Above all else

If you were a teenager in the 80s, you might, like me, have read the massively popular Dragonlance series, which you may recall, included the anti-hero Raistlin.  This tragic character was described as having hourglass eyes, which constantly see the wearing effects of time on others, which must have been a serious bummer.  I don't know about hourglass eyes, but "lao hua" eyes was definitely a thing for me this year.  I've been frustrated by how, if I hold the mobile phone too near the text gets all blurry, but if I hold it further away, the text is then too small! Hourglass eyes or not, another year has passed.  It has been a Good Year.  I am grateful!  As many of my friends know, each year I write down a list of life goals centred around 3 main themes - myself, my family, and my work/ministry.  I'm happy I managed to hit the target of 25 blogs (in fact, with this entry, I reach 30 :)), do my daily devotionals, run 4 half-marathons, that my kids ...

I am blessed to have a good partnership with my wife.  She takes care of the finances and makes sure the bills get paid.  She plans the schedule for each day - who needs to be where at what time, and how to get there.  I sort of just follow the schedule, go to work, and play with the kids at home :D  On holidays, we swop roles.  I plan where we go, what we do, and how to get there, and she gets to sit back and follow along! I have friends and colleagues who do everything themselves, or independently of their spouses, and I sometimes wonder - how do they do that?!  Or perhaps more pertinently, why would they?!  But to be fair, my wife and I place a huge premium on living efficiently, and minimising overlap in our responsibilities.  Not everyone needs to choose to live this way, and there can be very good reasons why some things are done independently. But make no mistake, life can be overwhelming.  Work, stress, finances, kids, parents...