Defensive driving saved my life (and the life of my dog, too) this morning. As I was traveling along Hwy 79 at 50 mph, I approached the intersection in Hutto at Front Street, seeing a school bus in the left turn lane, I thought, ‘Don’t try it!’ With only a hundred feet or so between us, the long vehicle heads into the intersection (the driver had an unprotected green light) right in front of me. I guess he or she thought they could make it before I got there. Real dumb on their part. Not the sort of risk-taking a bus driver should do. If I was more Type A I would have looked for the bus # and called it in. I had to slam on my brakes and hit my horn. It’s a good thing I hit the horn, because a small car was following the bus through the intersection and would’ve blocked my path around the tail of the bus in the inside lane. Hearing my horn and seeing me come into the intersection, they stopped. I hated seeing the long and high tail section of that bus, knowing that if I couldn’t stop or maneuver around it, it could take the top portion of my car off.

Whew! I have a full agenda today. Chiodos interview (with Craig Owens, the lead singer) at 1, writing and planning next issue, updating the As I Lay Dying video on my blog, and then dinner with the next great cCm artist – Toby Walters.

The Love Dare.14
“Love Takes Delight”
This chapter starts off with a verse,

  • “Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life.”

-Ecclesiastes 9:9

and then reiterates a point they try to drive home:

  1. “One of the most important things you should learn on your Love Dare journey is that you should not just follow your heart. You should lead it. You don’t let your feelings and emotions do the driving. You put them in the back seat and tell them where you’re going.”

The next paragraph elaborates, explaining that you won’t always feel like loving. It’s not realistic to think that your heart will always be thrilled with your spouse. No one can maintain a burning desire 24/7 just on feeling alone. A sense of obligation isn’t enough, either.

It points out that we get to choose what we treasure. It gives advance warning that:

“Today’s dare may be directing you to a real and radical change of heart. For some, the move toward delight may be only a small steap away. For others, it may require a giant leap from ongoing disgust.”

Today’s Dare:
Purposefully neglect an activity you would normally do so you can spend quality time with your spouse. Do something he or she would love to do or a project they’d really like to work on. Just be together.

I kinda had to put this chapter on hold during the second SXSW week, because I was out of the house for the better part of each day, followed by a harried last week of deadline. (Man, March is hard around here) Today I will try to get this dare done.

I liked this chapter and the emphasis on choosing delight. Good word.

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