"...attention -which derives from the Latin for "Stretch toward" - we cannot go deeply in thought and relation As a result attention is our most essential stepping stone to happiness but now I realize that happiness comes from complicated rhythms ...and it comes and goes...it's not a state of being that once reached, sticks...

...And controlling our powers of attention is crucial to steering our fate."
- Maggie Jackson author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the coming Dark Age

again on duality idea

Someone asked - education (information) changes things - good or bad?

I am thinking about that today - of course there is a quick answer!

One of the things I have been learning lately is really something I have known pretty much all a long...that we are all, everyone of us, just a jar of clay...a vessel housing/holding, a soul/self, that is capable of both acts of goodness and acts of "meanness". Several years ago a friend told me the best advice she has ever received came from her soon to be father-in-law on her wedding day. It was:" Look for the "goodness" in this man you are marrying - everyday - not just this day of light but each of the days to follow. There will be days when that is hard to see but look for it anyway."

I have been learning about "duality" in our natures. Paul (Bible) talks about those things he wishes to do he doesn't do and those things he wishes not to do he does do... . He's not advocating for that - just being honest. We all have those moments we wish we could take back. We all have those moments we wish others would take back! John Eldredge (author - The Sacred Romance) calls these moments arrows that pierce our hearts and scar our souls. My pastor recently made the comment (in passing really, but it stuck with me) that our name is written in Jesus' wounds ... at the time I thought "My name is in His wounds - He did that for me...I should write His name in my wounds - He wants to do that for me too." By His stripes we are healed.

I am a person like that - that person of duality. I would like to do right. The truth is I would really like everyone around me to do right! I don't want to make allowances for anyone else to be anything less than at their best at all times! And then there are days when I kick myself around because I wasn't/am not at my best all the time! I think it is interesting that Jesus wasn't judgemental ... I think He knew/knows that we are all "deficient" in this area...we all want to do right...but sometimes that is not the reality of our actions. I love this days note in "My Utmost for His Highest" ... among other ideas it expresses this one: "Our Lord calls us to no special work - He calls us to Himself"...and he will engineer your circumstances to send you out as his laborer".

I am glad that He doesn't judge me for being "less than" some - okay - all days. I don't see that as a pass to run amok ... I see that as an example to not hold it against others who are in the same boat as I. I am also hoping that something good can come of these days that God has given me. That my "stinkerness" [<- those arrows I have shot ->] will be more and more conformed to what He has in mind for me. I am also hoping that I can let Him remove some of the arrows that I have received.

"God took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance, and the scandal of grace involves a transfer of that risk to us."
~Philip Yancey
"God's arms are always extended; we are the ones who turn away."
~Philip Yancey

perspective

Where/how you sit in the airplane needs to be consistent - so that your picture is consistent - so that the results you get can start to be consistent. Pretty simple, yet widely overlooked.

I flew a lot of hours before someone (thatCFI) pointed that out. He helped me figure out how to fit the plane. Minor adjustments. Major results. Now I have put that idea in to my ground school lecture - it's part of the airport environment...can't talk about how the runway looks without addressing how you look at it from your seat in the cockpit. I have had student's tell me that they didn't realize the seat had an up/down adjustment. No one has told them that the back can be tilted forward ... I can see how one might assume they know that but some of 'em don't! I've started getting feedback on that idea that I was able to pass along. It's helping people.

You may need the right kind of glasses to improve how you receive information - I did. My contacts were just not providing optimal correction for the flight environment. Now I wear glasses and it has made a difference. (yeah - same instructor pointed that out)

Wouldn't it be great if I could get my spiritual perspective to be consistent? Wouldn't it be amazing if I could keep an accurate picture...see things quickly as God wants me to see them. Wouldn't that also yield major results?

(1312Z 13007 5 300OVC 17/16 29.97 RMK:LTNG data missing -yeah all runways open today.)


In instrument training we learn to "trust the instruments" ... "go on the instruments". When you can't get accurate information or the necessary information because you're not in visual conditions it's all about believing and responding appropriately to the information available inside the plane. That is a whole different topic that I'm not going to today ... . The point is sometimes in the flight environment we can receive accurate info from what is going on around us - outside the plane, other times we have to gather accurate information from within, usually the information that I need to fly well is a combination of the two sources - I check outside against inside. I am working on moving my eyes faster - better - back and forth - in and out. My scan had gotten "rusty". It was good when I was using it - then I stopped using it - the scan - and it "deteriorated". Same thing happens in our lives I think. Sometimes we just don't see right - can't see, won't see, can't look,etc. - or we interpret our information incorrectly. We believe truths that are half truths or flat out lies and it hurts us.

I'm not gonna fly today. I have laundry going(I am so thankful for my good washing machine and dryer!)...ironing board is up and ready...dishes going...mopped yesterday but the bathrooms need some love...it's raining now...need to make my bed and tidy the den...later I will treat myself to a review on high altitude ops and I want to find those verses in the Bible about - I'm gonna do that now so I can save that here -

this wasn't what I was looking for - but it's good to find:
2Peter 1:5-9
faith+goodness,goodness+knowledge, k+self-control, s-c+perseverance, p+ godliness, g+brotherly kindness, bk+love. If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in you knowledge...but if you do not have them you are nearsighted and blind - forgetting that you have been "redeemed".

well - I can't find it and I need to get going on my work now.

This weather is a mess!!

Sunday night thankful for ...

1.My CD collection - I like music
2.Ability to pursue my desire to teach people how to fly.
3.Time to hold a baby - that baby with the smile.
4.That student who left at spring break last year because he was messing himself up - he called out of the blue this week to tell me he had completed his license...I am thankful that he knew I would care about that.
5.For the people that I have let in to my life - and the realization that they have all become a part of who I've become.
6.My new book - My Utmost for His Highest - good
7.How nice my clean safe house smells - I'm thinking about those mother's who smell war.
8.Cold water (to drink) - hot water for my shower!
9."Five" reading over my shoulder offering excellent grammatical review.
10. New plan to fret about stuff only from 10pm to 10:15pm - so If I start feeling "pissy" during the day I can just save it for that block instead of messing up the day.

11. bonus round - I guess I'm feeling extra thankful tonight - Especially thankful for HGs comment on when I don't know what or how to think about something - ask God to think about it ... some stuff is important - too important to just blow off but too big or maybe too painful for me to wrap my head around. It's not that I don't want to think about it and try to make it better - it's that maybe I can't make it better. Sometimes stuff doesn't get better - sometimes you just gotta agree not to poke each other or hope for stuff that might not happen ... well I guess I'm trying to say some of this stuff is just so tangled up that only God can make it right...and me thinking about it doesn't help. So that's the big idea this week - I do what I can do and leave the big thinking to God.