Daily Connector | A Silver Lining | Marlene Suter
I consider myself an optimistic person, so when challenging circumstances come my way, I try to find the ‘silver linings’. They’re almost always there, and noticing them helps me feel more grounded and hopeful in troubled times. I’m grateful that I’ve been spared most of the hardships of the pandemic. Since I’m retired, my life hasn’t changed that much, except that all the group activities and social events I enjoyed have been canceled. I miss seeing friends, but I don’t miss being busy. A break in the action has been one of those silver linings. One of the activities of my life that I miss the most are the bi-monthly gatherings of the Piecemakers. I miss spending the day doing important and soul-nurturing work, making comforters for refugees, with a great group of people. I miss greeting people as they come
Daily Connector | Technical Debt | Tim Armstrong
In software, we have a nasty, hidden source of problems called technical debt. Tech debt is the work left undone at time of delivery; when something is done quickly or cosmetically rather than correctly. In the short term, customers love software accruing tech debt because it means they get their features faster. Sometimes software seems slow and buggy: When Juli and I moved into our house in Grandview, the yard appeared neat and well mulched. Strangely, I had a hard time getting things to grow. When I planted the first set of garden beds, I started to find the yard’s “tech debt” in grapefruit-sized rocks, plastic, broken glass, buried fence posts and my new enemy – landscape fabric. Weed barrier is a better name for this stuff because it only lets weeds grow, not flowers or vegetables. Roots can’t get through the cloth, but weeds don’t need much in terms
Daily Connector | Blessing in the Chaos | Submitted by Lavonne vander Zwaag
“Blessing in the Chaos” by Jan Richardson To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence. Let there be a calming of the clamoring, a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you, that have made their home in you, that go with you even to the holy places but will not let you rest, will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you. Let what distracts you cease. Let what divides you cease. Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans, and let depart all that keeps you in its cage. Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm. Used with permission.https://paintedprayerbook.com/2012/01/24/epiphany-4-blessing-in-the-chaos/ and The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times
Daily Connector | Getting some fresh air | Erin Kelty
I have spent more time outside in the past 3 months than perhaps in the past 15 years. As a kid I played outside all day every day and could go a week without putting on a pair of shoes. I don’t remember any exact moment of transformation, but somehow I became an adult who doesn’t like the feeling of grass on my ankles and prefers air conditioning to the way my house smells with the windows open (I’ve heard this termed “fresh air”). Will took his first steps in March just a few days before the start of the quarantine, so as our adult world became a little smaller his expanded dramatically. Watching him explore and scrutinize every rock, stick, and leaf that crosses our path has helped reignite my imagination and the inspiration I used to draw from the outdoors.
Daily Connector | Summer, not normal | Jenny Campagna
There is no normal it seems to me with COVID19 and the next thing coming, whatever it may be. This week it is protests and violent police response as the dearth of national leadership is again spotlighted. In my mental health/grief interview with Mark, I talked of imagining fireflies of disappointment, how they keep flickering in our peripheral visions. So many cancellations for ourselves and our loved ones. So much of feeling separate, out of touch, alone. I was not nervous prior to talking with Mark but then felt so disconnected and exposed afterward. I thought about Liz Avendano. I try to pick an anchor person when I am singing in church, in regular times. One Sunday I had an emotional song and thought, I better choose wisely. I don’t want to fall apart up here. So, I chose the even, calm, lovely Liz. When I began to sing, she
