Making Wholes From Parts

This week has been full of reminders. Reminders of what trials fill my life. Some trials are smaller and easier to deal with. Few are large and hard to ignore, and even harder to figure out how to best manage them. I don’t feel capable of handling my hardest trials most efficiently and beneficially. Hard trials are never comfortable and never easy. There could be many, many ways to deal with them. Which way is the right way? In 2021 my husband and I decided that we’d spend that year taking a break from making a large decision that would impact our lives. For years we have been struggling with it, and we were tired. We wanted a chance to heal and catch our breath. By the end of the year, we knew a decision needed to be made. We made one and we are going to go along with our decision, just to see how far it will take us. But. How long will it take us? Are we supposed to keep going until we hit a dead end? If we do hit a dead end, do we accept that or do we blaze a new trail past the de...

  My love language is quality time with the dialect of quality conversation. I could talk all day, and I have. I am what my husband affectionately calls, a Babbling Brook. I like to have long conversations, long enough where we can fix the world’s problems. I love to listen to others’ opinions and perspectives that help me to see there is more to the world than my small thoughts. I love to learn from others’ experiences. I feel my mind and world opening when I try to see the world from another’s eyes when I try to put myself in their shoes. I do feel like a talent I have is a good listener (I love to listen), which I think adds to me liking long quality conversations, but I am not the best at it. It has been something that I’ve had to work on and develop. I learned this week that learning to master the skill of listening is one of the seven habits Stephen Covey wrote about in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. It is Habit 5 – Seek first to understand, then to be understoo...

Can you picture the old-time act of an entertainer spinning plates on sticks? The objective is to get all the plates spinning and keep them spinning without letting any of the plates fall. It’s an amazing feat to watch, but incredibly hard. Balancing all the spinning plates at once. Several years ago, I was suffering from postpartum depression after my second son was born. I decided it would be beneficial for me to go see a therapist. During one of our sessions, this was the analogy my therapist gave me. She told me I was trying to keep all my plates spinning at once, and no one can keep all the plates spinning. Eventually, one, or two, or all of the plates would fall. She advised me to lessen the plates I needed to spin, so I could keep up with it. I was reminded of this analogy again this week when I heard said in one of the videos for this week’s lesson. From Steve Blank, "... you got to make the rules or the start ups will take over your life...so you can balance these thi...

Remember Aesop's famous fable of the race between the hare and the tortoise? The hare challenges the tortoise to a race. The race begins and the hare flies ahead. He is so far in the lead that he chooses to take a rest, knowing he still has time to win the race. Meanwhile, the tortoise slowly, but steadily continues forward without stopping. He crosses the finish line first and the hare is still sleeping. This is where the famous saying "slow and steady wins the race" comes from.  I have always been a tortoise. It's in my nature to go slow. I'm always the last one at the dinner table. I love to golf. I love to go on walks. I love to garden. The things I love to do and the way that I am - is slow. I've never been a quick reader or learner. I like to take my time. I want to be able to thoroughly enjoy what I am doing.  As a kid I remember learning to love the process of making and doing. My mom taught me how to sew and I remember loving to be able to take fabric...