How many, Joshua?

Joshua pushes his body to the limits... one grape at a time.

It's slobbery.

Probably we would eat pizza.

I have a friend who is really hurting, but I can't do much to help. I pray for him, I offer encouragement, but I can't fix him or his problem.

I hate this feeling.

I wish that he was a little kid. If he were, then I would ask his mom if I could take him to the park. I'd buy him ice cream and let him beat me at checkers. I would ask him to sing me a song that he wrote--which I would be endlessly impressed with--and I'd make one up to sing back to him. Probably we would eat pizza. And then at the end of the day, before I took him back home, I would have a serious talk with him and try really hard to know the right thing to say to give the kid a little perspective and some courage. I'd probably talk about how you have to forgive people (sometimes A LOT) and how he really is good enough.

Too bad he's not a little kid.

There's nothing worse than a terrible marriage, and nothing better than a great one.

The man that I hope to shelter all the days of my life

My husband is three miles away and he's coming home in a half hour, but I called him just to chat. At the close of the conversation (twenty minutes later) I realized that it's kinda funny that I phoned him even though he's so close and he'll be home so soon. But I don't care.

I have come to realize that it is upon the little courtesies that marriages rise or fall. The small acts of service, the few words said or not said, the gentleness of the touch, the knowing looks--this is what builds a sweet atmosphere in the home, what makes the relationship sweet and nourishing.

My friend Star is a great lady--creative, compassionate, fun--but she hasn't yet learned the secret to being a great wife. I often wish that I knew how to tell her that the difference between her struggling marriage and a fantastic one may just be the difference between a complaint and praise. If she knew the power of her words and how her husband longs to hear that he pleases her, that she's proud of him, then she may come to know the hidden delights of a joyous home. I'm not sure that Star realizes how much her husband Steve needs her, how much any man depends on his woman for strength and courage and safety. It might mean the world to him if Star could pretend to be excited at the boring discovery he has made. He may blossom into a new man should she dare to praise him without any stipulation or amendment. He might be more the husband she longs for if only she would welcome him home with open arms, letting her heart be his mourner's bench and her mouth be his cheering section.

The world is lonely for man, and a loving wife is much to be treasured.

Caution! thrown to the wind.

I'm naturally pretty wimpy. No, it's true--don't try to make me feel better. (As if anyone would try to convince me otherwise.) I just prefer the safer route. Is that a crime, people?!?!?

No, of course not. It is not a crime. In fact it is the opposite of a crime. Case in point: I was the one kid on my high school field trips that kept the whole class waiting as I went down to the crosswalk because I refused to jaywalk. Jaywalking was dangerous and against the law and I wasn't going to do it.

If you happen to be an incredibly devoted friend, then you may have read my previous post about chasing lions, or the more recent one about chasing kittens. Probably you're a great friend but still haven't read those posts, so let me get you up to speed here. Basically, I recognize that I'm perhaps a little too cautious. Actually, I was starting to think that my careful living was getting in the way of actual living. Therefore I decided that it was time to break out of the box---at least a little. So I've been trying new things, things that I don't like either because they scare me a little or a lot, or because they really embarrass me. I'm pretty easily embarrassed, so the list of new things to try was rather long. My "Chasing Kittens" blog lists a few new things I had been trying, and here are a few more:

1. I have been longboarding to school and around town. Strange, I know. Someone lent it to my husband and I found in the garage and thought I'd give it a go. This is very unlike me because falling is bad, but falling in public is much worse. I was just gonna ride it in the street in front of my house, but then I needed to get to school and the car was gone and my bike tire was flat... so I tried this new thing and it's been pretty fun. And the funny thing is that it is drawing a lot of attention and I can tell people are getting all sorts of the wrong impression about me. The longboard is very cool and hip; I am not cool and am unhip. So I'm like a rolling irony cruising around campus.

2. Related, but still very unlike me, I've been trying skateboarding. The longboard is nice and smooth and I pretty much just cruise around, maybe taking some hills or getting low on the board. But skateboards are different creatures. Last Thursday on a whim, I decided that I needed to ride it. Joshua and his friend were headed to the skatepark and I tagged along, but only to read a book and maybe chat with the other wife who came. But . . . then I got on it, did some very failed ollies, and rode the halfpipe a little. I fell quite a few times, but it was fun, and in doing it I made a great summer memory.

3. You know how there's food and then there is other plant life that is really just better for admiring in nature? Lettuce is good to eat, while ferns are nice to look at. Don't mix them up. All my life--really, all my life--mushrooms have fallen into that second category. In my yard: "Oooh, look at the cute mushroom." On my plate: "Why? No, seriously, why? For the love of all that is good, get this fungus away from my food." But . . . in the last few weeks I've been eating them! Once in pasta and a couple other times in pizza. Good news: I have not yet died. Further reports to come.

4. I tried riding my bike hands-free today. This was sort of a dumb thing to try because I've been trying it since about the time I got my training wheels off (3 or 4 years ago) and it has never worked. Never ever. So why did I think that today might be my lucky day? I don't know. But I did try it and it worked exceedingly well. I think I went maybe 30 or 40 seconds without touching the handle bars, even going so far as to unclip my backpack chest strap and swing the pack around to the front so I could grab my phone. And no injuries. A few minutes later I was standing and straddling the bike as I waited for traffic to clear so I could cross the street (and not at a crosswalk!!) and the bike fell over, scraping up my left leg and making me wonder about the operations of irony in the world.

5. I went lap swimming. I used to do this regularly until one day it dawned on me that I actually hated it. That was a few years ago and I hadn't been in a pool since then. But today is cardio day and, by the special request of a friend, I grabbed my goggles and donned my old swimsuits (yes, that's plural). Swimming is hard and I don't like it, but I'm still glad that I did it because it's good to do things that I don't like and the other option was running and I don't like that either. So what did I have to lose? Nothing except my annoying amount of whining about how much I dislike lap swimming. I wonder how many fun (or at least okay) things I miss out on because I decided once that I didn't like it.

6. I dropped by a friend's house unannounced. This may very well be the Ironman competition of social phobias. Calling someone is difficult, inviting someone to hang out is really hard, but stopping by their actual house uninvited and unannounced? Wow. That is over-the-top difficult. Now I can't say that I did it without a few second thoughts (the kind where I headed back to the car more than once), but still I did it. And we hung out and had a great time. I came out of the thing completely unscathed. In other words, I took home the trophy :)