Fope's Blog

Pride isn't always big and grand or loud. And I think this subtle kind has to be the worst. It's the kind that makes me see her mismatched eyebrows before I see her. It's also the kind that makes me hang on so much to the error in the order of his words, that I end up missing the point of what he was saying. Sharp, critical tongue.  That's what Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth calls it. On some days I call it telling it as it is, on other days I sandwich it between cozy good words. But that's like handing someone a blade sandwich; nicely cushioning the blades between bread doesn't make it less cruel. A sharp, critical tongue is one way to show pride, but there's also the habit of interrupting people mid-speech, the need to control outcomes, and  whole list  you can self-diagnose against. Photo credit:  ~Momma B~  via  Foter.com  /  CC BY-NC- I haven't quite nailed it yet, so this isn't a here's my "victory over pride" self-help...

I had this idea to write what I'd like to have experienced by the end of 2017 now. They're not quite detailed goals for the year, but rather, some overall themes to hold myself to in the months to come. So here I am, actually sticking to one of the many things I've resolved to do this year: turning more ideas into actions. I remember 2016 in two parts: the first was January to March - incredibly strange periods of my life, lots of acting out of character; then the other part was October to December - trying to stuff in a year's worth of personal achievements into the last few moments. I don't really remember much of the middle. So in 2017, there'll be a lot of this - writing. Not just in a journal tucked away somewhere safe, but here too, out in the world for the days when I can't remember the meaning of all the code messages I've embedded in my journal for secrecy sake (ironic right? I too cannot deal with myself sometimes). There'll also be...