Serve by Design

I rarely use an alarm clock except on those occasions in the middle of the night when we are trying to make a 6:00am flight out of the St. Louis airport two hours away. One of us sets the alarm feature on our smartphones to make sure we get to our destination on time. I do know there is a snooze button on some alarm clocks that can ease the pain, if only temporarily, that accompanies a two or three o’clock a.m. wake-up time. I’ve always been afraid to try that feature out! Image: Shutterstock Recently, we were dispatched to our daughter’s house to join other family members in saying goodbye to her twin sister (our other daughter!) and her family as they headed home to New Mexico. When we arrived, everyone was up and moving around awaiting the final departure. They were bathed, dressed and waiting for the pics to document the occasion. Yes, some were a little blurry eyed, but not our youngest grandson, Dawson! This boy is always good with his words. Because of his propensity for story...

Just the other day, a busy professional at church lamented to me in our conversation, “I’m not sure I have the bandwidth to take on another responsibility right now!” I wanted to interrupt, “How did I not get the memo on this?” I fashion myself as a humble writer and wordsmith and I am always on the lookout for another new word. Yet, I had just heard a word that I thought I knew used in a completely different way! Fiber Optic Technology Credit: freepik.com This is not the first time that I have been blindsided about the “definitional drifting” of certain words. I remember several years ago how a college-aged son had asked me, “Dad, do you know what “issues” are?” I answered, “I think so. Like political or social issues in society?” “No,” he replied. “I mean like she or he has issues! You know, as in personal, psychological issues.” I could only reply, “Well, that’s interesting. I haven’t heard it used like that!” Well, thanks to that businessman, I now have another word, bandwidth, t...

I had a delightful experience this week standing at my front door and looking at the pots of petunias that I had planted back in the spring. They were doing fairly well even after the stresses of this summer's dry spells. While enjoying the vibrancy of their assorted colors, I looked more closely at the dozens of blooms and immediately noticed a hummingbird busily working to harvest the abundance of nectar. It was an amazing lesson in productivity! Image Credit: unspash.com Did you know that there are over three hundred and sixty species of hummingbirds in North America? These ambitious little creatures are known for their intelligence, spatial memory, geographic predictability, and even social interactions with humans. With skill and dexterity, they hover over and alongside the trumpet and tubular-shaped flowers of our neighborhoods while using their elongated beaks to draw out nectar and small insects as a food source. In addition to resourcing the flowers for food, they are also...