Comfort

Last night, Jellybean asked me how to spell "naughty." I didn't tell him how -- at his parent-teacher conference last month, the teacher mentioned that she wanted the kids to sound out their words right now, not become obsessed with spelling them correctly. So I cajoled him into coming up with his own spelling (N-O-T-E), and told him he had made a very good guess. (Some of you may need to remember this, as he has been interested in giving and sending things to people lately. . .)

In one analysis, I pushed Jellybean out of his comfort zone, and he responded by doing something he didn't realize he could, or didn't want to take the trouble to -- in this case, sound out a word. The last martial arts instructor I had was fond of saying that if you weren't spending some training outside of your comfort zone, you weren't training. There's something to be said for that point of view.

In church last Sunday, the pastor decided we were all going to leave the sanctuary holding hands and dancing. I tried to get Jennifer and the woman on my other side to hold each other's hands and leave me out of it. Guess I got forced into spiritual growth, huh?

After melting off from the previous weekend, it snowed again this past weekend. The roads were pretty bad going to work yesterday. It took my bus 10 minutes longer than usual to go the 45 mile distance. It took other buses (from other places) 20 to 30 minutes longer than usual. There was also one bus that didn't take any extra time. Rumor has it that the people sitting towards the front of that bus were unable to sleep on their way into work on that particular ride. So there is also something to be said for staying within your comfort zone, or -- if your comfort zone is reckless -- that of the people around you.

Interestingly, it appears that the riders were more comfortable with the I-can't-sleep ride than with asking the driver to slow down.

Jennifer has been posting about the things she is thankful for on Facebook this month. On the first post, of course, I didn't know that is what she was doing. . . I suppose I should still be flattered, because I was the first thing she decided to be thankful for.

Oddly, I haven't thanked her for that. Not because it would be uncomfortable to do so, but because it would be uncomfortable to do so at 5:00 in the morning when I'm on the computer and actually thinking about it.

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