Weekly Links - Self-Discipline, Caring for Others, Mothering, and more!

My weekly round-up of good reading from around the Web:

"Discipline and Adventure":  (congratulations to Anne, for her new blog on Patheos!)

. . . by forcing yourself to do something every day, you can become more interesting than you were the day before. In the discipline, the push, the toil of writing every single solitary day I have discovered first that there are enough words, even for me to have some, and second that I totally love them. Waking up and writing before anything else means that I am set up for the whole day with energy enough for everything else. It’s so amazing. It’s such a pleasure, to have had my mental space transformed by discipline.

"Losing Control of the Vehicle": This sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but it's real:

Here’s a thought for your next road trip: In the Jeep Cherokee (and probably many other cars, too), when the online diagnostic service is activated, the brake pedal is automatically deactivated, so that the mechanic can test the brakes. If a hacker turns on the diagnostic function while you’re merrily speeding down the highway, the effect would be as if he slashed your brakes.

"How Not to Say the Wrong Thing": I've heard this theory before, but I was glad of the reminder, and I thought this was a really good exposition of the idea:

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma ... 

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, "Life is unfair" and "Why me?" That's the one payoff for being in the center ring. 

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings.

"The Everyday Question of Motherhood":

In motherhood, the Everyday Question is answered every time a child’s concern or need must come before my own. (And as every mother knows, this is most of the time.)

What have you been reading this week?  Share your links in the comments!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell