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Silver Boxes with Bows on Top
The 18th Century preacher, John Wesley, dressed sharp in his day. One Sunday morning he wore a bow tie with long ribbons that hung down. After his sermon, a lady approached him and asked if he was open to some criticism. He said, “I guess so.” She said, "The ribbons on your tie are too long and inappropriate for a man of God." And she took out her scissors and cut them. A hush fell over the crowd. Then Wesley asked to borrow the scissors. As she handed him the scissors, he asked, "Ma’am, are you open to some criticism?" She answered, "Well, I suppose.” He said, "Good. Now stick…
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How You Handle the Jolie-Pitt Split Actually Matters
I was at the checkout counter of a pharmacy when I first saw the design on the back of Angelina Jolie’s gown and veil. The drawings of her and Brad Pitts’s children had been stitched into her custom wedding dress by the master tailor at Atelier Versace. I stood stunned. She had put children’s sketches into a Versace dress. A Versace! The next time I gathered with my friends, our conversation quickly made its way to the Jolie-Pitt union. We laughed. We shared our disappointment. We wanted the Jolie-Pitt wedding to wow us, but our celebrity stalking left us underwhelmed. Our chatter never covered the union of two people. This…
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The Tapeworm Gallery: Empty
Your Bible is just where I like it—on your nightstand covered in dust. You have power to make me flee. Yet you never do. What I want most of yours He won’t let me have. So I’ll settle for your time and attention. You make it so easy I can hardly take credit for it, though. By the way, your nail polish is chipping again. And time to redo the extensions on those perfectly normal eyelashes. Because every forty-year-old woman deserves the dark lush lashes of a teenager. Who cares what Mark says? They look natural to me. Besides, letting a non-medically trained kid approach your…
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Toxic Shock at Work
A friend of mine recently told me of the change in her work environment that happened with the addition of one female co-worker. Just one. Female. Assistant. What was once a team-oriented, respect-and-support-each-other work climate went toxic—because of the influence of one woman. Ms. Toxic’s continual gossiping about the other women and backbiting created “toxic shock” in a matter of 3-4 weeks! How does that happen? From the moment she stepped into her new job, Ms. Toxic began targeting her fellow administrative personnel (mainly women) with harsh criticism. The rest of her work team didn’t know what to do. They were in shock. No one had done this before in…
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Cleaning up, again!
It’s that time again. Monday, trash day. This week it fell my job to roll our large trash bin to the curb anticipating an early morning visit from the rumbling truck with it’s robotic arms ready to clasp my trash to it’s bosom. I had just been reading about spiritual disciplines and the ancient practice called “Examen of Conscience.” As I journeyed out the driveway rolling my trash bin I was struck with some amazing parallels. Every week, without fail, we clear out the wastebaskets, kitchen garbage, and other unnecessary things around the house dumping them with abandon, ready for our faithful garbage collectors. But I wonder, am I as…
