A Book Meme

Cris is at it again. She tagged me with a neat meme about books. And as far as I can tell, LeAnne started it, so I won't be able to tag her either. Anyway, here are the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I'm reading Searching For God Knows What, by Donald Miller. Here's the quoted text.
"In the Gospels, Jesus is always surrounded by the poor, by the marginalized. And adversely, he is often opposed by the powerful. Not all the powerful, but those who oppose him are almost always the people who are ahead in the lifeboat."

Ok, so I'm tagging Teena. I would have tagged Old Fashioned Girl, but sadly, her blog has disappeared. This was thought provoking, even if I don't have 5 people to tag.

A Few Things

• I added a couple more links to my blog list. My friend LeAnne now has two blogs and a website. You really need to check out all three; they are beautiful and inspiring.
• I just ordered a new computer. I'm so excited. This old thing has really worn out its welcome.
• My family, specifically my brother, just got a new puppy. I'll post a picture once I get my new PC all set up. See above.
• I really, really want spring. I am having to save up my time off from work, so I can't take a day to go to the local conservatory like I usually do each winter. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow.
• Putting together a list of 101 goals is much harder than I thought it would be. My brain is locked. This could take a while.
• I know this is a boring post, but at least I posted something. Go check out the new links I added. I bet those folks have something more interesting to say.

101 Goals

This morning an author was on TV promoting his latest book on success. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the so-called laws of attraction. To a certain extent, I think what you focus on contributes to the outcomes in your life. If I believe I'm going to be miserable at the Christmas party & no one will talk to me, I will probably act accordingly. If I believe I will meet some interesting new people & have fun, I will behave differently and have a different party experience. However, I don't buy the whole magical thinking concept of wishing what you want into existence.
That being said, this guy mentioned setting 101 goals as a technique for accomplishing what you want. Traditional wisdom says if you keep your goals few & managable, you have better chances of success. This approach is quite the opposite. I think one of the potential benefits is that with so many goals to work on, every year you will likely have accomplished at least a few of them.
Besides, I like lists of 100 things. It just sounds like fun to come up with that many goals. Some things I've already accomplished may even be on the list. Anyway, there will probably be a new list under my 100's at some point in the near furture.

Tacking

If my computer cooperates, there should be some new links on my blog tonight. I'm in a "getting organized" phase. If you're anything like me, you've already fallen down on your New Year's Resolutions at least once this year. I'm in the process of trying to get back into the healthier, more productive routines I'd planned for this year. It seems like I'm in this space a lot. I identify with Paul, doing what I don't want to do, and not doing what I really do want to do.
A friend of mine used a sailing analogy to describe this phenomenon. He said sailboats can't stay in the middle of the river as they travel. The currents are constantly driving them towards shore. The best you can do is weave to the right a bit, and then even it out by going back to the left a bit. It's a little less discouraging to know that the repetitive motion of getting organized is fairly normal. It's nice to know that if you went a little to the left today, you can get back on course by going to the right tomorrow.
Ummm, what I just said was not intended as a political commentary in any way. But it was pretty punny, wasn't it?

Snow Day

Once every ten years or so, the powers that be at my place of employment decide we here in Chicago have gotten enough snow to warrant a snow day. That once in a decade event took place today. What to do with an entire day off? The choices are overwhelming. Today, I couldn't even decide between doing "want to do" things and "need to do" things.
At least I'm blogging. If I didn't have the day off, who knows if I would have made the time to get around to it? Now that I'm back to blogging, I'd intended to do it 1-2 times a week. I figured that was a small enough goal as to be quite managable.
The good news is that I've been doing other kinds of writing. Blogging is still important to me, but I really want to get back to submiting articles for publication. So I'm in the midst of a transition with juggling how I spend my writing time.
One thing I might write next is a list of things I want to do next time I have an unexpected gift of free time. What would be on your list?