Say What?

Before my mom passed away, she gave me insight into what a confusing world this can be for older people. This post is not to make you sad, but to give you some perspective and maybe a laugh or two.

You’re going to have to use your imagination. Pretend you only have an understanding of what the following words meant 50 years ago. Conjure up the mental picture and see where the confusion lies.

1. I have to shut some of the windows or my machine will freeze.

2. You have to double click the mouse.

3. I need new hardware.

4. How many new messages do you have in your inbox?

5. This monitor is hurting my eyes.

6. Do you want to surf the net?

7. There’s a tower under the desk.

8. I’m going to crawl around the web.

And how about these? Many of the words wouldn’t even have made sense.

9. How many gigabytes of memory do you have?

10. I purchased a software upgrade.

11. I just googled myself.

12. I bought a computer.

TODAY’S ADVICE

6 Reasons I Would Live at Chapters

For my wonderful American readers, Chapters is the Canadian Barnes and Noble.

Today I had the amazing privilege of taking photos for one of my doula clients. That was so much fun! There is one in particular I would love to see on the cover of a book. I guess I’ll just have to write said book.

And speaking of books . . .

I can rarely go into London without visiting Chapters. I’ve often said I could live there and here’s why:

1. First, there’s the obvious. What reader/writer wouldn’t want to be surrounded by thousands of books in every genre?

2. Next, I’ve loved magazines since I was a kid. It would be great to have them close at hand too.

3. And row after row of beautiful, pristine journals. Love it. Love it. Love it.

4. Hey, they’ve even got workout equipment.

5. I’d have to snag myself a laptop to make use of the free Wi-Fi and play workout DVDs.

6. Food and beverages? Starbucks, of course.

The only things I’d need: a shower and a super comfy futon or inflatable bed. So, how about it, Chapters? Would you like to start charging rent?

Surprise!

I popped over to the public domain clipart site I use looking for a happy face to illustrate that I am looking forward to the week ahead…and there he was. I just couldn’t resist this sad little alien. (I couldn’t help but think how much my friend Janet would like this little guy. You can check out her blog here.)

Oo…I just had a great idea for next week’s Monday Motivation post over at Christian Editing Services. Nope, I’m not going to tell. That would spoil the surprise. You’ll have to stop by next Monday and check it out. (Feel free to stop by before then and see what it’s all about.)

Anyhoo, back to today’s surprise. While making plans and following through is good and all, sometimes we get sidetracked or diverted. There are times that’s not so great. At others, however, it leads in a fun, unexpected direction.

This find was serendipitous. (Isn’t that a great word?)  One of these “happy accidents” happened to my son and me just this morning. We were on our way to drop him off to catch the Robert Q for his business trip to Japan when he asked me to stop to get him a bottle of water. We pulled into the gas station right beside the inn where he was to catch the shuttle. The only thing was that he thought we were supposed to go to a different location. Wow!

As a Christian, I see these happenings as evidence of God’s grace. While I don’t pray about things like coming across alien clipart, I do know that the Lord is interested in the smallest details of our lives (like the little things that bring a smile)…and the not-so-little details (like my son being in the right place at the right time).

May your week overflow with serendipitous moments…that just might not be “accidents” after all.