This isn’t because I’m trying to sell something or because I get anything from your comments.

Except one thing: a tiny piece of community.

I love the thought that I can post a thought, or something silly or useful that I come across, or a piece of my life…

…and you can respond

…and people can respond to you

And we can all learn from each other and make each other’s day go by a little more enjoyably!

Steph will tell you that one of my pet peeves is when I discover that someone regularly reads about our life, but never comments.

And it happens all the time.

My mom will run into someone at the grocery store, and everything she tries to share, the answer is, “Oh I know. I read it on their website.” And she’ll tell me the next time I see her and I’ll think “Really? They know I have a blog? They know I still exist? I wonder why they never leave a trace.”

If you come around every once in a while to see what’s up, why don’t you check in and let us know you came by? That way, this can be a useful tool that works both ways.

And now, you can even get followup comments via email, so you know what other people are saying.

Check it out!

This time last year, Steph and I were in Stone Ridge, NY. We went for a wedding, but as a birthday gift for Steph, we stayed a couple extra days at a bed and breakfast called the 1712 House.

Steph took this photo while we drove around exploring. We saw the most beautiful fall colors that I have ever seen!

This photo somewhat captures where I’ve been lately…

I recently received some strange encouragement. Strange because of how it was packaged… and delivered. But in the end, God used it to help me realize that just as I need to take steps to avoid being too busy physically, I also need to take steps to avoid being too busy mentally.

In an information age with tools and resources like the internet, twitter, facebook, google news, cnn, npr, podcasts, blogs, youtube… there is so much information available that it can make for somewhat of an information addiction. And not only that, but it’s really distracting from the still, small voice of God.

It has its place, to be sure. Steph and I don’t have any kind of TV (besides the thing we use to watch movies), so these things can help me stay connected to the world. And to be honest, they usually help my work day go by a little faster. Things like Twitter and facebook are just fun!

But if I don’t realize what’s happening, these tools also leave me diminished. I see that this person bought a new one of these, and that person now has a problem with this leader, and I listened to that sermon which got me to thinking about that relationship, and that story about the economy really left me with a nervous feeling…

And it can all add up and leave you exhausted… and too tired to even think about what God might be saying.

So… I made some small adjustments:

• less coffee: OK. I’m not ready to totally give it up right now, but all things in moderation. Staying totally wired on caffeine feeds this whole unhealthy cycle.
• stop following a lot of folks: I cleaned out my twitter account. I now only follow the folks who are either encouraging to me, or just plain fun. Those folks who tweet every new thing that happens or every cool thing they buy or whatever… I’ll pass.
• change my homepage: Google news is gone. Just plain old search engine now. And the crazy thing is, I no longer spend 15 minutes getting freaked out about the world every time I open firefox!
• don’t be part of someone else’s addiction: I am now more careful about what I contribute to the social networking world. If it isn’t edifying, personal, or just plain really funny, I don’t want to distract you with it.

Can anybody relate?

Am I the only one who gets this like 3 out of 4 times I try to do something on twitter?