thanksgiving meditation: gratitude and abundance
Well, happy Thanksgiving, reader friends.
Thanksgiving is all about abundance and gratitude, two concepts that sort of go hand in hand. I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude lately. My daily prayer time has evolved a little lately. Right now, the outline is opening with thanks and praise, moving into confession, accepting grace and forgiveness, an examen (sort of a “gut check” where I share “where my head and heart is at” with God–without making a lot of judgments about it), followed by requests and concerns, and then the Lord’s Prayer (or the Our Father, for our RC friends.)
So anyway, thanks and confession both cultivate a sense of gratitude. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m an enneagram Four. The classical sin associated with type Four is Envy, but I don’t think Fours have the market cornered on envy by any stretch of the imagination. Our current western/American culture is methodically designed to cultivate envy, because let’s be honest, envy sells stuff. Showing me a shiny new iPod is all well and good, but if you want to make me go from wanting that iPod to thinking I need it, show me someone else (preferably someone cooler, younger and thinner than I am) using it.
Bear in mind, I work in marketing and advertising. It’s my job to figure out devious and clever ways to persuade folks to part with their hard-earned cash. So I know whereof I speak. As a marketing strategy, envy works. As a life strategy, not so much. Read more
Facing Your Power
Power is a tricky thing, isn’t it? “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” For me, it’s often harder to acknowledge and handle my own power than to accept the areas of my life where I’m powerless.
We took part in a small group with friend Daryn and her family earlier this fall, which covered the Beatitudes. That section of Matthew has always been one of my favorite passages of scripture. As an enneagram Four, it’s easy for me to relate to the marginalized and rejected folks, the “poor in spirit” and so forth.
But the reality is, I was always a very smart girl. I’ve grown into a very smart woman. Intelligence and knowledge are a form of power. I’m reasonably attractive–and beauty is a form of power. I have people who care about me, genuinely like me, and value my opinion. That influence is a form of power.
If you’ve been in any kind of codependent relationship (and I think lots of us have), it’s easy to feel helpless. It often seems like the other person has all the power in the relationship. Like they get to make all the choices and decisions, and you get stuck reacting to their chaos. Read more
From Worldvision - Emergency Need in Bangladesh
I don’t really watch a lot of television, and I pretty much intentionally avoid the news. (That’s terrible. I know.) So I didn’t know about the catastrophic cyclone in Bangladesh until I got an email from Worldvision about it. Apparently it’s pretty bad–3,000 dead and millions displaced and in need of food, shelter and other necessities.
See, this kind of stuff is why I’m currently really p—ed off at myself for not getting my financial stuff under control. Between the two of us, Chris and I earn a decent living. I think. Math, Economics and I are not exactly BFFs. We should be able to give to emergency needs like this–but quite frankly, we can’t till the first of the month. (We’re working on the budget thing. I swear.)
So anyway, if you have some extra cash and were just thinking “Man, I’d really like to help some folks living on the Indian subcontinent. They make awesome curry,” then here’s your chance. Or if you’re feeling guilty because you know you oughta show up to your local shelter and help out on Thanksgiving, but deep down you know that you’re going to spend it like every other Thanksgiving, eating too much turkey and nodding off from the tryptophan–hey, you could donate some money for emergency aid.
So anyway, that’s about as close to current events coverage as you will ever see on this blog. Use the information or ignore it as you wish. :) My house is too glassy to throw stones if all ya’ll can do is throw up a prayer for the folks stuck in the aftermath of the storm.
Embracing Imperfection
One of the categories I post on is “The Ordered Life.” I chose that term, rather than a more popular term like “Organization” or “Productivity” because I’m trying to be mindful of my tendency towards perfectionism.
I’m the oldest of three sisters, and according to Dr. Kevin Leman, perfectionism is a common problem for oldest children. I read Leman’s The Birth Order Book several years ago. While it hasn’t been as helpful as other books I’ve read, it did describe my need to please others and my (mostly frustrated) perfectionistic streak with rather alarming accuracy.
I read a lot of books and blogs and other resources on promoting positive change. One thing that worries me, though, is a sort of “salvation mentality” that creeps into them very often. Positive change and better life management skills are all well and good, but the quest for the next program or system that’s going to “fix” you and your imperfect life can make you crazy. Read more
Ten Useful (and Fun!) Tools for Creative Writers
I haven’t done a post about writing in a little while. I often have people ask me about good free resources to help with their various and sundry writing projects, so I figured I would share a link list of some of my favorites.
- VisuWords Visual Thesaurus - Of everything on this list, this is probably the tool I use most. I’m constantly looking for a better word than the one I’m currently stuck on. I used to crack open old reliable Roget, but nowadays, I turn to that newfangled interweb thingy, and Visuwords. Type in any word, and a whole web of related words will spring to life on the screen. Supah-cool. Read more
Closets, Cabinets, Boxes and Drawers
Last week I had my 35th birthday.
As birthdays go, it was pretty good. It started a little early, as Friday I got many well-wishes and a very thoughtful card from the merry band of lunatics I work with (and I mean that in the absolute most loving way possible. They’re an extremely professional merry band of lunatics, I swear.)
In fact, if last week was a bit stressful and challenging, it was mostly because I received more positive affirmation than my neurotic brain can cope with. Got a pickup on an online article I wrote in an industry blog. Did reasonably well at a client presentation (after quite literally choking on my own name in introductions). And Friday, I gave an in-house presentation that everyone very kindly complimented me on, after singing “Happy Birthday” en masse at the end.
Then my family had a big get-together Saturday to celebrate my dad’s birthday and mine (his was two days earlier). Lots of good food from my dad’s fiancee, and a couple of games of Yahtzee, and more thoughtful gifts and cards. Read more
Instant Karma’s Gonna Getcha: Transformation as a (Rather Mundane) Process
If you were to visit my desk at work, sooner or later you would notice a drawing of a phoenix I did a few years ago, clipped to my backboard. It’s one of many phoenix drawings I’ve done over the years. I’ve always been drawn to the idea of the phoenix. There is something very attractive about the idea of instant transformation. You go through this intense, perhaps painful transformative event, and BOOM! come out the other side a whole new person.
I’m feeling frustrated lately. I’ve been looking back at some events that were supposed to be the “turning point” in my life. They were turning points in my thinking, feeling and behavior. But rather than having a single 180 degree turn, it’s been more like a series of 15 to 45 degree turns.
I wanted these events to be my own personal phoenix pyre. Burn away the stuff that’s not working, learn my painful lessons, and come through as a new, perfected self. That was supposed to be the redemption of those events. They were painful. They cost me things or people or relationships I valued. My transformation, becoming a better person, was supposed to be the reward I received in exchange for walking through those fires.
I’m only recently coming face-to-face with the idolatry inherent in that attitude. Not to mention how poorly it represents reality. Read more
A New Look in November: Why I Redesigned
As you can see, I’ve been a busy girl this weekend.
I’d been intending for quite a while to drop the theme switcher in favor of a single, custom theme that I really loved and that I felt really visually conveyed what this blog is about–and I think I’ve basically got it. I may make a few tweaks (the header is a bit tall, and eventually the random old pictures will be replaced by actual family pics of mine) but substantially, this will be the look of TDK moving forward.
So, why?
Because I’d like to get more readers.
It’s not that I don’t absolutely love my current group of reader friends. But I have two reasons for wanting more of you all. The totally selfish reason is, I’m finally breaking down and adding advertising to the blog, and mo’ readers means mo’ money. Plus my flagging self-esteem needs the affirmation that only massive blog traffic statistics can provide.
And the less selfish reason is, I believe my writing here has value (if nothing else, entertainment value), and I’d like to entertain and add that value to the lives of more people. I think that’d be cool.So in the name of all that, here are the changes of recent past, present and future at TDK. Read more
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