Vitamins November 20, 2007

Everyone knows they should take vitamins. But really taking them is 1) expensive 2) uncomfortable 3) boring. Who is with me on that?

I get my vitamins from a holistic doctor, and I actually take them. I dread taking my vitamins each day but I dutifully do it after I eat my lunch. I take them out of their bottles and put them on my desk and admire their colors. Then I send a few emails. Then I fill up my cup with water from the water cooler. Then I finally begin gagging them down. Swallowing capsules is the worst because they always stick in my throat and almost induce projectile vomiting! You know what, though? Vitamins make me feel so good when I take them regularly. They really do make me function at 95% greater capacity as a human being.

Who Has Time to Read? November 16, 2007

Topic of the morning: I am pondering whether I should subscribe to The New Yorker. Along with my monthly issue of Vanity Fair I get at the office, today I received a special New Yorker subscription offer for $39.95 for a whole year. That is just $0.85 per issue, in case you were wondering.

 Every year, I determine to feed my mind with good fiction and fling off my literary fetters. (My book club went on hiatus this summer and I have struggled mightily to finish even a single book.)

The problem is, once you pay for a magazine, you feel obligated and pressured to read it. Subscribing to such a dense magazine feels like a commitment I’m not sure I’m ready for. Especially since I am getting married. Can I commit to new husband and weekly slabs of reading material? At what point would I sit down with the magazine? How would I find any time to even open the cover?

I just love reading the New Yorker cover to cover on the airplane. Maybe I need to take more flights.

Thirsty November 15, 2007

Sometime in the past year I became an obsessive water drinker. During the day, I make countless trips to the water cooler (and even more countless trips to the bathroom). The other day I even struck up a conversation with a fellow at the water cooler–I had seen him there a few days in a row and “It’s nice to meet you, Frank.” Then I realized: I am a living, breathing Dilbert cartoon. I am chatting with people over a …. water cooler. Worse, filling up my cup is an exciting diversion from what I’m usually doing, staring at my computer screen. I have noticed that I’ve started leaning forward to read the computer type. What does this mean? Either my eyesight is going or I am becoming a nerd!

I Just Want to Be the Same! November 14, 2007

It’s so weird. My whole life, I thought I wanted to be special and have a resume of noteworthy accomplishments. I wanted to be recognizable if not celebrity famous. I didn’t want to just blend in and live my life in anonymity (maybe why I left the Midwest). Impatient with my own mediocrity, I’ve been waiting for my moment to shine.

 But now that I feel like God is calling me to step outside normalcy, and enter into a “new thing,” I am surprised to find myself balking. All of a sudden I want to be just like everybody else. “Are you sure, God? Do you really mean me? I couldn’t be the person you have chosen to do that.” I am sounding like Moses on this one.  What is the backup plan? And I am, after all, a regular person. I don’t have amazing talents and abilities that are making national news.

Last year my small group did a Bible study called “Living Beyond Yourself” by Beth Moore. Beth is a stud. She points out that if we’re living in our own strength and living small stories, we’re not participating in the Spirit-led life force.  

 Anyway, I thought I would resume my sporadic blogging with some thoughts about letting go of normalcy and safety and reaching for something greater. Otherwise, my moment might never come.