One of these might be a pretty good dessert after one of these! What do you think?

Somebody help me out here…sometime in the last week or so, I know I read a post somewhere about including more women in our blogrolls. Was it Tom Peters? Was it one of the “emerging church” folks? Who and where was it?

And while we’re at it…I’m looking to do just that…add some links to blogs from a woman’s perspective…any good links?

Link to Mike Shea’s website…

I found these quotes over there this morning…

One reason I like writing by hand is it slows me down a little, but it also forces me to keep going: I’m never going to spend half a day noodling with a sentence to try and get it just right, if I’m using a pen. I’ll do all that when I start typing.

It slows you down. It makes you think about each word as you write it, and it also gives you more of a chance so that you’re able– the sentences compose themselves in your head. It’s like hearing music, only it’s words. But you see more ahead because you can’t go as fast.

I love music. All kinds. Well, almost all kinds…

Last night and into today, I’m in a jazz mood. On the way home from two funeral homes last night, I was listening to the local jazz station and they featured some Jim Pearce and Rene Marie. So I went hunting this morning, and found that Rene Marie has an “artist radio channel” on Musicmatch. (I’m listening to her rendition of “A Foggy Day” right now!) And I found Jim Pearce’s cd samples as well.

Why jazz? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the uniquely American music. Maybe it’s like Donald Miller said, “It doesn’t resolve.” Maybe it’s the treatment of the standards, the “great American songbook.” Who knows?

I think perhaps when all is said and done, it’s the way that good jazz musicians interact with one another and the music. They improvise. They have give-and-take. Sometimes they lead. Sometimes they follow. Sometimes they push their way to the front to make their contribution. Sometimes they fall into the background to accompany the current leader. Sometimes they play off of what the others are doing. Sometimes they do their own thing together. They color inside and outside the lines while staying within the boundaries of the melody or the chord progression. Sometimes they head out, a little past the boundaries, stubbornly beckoning the others to come along for the ride, exploring new territory.

Maybe the reason I like jazz is because it is – because of all those reasons and more – a great metaphor for life and leadership, especially in these “different” times in which we find ourselves.

This afternoon, I stopped by the home of one of our women whose mother died yesterday. This woman writes a column in the local paper, she loves “all things book” like I do, and she is the source of much wit and wisdom. We argue about politics and other things. We agree with each other on important issues like the spelling of “y’all.” She has become one of my favorite people in the world.

Anyway, as I was talking to her husband, the mailman pulled up and delivered the mail. One conversation led to another (she said that both she and her husband tend to hog the available audience!) and I found myself in their basement, looking over some great, gorgeous bookcases he had made with the old windows they had replaced. But I digress…

In a few minutes, my friend came down to the basement with a small package and a look of giddy excitement. She showed us a handmade leather journal, that came accompanied by a note. The note described the impact of a column on journaling my friend had written some months before. The letter writer’s husband – himself a long-time journaler – had learned to make these very cool books. They sent along the journal as a token of their esteem for my friend and her column.

Now, as regular readers of this little space know, I am hooked on my Moleskine. But this book…wow!

Picture Indiana Jones’s father’s “Grail Diary,” and you’ll get the idea…

If she reads this – and she’s one of the few of my church folks who do – she now has no excuse not to start that journal she encouraged others to start.

The December 26 tsunami in south Asia was – and continues to be – devastating beyond anyone’s imagination. At the risk of sounding calloused and cynical, I’ve had it up to about right here with those who are now using this serious and unimaginable situation to complain about how stingy the American people are. And those who are moaning and whining about how sorry and rotten and out-of-touch the President is, blah blah blah, ad infinitum ad nauseum…

When it all shakes out, we as American citizens will have given the large majority of disaster aid, through our government (which is, by the way, right out of our private pockets!) but mostly through private charitable and faith-based organizations. We will do that, not because we’re any better than anyone else in the world, but because we are a decent and caring people, who have always tried to look out for those who find themselves in difficult and tragic circumstances.

Check out what Kevin Salwen wrote over at Worthwhile…

Do we ever give as much as we should? No. But a society in which 81 percent of people donate to charity each year and 57 percent volunteer isn’t worth all the handwringing we’re getting now.

Right on the money, from where I’m sitting. Oh, and speaking of money…I’ve sent some extra to help out the tsunami victims and their families. Hope you have, too…

No, not that kind! More of an internal thing in our church’s culture.

Back at the first of December 04, I had a long, productive Friday alone in the office. I read, I prayed, and most of all, I listened to God. I sensed Him telling me that we need to change the culture – the things we value – in our church. I listed five values we need to have in place:

I believe God is calling us to develop, maintain, and share…
~A Culture of Excellence
~A Culture of Engagement (with Him, with each other, and with our world)
~A Culture of Enthusiasm
~A Culture of Encouragement
~A Culture of Expectancy

I shared this from my heart with our few folks last night. It was probably one of the most passionate and powerful messages I’ve taught in a long time. It seemed as though I had re-discovered my “voice,” even as my physical voice was on empty. I woke up this morning with a new sense of purpose. And immediately, I got to walk the walk, after talking the talk. I have had an opportunity to “live out” some aspect of every single one of those values I talked about last night.

A pretty neat day, after a lot of long, dry rides through Ulcer Gulch…

You know, a re-start, kind of a CTRL-ALT-DEL for your life, a mulligan, if you will. What would be different? What would be the same? Would you have gotten so caught up in the things that really don’t matter, while ignoring or neglecting the things that ultimately do? How would you decide which ones were which?

Fred Peatross shares his heart about what he would do if he could start over.

I know it’s not possible to really start over. And if I’m brutally honest, I imagine I’d do the same stupid stuff the second time around. I wouldn’t have learned from my mistakes and mishaps. But while we can’t go back to Square One, we can determine that beginning today, we will be different.

Kenneth Christian wrote in Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement

…there is seldom a real advantage to deferring change to some future time. It is never too late to begin. Does it make sense to spend the rest of your life in mediocrity because you waited to get started?

I saw this quote in Tom Peters’s blog – his Resolution #1 for NY2005…

Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.

Nobody indeed. Well, nobody but…yeah, you know who…

Sometime today, based on the site stats for this humble attempt at a blog, the 2000th visitor will click on Just Charlie. Now, that’s 2000 since I started using the current site meter.

I know that’s nothing compared to folks like everyone’s favorite Canadian or everyone’s favorite Canadian’s favorite London-based New Zealander. But it’s still amazing to me that a couple of thousand times, people – whom I know, whom I don’t know, whom I’d like to know – have checked in to see what interests me at the moment. And in turn, I can check in with them and see what’s on their minds and hearts. And in the process, I grow and become more what God intended for me to be, learning all the way. Amazing!

At any rate, if you happen to be Number 2000, well who knows? You might get the big prize or something…

Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for sharing your hearts. Thanks for being gentle in your assessment. Thanks for the encouragement. Thanks for the “hmmmms” and “ahas”.

Devastation. There’s just no other word to describe the effects of the massive earthquake and tsunamis in south Asia. We can help…

Southern Baptists are mobilizing to provide aid.

Our United Methodist friends are helping.

So is World Vision.

The Red Cross is active.

Franklin Graham’s organization

I’m sure there are other groups that are doing things for the people of Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the aftermath of perhaps the worst natural disaster in history. It’s important that we all find avenues of channeling our support. If you know of other good aid organizations, let us know.

Most importantly, we all need to pray for these people in this time.