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Cracking, Part I
Have you ever had one of those days where you think: “If one more thing goes wrong, I am going to crack!!” As in, “The weight of this stressful old world is weighing me down so badly that I can literally feel myself starting to crack up and fall apart! Arrggghhh!” I certainly have. Sometimes…
Welcome, Friends!
Here’s a quick snippet about how this blog started. I began writing monthly articles for my church newsletter in December 2009. (Wow, time flies.) The archive of these articles appears below this post. Even though they all say they were posted in March 2012, they were actually written over a two year period. This is…
I Am
Sometimes I have trouble believing in God. It can happen suddenly, in one of those horrendous moments that leave me questioning: if God is in control of everything, then why did he let this happen? If he is a loving and personal God, then how could he let this happen? But more often than not,…
Associations
Every time I eat a banana, I think of my dog. This isn’t quite as strange as it sounds, really. My dog loves bananas, and I always give her the bottom tip when I’m eating one. This habit formed so automatically that I don’t even realize I am doing it until I am someplace without…
Obedience
I recently volunteered at a canine obedience trial. Some dogs and handlers make it look so easy! They move around the ring at the judge’s command, the dog’s head never moving more than an inch from the handler’s side. And yet, the biggest test of obedience often comes not during the intricate heelwork, but during…
Laptop Lessons
Someone once said you never know that God is all you need until God is all you have. I tested this theory recently during a business trip to Moscow. When I stepped off the plane, I was dragging my suitcase in one hand and clutching the business card of someone I had never met in…
Lazy
Picture this: you’re sitting at the kitchen table and need a paper towel from the roll on the counter. Rather than simply stand up and take the one step to reach it, you try to stretch from where you are. Why get up if you don’t have to? Only you can’t…quite…reach… So you scoot the…
Speeding
I have received two speeding tickets in my life. (According to Murphy’s Law, I suppose I should add the caveat “so far.”) The first one was well deserved. I was driving back from a conference in Connecticut to my apartment in western New York. I’d stopped to visit my parents and left way too late. …
Vacation
I gleaned a bit of wisdom recently from one of those “Take This Quiz” articles stamped in the midst of a check-out line tabloid. The quiz wanted me to guess when the greatest benefit of a vacation was realized. Before? During? Immediately after? Having recently returned from a vacation, I can tell you the answer…
Word Shower
Have you ever been walking along the road on a blistering summer day and been overtaken quite suddenly by a cloudburst of rain? There is hardly a cloud in the sky big enough to dictate a rain shower, but here it is, giant drops of rain splashing down all around you, barely strong enough to…
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Meet Janet!
Janet Beagle, PhD is the founder of The Mustard Patch. She divides her time between the Midwest and New England, and if she’s not writing, she’s probably out hiking with her 2-and 4-footed friends.