A blog about nothing and everything

What is it about writing that flips switches in me that nothing else flips? That is the question of my hour. Like you, I have multiple conversations throughout any given day. It's all normal and good. Usually it is even enjoyable. (OK, there are those of you who are not enjoyable to talk to. You know who you are. And on the exceptionally slim chance that you are reading this ... leave me alone!) Still, there is something about sitting down with Tess on my lap and doing the sacred dance with her keyboard that triggers something within me. Writing takes me to an altered state. Internal walls come down. I am talking to thousand and thousands of pixels on my screen and they never talk back, pass judgment on my opinions or otherwise make me feel less than human. Of course I am not so stupid as to think that there are no people on the other end of the networks and modems that ARE talking back, ARE passing judgment, ARE thinking I am less than human. The little google analytics tool I've hooked to this web site tells me that, on average, between twenty and forty people read what I write on any given day. I get an average of 212 "hits" every seven days. So while this is not exactly Readers Digest it makes me happy. Few people leave comments. That is fine with me though it is the silent ones I worry about.

Sometimes people ask me how I come up with things to write about. I just tell them the truth. I do not know. Throughout the course of any given day things happen. Ordinary things. Yet when you look closely the ordinary often becomes exceptional. It is all about point of view. If you want your day to be ordinary ... if you are satisfied with that ... it will probably cooperate. But it does not have to be that way. When I look at the day that I just spent (the passage of time is, after all, a transaction. An expenditure.) there really is not much that stands out. I cleaned a little bit of the house. I put some finishing touches on the bedroom that Scott and I repainted while Debbie is out of town. I watched the Cubs play baseball. I did not leave my immediate surroundings until I got hungry around 5PM. Then I went to Bob Evans (down on the farm) and ate my fill of biscuits, gravy and hash browns. Washed it down with water. I'm still bloated four hours later. (Side note: My dear friend Bob Dude taught me about Bob Evans biscuits and gravy. If they kill me ... torture him.) I returned home to a full house, which emptied out in a few minutes. That's when Bailey the Killer Beagle and I sat down and watched the ball game. And now here we are.

Pretty ordinary day, huh?

Not on your life. I woke up at 8:30AM and didn't know where I was because the walls were the wrong color and I was totally discombobulated on the bed. (It's empty except for me and so I feel obligated to use all of it. I don't wake up where I went to sleep. Weird but true.) I had to clear the cobwebs just to figure out that I was not in a hotel somewhere. Christopher was going to work and instructed me concerning what parts of his left over garbage from last night I could throw out and what needed to stay. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. There is an entire book there, not just a blog. A friend called me and told me he had just lost his government job. He wants to do lunch. I agreed on a day next week but all I really want to tell him is to avoid "church work." I saw a former teenager that was in my youth group about ten years ago. Until yesterday I had not seen him in probably five years and now I've seen him two days in a row. Last New Years Eve he was on foot cutting through a neighbor's back yard and the guy shot him three times. He's still alive and he sticks to the sidewalks now. I drove about fifteen miles each way for supper. That comes out to ten miles per biscuit. The gravy was a perk. It was worth it.

So really, when you think about it, when you take the time to break the day down into little pieces it was anything but ordinary.

I even talked to God today. You know the one. The BIG ONE. The Bible guy. He listened to me trash talk some situations and people for a few minutes while I was driving. Then I started thinking about how boring it is to eat alone and I slid my hand onto the back seat of my car and pulled out a book. Score. I love to read. I was on chapter two but had not read any of it in about a month. You know what chapter two was about? In a nutshell it said, "Chill. God loves you. Unconditionally. Why would you bother yourself with other peoples opinions or offensive actions when He's there waiting for you every minute of every day. Those other people? Leave them to God. Oh, and while you are at it ... forget the rules. You know ... the ones you try to live life by. Yeah, those. You can't get them straight so give it up and just spend your time loving The Big Him."

Pretty good advice I'd say.

So there you go. This blog was about nothing. This blog was about everything. It is up to you. You can read a lot into it. You can chalk it up as a waste of time. Your call. Me? I have enjoyed every minute of the blog ... and of the day. I like reading. I like writing. I like living.

And I do love me some God.