My Favorite Place

The trouble with having a new toy is you can’t stop yourself from playing with it. I have deadlines to meet and meetings to attend but here I am, taking shots of everything in sight with my black Kodak.

When My uncle Joe from the US sent me a talking doll, I was beside myself with excitement. I was only four years old but I could remember how it felt seeing the pink plastic creature with blonde hair and blue eyes for the first time.

My only other dolls before this stateside marvel arrived were paper dolls drawn on and cut from cardboard. Sure, they had all the clothes any doll could ever wear (drawn and colored on lined grade school pad), but there was nothing like a 3-D doll that cried, “Mama” when you pulled a string at the back of its head.

Then another doll arrived a few months later. It was bigger, blonder, prettier, and could walk! Poor talking doll was forgotten in a dark, musty closet.

Man wasn’t born to be content. We have to learn it, as Paul did, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Philippians 4:11 (ESV).

In this age where obsolescence is the order of the hour, newer and more advanced doodads lure us from store windows every day. I wish to resist them. And I pray I will. But today, I am giving in to my vulnerable moment.

Some of my shots are of my workplace (a few steps away from the dining and living rooms)—where I’d rather be, more than any plush place in the world. My monitor has my blogsite. As soon as I post this, the look will change.

Behind me are some of my books which, if you look closely, are shiny and bright. They’re not new, they’re just covered with plastic—a habit some people spurn (or laugh at) but which is my obscure way of protecting my precious ones from the world’s unscrupulous elements.

Above my computer screen is a shelf that has some of my Bibles in various translations.

I say “some” because a few are strewn all over the house, the better for me to read them whenever I need to. The KJV remains to be my favorite but I need the others to give me a total perspective. I have a very small one (ESV) in my suitcase for my travels. It’s ready to bring along in case I forget to pack one.

To my right are my Childcraft set and World Book Enclyclopedia plus my first son's books on programming.

As a Linux (UBUNTU) advocate, he keeps in step with the latest of this amazing shareware (is that what they call it?).

Despite the ugly cables and unsightly mess of my own doing, this is the place I inhabit most of my sane and insane moments. Here, the pencil sketches in my mind become words and the gear of writing passion is set in motion. This is where I weather emotional storms and where I am backed into a corner, pressed for answers to my own questions.

This is the place where I am being taught to be content and where my paper and e-leaves are being filled with stories of grace.