What are two things that just get you fired up? That make your heart rate soar and your adrenaline flow when you are confronted with them? The things you would fight for regardless of how foolish you looked, or how alone you stood?

Mine are injustice and disrespectfulness.

What are yours?

there are only 36 blogs to which i subscribe. i check out probably double or triple that on any given week, but i am only subscribed to 36. some of them haven’t updated for a while. i’m getting bored.

who should i read? why?

(by the way, i’ve added some easy options if you don’t subscribe to flowerdust.net and would like to. they are over there on the right…see ‘em? very well.)

I found this verse last night, shortly before going to bed.

Accept the way God does things,
for who can straighten what he has made crooked? (Ecc 7:13)

And I thought…how funny.  Here I am, trying to be perfect, when I know I’m weird and crooked. Chances are, you are too.

so here i am, taking care of some freelance in my office, space heater 6″ away from my leg…sipping on some “rooibos sunshine” loose leaf tea. my coworker dalton and i have become addicted to rooibos, and there just happens to be a loose leaf tea shop a few miles from the church which has probably a hundred kinds of loose leaf tea. so we have our little tea station in our communications workroom. i’ll admit, we’ve become tea snobs.

earlier today, as i was getting ready - applying eyeliner or something - one of those thoughts [that you know aren't your own] pops in my head and says, “Why even bother? You know you can’t compete.”

I knew exactly what this statement meant and where it came from. I seem to have my brain locked into this “22 years old is the perfect age” mindset. It probably was one of the best years of my life. And now as I creep ever-so-more up on 30, I realize that superfically, aging is something I’m not looking forward to.

You would never hear me say it aloud, but I am horribly competitive. A few years back, after a fierce game of Uno with the band Chris was in, we all went to eat. We talked about the game and I said something about how “I’m glad I’m not one of those competitive crazy people.” The singer, Steve, normally laid back and not too expressive, smacks his hand down on the table and says, “SWEET JESUS ANNE, YES YOU ARE!”

After Steve’s statement, the fact I had broken many a Super Nintendo controller in my youth, as well as chalking up several technical fouls during my high school basketball career, I realize - yes, I am extremely competitve.

This competitive nature also comes in the form of my appearance. The voice that snuck in unexpectedly today was pushing that competitive button - making me feel there’s no way I can physically compete with the beautiful, early-20 year olds that seem to overflow out of the Rockwall city limits.

Fortunately, a Voice much louder and more important reminded me, “Why do you need to compete, anyway?”

Eh. Good point.

Now if only I can convince myself to believe it…

I need your grace to remind me to find my own. (SP)

i don’t know about you, but i have one of “those people” in my life that will forward me every email ever published by the american family association. you know the ones that say walmart is giving away 5% of it’s online profits to a homosexual organization, that ford supports gay marriage, the ones that scream “boycott…if you’re really a christian who cares about america, you will boycott!!!” and now the latest…did you know best buy is using “holiday” instead of “christmas” in their advertising?!

best buy states their reasoning is their advertising is for many holidays from thanksgiving through new years. duh. kind of makes sense to me. and i’m sorry if you are one of these afa activists and this is offending you. but since when do christians have the right to demand america’s allegiance to celebrating christmas - and christmas alone?

last time i looked, america had some little law or something that said people have the liberty to choose their own religion and to practice it without persecution. ironically, that is one of the reasons why we hopped on a boat and sailed over - because a religious agenda was being forced on our ancestors. so, maybe i’m just one of those crazy liberal women, diguised in an elephant’s costume with a bible under my trunk…but by shouting how all these other “holidays” are “wrong” and now we’re going to boycott anyone who doesn’t use the world “christmas” in their advertising…YOU are the one doing the persecuting. you are the one forcing your agenda on others in a country that clearly states everyone has the right to celebrate in the context of their personal religion. ironic, isn’t it? our history is of us escaping the very thing we ourselves our guilty of doing…taking pride in our beliefs and pushing them on society.

i apologize for the recent political undertone my posts have been taking. hopefully i’ll snap out of it soon.

oh. and happy holidays.