Josh's Blog

Category: Weekly Wanderings

  • Empathetize With Those Who Have Suffered Less

    Empathetize With Those Who Have Suffered Less

    Empathize With Those Who Suffered Less It is important to empathize with people who have suffered less than you. I have suffered from many health problems and still try to empathize with people who have suffered less. We all naturally do this with kids. Most kids have not lived long enough to suffer much, yet…

  • Writing is Thinking

    “Writing is thinking.” I like that turn of phrase. If I want to figure something out or am working on a difficult problem writing is a good way to think it through. It helps me see the problem from a different perspective. I often do this when I don’t know how to say something in…

  • Suffering: A Different Take on Thanksgiving (Updated)

    Suffering: A Different Take on Thanksgiving (Updated)

    The First Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a special time of year for giving thanks as we reflect on all God has given us. The cliche is that everything is great, therefore I praise God. When the harvest is in, the table is full, and we have no apparent lack of anything. What about when the harvest…

  • “What’s The Most Important Thing I Need To Do Today?

    What’s Most Important? I love Essentialism by Greg McKeown. He asks lots of great questions in the book that help to determine what really matters. Here’s one: “What’s the most important thing I need to do today?” The answer is ONE thing that if done would make a satisfactory day. A Story About This Important…

  • Unexpectedly Grateful

    Unexpectedly Grateful

    I’m in pain right now, and also someone grateful. My pain is better than it has been for the last few days, even though it is still worse than usual. That mild reduction in pain is a cause for gratitude. I am not always grateful that these reprieves but I should be. Losing something, or…

  • Writing, Living, and Resting

    Writing, Living, and Resting

    I used to write about life a lot more than I really invested in living it. I have some catch-up work to do in living by the principles I’ve preached. That catch-up work may occupy my attention to the point that I may not write here as much. You may have already noticed this in…

  • Motivation Doesn’t Matter Without Implementation

    Motivation Doesn’t Matter Without Implementation

    Being Specific “How?” is a universal and often neglected question. What follows is my opinion that I consider fact. Students don’t need to hear ” behave yourself”, or “do your best”. They need to hear “sit quietly and don’t poke anyone”, and “work through sections 1 through 4. If you don’t understand anything, ask me…

  • What’s Easy Gets Done

    What’s easy gets done. What’s something important you could make easier? What’s the very next step? Josh

  • Try Something New-Old

    Try Something New-Old

    The New-Old Things I’ve really gotten into “new-old” things recently. As I’ve been paring down my possessions, I realized I was not engaging with some of my favorite things. In the quest for something new, I forgot what I already had. That led me to explore not only my “new-old” things, but also old hobbies…

  • Preview: Nothing Needs to Change

    I had an unusually busy Sunday so I’ll just give you a preview for now: I don’t need anything to change for me to be happy. That’s a realization I had earlier this week. There’s so many things I feel like I should do or be, but even if I do none of them; am…