StillwatersIowa

Remember Bob the tomato? How about Larry the cucumber or Junior the asparagus? Yes, Veggie Tales are a world of talking vegetables. In their cartoons the characters learn about honesty, kindness, and forgiveness. And of course Larry always has a silly song to sing. Since many of the cartoons on TV now days are about flying dinosaurs and bad guys we sometimes bring up the older more wholesome content on YouTube.   On one particular 1995 Veggie Tale episode titled "Who is my Neighbor" everyone in the hometown of Flibberue wear shoes for hats including Larry the cucumber. As Larry is walking home a couple of broccoli characters rob him and stick him headfirst in a hole where he is stuck.   Larry's hometown mayor comes by and sees him stuck however the mayor is too busy to stop and help. Flibberue's town doctor also sees Larry stuck upside down however she has many appointments and is late. Finally a little guy wearing a pan on his head fr...

 Magnanimous. I had to look it up. It means generous, charitable in word and deed, unselfish, great-hearted. It implies having the ability to bear trouble calmly. It is the opposite of petty, resentful, vindictive, greedy. A magnanimous person does not worry about unimportant nit-picky details. They do not keep score. They care about and look after others without expecting anything in return.    The other evening while watching Cody play basketball I was catching up with a friend. We hadn't seen each other much since working together on the new PCHS campus 15 years ago. We were talking about what it takes to have harmony in the workplace. I think magnanimous sums up what it takes. In the late 1990s a small group of magnanimous folks started meeting together at Country Kitchen in Pella. They had a vision for continuing Christian education in south central Iowa not just in the liberal arts and mandatory classes but having an expan...

Last week we talked about working at making 2018 an exceptional year. Your year will be full of planned and unplanned events. Many of those events will take energy, encouragement, and effort. At our house winter time on the farm can be a time to mentally and physically slow down a little. To evaluate the previous, to enjoy the present, and to look forward to and plan for the coming season. Jan and I are blessed to be able to spend some time together on Cayman Island 200 miles south of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea. Since my phone doesn't work outside the USA it has been a week of idling down, shifting to neutral, and relaxing.  I know many folks enjoy a vacation on a cruise ship. Even though I have never been on a cruise I don't think I would like to be on a boat with that many people for a week. Here in Cayman as many as 4 cruise ships come in dropping off from 11000 to 17000 folks every day. By mid afternoon those folks after standing in long lines load back up and head ...