Janaury 29, 2005

I don't want to start...
I don't want to start working on my messy sewing room/office. It’s such a pit right now. We've used it as the dumping ground for all the flotsam and jetsam from the rest of the house as we repair, paint and clean. I really do have to start on it, however. This room is all painted and repaired, it’s only a matter of keeping it clean. I had a discussion with my friend, Gerrie, about it. We've gone through an intense emotional firestorm of self-discovery together. It started with the book, CO-DEPENDANT NO MORE by Melody Beattie. We've since done Bible studies, read other books on self-help, relationships, cleaning up your lives and working to change your attitudes and perspectives. Suffice to say its a never-ending process to improve yourself, your relationship with God and your interaction with the people around you.This is one of the areas I need to work on - keeping things manageably clean. I have a tendency to let things go until they are nearly beyond redemption and then go in and tackle it all over a period of days and clean from top to bottom. It looks great for 2-3 days, then the mess insidiously starts creeping in again. Somewhere there is a happy medium and I plan to find it .In other news, my brother who is stationed in Korea called this morning. He was surprised to learn that I've been to that part of Korea 20 odd years ago. We talked about the differences and the changes. It sounds like the changes are NOT for the better there. The poverty is appalling, he says. Not the Korea I remember. There was poverty, of course, but not on the scale he's saying now. Times change. I am sad to hear it. Korea stands out as one of the neat places I visited way back when I was world-traveling. Their ruins and temples were incredibly beautiful and well-kept. The people themselves were friendly and likable. I suppose their tense situation with the other Korea is compounding the problems. I'm trying to stay away from political arguments and controversial issues in this journal. There are plenty out there that people read and respond to routinely. You can get into a discussion or argument about anything on the Internet. Rather than take a stand on issues here I've decided to keep my journal as ordinary as possible. Maybe even boring to some folk. There's a passage Gerrie and I quote to each other often, one we had to learn very painfully...1 Thessalonians 4:11 - "And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands..." Its a philosophy of sorts. We are learning to do all three of those things. Especially the "minding our own business" one. One person can't save the world. But one person can affect the people and the community around them. Minding my own business starts at home. The same place that charity starts.