by Greg | Feb 2, 2009 | Blog Posts
Not so long ago I made the suggestion to my beloved that we should take a yoga class together that is offered at the “Y” next door to the church. You read this correctly: yoga…together. I have never taken yoga in my life but I did as a kid love the television series Kung Fu and the characters often looked like they could at least lead a class in yoga, but I digress… Last Friday we started our first yoga class. I figured how bad could this be? I am in good shape, jog regular and lift weights. Yoga is just stretching, right? Amy and I joined a group of ladies (yep, I am the only man in this class, but I am okay with that) who were all far more experienced than the two of us. I have to admit that the class itself was not that bad. True, I have the balance of a hippo on a high wire. At times the instructor would have us place our legs in positions that my body has never seen except for that time I fell off of a silo as a kid. But other than some rather impossible contortions and strange positions, it was not so bad. I barely broke a sweat. The next day, however, is another story. I was hurting in places I did not know existed with muscles I did not know I needed! I did a little reading on yoga and discovered that its history goes back to ascetic practices in the Hindu tradition. “Oh,” I am thinking to myself, “it is suppose to hurt.”...
by Greg | Jan 27, 2009 | Blog Posts
…was one of those metal types. I hear there are people who collect them. I still have this lunchbox complete with thermos and they are both somewhat prominently displayed on our bookshelf. It is a bit scratched up, but otherwise is in pretty good shape and if you open it up it still has the faint smell of peanut butter sandwiches and potato chips. This lunchbox has the cartoon characters from Peanuts on all its sides. Each day of the first grade Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and Woodstock would join me in the cafeteria of Eatonton Grammar School for lunch. Nine years ago alongside many around the world I mourned the passing of the creator and illustrator of Peanuts, Charles Schulz. His death was somewhat poetic in that he died literally hours before his last strip was to be published in the Sunday paper. In the course of fifty years of Peanuts, many of us grew up with good ol’ Charlie Brown, and the rest of the gang. I am not sure if I ever missed a Christmas without watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I practically learned to read, along with millions of others, due to my love of comic strips like the Peanuts. One of the things that I admired about Schulz’s life (and death) was his commitment to create right up until the very end. He understood that God had placed him here on this earth to positively contribute to his culture. He brought smiles to faces of all ages. He gently challenged and prodded our assumptions and prejudices. He wove in theology and spirituality and...
by Greg | Jan 3, 2009 | Blog Posts
…That is what it has felt like anyway; that we were packing away Christmas. We waited as long as we could but honestly the tree was becoming a fire hazard. It has been up since a day or two after Thanksgiving so I suppose it was time. Ten or eleven years ago when we lived in Chickamauga our Christmas tree was completely, 100%, bonafide dead a full week before Christmas day. On the 23rd I finally accepted the truth after I inadvertently sneezed on the tree and there were no needles left. Fortunately I found an abandoned tree lot and found a perfectly good tree resting in a ditch! This year our tree held up much better, but nonetheless it was time to pack Christmas away. This past weekend Amy and I carted box after box back up into the attic, each filled with Christmas decorations that marked another Christmas in Augusta. This is always such a melancholy chore for me. Our house was festively marked with Christmas present and Christmas past. The ornaments we used included those we have acquired throughout our marriage including some cookie-dough ornaments we made as newlyweds. We had about a half-dozen ornaments from my grandmother’s tree that she used when my father was a baby. And each year we receive several special ornaments that are added and find their place among our collection of ornaments. Once the ornaments were placed back in their box, the tree was the last to go. There is such sadness in stripping a tree of its ornaments and lights. Standing by itself, its branches dropped and dry, the...
by Greg | Dec 16, 2008 | Blog Posts
I wrote the following article a couple of years ago, but I thought it was worth repeating. Every year I am amazed at the lengths people go to in decorating their homes for the holidays. I say, “go for it!” I use to poke fun at some of the gaudy decorations I would see in people’s yards. Over time, however, I have come to better appreciate the efforts people make so that their houses are festive. When I jog through the neighborhoods I know the houses that will use nothing but blue lights, and the ones that will decorate with blinking lights. I can take you right to the home that has an electric candle in every widow – the bulbs are bright red. The last few years I have seen more and more yards festooned with those giant inflatable characters. With every home that hangs quaint evergreen wreaths there are two more homes that have a giant inflatable bear in a toy soldier suit. By comparison, our yard is rather drab. We have some garland hanging over the banisters with magnolia leaves as accents. Right in the center hangs a Moravian star. That’s it. The star doesn’t sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and the lights on the garland to not change from purple to blue and then to red. When my children were younger they begged for gaudiness. They wanted lights, and lots of them. One year we added a few white lights to the shrubbery but that was not good enough. They want multi-colored, disco-infused, dancing lights. “Too gaudy” I say. But I think I...
by Greg | Dec 9, 2008 | Blog Posts
A few weeks ago our associate pastor Dr. Rodger Murchison gave a delightful children’s message centered on the joy of giving. In it he recollected when he was eleven years old and made this discovery in planning, preparing and giving his mother a Christmas gift. As I listened to him I tried to think back when I “learned” this lesson. To be candid, I am not sure if I have although I do remember the many times I took sincere pleasure in giving someone a gift. About every few years I can come up with a good surprise and give Amy something for Christmas or her birthday that she does not expect. Sometimes I will surprise her with a trip to some place we talked about wanting to see. A couple of times I actually took the bold step and selected jewelry to give. One year I collected several reels of her family’s 8mm home videos taken when she was a little girl and had them converted to DVD (I forgot to pay for a sound track for the background so it is a “silent film”). The joy of giving a gift happens for me, I repeat, only every few years. It is not that I do not like giving, but let’s face it, we are at a place and time in our life when we have what we need and creativity invariably has its limits. Gift giving for people we love often ends with frustration and desperation. Crocheted covers for the toilet are not as appreciated as they once were (trust me, I know). Is it really better...
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