Articles and Poems
What is Your Word?
by Carolyn Burkholder, M.Ed., NAPW
In the January issue of Guideposts magazine, I read an article about a practice which Debbie McComber, well known author, has done for several years. On New Year's Day she chooses a word to focus on and live by for the next year. Sometimes she feels the word chooses her. However it happens, it has changed her life, sometimes challenging her, sometimes comforting her, sometimes taking her into a brand new realization or territory.
I was so taken and intrigued by this idea that I challenged our Lake Arrowhead Writer's Group to each choose a word (their word) for 2012. We will each explain how we happened to choose that word and what it means to us, hopefully keeping a journal about the developments and expansion of our lives related to that word.
Going deeper with the idea, I challenged my family to do the same. We will each choose a word and share it with the rest of the family. Then we can share periodically what happens in our lives related to that word via e-mail or the postal service. Next Christmas we will each share what happened throughout the year, if our understanding or concept of that word changed and grew thereby impacting our lives in some way.
Debbie gives suggestions on how to choose your word. Take a journal and begin to gather the words that appear over and over again in your life, watching for patterns. Notice words that keep appearing in different ways to you. They can be positive words such us hope, peace, love, prayer, or they can also be challenging words, such as grief, depression, loss, brokenness. It can be any word that you choose. God is not limited. He can use absolutely any word that comes in your mind. After all, the Word became flesh.
Life Is No Laughing Matter - Or is it?
by Carolyn Burkholder
Life is serious stuff. I mean, look at all we deal with - world chaos, failing governments, recession, hunger and that's just the little stuff. Then there's those important things like your shoelace breaking just before a job interview, a cold sore appearing before a first date, the dog eating your favorite house plant, and the baseball game superceding your favorite TV program. All a good reason for a major depression or, at least, a sour disposition, right?
Well, that all depends.Depends on what? Your outlook on life. Do you feel completely out of control, like a puppet being manipulated on a set of strings, or do you feel that some, at least, of what you do makes a difference, that your attitude and decisions have some consequences?
A sense of humor is a vital trait to our well-being - we should take it seriously. When we approach life with some sense of the humorous we get a new perspective on the situation. It may not change the situation but it, sure as the devil, changes us, how we see it and our ability to deal with it. Man (and woman) have been given the capacity to laugh for a purpose. If you take yourself too seriously, you deprive yourself of the tool of humor.
Laughter eases tension, breaks down barriers, brings us closer to others, disperses anger, heals the body as well as the emotions. Sir William Osler said that, "Laughter is the music of life". Some call laughter an "inner body massage". Often with a dementia the person loses their sense of humor, signifying some missing connection in the brain.
If we do not have a sense of humor, we are doomed as a person, a country, a religion. Our lives and perspectives get all out of balance as we take offense at every innocent remark. Lighten up! Enjoy life! Let it go! Forget it! Laugh about it!
Try looking at something that is irritating you in a different way. After all, it just may be (different, that is). For instance, the way you read this sentence could go
like this:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
Or like this:
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Just depends on how you look at it.
by Carolyn Burkholder, M.Ed., NAPW
In the January issue of Guideposts magazine, I read an article about a practice which Debbie McComber, well known author, has done for several years. On New Year's Day she chooses a word to focus on and live by for the next year. Sometimes she feels the word chooses her. However it happens, it has changed her life, sometimes challenging her, sometimes comforting her, sometimes taking her into a brand new realization or territory.
I was so taken and intrigued by this idea that I challenged our Lake Arrowhead Writer's Group to each choose a word (their word) for 2012. We will each explain how we happened to choose that word and what it means to us, hopefully keeping a journal about the developments and expansion of our lives related to that word.
Going deeper with the idea, I challenged my family to do the same. We will each choose a word and share it with the rest of the family. Then we can share periodically what happens in our lives related to that word via e-mail or the postal service. Next Christmas we will each share what happened throughout the year, if our understanding or concept of that word changed and grew thereby impacting our lives in some way.
Debbie gives suggestions on how to choose your word. Take a journal and begin to gather the words that appear over and over again in your life, watching for patterns. Notice words that keep appearing in different ways to you. They can be positive words such us hope, peace, love, prayer, or they can also be challenging words, such as grief, depression, loss, brokenness. It can be any word that you choose. God is not limited. He can use absolutely any word that comes in your mind. After all, the Word became flesh.
Life Is No Laughing Matter - Or is it?
by Carolyn Burkholder
Life is serious stuff. I mean, look at all we deal with - world chaos, failing governments, recession, hunger and that's just the little stuff. Then there's those important things like your shoelace breaking just before a job interview, a cold sore appearing before a first date, the dog eating your favorite house plant, and the baseball game superceding your favorite TV program. All a good reason for a major depression or, at least, a sour disposition, right?
Well, that all depends.Depends on what? Your outlook on life. Do you feel completely out of control, like a puppet being manipulated on a set of strings, or do you feel that some, at least, of what you do makes a difference, that your attitude and decisions have some consequences?
A sense of humor is a vital trait to our well-being - we should take it seriously. When we approach life with some sense of the humorous we get a new perspective on the situation. It may not change the situation but it, sure as the devil, changes us, how we see it and our ability to deal with it. Man (and woman) have been given the capacity to laugh for a purpose. If you take yourself too seriously, you deprive yourself of the tool of humor.
Laughter eases tension, breaks down barriers, brings us closer to others, disperses anger, heals the body as well as the emotions. Sir William Osler said that, "Laughter is the music of life". Some call laughter an "inner body massage". Often with a dementia the person loses their sense of humor, signifying some missing connection in the brain.
If we do not have a sense of humor, we are doomed as a person, a country, a religion. Our lives and perspectives get all out of balance as we take offense at every innocent remark. Lighten up! Enjoy life! Let it go! Forget it! Laugh about it!
Try looking at something that is irritating you in a different way. After all, it just may be (different, that is). For instance, the way you read this sentence could go
like this:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
Or like this:
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Just depends on how you look at it.
ARTICLES AND POEMS
aerial view of Lake Arrowhead taken on my flight to Washington
"FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA"
by Carolyn Burkholder, M.Ed, NAPW
I knew from the minute we took off in our soaring plane from the Atlanta airport that we were flying due north. I was sitting by the window with my trusty camera ready, as always. The day was clear, not too many clouds, as the scenery flew by—first the unique skyline of Atlanta, then the interstate going north, lined by more and more trees. I watched carefully as the hills began to appear and the forest became denser. Sure enough, there it was—my aerial view of our very own Lake Arrowhead. I identified the lake, the newly cleared land for houses and the curving pattern of the golf course. I could even guess where our house was located.
The plane was equipped with a TV map showing where our plane was traveling, and I could watch as we flew across the entire United States. What an awesome feeling, bringing a surge of patriotic pride and wonder as I could see the changing unique terrain of each state. As we left Georgia and cut across a corner of Tennessee, I identified the Tennessee River and the lush Great Smokey Mountains, part of the Appalachians which are almost older than time itself. We diagonally crossed the entire state of Missouri, viewing the snakelike rivers and lakes.
As we flew from Missouri over southeast Nebraska there was the Missouri River, bordered by low bluffs covered with hardwood trees, creating a separation of Nebraska and Iowa. Again, the terrain began to change as we progressed northwest across the state. As we flew west the land began to level out, the houses grew sparser and the trees fewer. What a beautiful display of geometric designs as everything is laid out in squares and rectangles. However, this time as I viewed the straight lines of the boxlike shapes below I noticed that inside the outlines of each field was a perfect circle, the outline of the irrigation patterns. It was inspiring to see once again the breadbasket of our nation.
We turned directly north over South and North Dakota, seeing even fewer signs of habitation. Following the great Missouri River to its source in N. Dakota, watching it twist and turn among the flat-topped treeless buttes brought to mind a great contrast to the states we had just seen. Montana and Idaho brought the awesome sight of the snow-covered ranges of the Rocky Mountains divided by deep valleys cut by ageless rivers. Mile after mile we saw these spectacular ridges and peaks, and it brought a new respect for the pioneers and settlers who pulled their wagons across these giants.
At last, we saw the state of Washington and the spectacular Cascade mountains with all its volcanic peaks, again crowned by the white snow and glaciers. And there was Seattle settled on the great waterways to the Pacific Ocean. I later identified the great peaks as Mt. Ranier, the highest mountain and volcano in the Cascades and Mt. Adams, the second highest.
It was an inspiring, fascinating, educational flight to cross the entire United States and view it in living panorama. What a blessing and privilege!
"FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA"
by Carolyn Burkholder, M.Ed, NAPW
I knew from the minute we took off in our soaring plane from the Atlanta airport that we were flying due north. I was sitting by the window with my trusty camera ready, as always. The day was clear, not too many clouds, as the scenery flew by—first the unique skyline of Atlanta, then the interstate going north, lined by more and more trees. I watched carefully as the hills began to appear and the forest became denser. Sure enough, there it was—my aerial view of our very own Lake Arrowhead. I identified the lake, the newly cleared land for houses and the curving pattern of the golf course. I could even guess where our house was located.
The plane was equipped with a TV map showing where our plane was traveling, and I could watch as we flew across the entire United States. What an awesome feeling, bringing a surge of patriotic pride and wonder as I could see the changing unique terrain of each state. As we left Georgia and cut across a corner of Tennessee, I identified the Tennessee River and the lush Great Smokey Mountains, part of the Appalachians which are almost older than time itself. We diagonally crossed the entire state of Missouri, viewing the snakelike rivers and lakes.
As we flew from Missouri over southeast Nebraska there was the Missouri River, bordered by low bluffs covered with hardwood trees, creating a separation of Nebraska and Iowa. Again, the terrain began to change as we progressed northwest across the state. As we flew west the land began to level out, the houses grew sparser and the trees fewer. What a beautiful display of geometric designs as everything is laid out in squares and rectangles. However, this time as I viewed the straight lines of the boxlike shapes below I noticed that inside the outlines of each field was a perfect circle, the outline of the irrigation patterns. It was inspiring to see once again the breadbasket of our nation.
We turned directly north over South and North Dakota, seeing even fewer signs of habitation. Following the great Missouri River to its source in N. Dakota, watching it twist and turn among the flat-topped treeless buttes brought to mind a great contrast to the states we had just seen. Montana and Idaho brought the awesome sight of the snow-covered ranges of the Rocky Mountains divided by deep valleys cut by ageless rivers. Mile after mile we saw these spectacular ridges and peaks, and it brought a new respect for the pioneers and settlers who pulled their wagons across these giants.
At last, we saw the state of Washington and the spectacular Cascade mountains with all its volcanic peaks, again crowned by the white snow and glaciers. And there was Seattle settled on the great waterways to the Pacific Ocean. I later identified the great peaks as Mt. Ranier, the highest mountain and volcano in the Cascades and Mt. Adams, the second highest.
It was an inspiring, fascinating, educational flight to cross the entire United States and view it in living panorama. What a blessing and privilege!
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