This morning I had a thought about love.  I thought about how true love is not just a feeling but an act of the will. I thought back to the ideas that there are 3 parts to love and that there are different types of love.  In Sternberg's triangular theory of love the three parts are commitment, intimacy, and passion.  The "feeling" part is the passion of romantic attraction.  But this doesn't work well for other types of love such as brotherly love or charitable love or motherly love.  But it does if the primary triangle is commitment, intimacy, and other types of passion or strong feelings. And this passion can be cultivated through willing oneself to practice commitment and intimacy.

This morning I chose to pray.  I prayed for a connection to God and for the power to behave according to his will and law.  I chose to live a life of good relationships and improvements to the lives of others.

At the learning lab I chose to set aside web browsing and do a few math problems.  In between classes I chose to turn away from sexual arousal and turn toward the valuation of life.

In class I chose to subside my elevated defensiveness when I heard my professor mis-characterize the position of pro-life organizations.

At times I had to choose to set aside my fears about the papers, tests, and math problems that I have coming up.  Furthermore I had to turn my attitude toward the idea that they will get done and be adequate even if they are not as elaborate or I am not as prepared as I would like to be.  I must choose not to anxietize myself over what has not yet happened.

When I returned home I chose to face the discussion that my wife and I needed to have about my son missing a ball game to participate in the Music Memory contest.  I had to set aside my ideas about how she would communicate with me.   Furthermore I had to strive to valuate her needs and resist villifying her as a threat to my ideas about my son's needs.

In writing this journal I chose to look at the present first rather than revisiting the past 2 weeks of not reviewing.  I may yet look back at them but only if today's business is done.

Thanks be to God for the power to choose.

The past few days I have been thinking about factors in the addiction treatment.  Our textbook lists some but they all appear to be external or secondary.  I believe the primary factors to be in the area of self regulation.  Namely impulse control, illicit values, hyper hedonism, self-serving bias, etc.

Yesterday in thinking about what to talk to my son's little league team about mistakes could be game changers I thought of three distinct types.  The plays they could make, the plays they ought to make, and the plays they should make.

This morning I was grateful to get the kids going and get to mass on time.  I believe that I made an effective communion with the LORD.   Our readings were about spiritual blindness and the light of God.

This afternoon I really enjoyed attending a birthday party with my son for one of his teammates.

I managed to get the yard cleaned up this weekend and get all the leaves out to the curb for pick up.  It was hard work.

I didn't get any math work done.  I have been very worried about this but yesterday I was able to recognize my fear as lack of faith.   I hope to return to that faith now.

I got to talk to a guy today about his troubles.  I believe that he is a person moving toward recovery.

Thanks be to God for this day.