Weigh In 47, 48, and 49...

The passage of time never ceases to amaze, and sometimes surprise, me.

In what seems like the blink of an eye, it has been 3 weeks since I posted on here. I feel like I was writing the post for Week #46 just yesterday.

On the other hand, 3 weeks ago seems like such a long time with respect to work. After pulling a very long week (near 100 hours including the weekend) and delivering several new things/features, it seems like it was ages ago that it all happened.

Throw in extended travel up and down the East Coast for 8 days and I'm all out of sorts when it comes to keeping track of time.

Whew! But what does that actually mean in the end? Well, for me it means that I can easily get "too busy" to keep track of everything in my life. Now, many of those things that I can't keep track of in the busy times are not important or critical and it's OK to let them drop or slide.

But what I notice about myself is that I get into a rationalization pattern where I can excuse just about anything (that I do or don't get done) based on how busy I am. Because, in the justification center of my brain, Busy = Important.

To be honest, that is not always, or even often, true. Going back to the discussion on "abiding" (See John 15:1 - 17), many times the most important things to do are the ones that aren't considered "urgent" by everyone else. I've learned (the hard way) over several years that people, in general, will typically take everything you have to give and then come back to get more. So if you are prioritizing your life and activities on what other people want, you will always be too busy for other important things.

I'm not sure who the wise person was that originally said it, but I like the quote: "Saying Yes to one thing is saying No to something else." If you say Yes to everything that comes your way with no regard to what is actually important, you will have no margin to say Yes to things that come to you later. Your dance card will be filled up by the time the main show starts. And you'll be left wondering why you can't get/have/do this other stuff.

Trust me and don't ask me how I know....

On to the part that I'm finding most people skip to anyway... :-)

I actually weighed in the morning of Aug 13 (Week #47) and the number was

231.0

Because of travel, I wasn't home to use my "official" scale for Week #48, so no number there. I will say that I kinda fell off the wagon between the Week #47 weigh in and this week so my guess is that the number would not have been one I liked for the missed week....

But, getting back on track this week, I weighed in this morning. I was very nervous to look down and see the number on the scale's display:

231.0

I felt a mix of relief and disappointment. Relief because I didn't gain weight after my "week off". Disappointment because that means, in the end, I lost 1lb in 3 weeks. That's going to be hard to overcome as I try to knock of 21 more pounds by the end of the year. Which, by the way is only 4 months from now leaving me with at least 5lbs a month. Not impossible but not easy either.

I plan to be back on track with info on fund raising, Love146.org, and #FreedomFriday next week.

See you then...

Photo credit to beggs.

Weigh In 46

I love being a dad.

I can't think of any part of it I would want to give up. My kids mean so much to me, it blows my mind to think about it sometimes. The thought of something bad happening to them literally wrecks me at times.

And that's why my heart breaks when I think about the millions of people, children and adults, who face a living hell everyday called slavery.

Slavery of any kind is unconscionable but the thought of women, men, girls, and boys being held captive and used for sex goes even further. There is something about sex slavery that makes me incredibly angry and sad all at the same time.

The thought of what one of my little girls would be going through if, God forbid, something like that ever happened... It makes me wonder about the people that are enslaved today.

A recent post on the Ms. Magazine blog gives a list of "10 Things Men and Boys Can Do to Stop Human Trafficking." There are some interesting things that the author has to say about language, pornography, strip clubs, and general behavior among men. But I think the best thing in this article is item #10 in the list: Raise sons and mentor boys to challenge oppression.

This carries over to daughters as well. Oppression is wrong regardless of gender. Unfortunately, our culture today still carries over several "Old Boy" mentalities that, perhaps inadvertently, help contribute to an environment where women can be demeaned or lessened.

As the father of 3 daughters and now a son, I take my job seriously as the leader, protector, and mentor of them. I want them to grow up to challenge oppression. To not accept it as status quo. But not only in its overt appearances. I want to them to understand it, and not accept it, even in the subtle forms.

Sometimes I do a better job at it than others. And I feel like I'm getting better each time....

Now for the numbers:

This week's weigh-in showed me:

232.0

Not a bad week's work... 22lbs to go to hit the next goal.

And, about that goal, we are still at $155 in pledges right now. We need to get to $210 to unlock the 1st bundle of matching funds. We need to get to $420 to open up the other $210 in matching funds.

If you can give any amount (even a single dollar) to support Love146.org, please let me know. Leave a comment here or email me at the address at the top of the sidebar. You can find me in twitter as well (@scbubba).

Thanks in advance for your support.

Photo credit to kwanie.