Change

"I have always believed that in the lives of individuals, just as in society at large, the profoundest changes take place within a very reduced time frame.  When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait.  Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny."

Author's note, The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

I started reading this new book the other day.  I encountered the above quote at the end of the author's note at the beginning.  The truth of the statement struck me quite forcefully.  I've found myself returning to reread it over and over. I thought about it so much I sort of didn't care to start the actual story for a while.

I feel like all of the most "profound" changes in my life took place in relatively short periods of time.  This is not to stay that all significant changes occurred quickly because, of course, some things simply cannot be shortened.  But the changes that stick most in my mind, and therefore I consider most profound, were choices suddenly imposed upon me.  Those moments certainly challenged my courage and forced themselves upon me in such a way to demand a response.  Indeed, I could not ignore their presence, nor could I delay my decision out of un-readiness because as it says above, "the challenge will not wait."

I suppose if we did expect sudden challenges before they arrived, and if they were drawn out over a period of time, their impact would not be so indelible in our lives.  They are all the more significant and memorable precisely because they are sudden, unexpected, and jarring.  It's a lot easier to remember fire is hot once you get burned.

Since I cannot predict when such sudden moments of decision are going to occur, all the more reason to be prepared for whatever comes.  All the more reason to make intermediate decisions every day that I can control.  All the more reason to stick to morals and goals and beliefs and other tried and tested frameworks to guide my life to minimize stress and maximize making the decision that is matches who I am and/or want to become.

Statistics can be fun!

Today I discovered the "Stats" tab on my blogger dashboard.  I have no idea how long it's been there, but I'm glad it is!  It provides me information about my blog traffic such as referring sites (who found me from veganfoodrecipes.com?), countries where people have viewed it, browsers people use, and even the kind of operating system used (the PC people far outnumber Mac; I wonder if that reveals something about my politics).  You can view traffic right now, from all day today, all month, and all time.  There is no identifying information so I can't tell who exactly who is visiting my corner of the web.  I can't back-stalk anyone, but it is very interesting to see what kind of audience I'm reaching.  I'm surprised by which posts have had the most views, a little disappointed at the ones that only have a few.  But I won't feel bad because that probably has more to do with my marketing than my readership's loyalty.

My favorite information is seeing where people are at when they viewed my blog.  The countries with the most pageviews are listed.  Of course, by far the place most people view it from is the United States, but surprisingly (or maybe not) the second on the list is Brazil.  I had a brother and cousin serve missions in Brazil for our church so they probably pulled it up once in a while. Tied for third are Azerbaijan, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  The latter two are explainable-- I know of readers in each place-- but the former?  I had to Google it because I'd never heard of it before.  Who might have found me in Azerbaijan?  Must have turned up in a random web search.  To round out the list, fourth most popular is Russia trailed by Burundi, Latvia, Ukraine, and Denmark respectively.  As far flung as they may seem, I can actually guess who was viewing it in eastern Europe and Denmark, but I don't know anyone in Burundi.  Must have been other fluke hits.  I'm surprised Germany and Taiwan didn't make the list since I know I have/had readers in each.  I guess the system isn't perfect or comprehensive.  But it is certainly entertaining!

Greetings to my readers everywhere!  I'm always flattered when people want to read what I write.  Even if you have stumbled here by accident, thanks for visiting and feel free to stay a while. 

August

This time of year makes me think of two things: elephant ears and school.

Elephant ears (the food, not the body part) are delicious confections often found at fairs, particularly the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo the third week of August every summer.  They consist of a sweet dough rolled out, deep fried, and covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Oh, and they're as big as the platters you use for the Thanksgiving turkey. My extended family has run an elephant ear booth at the NI Fair since time immemorial... or maybe just 30-something years.  Long enough to become an institution and a landmark with loyal customers the world over.  The profits from the booth go into a family fund of sorts and are applied towards things like helping send cousins on missions for our church.

This is my first year missing the fair.  Ever.  It's really weird.  It's always a party in the booth--a big, close, hot, sweaty, greasy, sugary, loud party.  I don't miss the greasy, hot, sweaty, sugary part, but I do miss seeing all the cousins and eating my fair share of EE's and chocolate milk.  I miss everyone ordering everyone around, complaining if someone doesn't roll/cook/sugar/mix the way they like it done (roll 'em nice and big, no holes, cooked blonde, and evenly coated please!).  I miss getting into the fair free, going to the rodeo after the Friday afternoon shift, bartering for MICA burgers, and watching the summer climax and creep to an end.

And then comes school.  Or not!  This is the first fall I will not start a new year of school in 19 years.  That's a long time.  It's like, 83% of my life.  I should feel weirded out, right?  But I don't.  I thought I might, but I'm over school for reals. I guess I have a talent for appreciating things while they last, then moving on when the time is right.  If I dwell on the past, I miss the exciting things coming up ahead.  I'm really so over and done it would feel weirder if I had to go back.

I still have the urge to buy new clothes and school supplies.