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MONTHS

2012

• January
• February

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2010

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2006

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FEBRUARY, 2012

•  There's a big difference between "love" and "being in love."  Being in love is about how you feel.  Love is about what you do. 
•  Happy Groundhog's Day!  The best thing about Groundhog's Day is that it is a totally contrived reason to celebrate.  The folks in Punxsuatawney, PA took the lead in this and it spread like wildfire. I don't know anything about the origins of Groundhog's Day and I'm too lazy to do any research (I had to look up out how to spell "Punxsuatawney" which was plenty of work for one day) but ignorance is no excuse not to celebrate.  If somebody somewhere is celebrating something, that's reason enough to join in. 
•  I recently took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  My newer readers might not know that my two great passions are 1) loving people with the unconditional love of Christ and 2) learning how to kill them with my bare hands.  An odd combo I admit.  I'm really enjoying jiu jitsu. It's fun -- kind of like chess with choking-- executing moves and countermoves trying to get to a winning position.  The people are extremely nice.  Spending an evening practicing cutting off the blood flow to each other's brains requires a great deal of niceness and trust.  Vulnerability unexploited builds trust and friendship.
•  "As you wish."  This is an oft repeated line from The Princess Bride. [If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it.  It is extremely funny.] My friend Chris suggests that this line can be applied to everyday life in a husband's approach to his wife's requests.  In the movie, a servant responds to his master's daughter's every demand with "as you wish".  What he's really saying is "I love you."  If you aren't confident in yourself, taking an "as you wish" approach, may make you feel like you are being walked on.  But, from an attitude of confidence, "as you wish" is generosity not weakness.  If the idea of taking an "as you wish" approach to others makes you uneasy, you're probably feeling like life's cheated you in some way and you're not going let anybody take anything else from you.  This is not a happy way to live.  Deciding to give without first calculating what's in it for you will lighten the burden of your life considerably.