Trying out new blog platforms

Every day, my kids come home from school in the afternoon in need of a distraction and energy after a hard day of learning, and their answer to this need is snacks. The activity of after-school-snack is a routine that resets and relaxes their brains into ‘home mode’, and replenishes their energy levels ready for play time. However, a snack doesn’t fill an empty stomach, it’s not meant to, that’s what meals are for. Sometimes one snack becomes two, and when Mum and Dad aren’t looking, a few more fill the space. Then Mum starts cooking something wonderful in the kitchen, and the smell starts those hunger pangs off again. By the time dinner is ready for the kids, the kids are no longer ready for dinner. The meal that my wife put so much love into preparing was snubbed for a short term fix. What happened? The blessing of the snack was abused and took away the hunger for the main event. In this parable, who do the characters represent? Who are the kids, who is the one who prepar...

When my son was younger he was hyposensitive to temperature. That means he didn't feel heat or cold like the rest of us. In the middle of winter he would just be wearing a thin top and in the heat of summer his warmest coat would often come out. We were told that he would seek out these extremes of temperature because it was the only time he could feel them. His threshold for feeling hot or cold was so low that it took extremes in order to feel them, and just being able to feel something was a pleasurable experience for him.  On our part as parents, we knew something that he didn't, that extremes of temperature become dangerous to one’s health.  In our Western culture, fear is marketed and ramped up for people to "feel" something they have become insensitive to. A little fear in the right environment will stop you from doing something stupid. It's the internal check that makes sure your parachute is packed right before you jump out of a plane.  But fea...