Hi guys.  I want to keep sharing these things – partly because this is part of the process I am going through, thinking and learning, and partly because I think that these things have the ability to encourage and inspire others, too.

Reading this book filled me with wonder.  Some of the things he talks about, you can see by just looking out the window if you have a tree or two in view.  Reading a couple chapters and then going for a walk in the woods… wow.  I love trees to start with, but this has changed my whole experience of being outside.  Some of the mechanisms trees have for regulating growth and communicating with each other are beyond anything I had previously imagined.  (Mike and I have been discussing how Tolkien showed some keen insight with his creation of Ents.)

We all need more awe and wonder in our lives.

If you’ve been reading my previous posts at all, you know why I was drawn to this book.  And it was in the discount section!  It wasn’t exactly the book I thought it might be – but it still spoke so deeply to my heart.  (This was the book I quoted from in the last post.)  I’ll let the book describe itself.  “In today’s world we have technology, convenience, security, and a measure of prosperity, but where is the beauty?  The full message of the beauty of the gospel has been replaced by our desires to satisfy our material needs, to empirically prove our faith, and to establish political power in our world.”

Let me make a confession:  I LOVE mom-blogs.  I have for a long time, long before Beatrix was born. (I mean, after she was born, its not like I had time to read them!)  (Although they have even helped me in practical ways in the past.)

This blog has made Mike and I laugh so many times.  I am amazed at her ability to convey so much emotion with simple drawings.  It is also a motherhood survival skill to be able to take things that are difficult and laugh at them – she has it, and reading her blogs helped me develop it.

And this sock commercial!  It made me cry.  Not because they are doing business AND helping the homeless (although that’s great), but because they had a great idea, and then they did it.  The guy saw something that bothered him, and that made him think.  He came up with a way he could help – they imagined and researched to develop something good, and then they actually did it.

One more thing:  Did you go watch all the Walk off the Earth videos yet? No?  Here’s another favourite.