13May 2011 by CJ

The End of the World…here we go again with this topic

Life & Living
According to Christian activists, the end of the world is coming on Saturday, May 21st.  Mark your calendars folks. Thankfully, the NCIS season finale is on May 17th - so at least I’ll have finality on the continued port-to-port killer story line before we die. Such an apocalypse has been predicted countless times before and yet here we still are! But for argument’s sake, let’s just say the end of the world IS on May 21st. How do you think your life has turned out so far? Is the person you see in the mirror the person everyone else sees? Have you become a part of the materialistic generation or a generation of people truly trying to change the world and themselves? It’s naïve for us to think that our…
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11May 2011 by CJ

An exercise in silence is hard for many to do

Life & Living
Here’s a personal exercise you should definitely try, from everyone’s favorite neighbor, Mister Rogers. Go ahead, try it…you might be surprised how difficult it really is. “Here’s a gift you may not have expected. It’s a gift for you to give yourself. Sometime in your day today, try to turn off all the noises you can around you, and give yourself some “quiet time.” In the silence, let yourself think about something. Or if possible…think about nothing.” Sounds simple doesn’t it? But we’ve become a society that simply cannot function without continual audible distractions. It’s almost as if the noise in our lives serves as a kind of coping mechanism to cover up reality. I mean what other reason would people have for finding it so incredibly difficult to have…
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06May 2011 by CJ

Edison did more than simply discover the light bulb

Information & Education, Life & Living
Many would characterize Thomas Alva Edison as an ingenious inventor – holding 1,093 U.S. patents for such creations as the phonograph and most notably the electric light bulb. The life of an inventor is riddled with disappointments - sometimes requiring dozens, even hundreds of failed attempts before finally attaining success. But Edison refused to let failure define his life’s work. So instead he lived under the simple belief that anything was achievable with a little persistence and a lot of elbow grease. He once joked, “I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process”. Obviously Edison was a card carrying member of the “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” club. But his life’s practices and optomisitc attitude are far from easy to apply in…
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05May 2011 by CJ

The Giving Tree – Something for EVERYONE to learn regardless of age

Information & Education, Life & Living, Youth
At first I was a little confused when my wife gave me a children’s book called "The Giving Tree" to read. Was she trying to tell me something, I thought. Turns out it was a book she first read and fell in love with back in a college literature class. “The Giving Tree,” written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein, was released in 1964 and is still popular today – even though its meaning continues to be the subject of debate. Some readers felt the story was too depressing, supporting codependency and selfish behavior. One blogger even said he’d read the book over 60 times and still wasn’t sure what the author was trying to say. That’s a little extreme for a book of simple line drawings and a sprinkling of…
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04May 2011 by CJ

Growing older is not something you should feel bad about

Life & Living, Youth
With the exception of teenagers who can’t wait to become full-fledged adults (why I’m still not sure) many of us aren’t really that tickled about growing older. I myself felt a little blindsided this year when after blowing out my birthday candles I realized I was 36 years old. That means I’m in my mid to late 30’s! How the hell did that happen and where in God’s name did all these gray hairs come from? I suppose I should be thankful there’s still anything up there at all, right? But even though I’m growing older, I’ve made a conscious decision not to fight it and become one of those people who spends much of their time and money trying to find a fountain of youth that simply doesn’t exist.…
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