Spiritual Belly

My son had a soccer tournament this weekend. It was a special event because this was the last time his team, the Fury, will play together. They've been playing as a team for 7 years, so it's a somewhat big deal. The first day of the tournament was great. Of the two games they played, the first one they tied 2-2 and the second game they won 3-0. The second day was the rough one. They played one game and got completely blown out 0-7. It was a very frustrating experience. The other team was bigger and better than they were, so there was little chance of winning. But the refs were also making terrible calls, never calling offsides. This accounted for at least four of the goals. To go along with that, the other team's parents were what I would describe as overly celebratory, to the point of being obnoxious. Yes, we were sensitive, but I think we've all experienced poor sportsmanship. There were tears and consoling through ice cream. As a parent, it's hard to see your kid...

I've been to church twice now in three weeks. This is a big shift as I've been away from the institution for almost 10 years. To be honest, the only reason I went is to hear my son play guitar. Both times I went, the pastor spoke about the importance of being truthful. There's also a book I'm reading called A Church called Tov about scandals in the church. There was a chapter in truth and transparency. Since this has been a theme for a bit, I suppose I should blog about it. There's a verse in the Bible that says, "We show ourselves we are servants of God by our pure lives, our understanding, patience and kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by true love, by speaking the truth." Being truthful is the only way to grow our souls. This week was a difficult one. My dad fell and broke his finger. I spent the evening in the ER with him and my mom waiting for treatment. I ended up going to bed around two hours later than I normally do. That set in motion several days of ...

This week was big for politics. My Facebook feed has been flooded with perspectives and the whole spectrum of emotions. Happiness. Relief. Anger. Sadness. Confusion. Excitement. Big feelings. When I was in my 20s, I was very politically minded. I wore my emotions on my sleeve every night listening to TV personalities tell the audience how fearful the state of things were and how we needed to be on guard. It was stressful and didn't fill me with peace. As I've grown in how I think about things, I'm less inclined to get riled up now. I started seeing emotion-bating as a way to dull clear thinking and strip the humanity off people who didn't see things the way I did. I learned to let the rhetoric and slogans go and replace it with the idea that, no matter what, things will be okay. We may see things differently, but it's all going to work out in the end. I think we all want to feel like we're doing good and making the world a better place. It seems like we're w...

One of the things I want to learn through this journey is tying the connection between actions and consequences. This past week was my birthday. We went to the Yard House for dinner, where most meals are over 1300 calories. They do have a lite menu, to which I opted for a grilled pork chop and roasted veggies - 700 calories. And it was delicious. That following morning I weighed myself and came in 0.8 pounds lighter. A choice that led to a desired outcome on the scale without sacrificing flavor. The following evening was date night with my wife. We went to sushi, my absolute favorite where we ordered our usual four rolls. I experienced an eating win. We came to the end of dinner and there was still five pieces left. Rather than pounding them, I was able to feel that I was full and we took the leftovers home. Even with the win, the scale reflected the extra sodium of the soy sauce: up one pound. A consequence of my choice. Then it was Halloween night. We do a tradition in my family call...