Five Things I'm Thankful For This Day.

It's been a while since I've posted five things I'm thankful for, and there's no good reason for it. So here goes:

1. My roots. Not just hair-wise, though I'm proud to be a ginger (shout out!), but my Mississippi, Southern, Gulf Coast, Protestant (specifically Southern Baptist), Moore, Johnson, and deep-woods, country roots. I love each of them, and wouldn't trade any of them for anything in the world.

2. Umbrellas. If you have not experienced the torrential rain that we have in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area lately, just look us up. You'll see what I mean.

3. Nice people. This seems ridiculously basic, I know. But until you have reason to appreciate the "House Bunny" quote, "Mean people are mean," you won't get it. I hope you don't.

4. Technology.  It feeds my still undiagnosed ADHD. It keeps me entertained. It lets me blog. And it does much more important things, too, like saves lives. What's not to love?

5. Christmas cards.  They're better than bills. They make me smile. They remind me of why I loved going to the mailbox as a kid. That's some good stuff. And I know Christmas is over. But it's still recent enough for me to be grateful for it. :-)

A Weary World.

Lately I've wondered if I'm not starting to really feel my age.

Whether fumbling with technology, shaking my head at "crazy kids," or contemplating the meaning of it all, every once in a while, it just feels like the world is getting too...heavy.

Some of this, I know, is attributed to living more life. Diseases without cures stealing one last conversation with yet another great, influential friend. Landscapes I love literally being washed away by nature's fury. The list growing longer of people I know, and people they know, who have seen war firsthand. Amazingly willing hearts aching for children, yet unable to give birth or get through an arduous process of adoption. Babies suffering from others' mishaps. Political schemes determining the most innocent lives' outcomes.

Some days, life's just not that easy to live without asking a few questions.

I don't know if that's because this pirate is looking, as Jimmy Buffet so eloquently reflected, at forty, or because the world is getting weirder.

Whatever the case, optimism can be exhausting.

I was reminded, though, while watching a performance of my all-time favorite Christmas carol this weekend, that even though this world is indeed weary, we also have incentive to get excited.

Martina McBride sings it beautifully:

Hope, I'm reminded, is so powerful.

I'm so grateful for faith -- for that divine umbrella of contentment that doesn't resolve all my questions like a fairy tale, but  instead puts them in context like only a Savior can.

In spite of all the ugly, all the weary, hope truly is as beautiful and refreshing as a new day.

What a thrill!

An Apple A Day.

The first time I snow skied, I remember thinking, "I got to EXPERIENCE the snow!"


As a true southerner, I'd always been fascinated by the wintry weather, but skiing gave me an opportunity to participate in something I'd been in awe of for so long. It was incredible.

My interaction with Steve Jobs' products and services did not affect me  in a big way on a beginner level slope, or later when I reminisced on that one-time adventure.

I sort of grew up, technologically, under his tutelage.

Of course I'm awestruck by his products, their design, the packaging, and even the name -- not to mention ridiculous coolness level of -- the genius bar. Even reading spoofs of Steve Jobs' chill, go-from-geek-to-guru, experiential personality quirks has left me thinking, "Dang. How does that just HAPPEN?"

Besides bringing together the amazingly complex pieces of technology, design, products, services, and finance into a seamlessly beautiful puzzle, Steve Jobs changed the world I live in.

Someone said he was our generation's Thomas Edison. Another said our daVinci.

I say Steve Jobs made my entrance into technology in the work world not just a job skill, but an experience, and one I enjoyed. In large part, because of this man's brilliance and vision, I loved technology long before a device smaller than my hand could hold 8 days' worth of music that I handpicked.

When technology wasn't yet personal or social for me, I'd already fallen into mad love with it.

Many of the quotes I've seen tonight from Steve Jobs have focused on living in the now, pursuing dreams, doing what it takes to make visions happen, and savoring life.

While it's achingly sad for such a generational icon's life to have been cut so short, it's also uncannily providential that his legacy speaks unarguably to dreaming and living. Right now.

I'd say whether it keeps the doctor away or not, that's the kind of apple I need to partake in every day.

RIP, Steve Jobs. You made technology fun to experience, and you made this geek feel cool.

Thanks for that.

Written on my iPhone.

 

 

Five is Enough.

I originally started posting "Five things I'm thankful for" as an idea my friend Liz got from Oprah. It's come to be something I rely on, and that when I neglect, I really miss.

Five things I'm thankful for lately are:

1. Being an American. It's really something I try not to take lightly ever, but it's especially impossible not to be grateful when world news points to poverty-stricken countries, and how natural disasters further devastate their lives.

2. The things I've left behind. It's nice to know that things I've put in the past really are in my past, and that they don't have to be in my present unless I allow them to be.

3. Good books. I love to read -- that actually might be an understatement -- so I'm really glad there are so many great books out there to fill my insatiable need to be reading something every chance I get!

4. The elimination of long-distance. Remember that? I'm grateful for cell phones, and anytime minutes, and free nights and weekends, and the fact that I can call friends and family anywhere in the country and not have to worry about how long we take to catch up.

5. Technology. I'm hooked. I don't know when I'll start grumbling about things changing, and why things can't just stay the same, but I'm sure it'll come soon enough. So for now, I'm glad I like new technology. :-)

Lordy, lordy, look who's....

....40:

The moonwalk!

Nah, not the one MJ did (though that may be 40, too), but the one Neil Armstrong did (or did he? hmmmmm).

It's interesting, though, how fast technology has moved along. I was surprised to learn this happened a mere 7 years before I was born. Really? I figured it was way earlier than that.

And to think that my Grandma Johnson, who was born in 1904, saw everything from horses and buggies....to birthing 11 children (!) in her home (!!)....to automobiles....to electric lights....to outdoor plumbing coming inside....to bought milk and chickens....to -- gasp! this was a horrid day that I WELL remember! -- 2% milk!....to television....to girls showing not only their ankles to men they weren't married to, but also their legs....to telephones....to an actual boombox....all all by the time she passed away in 1991.

Whatever side of the walk-on-the-moon debate we're on, we gotta admit: a lot has happened in the last 100 years, much less the last 40.

You go, Neil, and Grandma Johnson, and Pop Ball, and Nan, and Aunt Mildred, and Uncle Isaac, and all the others who did and continue to stick with this crazy fast world for as long as you have.
One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.

So, so true. With every step we take.

Long live the progress.