (hidden in the leaves ... sigh) and many times, especially toward the end of his life, that I picked up the poo of my best friend, Baby Snickers.

This summer, I've picked up a lot of poo belonging to Asha, Joe's (and now my, too, I suppose) dog. So he didn't have to get up extra early all summer to walk Asha, I have frequently been walking her in the mornings. I meet her downstairs, clip her leash on her collar, and get going. There's a path around the neighborhood we follow every day, and almost every day she goes to the bathroom and I pick it up.

Now, if you'd asked me if I'd prefer for the first thing I do every morning to be picking up dog poop, I'd probably have said, no thank you. And, although I do love Asha, it's not as though picking up poop thrills me.


But here's what I realized the other day.

Picking up dog poo is humbling.

We're the masters of the dogs/they're our pets/they belong to us/they live on our schedule. None of that matters when it comes to picking up their poo. They poo, they watch us pick it up.

(I don't know about you, but no one picks up my poo. Just saying.)

And as I picked up Asha's poo the other morning, I really thought about how humbling an action it is. It doesn't matter how cool I am (I'm not), what job I have, what I think about myself, etc., when Asha poos, I have to pick it up.

Starting your day every day by picking up poo is incredibly humbling. It's been an outstanding reminder (which I need) that the Son of Man came to serve and not to be served. Which means that I, too, am here to serve and not to be served. I am especially thankful for this reminder as the school year is getting ready to start.

None of us, including me -- especially me -- is too good to serve. No matter what that service is.

And that's the lesson in dog poo.

My Feet in That Moment.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

I climbed a mountain on Saturday. A literal mountain, not some sort of figurative challenge to overcome. Joe and I went to Stone Mountain in Georgia. Joe is a really outdoorsy person, and I am ... well, less so, but the weather was really nice in the evening, and we decided to give this a go.

There are a couple of trails you can take, but Joe doesn't like them because they are crowded, so we took the road less traveled that Joe is very familiar with. Now, Stone Mountain is granite, so the possibility of it being slippery is high. Also, the path we took was steep and definitely presented a challenge, at least for me.



While climbing, I realized I was spending most of my time looking down. It felt safer to me, to keep my eyes on where I was, making sure I didn't trip over anything or miss a step. It occurred to me that so often we get advice about keeping our eyes on our goal or looking ahead. But in this case, if I had kept my eyes on my goal (the top of the mountain) all I would have seen was the steep terrain -- the major challenge -- between me and the top. However, keeping my eyes on where I was allowed me to stay in that moment, to tackle my goal a little bit at a time, to not get overwhelmed by all I had to do. And I feel that there is a lesson in that. God tells us in Matthew, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Keeping my eyes on where my feet were in that moment allowed me to accomplish what I needed to accomplish in that moment. I didn't worry about how I was going to make it to the top, I just concentrated on taking the step I needed right then.

Sally the Camel

Thursday, July 13, 2017

I found out last night that I have betrothed myself to a man who has never heard the song "Sally the Camel."

...... what?

I mean, I guess, show of hands -- who's never heard of "Sally the Camel"?

It got me to thinking about the many things that might be regional (Joe grew up in Michigan ... is "Sally the Camel" not a thing there?) or generational, which is why people don't know them. For example, I do not think "Sally the Camel" is generational because Joe is only six months younger than I, and also I'm pretty sure that my sister Emma who is 10 years younger knows the song. (Right, Emma?)


But I do know that there are a lot of things that my sister Erin, only two years younger, and I are obsessed with remembering that Emma really doesn't know much/anything about. I have always been fascinated by this because Emma and I share the same parents, we're siblings, but we're far apart in age enough that we're of different generations.

For example, if I asked Erin what TV shows she remembers loving from childhood, I'm pretty sure that Jem and She-Ra would top the list. However, if you asked Emma, she might say Barney, and I'm sure some other things I don't remember because I was 14 when Emma was the same age I was watching Jem. Erin and I had Popples and Tamagotchis and Lady Lovely Locks. We remember when we first pulled out that Nintendo gun to go duck hunting and when McDonald's Happy Meal toys looked like this. Joe actually has a working Nintendo 64 and pulled it out the other day so we could play Mario Kart. He told me it looks even more outdated on newer TVs, and it did! But obviously we both remember when Mario Kart was the newest thing on the block.

But "Sally the Camel," really, though?

Instabook

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Last night I had a dream I went to the library. I was checking out books by Jane Austen.

So, yes, I'm pretty much dreaming about things I'm actually doing during the day. :)

If you, too, are someone literally dreaming about going to the library, and if you are an obsessive list maker like I am, then have I got an app for you! Now, I'm sure I'm forever late on this, and you might already know about it, but I sure didn't. So in case you're late on this like I seem to be, I thought I'd tell you all about ...

Litsy!

The short version is, Litsy is like Instagram for books. You can find people to follow to get recommendations, and you can also share reviews, blurbs, and quotes* from books like you like or are reading. Perhaps most fun, you can share the books you are reading, track the books you've read (your own personal reading log!), and keep a list of books you'd like to read. I decided to list the books I've read this summer since coming to Georgia (12), and Litsy informed me that I've read 3,792 pages this summer. Cool!

 *And you know I'm all about that!

You can keep track of the books you've read. (These are some I've read since the start of this summer.)

Litsy will keep track of the number of books you've read and also let you know how many pages that is. 


You can share reviews, blurbs about, and quotes from the books you read. 

I believe the Litsy app is available for both Apple and Android phones, so get to it!

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