Category: love

Travelers Diarrhea

Matthew Heick

Traveler’s diarrhea is a digestive tract disorder that commonly causes loose stools and stomach cramps. It’s caused by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. Fortunately, traveler’s diarrhea usually isn’t serious in most people — it’s just unpleasant.
– Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/syc-20352182

16 years ago I returned from my first international trip to Hong Kong, and low and behold my uneducated self sat on the toilet. I deduced that accidentally drinking a little shower water in a hotel might’ve created the pain I had to endure for the following days.

I planned today to take a journey back 16 years, kicking my digital heels off to travel again to Hong Kong for the first time, again.

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10 Year Letters: 10 years (and 6 months) later

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

I had read a story awhile back about a 12-year young lady that wrote a letter to her future self 10 years later (today.com). Her name was Taylor Smith and she ended up making headlines not only for the novel idea of the letter but for unfortunately passing away from pneumonia.

Do not open until 2023 – Deceased girl’s letter to her future self goes viralDownload

That Christmas in 2014 I decided to start this as a family tradition, getting the kids down at the dinner table, telling them this story and informing them that they would love to hear about today much farther down the line from them.

It’s been 10 years and last night I read my letter. Suffice to say I’m proud of myself.

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When I am twice your age…

Matthew Heick Leave a comment

Today my second child officially turns 21 years old. It’s another milestone in being a parent and watching a child grow to an adult. This reminded me of a spreadsheet that I created when I realized that, on my 43rd birthday my oldest son was exactly half my age.

It’s not a difficult calculation: Determine the difference in age in days between your child and yourself, multiply that by two, and add that onto your Childs age.

When determining my all my kids’ 2x birthdays (TwiceDays? Triple-Quad-D aka Double-Dad-Days?) I went ahead to find out when those dates existed for my parents.

For my Father our PairDemiJour is June 21, 2009.

For my Mother our HalfMomMirror is September 28, 2008.

In all this birth date calculation I learned that I fathered my first 4 children earlier than my parents fathered me. Nothing to brag about, numbers do that for themselves.

So, the point? Maybe to create another special day that bonds parents with their children? Maybe. I just think when I rolled the cosmic dice and realized that on my 43rd birthday I’d be twice the age of my firstborn it was a gift from myself half-my-life away that I was glad to discover.

Walt Huntley

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Recently this came alive due to “A Homeless Man in Central Park“. I was able to trace this back to 2005 from a forum post on, hilariously, steven-seagal.net.

How good it is that God above has never gone on strike.
Because he was not treated fair in things he didn’t like,
If only once he’d given up and said, “That’s it, I’m through!”
“I’ve had enough of those on earth, so this is what I’ll do.”
I’ll give my orders to the sun-cut off the heat supply!”
“And to the moon-give no more light, and run the oceans dry.”
“Then just to make things really tough and put the pressure on,
Turn off the vital oxygen till every breath is gone!”

You know He would be justified, if fairness was the game,
For no one has been more abused or met with more disdain
Than God, and yet He carries on, supplying you and me
With all the favors of His grace, and everything for free.
Men say they want a better deal, and so on strike they go,
But what a deal we’ve given God to whom all things we owe.
We don’t care whom we hurt to gain the things we like;
But what a mess we’d all be in,if God should go on strike.

20050826 – If God should go on strike _ Unofficial Steven SeagalDownload
20091110 – If God Should Go on Strike – Sermon IndexDownload