Pride cometh before the fall…

I know the proverb and generally speaking, I believe it to be true.  If you are too puffed up like a peacock you will eventually lose your feathers.

But aren’t we allowed to be proud of ourselves?  And can’t some things that fall be good?  I ask because I have pride right now and I hope something does fall…

I have pride in the fact that I rode the bike again today (day 2 of Lent part 2), despite the fact that I was both physically and mentally exhausted from working a 10 1/2 hour day wth a rowdy group of 8-year-olds.  But I did it anyway.  Pride.  And I hope the enormity of my size shrinks as I lose the habit of not moving my body daily.  Falls.

So maybe pride coming before a fall is what we need to jumpstart change.  If we don’t care enough to have pride, how can we let the old baggage fall?

Letter to God

Dearest Father,

I have so far to go to be worthy of Your love and sacrifice, and yet You love me anyway!  It is so amazing to me that You chose me! 

I  know I am not as honest as I should be and I lose my temper with Jason and my class.  I do not respect the body that You blessed me with and I hold beliefs that differ from the Church.  I hold grudges and old perceptions.  I am as far from perfect as East is to West. 

But I do have faith.  I know without a doubt that You love me and offer forgiveness to me with no questions asked.  You are amazing to me in the amount of love You offer and I am humbled by Your love.  Please forgive me for all I have done to hurt You or pull away from You. 

Thank You for Your sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Thank You for having faith in me that I would return to You.  My God, You are awesome!

Your faithful child,

Lisa

Perpetual Lent

Happy Easter!

Lent ended yesterday, and it has been the most spiritually moving Lent I have ever experienced, not only because of my own devotion to it this year, but because of Mark’s conversion to Catholicism and his devotion also.  His full leap into faith has truly been an inspiration to me and makes me want to be a better person, Catholic or otherwise.

As a family, we gave up television for this Lenten season.  Everyone we have talked to thinks we are nuts, but now that we have “survived” 46 days without it, I can honestly say that I don’t want to get back into the habit of worshipping the box.  I like the silence, I like the connection to my family, I like not being bombarded by negative media and pointless programming.  And it turns out, we didn’t miss much.  The same crap is still on.

Jason seems to have benefitted as well, since he was allowed to watch television yesterday and turned it off within 30 minutes to play with Legos instead.  That NEVER would have happened 46 days ago. 

As any good teacher will do, I self-reflect after a project is complete – to see what went well, what needs to be changed, and how it can be better next time.  So, when self-reflecting on this year’s Lent, I realized that while it was difficult to not watch TV for the first few days, we got used to it and now prefer it.  Something we thought would be hard turned out to be rather easy and we like life without it better.

So why not take that knowledge and apply it to other things as well.  Knowing that we will eventually get used to new things takes the burden off of hating what we are doing in the first place.  So,  think I am going to continue the growth from the Lent and have a Perpetual Lent, perpetual meaning on-going, of course.  The idea is to make improvements to myself and my life in 46-day increments.

So, for the next 46 days (until May 27), I will exercise for at least 30 minutes daily.  This is a big announcement for me, since I HATE to exercise (thus the reason for my current enormity).  But knowing that I will hate it at first only to become used to it and possible even prefer it can only serve to make me a better (healthier) person.  And if that’s a habit I can create, all the better.

Off to ride the bike!  Happy Lent (part 2)!

I’m no expert…

I spent the weekend obsessively trying to nurse Jason’s gerbils back to health.  Sugar is too tiny and lethargic to even be considered normal (looking back at it, she was like this from the time we adopted her – we just thought it was cute how she would crawl into our hands and fall asleep).  And having lived with a sick Sugar for 3 weeks, is it any wonder that Spice is sick too? 

The problem is the internet.  Why is there so much useless and conflicting information out there (I ask, as I add more to it…)?  Some say gerbils CAN get wet tail, some say no way.  Some say death occurs within 24-48 hours of the onset of diarrhea (I know, TMI…), others say it’s just diet.  Why are there so many “experts” when obviously no one has any idea what they are doing?

Fortunately, they ARE on the mend (Spice seems to be doing fine – Sugar is still too sleepy to be OK), but I have a vet appointment for tomorrow, just in case.   Who knew a real expert was just down the street the whole time?

I guess that’s my point:  Why are we constantly searching for information when chances are someone who already knows it is close by?  I feel like we are constantly reinventing the wheel.  Don’t we already have a wheel?  It’s circular, it gets us rolling, why mess with it?  

Don’t get me wrong – I understand that we need to improve on our ideas to invent new and better things.  But why does there need to be SO MUCH information and SO MANY “experts”?  How did people survive before Al Gore invented the internet ?  They obviously made it through life OK.  I bet they just asked the real expert who was just down the street. 

I’m no expert, but I think we need to leave the experting to the experts – I hear it’s what they have expertise in.

Sooo…

Not one to be left out, I just had to start my own blog (again). My DH’s creative juices have been flowing for a while now and he has become an inspiration to me.

Sooo… Welcome to Life as Lisa.

This won’t be the most exciting blog you’ll ever read. Nor will it be the most intriguing, passionate, or creative. In fact, at times, it will be downright boring. But it WILL represent Life as Lisa. I certainly do not belong on the Jerry Springer Show or on some sick reality show. I am me – a wife, a mom, a teacher, a friend, a sister, a daughter. I struggle with my weight and my high expectations of myself. I hate doing housework and am crazy about books and my pets. It drives me crazy when people are late and my favorite sound is my son’s laugh when he thinks something is genuinely funny.

Sooo… I might be a little bit like you. If that sounds about right, join me in my life. If not, I’m sure there are much more fascinating people in your life already, so thanks for picking me to help calm your world.