Moving Day

I do not want to move.

I hate to move.

Packing up all your crap in boxes, ADD-Me coming out of hiding and reading the newspaper we use to wrap our fragile items.  thowing away treasures that you haven't touched in years, but that you know you'll need the moment the garbage man is gone.  checking the house for the 17th time before you close and lock the door one last time.

Moving a blog is like that too.  The big things, the words, they move easily.  They stack well in boxes, and unpack in order in the new place.  The photos, the memories, not so much.

But as with moving house, sometimes moving the blog is a necessary investment in the future, providing extra bedrooms and a finished basement--room to fix it up and to grow.

Once you've found the right house and closed the deal, you choose a strategic time to move--a time when your closest friends are around to help you carry the heaviest stuff, and then everyone helps you settle in with a big old housewarming party.

My blog is moving.  Come to my blogwarming party!!  Open house all day.  Come by, check it out, leave a comment, help our new house feel like home.

riverofthoughts.com

Seven Things to Learn From Losing Big

62-7 is a pretty awful way to lose.  

One of the worst losses in the modern NFL.

Rough on the guys playing.  Rough on the fans that stayed up until the end to experience the full and amazing glory of losing big.  

Especially rough at 5 the next morning.

But we can learn a lot from the 2011 Colts.

1. Circumstances can take us from high to low in the blink of an eye.
2. Losses happen. Big ones. Even in the pros.
3. When you're losing, you have the freedom to try a different approach.
4. Every man (or woman, or child) on a team matters.  a lot.
5. Busting our butts doesn't always result in a win, but not trying will guarantee a loss.
6. Some people will leave our sides or get really mean when things get hard.
7. Others will stick around and cheer us on anyway.  These are the people that are worth investing in.

Oh...one last thing that I might still need to learn....Screaming at the TV will not get a ref's attention.  Especially when it's on the TiVo.

How To Dougie

As anyone mesmerized by The Evolution of Dance knows, dance has changed over the years. Different moods characterize different eras such as social change in the sixties, technology revolution in the eighties; the dance of the time clearly reflects those moods. (Wow, can you tell i've been helping with way too many high school English papers??)

So now there's this thing called Dougie. Apparently, it's so popular and engrained in teen culture that it morphed from nothing to a verb practically overnight.

I asked my daughter recently what characterized Dougie. Was it a specific move, like the Moonwalk? or a unique rhythm, like a waltz? or more an reflection of something tangible, like the Robot?

No, Mom. It's dougie.

Is it named after a guy named Doug? I know a guy named Doug. Maybe if I try to move like he does, that's Dougie? Although I think maybe he wouldn't appreciate being called Dougie as if he was 5 again. But then maybe he wouldn't have to go to work every day and support his family and wash the car and mow the lawn...so maybe he would want to be Dougie again....but I digress.

So, as I now do anytime I am curious about absolutely anything, I turned to The Tube of You for an answer.

More accurately, my daughter turned to the Tube of You while I sat curled up in a blanket in a nearly recliner. It's getting cold out, you know.....

After watching the song that started it all, and videos of people dougieing (that word looks even weirder than it sounds), and following along with an instructive video (admittedly still wrapped in a blanket in my chair), I am not much closer to understanding Dougie As An Art Form.

I don't think i'll be seeing signs proclaiming "The American Ballet Theater Presents The Dougie Nutcracker."

But who knows? Maybe it will become this generation's Chicken Dance?

Together for Adoption Chicago

Designed for anyone who is called to love and care for the orphan, the Together for Adoption Chicago conference is coming up next month. 

Registration is only $15 for a full-day conference, and includes lunch!  Register now at www.chicagoadoption.org

Do something

According to the UN World Food Programme and UNICEF, almost 18,000 children die every day from hunger.

For the third year, Pathway Community Church opened its doors to Feed My Starving Children, an organization that harnesses the power of community to, well, feed starving children. Members of LifeBridge, Pathway, and a number of community groups volunteered in 2-hour shifts beginning on Thursday, and together, packed 404,568 meals this weekend. That will feed 1,108 kids for a year.

If you do the math, you'll find that statistic is based on one meal a day.  

One meal a day.

One.

Even though i've had times in my life where I cruised the grocery store with a calculator, I've always had food.  I suspect most of us have.  I get pretty cranky if i don't get my regular supply of potato chips.  And somehow, 10PM is The Oreo Hour.  

Actually growing on one meal a day is simply beyond my comprehension.

Today, it's easier than ever to be heard.  Take a look at Charlie Sheen and quickly see the ridiculousness that millions are willing to listen to.  But the Internet also provides access to be heard for good.  to connect people who are like-minded in their willingness to take action.  to influence lives for the better.  to make a dent in poverty.

There are many many many important causes, missions, needs out in the world.  God has created us to be helpers to one another....but he made many of us so that one doesn't have to do it all.  

I challenge you, over the next days or weeks, to take a good look at your life.  Look at what you're doing for others.

It could be simple things you're short-term helps like packing meals for FMSC, raking leaves for an elderly neighbor, or taking a casserole to a family with a new child. Maybe you've made strategic commitments like sponsoring a child who would otherwise go hungry, supporting a transitional home or a missionary or a long-term medical service worker, or going on a mission or service trip and then staying in touch and continuing the investment...

If you're already doing some of these things, great!  Look at your life and ask yourself if you can do more? Do you have extra time that you can invest to tutor an immigrant kid?  Can you brew your coffee at home instead of buying it at Starbucks every day (like I do)?  Can you take 30 seconds to post a link to a humanitarian help group to your Facebook page to increase awareness and encourage your 973 Facebook friends to take a step our of their own comfort?

There's so much to be done....do *something*.

Post in the comments below what you will do TODAY to help someone in need.

I Will Follow

I visited New York with my brother recently.

Buried with work stress, I told him, "You're in charge.  I need a break from decisions and timelines; I will just follow you." We even agreed on a trip theme:  Meander.  We had no real schedule, no commitments.  Eat when we get hungry.  Stop when we are tired.  Watch people.

How did that go?  Not so well.

For three days, my brother set the pace, soaked in the city, and waited patiently for me to discover I was half a block ahead of him.  For three days, each time the gap between us increased, I heard "Meander!"  I don't know how he didn't just throw me off the top of 30 Rock.

I'm Type A.  I'm high-strung.  I'm accustomed to being at the front of the line.  I walk with purpose.  I know where I'm heading and I typically try to get there as efficiently as possible.  I am horrible to travel with.

If I had been with Moses in the desert, I would have been one of the complainers.  I would have been their leader.  "Um, Moses, dude?  Hand over the map.  There's no map?  What do you mean there's no map?  Where the *&^% are you taking us, then?"

It would not have been pretty.

Leadership is both a gift and a curse.  Underdeveloped or overapplied, it becomes a dichotomy.  It actually impedes progress.  Especially when I'm not the one that's supposed to be in charge.

The weekend in New York ended well.  I settled down enough to relax, look around, even fall behind a couple times myself.

And my brother didn't kill me.  Bonus!

Where You go, I'll go.  Where you stay, I'll stay.  
When you move, I'll move.  I will follow.
Who You love, I'll love.  How You serve, I'll serve. 
If this live I lose, I will follow You.

Our Small Group Rocks!

I hope everyone will indulge me for today......I have to brag on my precious friends in our small group.  This weekend, we put on a fundraiser for Bill and Sara.  Totally done, idea-to-event, in under three weeks.

Now, when I say "we," I mean the collective we of our small group....I can't take credit for much of anything, because, well, I didn't really do much.

In contrast, Tess O'Day is my new heroine.  Not that she wasn't before, but over the past couple of weeks, I've remembered that impossible is simply not in this girl's vocabulary.  She rises to a challenge.  She gets stuff done.  She inspires others to help her get stuff done.

When Sara and Bill shared with us that they had been chosen by a birth mother who was due the end of October, we were all happy and rejoiced with them and prayed with them....  But when they asked for prayer about the fees that were coming due, Tess immediately launched into Fundraiser Event Planner mode.

In three weeks, Tess and the rest of our small group arranged:

• a great venue to donate space
• an amazingly popular local band to play free-of-charge and invite all their followers
• almost forty pieces of art for silent auction
• raffle donations and art valued at over $1,000

Everyone in the small group really pitched in to help arrange, solicit donations, and run the fundraiser.  Because of their efforts and Tess' leadership, Bill and Sara have raised $1,500 toward their adoption.  Further, Bill and Sara received a matching grant, so everything raised for them will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Pathway Community Church, through our program with Lifesong for Orphans.

The event was amazing, and Bill and Sara ended the night with $3,000 more toward their adoption costs than they had that morning.  They still have more to go....but God is a big God, and He always provides for that which is in His plan.

So my Monday thought is to find inspiration through the people around you.  If the people around you don't inspire you, try to look at them in a new light and find their strengths.  If that doesn't work, get around new people. Seriously....life is too short to be weighed down.

Also, please join me in praying for Bill and Sara as they get close to their baby's due date?

A House On Fire

I recently came across a very brief post from Seth Godin that crystallized the past month of my life:  You can't watch your parade if the house is on fire.

These days, I do feel like the house is on fire.

I am an introvert.  I need quiet time away from people and activity to recharge.  When my batteries get low, I fall into bad habits.  I see problems as overwhelming and impossible to solve.  I see myself as impotent, powerless.  I retreat.  I miss the parade.

I need to contain the fire in a controlled space, and then just leave it to burn itself out.  Maybe I'll even throw some of the extra crap in my life on it...the stuff that I'd be better off without.  The stuff that my family and friends would be better off if I didn't hang onto.

so............no more barriers.  no more fires in the way.  the decision is made.  back to blogging.  back to writing.  write.  daily.  and watch the parade.  and roast marshmallows by the fire as it burns.