being obscure clearly.

One bad part of being an adult is that no one asks you if you can run faster in your new shoes. Well, in case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure I can. Thanks for [not] asking.  
 A couple of weeks ago I was having a very restless kind of day, so I ran for quite a while. And as I ran, I found myself waving and yelling “hello!” to every single person walking, sitting on their porch, or driving with their windows open. If you know me at all, you can probably guess that this is  not normal for me.  If you've ever walked or hiked with me, I can guarantee  you're  the person saying hello to the passersby, not me.  This Stay Home, Stay Safe thing is doing weird stuff. 
 43 is the number of miles I've run since mid-March when the [Michigan] world started to shut down- I’ve had a lot of restless days.  I'm not telling you about my mileage to brag. In fact, w hen my  running tracker was like, "Wow! You've run this many miles!", for...

To my school kids: We were supposed to have more time. We didn’t know we’d be saying goodbye for good on that Friday when our world shut down. And unfortunately, I’m not naïve enough to believe that I will see every one of you again. Some of you will move away due to your parents needing to start new jobs, the financial hardships that come with this weird economy, or the normal ebb and flow of agricultural work to which our community is so accustomed. To my fourth graders moving to a different building next year, I hope you know how much I loved working with you. To the students I work with most often in our resource rooms or as a friend in your classroom, I know you may not understand why you can’t be at school. Why did school stop? Why don’t I see my teachers and my friends anymore? Someday, you might come to realize why this happened, but for now, I’m sorry that you are sad and confused. I promise we didn’t want to leave you like this. I was supposed to have 55...

Every Easter, the same story is told. Yet every year, despite myself, I see something new. Sometimes I'm pretty sure it slaps me across the face: Source: RossRightAngle So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. There's a reason those words stuck out to me, so let me rewind. I work with what I generally refer to as a "group of wily fifth graders" in an after school childcare center. Unless you work closely with ten year olds, there's no way to understand: 1) How funny they are, 2) How irrational they can be, 3) How much they lack the big picture of... mostly anything. A good portion of my education has been centered in child develo...

I'm often confused by things that are apparently normal in life. Here are three random things that confuse me: Copyright... Me. 1. Beaches. When I was five I told my grandma, "I love the beach. All except the sand." To this day I prefer to wear tennis shoes to the beach so that I don't lose any appendages on the way down the fire-hot sand. Plus, your reward for making it to the water is a freezing cold swim and an inevitable sunburn (at least for a white girl like me). Most people are saying, "I can't wait for summer so we can go to the beach and have fun!" And I'm over here thinking, "Well, I guess it's time again to practice for the beach by walking barefoot over hot coals." I just don't understand it. But I will say this for beaches: they are beautiful. Copyright: Dallas News 2. Malls on a Saturday. What is the appeal of crushing crowds and pushy salesmen? One day recently I went to go see a movie - on a Sat...

  All rights to the photo go to thepowerofcamp.com Disclaimer: This is in no way an exhaustive list of the things I've learned as a counselor at Grace Adventures ; it's just the first twelve things that came to mind.   1. You can always choose to have a good day or a bad day. It's completely up to you, and you can't let others' pessimism get you down; in fact, part of choosing a good day for yourself is creating an environment of positivity to help your team make the same choice. 2. You can't, however, choose anybody's attitude but your own. This was a difficult truth for me to learn, but an oh-so-very necessary one. 3. Rainy days can be great. Of course, this is an attitude to be chosen as well, but some of my best memories of camp are the dance parties and crazy skits that happen when we can't be anywhere but inside. Also, when it's a super hot summer and you live in a dust bowl, standing out in the middle of a thunderstorm is a wonde...

I have a confession to make: I've been a closet-blogger for years. Yep. Started when I was in high school. I wrote about things like being the sister of an autistic brother, my faith, and trying to be a comic of the written word. Always in a private blog that no one could see. If we're going to be honest, I don't write to impress or impact other people. Really. I just write because if I don't, as Jon Acuff so eloquently put, my head and heart will explode (trust me: I've come close a few times). I have documents and documents of unorganized thoughts that came to be because I couldn't think any more; I had to write. But I've decided to bring myself into the public blogging realm, just because I need to stretch myself. If I'm spending all this time writing things (and always trying to make it perfect, thank you analytical brain), I may as well post it for the world to see. I know that I've been inspired by blogs of people who didn't think an...