(xaris and shalom)

"What do you think about adoption?" I started getting this question when I was in college.  It made sense; I was getting to the age that I had friends thinking about starting their own families, and anyone who knew my family (at all) knew that I had plenty of experience with adoptions. What?  You don't think that we get mistaken for each other all the time? I love my siblings way more than I have words to say.  Sometimes when I think about them I'm overcome with the thought that they could have so easily not  been my siblings.  That I could have not known them.  (Which, I guess, is true of any human, more or less, but you catch my drift.)  They are such an integral part of me that I'm really not sure who I'd be like without them.  We really are our own tiny subculture, complete with one word jokes that can lead to minutes of laughter.  ( Souffle?) But I hesitate when I get questioned what I think about adoption. Because there isn't an easy answer

So I've passed the time of David's reign and I'm up to Solomon (which, by the way, I think is a pretty awesome name.)  Which means that, mixed in with 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, I've been getting to read Proverbs. It feels different to me than any time I've read it before.  Every time that I remember previously reading it, it was great, sure, but the proverbs felt mostly disjointed and... well, wise, but... I don't know.  Something was missing.  There were a few verses that I really loved, but the book as a whole tended to lose my attention.  But this time, it's like a long drink of water on a hot, dry day. Maybe it's because I've grown up some.  Work a more-or-less 40-hour-a-week "real" job.  Pay more bills.  Whatever the reason is, Proverbs makes a lot more sense to me this time through.  It feels like a timely guide to life about how to deal with friends, coworkers, priorities, and finances. I don't have any more specific thoughts abo