Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 There are times when I read the news about this or that religious group deciding that what the world needs is not more freedom for faith but more coercion into obedience; and I think that they have misinterpreted the meaning of "force" in the call to be a "Force for Good," and overlooked the strength in faith. You see, there are plenty of times I question how literally to take the Bible or how much to trust in human attempts to direct the focus of our faith, but I keep going in these struggles of credence Because I believe in Jesus. There are times when I read my social feed seeing how this person or that friend seems to have life figured out, goals met, accomplishments catalogued, and I think perhaps on this test drive of experiences I must have been given  a manual engine while everyone else has automatic; and I have to learn how to drive it  as I go at highway speeds while also trying to figure out where I am on the map and how to get where I want to go, which e...

I think a lot of our Norway vacation was a compromise between our physiology, Norwegian weather, and/or our expectations. We signed up to go snowshoeing with a guy from Finland, and soon discovered that his pace of snowshoeing, coupled with his desired trip duration, was beyond our capabilities. I, for one, learned that without the heat provided by my battery-powered gloves [and coupled with the sweating from our high-energy-output pace], I could no longer keep my fingers working. I truly was unable to feel my fingers, which made it really difficult to have any hand dexterity--if you can't tell where your fingers are , then you can't properly direct them to where they need to be . I think I may have freaked out our guide, because after seeing how stiff and red my hand digits were, he not only gave me his gloves, but also the keys to the car so that I could warm back up [which, btw, is painful] while he continued with the rest of the group. Mark accompanied me on the trek back, ...