Lab Girl

Excerpts:

"... being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life." p. 29

Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado

Excerpts from Max Lucado's book Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

"And how many disasters have been averted because one person refused to buckle under the strain? It is this composure Paul is summoning in the first of a triad of proclamations. 'Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything' (Phil. 4:5-6 NIV).

The Greek word translated here as gentleness (epieikes) describes a temperament that is seasoned and mature. It envisions an attitude that is fitting to the occasion, levelheaded and tempered. The gentle reaction is one of steadiness, evenhandedness, fairness. It 'looks humanely and reasonably at the facts of a case.' Its opposite would be an overreaction or a sense of panic." 

"... the gentle person is sober-minded and clear thinking. Contagiously calm. 

The contagiously calm person is the one who reminds others, 'God is in control." p. 69

"be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God (Phi. 4:6). 

With this verse the apostle calls us to take action against anxiety. Until this point he has been assuring us of God's character: his sovereignty, mercy, and presence. Now it is our turn to act on this belief. We choose prayer over despair. Peace happens when people pray." p. 82

"Look at your blessings. Do you see any friends? Family? Do you see any grace from God? The love of God? Do you see any gifts? Abilities or talents? Skills?

As you look at your blessings, take note of what happens. Anxiety grabs his bags and slips out the back door. Worry refuses to share the heart with gratitude. One heartfelt thank-you will suck the oxygen out of worry's world. So say it often. Focus more on what you do have and less on what you don't." p. 95

"You needn't be a fisherman to experience a perfect storm. All you need is a layoff plus a recession. A disease plus a job transfer. A relationship breakup plus a college rejection. We can handle one challenge... but two or three at a time? One wave after another, gale forces followed by thunderstorms? It's enough to make you wonder, Will I survive?

Paul's answer to that question is profound and concise. 'The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:7).

As we do our part (rejoice in the Lord, pursue a gentle spirit, pray about everything, cling to gratitude), God does his part. He bestows upon us the peace of God.  Note, this is not a peace from God. Our Father gives us the very peace of God. He downloads the tranquility of the throne room into our world, resulting in an inexplicable calm. We should be worried, but we aren't. We should be upset, but we are comforted. The peace of God transcends all logic, scheming, and efforts to explain it." p. 103

"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything" 

"The phrase 'fruitless and fret filled' describes too many of us. We don't want it to. We long to follow Paul's admonition: 'Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise" (Phil. 4:8 NLT). p. 132

"Gratitude keeps us focused on the present." p. 148

"The mind cannot at the same time be full of God and full of fear." p. 161

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17 NIV). 

"A specific prayer is 'a serious prayer' and an opportunity for us to see God at work," and it 'creates a lighter load.' 

Consider your anxieties. Do you bring them, specifically, to God in prayer?

If yes, how? If no, how might you do this?

Prayer takes discipline and dedication. It takes effort to make the time, and it takes belief to be consistent. If we don't believe that God is hearing us or that he cares, our determination to pray will quickly fade. 

'Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you' (I Peter 5:6-7). 

Notice, this verse does not ask you to forget or set side your anxieties. It acknowledges that your anxieties are real. Instead of pushing them aside, you are putting them literally on God. He tells you to transfer the burden from yourself to him. 

Determine a time each day when you will choose to list your anxieties (like giving yourself time to worry). Physically fold up the list and place it somewhere (in a basket, drawer, etc.). When you start to feel anxious, remember that you have placed your burdens on God for the day.

Hold God to his word, and ask him to do that which he has already said he would do in your life." p. 179

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" Matthew 11:28-30 NLT p. 180

Is the source of your anxiety true?
Has it become a reality, or is it something that might happen?
If it hasn't happened, don't dwell on it! 

On the other hand, if the source of your anxiety is a reality, make a list of other truths that are good. These things are just as true as the mountain you face. p. 189

In everything God works for the good of those who love him. - Romans 8:28 NCV

He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord! - Isaiah 26:3 TLB p. 204

Gratitude 3 September 2018

Cooked a healthy lunch
Ran, walked, biked
Talked to Amber
Wesley stopped by to see us
Read a book on the porch
Cool breezes
Tracked all food and exercise in My Fitness Pal app
Worked out my arms
Stuck to an inner expectation
Saw a new baby deer
Laughed
Cheese and tortilla chip snack
Curled up in each other's arms on the couch; feel asleep curled up together

Excerpt from The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Gratitude 16 July 2017

Notes on MG regional conference.

Completed a report by the deadline.

Reviewed, edited and sent article to newspaper with photos.

Talked with contractor. House ceiling in kitchen and living room gone.

Repairs being made.

Attorney sent paperwork. 

Gratitude 14 - 15 July 2018

Sick most of the weekend.
Thankful I was able to stay home and rest, sleep often and not use a workday.
On Saturday, watched the movie Love in the Afternoon with Audrey Hepburn.
Ate cookie dough ice cream.
On Sunday, went to the market to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables.
Stocked up on items from the grocery store.
Made a nice ramen noodle dish with fresh ginger and green onions.
Went to bed early.

Gratitude 11 July 2018

Brian and I ate icecream straight out of the cartons because we could
Fish fillets, broccoli and pasta salad for dinner

Gratitude 12 July 2018

Ran 2 miles
Biked the loop 3 times
Good workout with Brian
Master Chef and Hell and Back
Frozen pizza with tomatoes for the win!

Gratitude 13 July 2018

Worked remotely
Time with pets before work
Field trip meeting, scheduled website training, worked on conference, planned Cuba webinar
Looks like I'll get to go to Cuba this year!
Mai tais with friends
Night-time golf cart ride around Davis Islands
Laughter

The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want by

Article

Key points:

• ID conflicting wants

• Quite often a reasonable, achievable, and worthwhile desire goes unpursued because we have a simultaneous desire to not pursue it. 

• When we say something is “impossible” or “too hard” or “not in the cards,” that’s a clue.

• Here’s a shortcut: the conflicting want is usually a desire to avoid discomfort, which is always a risk with new things. So check for that. I’m convinced that nothing buys us more in life than the willingness to explore discomfort.

• Start with the most direct, straightforward method. Make that your starting point.

• Before you start getting antsy about the hard parts, imagine how you’d go about your task if you had no fears and unlimited tolerance for discomfort. [Here’s a great Steve Pavlina article on doing exactly that.]

• Then notice how the escape-artist part of the mind jumps in, trying to modify this sensible, proven plan to make it 
  somehow easy or painless. This is the conflicting desire to avoid discomfort and uncertainty.
• If you catch yourself trying to plan your achievement in a way that completely avoids discomfort, then your real aspiration has won out, and you need to ask yourself whether you’re serious about your Himalayan trek or seven-figure business. 
• The farther your plan deviates from established “best practices” (i.e. how the people who actually achieve your goal tend to do it), the more likely it is that you don’t actually intend to do it.
• It’s possible (but unlikely) that the most straightforward plan isn’t appropriate for your particular situation, and needs modification. But be honest with yourself about whether that’s true, and expect to your mind to try to find a “free lunch” approach at least once during the planning process.

• Adjust course as needed (but only as needed)

• Am I following the plan?  
• — If not, follow the plan. (This is most likely the problem.)
• Everything is easier said than done of course, but that doesn’t mean getting what you want entails anything more complex than continually moving towards the wanted thing, the best you currently know how, adjusting course as needed.
• But it’s our conflicting desire for predictability and comfort that is the real invisible fence. Here’s the big secret of getting what you want, as it seems to me: All of us can do incredible things, but the more incredible the thing in question, the more we will simultaneously want to not do it, out of a craving for comfort and certainty.
• We’re fearful creatures after all, with an evolutionary impulse to cling to virtually any tolerable status quo, no matter how dull or crappy it is.
• But once we take that reality on board—that fear and uncertainty always come along for the ride in any worthwhile endeavor—it becomes simple. Not easy, but simple. You decide what you want and just do the next thing. And if you don’t know what the next thing is, the next thing is to figure out the next thing.

• The odd thing about risk is that we think it’s avoidable if we just stay with the familiar and comfortable. Opportunity costs aside, we’re still experiencing all sorts of unseen risks anyway. But we’re deeply conditioned to hesitate before the unknown.
• That’s the essence of buddhism right there — the middle way between all-out renunciation and all-out indulgence. That discernment takes awareness, because often we don’t even recognize the presence of wanting.
• highly recommend the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck — she outlines the exact mechanism behind that particular mindset towards effort and reward, and gives you an alternative, wherein you recognize the reward (of personal growth) in the effort itself, regardless of extrinsic rewards or other people involved. 
• We can also be reasonably sure that avoiding hard choices and new experiences is probably going to create some of the worse outcomes.
• I would say that whenever we’re avoiding something it’s out of a sense of aversion or discomfort. In any case it does come down to a moment in which the sensible thing is in front of us, and there’s a choice to be made.

Gratitude 10 July 2018

Breakfast with Amber
Discovered a new diner
Strong coffee
Bicycle ride around the park
Ran over an armadillo while riding my bike
Clarity from a fight
A clean car
Engaging podcasts
Cool, comfortable bed
Loving pets
Drywall repair hope

168 Hours You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

There's little point, though, in being too scattered to master something, or in spending much time on activities in which  you can't excel. What I want to argue in this chapter is that people, like companies, can' have core competencies too. An individual's core competencies are best thought of as abilities that can be leveraged across multiple spheres. They should be important and meaningful. And they should be the things we do best and that others cannot do nearly as well.

Bradley, those who get the most out of life try to figure out and focus on their core competencies. They know that at least one key difference between happy, successful people, and those just muddling along is that the happy ones spend as many of their 168 hours as possible on their core competencies, honing their focus to get somewhere, checking everything else. pg. 35

I am in love with money, so don't be mistaken, but first I want to write good poems. Anne Sexton pg. 59

Ideally, there should be almost nothing during your work hours - whatever you choose those to be - that is not advancing you toward your goals for the career and life you want. pg. 84

If you did land a windfall, and could still do the stuff of your job, what parts of your job would you change? Given that you'd never have to work a day in your life, what would you do more of and what would you shove off your plate? pg. 86

"I generally don't work a lot on weekends," he says. "Almost everything can wait until Monday." pg. 143

Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Just as the Apostle Paul left hid vintage of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown."

 

"the bristling at those who tell the oppressed 'to wait for a more convenient season' "

 

"I have looked at the South's beautiful churches... [and] found myself asking... Who is their God?"

The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret Dilloway

"I am standing in my rose garden, only it's a perfect rose garden. No bugs, not even any dirt, just perfect blooms. My house is gone. This doesn't bother me because the sky is so perfectly clear." 

Essentialism

"Can I actually fulfill this request, given the time and resources I have?

 

Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?

 

Am I investing in the right activities? What would happen if we can figure out the one thing you could do that would make the highest contribution?

 

What if business is eliminated meaningless meetings and replace them with space for people to thank and work on their most important projects?

 

What if employees push back against I'm wasting email chains, purposeless projects, and unproductive meetings so they could be utilized at their highest level of contribution to their companies and in their careers?

 

What is societies that telling us to buy more stuff and instead allowed us to create more space to breathe and think?

 

What if Society encouraged us to reject what has been accurately described as doing things we detest, to buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like?

 

What if we stop being oversold the value of having more and being undersold the value of having less?

 

What if we stop celebrating being busy as a measurement of important? What If instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?

 

What if the whole world shifted from the undisciplined pursuit of more to the disciplined pursuit of less... only better?" pg. 26

 

"As poet Mary Oliver wrote: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" pg. 27

 

"Yet, for capable people who are already working hard, are there limits to the value of hard work? Is there a point at which doing more does not produce more? Is there a point at which doing less (but thinking more) will actually produce better outcomes?" pg. 42

 

"To discern why is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make." pg. 60

 

"Listen for what others don't hear." pg. 76

 

"the powerful effects of restoring play to our daily lives." pg 83

 

"Play, which I would define as anything we do simply for the joy of doing rather than as a means to an end - whether it's flying a kite or listening to music or throwing around a baseball- might seem like a non-essential activity. Often it is treated that way. But in fact play is essential in many ways. Stuart Brown, the founder of the National Institute for Play, has studied what are called the play histories of some 6,000 individuals and has concluded that play has the power to significantly improve everything from personal health to relationships to education to organization's ability to innovate. "Play," he says, "leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity." As he simply puts it, "Nothing fires up the brain like play." pg. 85

 

"Play has a positive effect on the executive function of the brain. The brain's executive functions, he writes, include planning, prioritizing, scheduling, anticipating, delegating, deciding, analyzing in short, most of the skills any executive must master in order to excel in business." pg. 87

 

"As former Stanford professor and educator Henry B. Eyring has written, 'My experience has taught me this about how people and organizations improve: the best place to look is for small changes we could make and the things we do often. There is power in steadiness and repetition.' " pg. 197

 

"The logic is to increase the odds of people operating with courage by teaching them the principles of heroism. By encouraging and rewarding heroic Acts, Zimbardo believes, we can consciously and deliberately create a system where heroic acts eventually become natural and effortless."

"We have a choice. We can use our energies to set up a system that makes execution of goodness easy, or we can resign ourselves to a system that actually makes it harder to do what is good." pg.197

 

Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition. -W. H. Aiden

 

"Designs a routine that enshrines what is essential, making execution almost effortless."  pg. 206

 

"So how can we discard the routines that keep us locked and nonessential habits and replace them with routines that make executing essentiels almost effortless?" of. 209

 

"So now, as he gets the door of his house, he applies when he calls "the pause that refreshes." This technique is easy. He stops for just a moment. He closes his eyes. He breathes in and out once: deeply and slowly. As he exhales, he lets the work issues fall away. This allows him to walk through the front door to his family with more singleness of purpose. It supports the sentiment attributed to Lao

Tzu: "In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present."

 

"Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes." pg. 223

 

"And when you are truly there, something else is also there- life, represented by the cup of tea. In that moment you are real, and the cup of tea is real. You are not lost in the past, in the future, in your projects, in your worries. You are free from all of these afflictions. And in that state of being free, you enjoy your tea. That is the moment of happiness, and of peace." pg. 223

 

Kairos- time that is opportune, right, different. Pay attention through the day for your own kairos moments. pp. 217 & 223

 

Without great solitude no serious work is possible. -Pablo Picasso

The Blood of Flowers

"For one family to have its own shade and greenery seem to me the greatest of luxuries." pg. 37

Excerpt from The White Forest

"He was filled with the sort of fret despair that needed tending." pg 13

 

"he smelled of the welding chrysanthemum he wore in his lapel." Pg. 17

 

"Nathan had very few sentiments, after all." Pg. 18

Cutting Back by Leslie Buck

"I didn't always feel daring. I'm an unusual adventurer: more worried than eager, unable to pick up a new language new language is easily, and often getting lost. I'm willing to challenge myself, but my emotions, both anxiety and joy, always play a large role. Still I never let any flaws in my character keep me from going after a dream. My struggles were a gift. They taught me determination, and sometimes humor. In Kyoto I learned to work in silence, to run fast between projects, and to take breaks three times a day, with green tea and snacks. I grew to appreciate how hard I tried rather than how much I succeeded. I discovered a way to feel proud even when I came home dirty and exhausted." pg. 8

 

"This garden is not very old," my co-worker softly whispered to me. "Only three hundred and fifty years." pg. 10

 

"Enough hope in one pocket to buy a plane ticket for halfway around the world." pg. 26

 

" Nothing relaxes me like a view of the trees, so the cherry felt like a familiar friend at my window." pg. 28

 

"Unless I could think of a thoughtful question or statement, it was best to just 'clam it' in Japan. 'Thoughtful silence shows more maturity in Japan and bringing attention to yourself.' " pg. 34

Rest Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

"The ancient Greeks saw rest as a great gift, as the pinnacle of civilized life. The Roman Stoics argued that you cannot have a good life without good work. Indeed, virtually every ancient society, recognized that both work and rest were necessary for a good life: one provided the means to live, the other gave meaning to life." pg. 4

 

"The central feature of this state is a 'steady orientation of all our faculties toward a single object of study for a period of months or even years.' "

 

"Just as an astronomer exposes a photographic plate for hours to 'reveal stars so far away that even the most powerful telescopes fail to reveal them to the naked eye,' so too are 'time and concentration' needed to 'allow the intellect to perceive a ray of light in the darkness of the most complex problem.' " pp. 30 - 31

 

"This state of sustained concentration 'refines judgment, enriches analytical powers, spurs constructive imagination, and - by focusing all light of reason on the darkness of a problem - allows unforeseen and subtle relationships to be discovered.' " "Reaching it, he warns, requires 'severe abstention and renunciation.' One must avoid distractions like 'malicious gossip' and newspapers, the 'intellectual dispersion and waste of time required by social activity,' and anything else that loosens 'the creative tension of the mind' and 'that quality of tone that nerve cells acquire when adapted to a particular subject.' But this does not mean that the investigators tried to concentrate all the time. Diversions that are 'light and promote the association of new ideas' are to be taken freely. Long walks, art, music offer good material for break." pg.  31

 

 

"a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." - Charles Darwin

One of the most interesting reads ever:

https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-nothing-57e100f59bbb 

Sermon Notes

Verses/Stories

• The parable of the sheep and the goats/kindness
• Kairos time, meditate on that word
• The present is the point at which time touches eternity. - CS Lewis
• Time: deal with it, enjoy it, master it, invest it wisely
• I love this story: The Other Wiseman

Hymns/Songs

• When Love Was Born
• The King is Coming

From the book A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable

"As every writer, poet, painter, and, yes, furniture assessor knew, it [Paris] was the perfect place for escape." pg. 3

"Our favorite it Tortoni's, the place where the smart and literary gather. We often site with Emile Zola. Sometimes Dumas fils joins us. All the good boulevardiers are there too, always at the ready with a clever comment, the perfect mot juste." pg. 167

"We sip beer or cassis with sparkling water or absinthe. We talk of politics and literature. We mock Republican officials, unless they are with us, in which case we praise their efforts. I leave these meals feeling cultured and quite unlike the convent girl who came to Paris eighteen months ago." pg. 167 

• boulevardiers

1. A sophisticated, socially active man who frequents fashionable places.

2. A cocktail made of bourbon or rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, often garnished with a lemon or orangepeel.

• mot juste

         n. pl. mots justes (mō zhüst′)

Exactly the right word or expression.

"Intentions! Oh, for the devil are they!
You can have them. They can be pure or good. In your mind you will execute them into a very precise manner with the purest of hearts. Then something happens and shoots it all to hell. Does that make a person any less good? I don't think it does." pg. 271

' "Tu es bell." 
"Merci." April fake-curtsied. It was funny, this language. In America you told someone they looked pretty. In France you told them they were pretty, straight up. No looking, no appearing, no temorary condition." ' pg. 321