Tomorrow will mark the last day on social media for a good long while. I’ve decided to take a hiatus from all social media over the season of Lent.  I’ll most likely be making a return on April 21st, Easter Sunday.

I have become aware that, just speaking for myself, social media has made me anything but social.  I am able to keep up with local events and the like, but for the most part, it keeps me from actually doing things on a social level.  So in that respect, I think staying away will be a good thing.

Tonight I read an article in Mother Jones magazine detailing some of the manipulation cast upon us by social media.  While much of this might be inconsequential, I think it can lead to increased usage of the social media platforms.  I largely don’t realize how much time I do spend on it until I’m put into a situation where I’m doing without.

So I’ll do my usual posts one last time tomorrow and bid good bye for the next month and a half.  And who knows what might transpire in that time period – it might be a permanent solution to a mind that tends to wander from time to time.

 

David Lee

I’m one of those people who has a tendency to leave his household computer turned on all of the time.  I guess I think it takes too long to reboot every day, so I just leave it running.  I’m reminded by my daughter, who is a technology facilitator, that it’s a really good idea to turn it off each day. Turns out, it needs a break much like we do.  And if there are updates that need to take effect, that’s likely not to happen if the computer is not shut down.  Not doing so leads to lagging, slow performance.

Much the same can be said about life in general.  I am reminded by a good friend that I can start my day over any time I feel the need.  If things aren’t going as I might have planned, there’s nothing preventing me from saying “I’m going to start my day over as of right now.”  Such is necessary I have found when dealing with the things that life can throw at me.  I don’t think I need to go to sleep and wake up all over again to start the day once again.

David Lee

 

One of the things I’ll be doing during my social media sabbatical is meaningful meditation.  My intention for each of the forty-four days is to include these audio meditations during the time I’d normally be cruising social media.  The first of these is available on the link below:

Encounter Meditation – “Actual results may vary.”

 

 

24 Hours a Day and Language of Letting Go link.  Click on the link below and it will take you to the website for both readings.  There is a menu to the left under the heading “FROM THE BOOK” and the links to both readings are listed.  Click on the one you’d like to read.

https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/thought-for-the-day

 

 

The Lenten season is upon us again and unlike last year, I’m going to “do without” some part of my life for the forty-four day period.  This year, Lent begins on March 6th and ends on April 18th.  After much deliberation, I’ve decided to take a leave from social media for the forty-four day period. It’s not an easy decision, but I feel that my time would be better spent focusing on other areas of my life.

I do try to post two meaningful posts each day, a devotional from “24 Hours a Day” and “Language of Letting Go” and I’m mindful that there are those that enjoy reading those each day.  I’ll be leaving a link on my FB page so those people can still have access to those readings.

For the most part, I feel like I waste too much time on social media.  I’m planning on using the time to work on parts of my life that I will be better served.  Photography will be at the forefront of the list of things I’ll be doing.  I also plan on doing some writing and reading during the days as well.  Who knows what else I use the time for, but I’m sure on the other side, I’ll have used the time more wisely.

“The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm.” – Nehemiah 1:3

I recollect, when a lad, and while attending a classical institute in the vicinity of Mt. Pleasant, sitting on an elevation of that mountain, and watching a storm as it came up in the valley.  The heavens were filled with blackness, and the earth was shaken by the voice of thunder.  It seemed as though that fair landscape was utterly changed, and its beauty gone never to return.

But the storm swept on, and passed out of the valley; and if I had sat in the same place on the following day, and said “Where is the terrible storm, with all its terrible blackness?” the grass would have said, “Part of the storm is in me,” and the daisy would have said, “Part of it is in me,” and the fruits and the flowers and everything that grows out of the ground would have said, “Part of the storm is incandescent in me.”

Have you asked to be made like your Lord?  Have you longed for the fruit of the Spirit, and have you prayed for sweetness and gentleness and love?  Then fear not the stormy tempest that is at this moment sweeping through your life.  A blessing is in the storm, and there will be the rich fruitage in the “afterward.”

Written by Henry Ward Beecher

On June 14th of 2010,  I officially retired from the teaching profession.  At that point, I didn’t really have any concrete ideas on what retirement would hold.  I contemplated several different avenues, even including the possibility of working at a funeral home.  (I’d totally forgotten about that one.) But the path of the past eight years has seen me return to the classroom in several different capacities, in fact, to the point I’ve just completed renewing my teaching certificate for another five years.

For the majority of the eight years of retirement, I’ve substituted from day-to-day for teachers who were sick or out for some other reason.  But I’ve also done more than a dozen interim positions for teachers out on maternity leave, surgeries, and the like.  These include working three-fourths of a year at one middle school when a replacement for a retiring teaching couldn’t be found and half a year at another middle school where a teacher had resigned.  Most recently, I was given the opportunity to teach fifth-grade science every day for half a day for the entire school year.

It was because of my increased desire to continue teaching that I’ve recently renewed my teaching certificate.  This will allow me to work more of the long-term positions and hopefully return to the fifth-grade position during the next school year.  It required quite a bit of work over a relatively short period to earn the credits needed to renew, but I had no doubt in my mind it was the direction I should be taking at this point.

I have learned that you never really know what the future holds.  You can have and make all the plans that you want, but there is an ultimate plan, a Divine plan, being worked on each and every day of our lives.  I put my hope and trust in God, turning my will and my life over to His care and trusting Him with the outcomes.  I wouldn’t change anything about my eight years of retirement and can only imagine what the next eight years might hold.

To Everything There is a Season

1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

 

 

 

 

In the first part of my writing, I described a situation where something that had been long-lasting has reached its end.  I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that there are other new avenues that are opening at the same time.

This past winter, a good friend sent me an ad that said the local newspaper was looking for a “nightlife photographer.”  This friend knew how much I enjoyed photography and after reading what he’d sent me, I decided to apply for the job.  After several weeks, I was contacted and told the job was mine.

Since that point in time, I’ve gone out and about each weekend to take pictures at local restaurants, bars, sporting events and music venues.  It’s been a bit outside my comfort zone, but I’ve been pleased with the results.  With every weekend’s pics, I inevitably see someone from my past and enjoy having a conversation.  I take one hundred pictures each weekend, most of which I get on Friday night.  They are posted online the following week.

Another exciting opportunity has made its way into my life.   This past summer, I was contacted by the principal of an elementary school and offered a position to teach two science classes for the upcoming school year.  It will be a half-day, everyday job and I’ll have two hour and a half classes of fifth-grade science.  As an added bonus, I’ll have a chance to work with my daughter, who is the new media coordinator at the school.  I’ve done quite a bit of planning and as I said, am very excited about the new opportunity to be in the classroom once again.

So for each season that comes to a close in our lives, there’s another season just beginning.  And I’m reminded that I should be thankful for each one of the opportunities I’ve been given, past or present.  I’ll be exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.  Of that, I am sure.

I am reminded by life’s experiences that change is inevitable.  Whether it’s the weather, relationships,  or a myriad of other life occurrences, things are going to change, whether or not we understand or like them.

Such is the case recently with me and I know the acceptance of things as they are is of utmost importance.  For the past thirty-two years, I’ve been involved in covering high school football on the airwaves in one form or another.  I’ve been a correspondent, traveling to various games, have done play-by-play for the local high school team, and most recently been the host for a post-game show.  It’s just a part of fall Friday nights that have been there for over half my life.

This season will be a bit different though.  I received word this week that the post game show that I’d been doing most recently was going in another direction and that my services would no longer be needed.  Such is the nature of sports coverage and life in general.  I will have to admit it will be a bit strange tonight, the first of the high school football season, but I’m sure I’ll find something to keep me occupied, probably attending my high school’s home opener.

My point in sharing is to be a reminder that change is inevitable in life.   There are many things we take for granted….perhaps some things we even abhor….but they are all a part of the fabric of life.  And whether or not we understand it, whether or not we like it, change is a part of who we are.  New doors can be opened, much grander than those we’ve experienced before.

I am reminded of the words in the Bible from Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

The God-Given Task

⁹ What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? ¹⁰ I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

¹² I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, ¹³ and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.