I thought Jim Marshall’s commentary on why he did vote for the bill was interesting.
Posted in General Conversation | Comments OffMaybe you heard that Paul Newman died of cancer Friday at the age of 83.
In reading about his life I was pleased to read about him turning over his entire ownership of Newman’s Own to charity. Which he began doing before he was diagnosed with any health problems.
Posted in General Conversation | 3 Comments »I have weekly liver function tests since I was taking Imuran for Crohn’s. On Monday my levels were abnormally high for the first time which has initiated lots of other blood tests to see what’s going on.
Last week I was sent home from the hospital on two antibiotics and was taking Tylenol some of the time. Now I’m reading up on it, Tylenol seems to cause high liver levels in lots of people even at no higher than the recommended daily dose. These levels often indicate liver disease but what I read says the levels generally return to normal after a while.
I was vaguely aware that it’s easy to overdose on Tylenol but had no idea ‘normal’ levels could do this. Or perhaps it was the Tylenol in combination with the other drugs. But there were no warnings anywhere about taking Tylenol with them among the copious warnings on the information fact sheets and no doctor warned me about it.
Anyway, hopefully the high liver enzymes are a drug reaction that will go away after a while rather than an indication of disease. I already have enough wrong with me :) My levels were down somewhat yesterday (Wednesday) which was encouraging.
Posted in General Conversation | 7 Comments »I thought this was interesting. I’ve wondered what natural processes C-sections might interfere with. Although obviously a C-section is better than mother and/or baby dying in childbirth.
The article author resonates with the findings but they don’t reflect my own experience. Right before my second (scheduled) C-section I asked if I could see the baby as soon as possible after delivery. I still had to wait 3 hours because all babies over 9lbs at that hospital had to have a ‘sugar test’. When I finally got to hold her at midnight I was delighted, especially because she was awake enough to nurse a little. As best I can remember my babies’ cries had a big effect on me, notwithstanding the C-sections.
Posted in General Conversation | 13 Comments »I was in the hospital for a couple of nights this week – my doctor asked me to go to the ER Monday evening because I had a low fever, high heartrate and high white count.
Since I’m on 2 immunosuppressants for Crohn’s Disease, any infection is potentially serious and she wanted to make sure it was investigated and treated right away.
I was admitted early Tuesday morning after 7 hours in the ER waiting for tests then waiting for results then waiting for my doctor’s decision.
They let me go home Wednesday lunchtime after some IV antibiotics and hydration and more tests that didn’t reveal any specific infection needing other treatment.
The symptoms that sent me in are better. I’m still very tired and wasn’t that well before this happened, since the Crohn’s medications aren’t hugely effective.
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This was the best CEC yet, according to Garry Poole, who has been at all four.
I think a big reason for this was that the local people hosting the conference were so friendly and enthusiastic.
My role at the conference was leading the Green Apron Team. We’re there to make attendees feel welcome and answer their questions. It’s the first time I’ve led the team. I was feeling nervous and underqualified Thursday evening when the thirty or so volunteers showed up for their training meeting.
The volunteers were wonderful and made up for my lack of experience by being cheerful and self-directed. They had great ideas like registering people outside instead of trying to do it all in the small foyer. Since it was a beautiful warm September morning in Phoenix, it was more pleasant to be outside anyway until the worship started.
I know by now that I’m restless at conferences and rarely sit all the way through sessions. It works well for me to have a role where I go back and forth. My favorite part is meeting people and chatting with them, whether they’re speakers, helpers or attendees. I appreciated Garry Poole, Elisa Morgan and David Kinnaman being available rather than disappearing when they weren’t speaking. I was able to speak with them and enjoyed each of them.
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I enjoyed Cathleen Falsani’s post Peace is all in our minds
First Cathleen shares about how the joyful spirit of someone sitting next to her at a show helped lift hers (as well as some remorse on her behalf for being unfriendly at first).
Then she discusses an autobiographical book by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist who suffered a stroke. Cathleen ends her post with this fascinating video of a talk by Jill. It took Jill eight years to fully recover from her stroke, which took away all her language skills. In the video Jill describes what it was like to have her left brain shut down during the stroke, then shares what she learned from that experience
I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner-peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be
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I just received this touching letter from ‘gecko’ in Switzerland.
How very courageous of you to write such an honest article [Why I don't go to church anymore]! I don’t know if I could have done it. It encouraged me to be myself and to reflect my own understandings, feelings and last but not least, my faith. You helped me very much, thank you!
I just read the two books “I Sold My Soul on eBay” and “Jim and Casper Go to Church” and there I found a reference to your blog. And yes, I’d like to participate, because some of my church-experiences (mostly good ones, lately more negative ones) led me to some thoughts that are close to yours, and I even considered leaving Church just as you did.
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In an earlier post today I mentioned writing articles years ago for the purpose of evangelism and said
I’m not sure if the people who weren’t Christians ever read my articles but it doesn’t matter does it? Because it’s not about results but about being obedient to God. At least that’s what I was taught.
No offense responded
Interesting!
Is evangelism about us, or them?
This is such a great question I’m making it a post of its own.
Christians, what do you think? Is evangelism about you or them?
People who aren’t Christians: when you’re ‘evangelized’ do you feel it’s about you or the Christian hoping to evangelize you?
Posted in General Conversation | 22 Comments »
On Thursday I’m headed to Phoenix for the Conversational Evangelism Conference.
Off The Map began producing this series of conferences for Todd Hunter earlier this year. I was invited to help at this one. My job is leading the Green Apron Team. If you’ve been to an Off The Map event we used to call this the Concierge team. As you might guess it’s the people in green aprons, there to greet you, answer questions, introduce you to other interesting people and generally help you feel welcome and comfortable.
I’m curious about the conference and looking forward to being there. I hope I get to meet Garry Poole, on staff at Willow Creek, and Elisa Morgan, President of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). I attended my local MOPS group for a number of years when my children were little and appreciated it. I even wrote a number of articles for their newsletter (which are on my personal website).
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