The Long Way Up

A few nights ago we had a health and fitness session during our young adults fellowship. One of the things I took away from that meeting was a quote that our guest speaker uttered: "Trust the process." The fitness coach used this statement in the context of allowing ample time for your body to show some progress in response to the efforts you put into it in terms of exercise, and what you keep out of it in terms of diet. But I want to use that statement to sound off about something that definitely needs the benefit of stages, seasons and phases: RELATIONSHIPS . When looking to get into one, we must trust the process. Many singers and songwriters have given stern warning about falling headlong into relationships. Elvis Presley, in his song "Can't Help Falling in Love" , says "only fools rush in" ; The Supremes sum it up in the title of their 1966 hit "You Can't Hurry Love" ;  and, appropriately, the paternal side of the Ca

Numbers From the zeros to the ones Combine To become heroes and guns Fractions Are just morsels of the whole Slivers That need the sanction of souls Inches Are too close to see far away Slower Surely much better a rate Crevice Agape can chasms become Distance Just look how far we have come

Last week, while I was at my insurance company paying my regular quarterly investment, I was given their annual giveaway to clients -- a corporate journal/planner. Although it wasn't anything fancy (like a check for 10,000 bucks or a three-night stay in a five-star hotel) I found myself smiling, happy at the thought that I'm getting an unexpected gift. Later on after having left the insurance office, I opened the new journal and flipped through its empty pages. Right there I remembered how much I loved looking at unused pages of notebooks or planners (even ones that weren't mine) and started to think back to the fact that I have two or three journals that I had unknowingly collected and left blank. Why was I excited at the thought of getting another set of fresh pages to use? It's not like I have all the time in the world to fill all of them up. In fact I am at the moment lagging in filling out my current journal, one that I started at least four years ago. S

During the last Christmas season, I was able to have a mini-conversation with a friend about the definition of the word 'home' . It wasn't really an in-depth, academic discourse but our efforts at giving meaning to the word left us more semi-confused than fully clarified (a dictionary would certainly have given us some well-established and generally accepted exposition of the word). My friend, who used to live in the Philippines but now lives and works in the United States, said she felt at home in both countries, and would miss one when she's in the other. I chimed in with an opinion that home is really where your heart is and that it's actually the people you love that make up home, regardless of location. Adding to that, I expressed that you can be in any geographical location in the world and still be at home. As the discussion went on and I continued to ponder on my thoughts about the matter, a question arose in my mind: What and/or where is