The late afternoon sky was turning cowboy-painting shades of blue and pink as the mourners gathered at the small cemetery. To an outsider the graveside ceremony would have seemed like any other, with family and friends huddled together to pay their last respects. But this was different. Inside the simple, wooden casket, life was coursing, all red and warm.
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A life worth dying for
Pause
I’m late. Breakfast did not happen, and now I’m racing through the day with flailing arms and sirens wailing. Still I am behind, always behind.
The clever guys have given this state of being a name. They call it Time Famine. Apparently the whole world is breathless, and 24 hours just isn’t enough. With one hand clenched white on the steering wheel and our collective index fingers glued to the fast forward button, life is rapidly becoming one big emergency.
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plugged out
My youngest has an email address. She is not yet two, but her inbox is filling up. Before you flame her misdirected father, allow me to clarify: I’m the only one sending her email, messages she will not read until her eighteenth birthday in 2027. Whilst I hope that she will one day experience this gift as a magical chest full of small treasures, my writings contain no great wisdom or profound thought. Rather, these notes are expressions of love from her dad and a journal of events as we live our lives together. Memorable times, arbitrary happenings, challenges or tough decisions, it does not matter.
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First things first
2011 – 1st things 1st : I’m pretty saturated with clever ideas for the year, but the dance of those last two digits has bubbled under the surface for months now. You see, my life is full of goals and good intentions. More exercise, a better diet, more time with the family, a new “God” project. All good things, maybe with a tinge of vanity and self-indulgence, but still very worthy pursuits. Nothing wrong with that, and I’d bet more than one of those are near the top of your list?
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Like me, please…
Following the recent death of an erstwhile child actor, one commentator remarked that, “People like him are so stimulated by fame that when they are alone, they feel they do not exist. He was devastated if he was not perpetually approved.”
All of us desire to find a place in the heart of someone else. The need for community and self expression is an indelible part of our blueprint. But when you derive your self-worth from the approval of others, when we want to be liked so badly that we start playing to the audience, the outcome is most likely to be exactly the opposite.
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