Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Day 4

I'm reading In Sweet Company by Margaret Wolf and the first two excerpts brought the following thoughts yesterday:

1) Sister Helen Prejean (of Dead Man Walking fame) talked about the difference between SUCCESS and EXCELLENCE. She said it is more important to aim to be EXCELLENT. I thought about what that really meant and why success was such a limited term.



2) Grandma Twylah Nitsch talked about her concept of meditation and sacred silence and how it differs from other concepts. She makes specific requests for answers to the sacred during her meditation. Made me think about my own meditation approaches.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Day 3

Yesterday's thoughts.

1) It's cold, really cold. Time to get new tights, gloves, scarf, etc.

2) Currently reading Kickboxing Geishas by Veronica Chambers. As a fellow journalist, her approach to finding out how Japanese women navigate modern life and craft so many different identities, reminds me of my own research and reporting style.

3) My husband is preaching on a pre-Thanksgiving service on next Wednesday, I wondered what his message might be.

4) I revisited Facebook and found a lot of old friends. The world is becoming so isolated that is interesting that the popularity of internet social networking (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) is that it connects you to people you already know primarily.

5) Current soundtrack in my head: Kirk Franklin's "Looking for You."
6) I had a migraine for more than an hour before I jotted my 4pm thoughts down.

7) Other soundtrack in my head: Bishop Larry Trotter's " What's To Come Is Better Than What's Been."

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Day 2

Yesterday's 4pm thoughts.

1) My bus was 10 or 15 minutes late. I was a little upset about it.

2) I reflected on a conversation I had with a colleague earlier in the day about servant leadership and how important it was.

3) I saw an RTA ad about homeownership opportunities and compared that to the dilapidated homes I saw along my bus route.

4) I reflected on how much Cleveland reminded me of my former home Baltimore. Baltimore has remade itself as the new "it" place during the last 10 or 15 years, be encouraged Cleveland. You can do it too.

5) I passed a daycare center called "Little Midgets DayCare" and I thought isn't that an offensive name?

6)I saw a very, skinny woman with red pants and yellow socks and no coat on, smoking outside of one of those neighborhood grocery stores. I wondered was she addicted to anything.

7)Yesterday on the news there was a story about a woman who had bought a home and it had been burglarized. She was a soldier, helping people in Iraq and thieves had picked apart her home. They took her pipes, hot water heater. Times are desperate, but not that desperate. Why would someone do that?

8) On 13th and Superior, the bus door opened and a man through his trash out of the bus on to the ground. He stayed on the bus. I picked the litter up. How different would our cities and our neighborhoods look if we picked up the trash, didn't break bottles and leave them on the ground,etc. How does God feel when we abuse the Earth He made?

9) Mary J Blige's "My Life" played in my head. Listen.

10)I got on the bus and a man was working on his laptop. Technology makes us work around the clock. Is that a good thing? Why do we feel like we have to work all the time?

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Day 1

Today I thought about:

1) I saw a pregnant girl smoking. I wondered did she know the dangers of smoking when she's pregnant? I wondered did she care? I wondered why not, if she didn't? Read why it's not the thing to do.


2)I passed the VA hospital on my route and thought about how my dad was in the VA hospital two years ago for a bit and wondered about the challenges that veterans have from wars past and present.


3) I passed the Fatima Family Center and noticed the adrinka symbols out front.


4)I saw a hotdog vendor at 13th and Superior and thought about the challenges of working and eating in the city. I thought about my days eating hot dogs from street vendors in other cities I've lived like Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.


5)I saw school kids coming out of the Cleveland Lighthouse Community school and wondered how hard it must be to actually learn anything with the state of education these days. I thought about how hard the teachers must be working to be inspiring when they are getting paid almost next to nothing. I noticed that most of the kids were black and there were only a few black teachers among them.


6)I boarded my bus to the suburbs and thought about how much nicer the buses are going to the suburbs than to the city.


7) I listed to Michael Baisden on the radio and wondered how one of the leaders of the Jena Six movement could also be talking simultaneously about things like getting your groove on, mama's boys and is your house clean?


8) I thought about what would be good holiday gifts for our day care providers.