Posts by Pat:
The miraculous egg
Think eggs are fragile? Take a raw egg from the frig, hold it squarely in your palm and close your fingers around it.
Now, try to break it! Squeeze it as hard as you can.
I tried, even though I was tentative at first, fearing the mess it would make if I really applied pressure!
But, nothing happened. I tightened my grip more. Harder…harder…still nothing. To my amazement, it wouldn’t break.
The shape of the eggshell is structurally so close to perfect that it can resist much more pressure than I ever suspected it could.
I couldn’t break it, but the new life within it can!
We have long been fascinated by the egg, with its delicate orb and fragile shell that holds within it the secret to life itself. The shell is a paradox unto itself, sturdy enough to shield the life growing inside it, but frail enough to give way to the emergence of the life within it, porous but protective.
To our ancient ancestors, it must have been a most startling event to see a new and live creature emerge from a seeming dead object!
And we, not so ancient, can be reminded of
- the gift of life,
- the gift of change,
- the gift of rebirth!
So…we are once again aware of the miracle of life as seen in
- the seemingly ordinary egg,
- the transformation of the caterpillar into the butterfly,
- the flowering daffodil from the bulb.
It’s spring!
And we can choose, we can break through our comfort zone (our shell) to allow new life to emerge for us!
What new life will YOU choose for yourself?
Don’t blame the lettuce!
When you plant lettuce, don’t blame the lettuce if it doesn’t grow well! Look into the reasons why it is not doing well! Maybe it needs fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You don’t blame the lettuce! (The well-known spiritual leader, Thich Nhat Hanh is credited with this lesson!) Yet when we have problems […]
Life is like baseball…
Baseball anyone? I’m so glad that life is not a spelling bee where no matter how many words you have gotten right, if you make one mistake you are disqualified! Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses a third of its games. Our goal is not to go all year […]
What’s MOLO?
Want to work less and get more done? The MOLO principle is simple, though maybe not easy! MOLO=More Of, Less Of It’s an impactful lifestyle design idea. To use it, take out a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, write “More Of” and the other side write “Less Of.” […]
Thankful for the fleas?
In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells of a time she discovered that God was working even in the most horrific circumstances. Corrie and her sister Betsie had been imprisoned by the Nazis for hiding Jews. In the midst of their suffering, the women prisoners found comfort in the secret Bible studies they […]
Is the dark unappreciated?
Dark is just not appreciated enough! Light and dark clothes? We don’t fear the “dark” when sorting the laundry! Dark is not bad! In Genesis, the author informs us that creation was balanced with both the dark and the light. And…once the balance had occurred, there was order and… they both were called “good.” We, however, often attach […]
Ain’t English Funny?
As an ex-English teacher, I easily relate to how frustrating our language can be. If you’ve ever felt stupid, then just read on. (This little treatise on the lovely language we share is only for the brave!) Here are some sample reasons why the English language is so hard to learn (and to teach!) The bandage […]
Be the Hedgehog
Are you the hedgehog or the fox? The concept is drawn from a Greek poem in which a cunning fox tries and continually fails to eat a seemingly simple hedgehog. The fox keeps plotting the perfect attack. He keeps coming up with new ideas to eat the hedgehog. The simplistic and somewhat dowdy hedgehog goes […]
A dozen kind ideas!
It’s easy to be kind! It’s smart to be kind! It’s fun to be kind! Are you up to a challenge? If you missed the opportunity to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness last week, take this next week and perform some acts of kindness. These suggestions won’t take long and you’ll be amazed at how good you’ll […]
9 Amazing Kindness Quotes
This week, Feb 12-18, is National Random Acts of Kindness Week. It’s so easy to forget those ever-so-important small acts that can make someone’s day, as well as making ours great too! I’ve selected some of my favorite inspiring quotes on kindness to share with you. Please let me know which ones are your favorites! 1 […]