Wildflower Writes

As a youth leader, I had come to an inescapable conclusion.  Life is full of choices, and your path is determined by your decisions. This is particularly true with young people, because they are faced with so many decisions in a short amount of time- Do I wear this to school? Do I go to the party?  Do I skip track practice?  Do I ask her out on a date?  Do I apply to colleges now?  As "old" people, we often get in a rut, because it seems like the life changing decisions are over.  We've met and married our spouse, had kids, settled into a career and a house... nothing left to do but to wait it out until retirement.  Or maybe life is so full of meeting other people's needs that you've forgotten that you matter too. Bah!  We still have to decide to be the most we can be (at the risk of sounding like a military recruiter), at any time of our life.  We still have choices to make regarding relationships, new opportunities, and health.  ...

Yesterday, driving down the street to work, I didn’t notice all the stumps along the side of the road. I knew there was a lot of construction, and the trees had been cut down to widen the road. Their remains had been left, leveled to the ground, for months now. Today there was a big yellow excavator blocking half the street. It was making it’s way up one side of the street, apparently using an arrowhead shaped attachment to dig up the stumps of the trees that had once lined the street. The stumps, turned upside down with roots exposed, were huge, gnarly monstrosities aligned along the road. Sometimes I wish I could see people’s roots. What is keeping them upright? Where have they drawn their strength and vitality from? Did they have to struggle to get what they needed out of life? Do their roots run deep or stretch out wide? Some people are ashamed of their roots, even though they are the basis of who we are. Our ancestors, our parents, our friends, and our faith are all parts of who w...

I was there. Yoga was some freaky, Eastern religion-type activity reserved for ninjas and hippies. It was the picture of a woman dressed in white, sitting crosslegged with her fingers forming perfect circles, a serene smile on her face while she says, “Ohmmmmmmmmm.” I’ve been a member of the Y for several years, but have never stepped foot in a yoga class. I had no desire to. If I wanted to lose weight, I was going to stick to the cardio machines and the weight room. Yoga wasn’t real exercise. Besides, I have the flexibility of a 2x4. The real yoga people would probably laugh at my weak attempts. And I refuse to wear a leotard. I did buy a DVD on ebay- Yoga Booty Ballet. Those darn infomercials! I don’t think I got through the whole session before I got fed up with “opening your heart to the sun” and other new-agey type talk. Yoga was definitely not for me. Then I met Ann. Ann has been a family friend for many years, but just started caring for my children a few y...