Over the weekend, I read the story about Rebecca Cunningham, a Virginia woman who attended a "Reason" rally in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. There, speakers railed against organized religions of all stripes and effectively called for a cultural assault on the notion of faith.
Cunningham declared herself an atheist sometime in the Facebook era. Thirty-four people "unfriended" her when she revealed her choice.
I immediately went out in search of her on Facebook, but couldn't find her. I wanted her to know my wife Amanda and I would be glad to "friend" her and communicate with her. If she's skeptical of our motives, I'd love to put her at ease and let her know that if she remains an atheist, we would still stand with her. Why?
In part, it's because I believe that deep inside those who call themselves atheists are layers of hurt and frustration. Someone connected with faith disappointed them, or even worse, violated their trust. Who would run toward someone which inflicts pain? Most people turn away. Others attack.
The people who decided not to remain in relationship with Cunningham apparently forgot about Thomas, the disciple who needed to see Christ's wounds for himself. They also didn't remember the notion of blessing those who persecute them (although I'd hardly call someone who isn't convinced of God's existence as a persecutor).
Bottom line: Cunningham's so-called friends did very little to change her mind, but only solidified her stance. If she accepts our friend requests on Facebook, we will simply treat her as a friend and communicate with her like we do our other friends. We won't hide our faith from her, but we won't cast her aside just because we don't see eye to eye.
Rebecca: We are here if you want friends who are of a faith background who won't reject you.
You'd be welcome on our list of friends – beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I can be found at facebook.com/paul.sims1
My wife can be found at facebook.com/amandasims

In my previous semester of graduate school, I picked a theme based off Elvis Presley's use of the phrase "Taking Care of Business." He used a lightning bolt as the core part of a logo with the letters "T," "C," and "B" surrounding it. 

I realized earlier this morning I hadn't selected a theme to motivate and keep me focused this spring.

After some internal searching and surfing Google and YouTube, I found it: "Marathon" by Rush. To those of you who know me, a Rush song is an obvious choice for me, but it goes deeper than this.

The better part of this semester will be a marathon in many ways. On top of my two classes in the graduate certificate program for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, I'll be working part-time as a tutor with Auburn University's Miller Writing Center. At the center, I'll try to help other students address various issues related to writing.

I'm thrilled for this opportunity to use my background and skills as a writer to help others.

On top of this, I'm trying to get the final pieces of the puzzle together to pursue a master's degree in adult education, so I'll be preparing to take the Graduate Record Examination in late February.

These next few weeks will be a race, no doubt.

But it will be one where I need to mitigate the long-term impact it will have on myself and my family, so pacing and strategic planning will be the order of the day. It shouldn't be a panicked, flailing, breathless finish.

As the song says: " ... First you need endurance. First you've got to last." 

So, in less than five hours, the semester for me gets started with a bang. I'm planning to end it in the same fashion, but in celebration, not in defeat. Here we go! 

And for your listening enjoyment, here's "Marathon," recorded live in Cleveland last April for the "Time Machine" DVD.

For years, I waited – often impatiently – for several breakthroughs in my life. Many important changes took place in 2011. Some of these include: 

• We were able to restore and improve a cabin my parents built in the 1970s after an EF-4 tornado damaged it moderately in April.
• We moved to and recently bought a house in Auburn, Alabama, where my ancestral connections are strong and which feels like home even though I only lived here briefly as a child.
• I started down a path I hope will allow me to apply my writing experience and love of the English language to guide native and new speakers to improve their ability to use the language.

Due to these and other changes, my outlook on life is quite dramatically improved. Naturally, I hope the momentum and viewpoint I experienced in 2011 will run deeper and wider. 

So, in 2012, I chose the word "pervade." Merriam-Webster defines it as follows:

"To become diffused throughout every part of." For further clarity, these definitions of "diffuse" seem relevant: "To pour out and permit or cause to spread freely; extend, scatter; ... to break up and distribute (incident light) by reflection; to spread out of become transmitted especially by contact." 

It's my hope the mindset which began to emerge in 2011 will not only continue to change me but find its way to others through any means possible.

I look forward to seeing how the word "pervade" functions within me and hopefully others as 2012 unfolds.

Chains clink to the ground. Atrophied muscles gain strength. Fear dissipates as feet land on the next step even though it's not in plain sight.

I chose “release” as my One Word 2011 around this time a year ago not knowing what impact it would have on me and what it would look like.

As 2011 closes, I live in a house in Auburn, Alabama, a community where my roots run deep (my great-grandmother and grandparents lived here) but where I'm learning first-hand how to care for and interact with people from all over the world who attend or conduct research at Auburn University.

This coming semester, I'll apply more than 13 years of writing experience to help fellow students with their abilities to make sentences make sense.

In April, a tornado tore through the patch of land on which my parents built a small cabin back in the late 1970s, leaving us with a clear choice - we needed to move closer to manage the recovery. So we left Starkville, Mississippi in June and the rest is history.

This year, we've seen what's felt like a destiny unfold. We've had little to do with its existence except to step out on faith. We now find ourselves in a reality we once could dismiss as fantasy.

So, release has played a prominent role in 2011 for me and my family. And I believe I've experienced in many levels and ways. I hope the groundbreaking change we've encountered this year is just a catalyst for what's to come in 2012.

In the past few weeks, I've started exercising again, though it's been gradual and not totally consistent yet. 

I ran a little bit on Friday but not a wholel lot. I'm hoping I'll continue to climb out of this exercise "deficit" a conscious decision at a time. I hope to be able to continue to build on my recent successes yet not hold myself to a standard which is nearly impossible to reach. 

Many people use the popular Pandora website to build "stations," or channels of specific musical interests. It seems like that if it's been recorded, it's on Pandora.

Users can create channels off of a particular song or musical artists, and add others to enhance and deepen the offerings of a given specialized channel.

One of my channels is "Painted Sky," based off the works of the band "Explosions in the Sky." This etherial yet at times driving style of music usually serves as my soundtrack for writing for myself or for school projects.

I also spend a good deal of time on "Shredders," a channel set up to feature the works of primarily guitar-oriented instrumental music. I found one of my favorite "shredders," Paul Gilbert through Pandora, which I'm sure is one of the commercial reasons the service exists.

But I also have an odd collection of channels, ranging from "Big Hair" (classic rock of the 1970s and 80s) to "Crazy Patterns" (avant garde, even atonal, jazz) and a whole bunch in between.

What Pandora channels do you have? Which artists have you discovered by using the service? What tips do you have for people to get the most out of Pandora?

After getting in pretty late from a trip to the Georgia coast over the weekend and having a major project due at school early this week, I decided not to write a post for Monday. So, Monday night came and while working on my project I fell asleep at the computer. No Tuesday post. 

I knew that blogging daily would be a challenge and I'm honestly not sure if the "departmental" style is working (not getting a lot of feedback on a regular basis). So, I'll develop SOMEthing, SOMEtime this week, just not sure when. Loyal readers: Please bear with me and thank you for your patience!

I caught a glimpse of Thursday night's "Grey's Anatomy" episode and it appears Lee Majors is back on the scene of prime-time teleivision. He played a patient.

Many years ago, millions of kids and adults like remember the scene when he was in another operating room as Steve Austin, a test pilot who crashed and whom officials dcided to rebuild.

Here's the intro to the series.

Some things change: Haircuts, makeup, glasses styles, etc. But others don't and it looks like not much about Lee Majors has changed, even though more than 37 years have passed since the start of "The Six Million Dollar Man."

Never seen the show before? Take a look and please tell me what you think of it!

As I thought about what we could do with Jadyn on her day off from school this past week, I decided I would take her with me to visit the English for Everyday Use group at Auburn University.

It's filled with people who are learning English. This informal gathering is designed to give English language learners a sense of ways to put their skills to practical use and understand some of the language's more difficult segments.

As we walked toward the classroom, we came upon a group of students gathered in the hallway. One of my friends came up and talked to us. He remembered Jadyn from a picnic a few weeks back. He tried his best to get her to talk to him, but she ducked behind my shirt.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, we see a young man holding up a cake. Light danced and glowed from the number-shaped candles, so we learned the recipient just turned 20. The group first sang "Happy Birthday" in English, then though who could belted the same tune Arabic, followed by a flurry of this (though imagine this coming from mostly young men):

The sound startled her, and she pressed in even harder to my back. She started crying and she begged me a couple of times to go home.

I decided we would proceed. One of the guys involved in the birthday party offered her a piece of cake. I think that helped a great deal to help her feel comfortable. We got settled in and our instructor told us what we would be working on for the day - phrasal verbs.

These are verbs can sound one way when taken on the face but mean something else. An example from the sheet is: "chip in." An ELL might think this involves some kind of snack food, but it actually means to contribute in some way. A sentence using "chip in" would read: "We'll chip in $10 for our share of the pizza."

As I walked through some of these with a group of ELLs, Jadyn played with her learning game for the most part, then she started listening to what we were doing. She eventually decided to help. I can't remember where she got involved but I told her she knew what the word "dress up." And I think she wound up taking one of the phrasal verbs on to explain on her own and she did a great job.

She really shined and made her Daddy proud. One person's already recommended I bring her back. Who knows? She might enjoy it over time almost as much has her Daddy does.

A few months back, I mentioned something on Twitter about needing to get the writing spark ignited.

A friend replied with information about 750 Words.

It's derived from a concept called Morning Pages. The person suggests writing out three pages, or roughly 250, long-hand to help get the ideas flowing.

I fell out of the habit last month for several reasons – and need to get back to it – but I found it tremendously helpful in wrestling with issues and coming up with solutions for various things.

In case you're interested or want more information, visit: http://750words.com/session/new