I love the 21st Century

I know what I said here but I really do love technology.

In 1975 in order to get a book on a subject, I would have had to first get a ride to the library. That was much easier said than done. Our little town didn't have very good bus service either so that wasn't a big help.

After I got to the library, I had to search the card catalog. Yes, I do know the Dewey decimal system. Do you?

After I found a book on my subject in the card catalog, I had to go find it on the shelf. Usually, I could check the surrounding books and find other possibilities, too.

Then when I checked it out, the librarian took a card like this out of the book and stamped it with a date stamp and also stamped the book with the due date.

This is NOT 1975 anymore.

There were several books that were recommended reading from a group I know.

Instead of driving to the library, I jumped on the Internet and signed on to my local library. I searched and found the books and requested they be put on hold.

A couple of days later, I got an email that my requested items were ready.

This morning on my way to work, I stopped at the library, and grabbed my books off the hold shelf. I stepped over to the check-out computer, scanned my library card, dropped the stack of books on a computer pad and it spit out a receipt for me.

In literally 90 seconds, I was in and out of the library and on my way with my precious books.

Technology is cool!

Time for Carrots

I figured something out this morning.

The way the new year fell, we had a fellowship at church this morning and I took some finger foods. While I was preparing them, I was thinking about the new year and resolutions and such and I figured it out: we don't diet in the new year because we suddenly become health conscious or we have body image problems. We are just tired of cooking. This cooking thing has been going on since at least mid November!

So when my Hero asks me what's for dinner this evening, I will just say "Eat a carrot. You're fat.". Works for me..

Nana

My grandmother said it. My mother said it. I didn't understand until it happened to me. The moment you become a grandmother is nothing shy of miraculous. Eight years ago yesterday at almost midnight, I saw him for the first time. Eight years later I still marvel when I look at him. He is my future.

I could fill pages with the joy he brings me and at the same time, I am speechless.

I have others now—other grands. They, too, fill my heart with wonder.

But he is the first. He opened that portal. He introduced me to that joy.

Eight years and I hope to enjoy many, many more.

Now

In my work, I hear a lot of conversations. People sit in the waiting room of my office and chat. Weather is always a pretty safe topic of conversation. I've heard these conversations for many seasons and the common thread never ceases to amaze me. We want the weather to be different than it is. We don't like now. If it is warm, we wish it were cooler. If it is cool, we wish it was warmer. In summer, we long for winter. In the autumn, we don't know why it still isn't summer… and on it goes.

Sitting and listening, I've learned something. I've learned to appreciate the now.

It's not as easy as it sounds. When I look out the window now, it's rainy and windy and cold. But I appreciate it. I've learned to like the crisp drops on my face and the way the wind sneaks through the gaps in my jacket and chills me. It's fascinating.

Winter will come soon and the muffled snow will fall. I marvel at that quiet.

But right now, I hear the wet leaves struggling to stay pasted to my car as the wind fights to ply them loose and send them swirling. Autumn rains patters different than rains in April or July. It's sharp and crisp as it pings the window.

"Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."

Proverbs 27:1

We may not see winter. Summer is but a memory. Enjoy now.

Do you remember 1975?

Life before computers were common and the Internet was pretty much reserved for brainiacs and the government?

When you had a question, you had to look up the answer in a book? A book made of paper?

There were good things about that time. You couldn't just type a word into a search engine and find an answer. You had to go through a thought process of where the answer might be found. Did that question require a dictionary? a thesaurus? an encyclopedia? Maybe a more specialized reference?

Sometimes, the answers come too quickly now. Questions aren't pondered. There's no gestation of thoughts.

Then again, my grandson can spend hours researching the Titanic without waiting for a ride to the library. And he can draw pictures like this:

Iceberg ahead!

Split in half! 

Going down! 

The rescue ship

In 1875, the idea that I would have access to dictionaries, encyclopedias and libraries FULL of books in 1975 was just as unimaginable as the Internet was in 1975. Sometimes, I miss the "olden days" but then learning is learning and I like now just as much.

What do you think?

Success

In 1987, the first time I went back to college, I took an advanced English comp class at Tarrant County Junior College in Fort Worth. It was an advanced class because we did our composition on computers! We each had a Mac SE with 2 mb of memory and a 20 mb hard drive. We printed our documents on dot matrix printers. So much for advanced.

Anyway, one of our assignments was to write an essay on success. The premise was, when we came to the end of our days, what things would make us feel like our lives had been a success.

I think I had to rewrite that essay four or five times… maybe six. My idea of success and my teacher's idea were not the same. She wanted me to have tangible—measurable—evidences of success. I don't even remember what I wrote as the final paper. I'm sure it was something she settled for because I got an A in the class, but it wasn't something that satisfied my idea of success.

Now, having lived half a century and hoping for half a century more, I still can't pen tangible evidences of a life of success. If success has to be tangible, I'm not it. I live in a modest home on a modest income. Like many, I juggle more money that I save. It won't take long to settle my estate after I'm gone. My will amounts to two words: All done.

But success? There are things I want the people close to me to know and remember. I want my husband to know he was loved wildly and unconditionally and supported 1000%. I want my children to have been better, not bitter, because I was their mom. I want my grandchildren to have a heritage worth cherishing. I want my friends to remember me as someone who listened to the good and to the bad and always gave them the benefit of the doubt.

There are things I want the people around me to remember. I want them all to know that I loved Jesus. I want them all to know the Jesus I love.

I want Jesus to say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Those things aren't tangible, they are beyond measure.

A Different Generation

Beau was talking to his mom the other day and he asked her what the devil looked like.

She explained different ideas of what the devil looked like. Some people believe he still has the form of an angel of light—a very beautiful creature—as he was created before he fell. Other people think he looks like us to make it easier for him to deceive us. Some people even picture him as a red demon with horns, a tail and a pitchfork.

He thought for a minute and then said, "Well, I know what God looks like because I saw a picture of Him in my Bible.... I guess we will just have to Google what the devil looks like."