Thoughts, devotions, and more from Jeffrey K. Ross, author of "Next Step Devotions"
After periodic perusing of a Mandarin-English dictionary/reference the last couple of weeks, I had an “ah-ha” moment today while reading more about Mandarin. In spite of the thousands of characters in the language, there are still some common aspects of the English language not included in Mandarin. For example, there are no definite articles like …
Continue reading Leap Year Lesson #111: Learning Another Language Is Good For You
I’m writing this about 4.5 hours into a 13-hour flight from Newark, NJ to Beijing, China. I took a break from my Mandarin crash course to watch the movie We Bought a Zoo. Near the end of the movie Matt Damon tells his son “Sometimes all it takes is 20 seconds of insane courage and …
Continue reading Leap Year Lesson #110: Sometimes All It Takes Is 20 Seconds
I will be en route to China from early Thursday morning through Friday morning. I will not return home to Louisville until late next week. As long as I have the Internet access I expect to have in my hotels, I will still blog daily during my trip. If, for some reason, I do not …
Continue reading Reminder about travel schedule and blog posts
I did not expect to have two posts within three days on the subject of being offended, but since the most thought-provoking incident of the day today was related to the subject, I thought I'd better tackle it again from a different angle. My leap year lesson #107 was "Before taking offense, have an adult …
Continue reading Leap Year Lesson #109: Words Have Meaning, So Choose Them Wisely
When was the last time you took a real risk? Not the "I'm going to try a different salad dressing" kind, but something on the order of "This could seriously hurt me...or worse." We tend to grow more risk averse as we age, and with good reason. We don't have the same physical capabilities or …
Continue reading Leap Year Lesson #108: Take a Risk and Enjoy the Ride
