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Those Constant Things

Some things are and will always be the constants in my life, the things I know will be there when I want them to and will be the way I need them to be.

I am taking a few classes on Coursera.com, a chance to renew the liberal arts in me and make my heart explore the deep things of the soul.  Now, I am terribly behind in a couple of classes, I signed up for them before I decided to toss my hat in the ring for the school board election.  I've been spending the past three weeks recuperating from the relenting schedule, the emotional turmoil, and the complete upheaval of life that putting yourself on the public stage entails.

So it is in my recovery and renewal that I inevitably turned to the contacts in my life.  Those things that are assured to be just what my soul needed and my spirit craved.  Beyond a conversation with God and a moment with my family, it is my relationship with books and coffee where I experience the divine.

Maybe it is the writer in me, maybe it is the creative muse that yearns to break free of the chains that confine me to a routine of pickups, dinner, and laundry.  Perhaps it is that longing that had me seek out Coursera in the first place, that moment to think about existence and life, not to put another product on a shelf like my M.B.A., but to contemplate the existence of us, our purpose and being.

As the weeks have turned and it is yet another Friday and I am contemplating basketball games for my daughters and chess matches, church, and moments giving to others, it is when I look down at a pile of curated books and a cup of Ethiopian coffee that I am reassured of those constants in my life.


It may seem irrational, to those who do not know the power of ink on black, to spend one's last dime on a used book, but to me, it seems perfectly logical, to connect back to my authentic self and allow time to be quiet, to sit in my home alone, to keep the TV off, to stare at the trees, and to spend a moment with my constant friends.

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