Category: Life

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Being Inside the Box

Inside the boxThis is a guest post by Elizabeth Howard. Read more about her at the end.

Everyone always says: “think outside the box.”

Yet…

When small hands slowly pull the cardboard lid over themselves, inside the box is where I’d like to be.

Inside the box, arms and legs tangle– and what belongs to whom doesn’t matter anymore.

Inside the box, a torrent of laughter twists with begging for turns. This is where Negotiation and Joy make love.

Inside the box, we draw shades of darkness willingly, forgetting our unhappy freckles, our crooked teeth, our tortured skin tones. Darkness makes us same.

Inside the box, we push against boundaries together, exploring the limits of strain nearest breaking point.

Inside the box, physical closeness becomes intimacy: familiarity unmentioned but worn like skin.

Inside the box, the roaring dragon flees across an unchained mind.

So that…

Even when seams break, sides collapse, and bodies explode out, the inside prevails.

The spirit of the box keeps itself on call, for the next bottomless adventure.

At Letters from a Small State and The Least Weird Person I Know, writer Elizabeth Howard examines how we survive and occasionally thrive in America, through the lens of our smallest details. A writer and poet living in Connecticut with her new family, she works daily in her own slivers of creative space and time.

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Life is sometimes unfair

There’s this rich guy, you see. He owns the Indianapolis Colts. He has a guitar collection. A lot of really nice guitars. Nothing wrong with that. He can afford them. Or a lot of really nice pianos as well, if he wanted.

The thing that is unfair about this situation is that there are a lot of really good guitar players out there who can’t afford such guitars. My guess is that Mr. Irsay can’t play guitar that well.

My solution to this problem? Mr. Irsay could lend each one – for free – to the starving guitarists, for a few months each time. He could keep a few back just to look at each evening. As part of the deal, he could fly each one to his home for a private concert before the lending period started.

If guitars are like violins, they are healthier if played regularly.

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Gutted

Some days I just feel like the wheels were stolen out from under me.

As this year is still new, it’s worth reflecting on the fact that in your life, some things will get better.

So look up!

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Let her sleep

I have a story for you.

When Heather and I first went to Africa (1991), we were part of a 3-month-long training program that was designed to help us love Africa. And adjust to living there. Part of our training involved living with a family in rural Kenya for two weeks.

It was a stretching time, to say the least. We still keep in touch with one of the family members – which shows you it was a good experience, overall.

Anyhow, they ate dinner starting at about 9 pm. We were pretty tired by that time of the day, and listening to lively conversation in Kikamba (their language) for several hours was not always our choice of a relaxing way to end the day.

So one night – about halfway into our two weeks with them – just before dinner, Heather and I were chilling in our small room. Our guest knocked on the door to say it was dinnertime. I went to dinner alone. I said, “In our culture, it is wrong to wake someone when they are sleeping.” They bought it – after a little discussion on my part.

I knew she needed a break.

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Time is precious, part two

Advertising is part of life in this world (unless you live really off the beaten path – and if you’re reading this, you most likely aren’t).

We get a packet of junk mail every Wednesday. Without fail, I spend about three minutes sorting through the pile. Some weeks, I think I should just toss it all in the recycle bin before even looking at it. But I go through it anyway, to set out the supermarket flyers for Heather and to see if there are any other treasure awaiting. Most of the time there aren’t.

Takeaway: What things can you cut out of your routines to save time? And to save mental energy, be it however small an amount?

And by the way, happy new year!!

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Time is precious, part one

On Christmas eve, the family and I went to a nice service at our church. Toward the end, we did a candle-lighting thing, where everyone lit the candle of the person next to them. The ceremony itself had little meaning for me. But my reflections during the ceremony were deep. And sad.

I looked around at the families whose kids were small enough that they were given glow sticks to hold rather than a live flame. I realized the time between when my kids were that age – and now – seemed like just a few years. But it has been more than a few years.

So as you start your new year, seize the day. Enjoy those moments with your little ones, even though it’s a pain to chase them as they run across the room. Soon they’ll be running across the country.

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Not bad to dream

As 2010 winds down, I wanted to remind you – and me – that it’s not a bad thing to have dreams.

Of course the next step is – what are you doing about those dreams?

(I was amused that the owner of this small economy car in Malaysia, had on his dashboard – four Ferraris, three BMWs and one Porsche.)

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Look carefully before you sign on the dotted line

In Sunday’s Denver paper, there was an interesting article about Christian Kirschner. He did a time-share-like scheme for wealthy clientele. He ended up getting over his head and then branched into fraud, to keep things going.

Today? After swindling his clients out of more than $7 million, he is running a new venture: Executive Triathalon Coaching.

Tip: be careful. Sub-point: it’s strange that someone like that can stay in business and not be in prison. I was astonished at how quickly after his timeshare biz went under that he opened his new biz.

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