Sunday, June 20, 2010

fun being a father




Everett is learning how to sit up, and as with Simone when she was this age, watching him learn his new skill is our favorite way to entertain ourselves. It's shocking how many hours Crystal and I spend just watching our kids and getting a royal kick out of them!

Here's a picture of some home-made doughnuts Crystal made for Fathers' Day! I almost passed out when I took my first bite.





When I told Simone we were gonna eat doughnuts her eyes bulged and she said, "Yaaaay! I haven't eaten doughnuts in like 3 DAYS!" I laughed hard. And then I wondered what Crystal feeds her when I'm gone.

I feel like the luckiest guy in the world on this Fathers' Day. Crystal made me feel special. The kids made me laugh all day. Didn't have to work, so I got to be at church with my family, which is rare lately. I was caught up enough in school to mostly take the day off and just enjoy these beautiful people I get to live life with.

Thank you, Abba. Thank you, Amma. Thank you, Creator.

Monday, June 14, 2010

don't jump

One of the blogs I follow is PostSecret, a website that publishes postcards sent in by people anonymously. Most of them are confessions, secrets that the senders aren't comfortable telling their loved ones, but need to be expressed. It is sometimes so sad, sometimes shocking, sometimes so eye- and mind-opening to see what my fellow humans carry around with them every day - the good, bad, and ugly.

About a week ago, someone posted this postcard:





And within seven days 59,000 people had joined an online community through PostSecret and Facebook offering notes of encouragement and hope to this lost person. Here are a few postcards sent in response:











This movement even caught the attention of Time magazine. Here's a link to the article in Time's News Feed.

This story just blows my mind. I am such a cynical person sometimes, and I often feel totally disgusted by humanity, myself included. What a startling counter-attack to the pervasive middle-finger-stuck-out-at-the-world mentality of today. For that many people to care so much that one person who is lost, who they don't even know, be found before it's too late - What a divine display of humanity and love for a total stranger.