playing around w/ the camera in nola...i don't know why but i really like this one

Posted in: on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at at 3:14 PM 0 comments  

i miss my home

the other night in nola i went to a performance by a local girl. (yep, i'm in new orleans for a couple of weeks.) she did the piano and singing thing at a local bar with a friend on violin/adding some background vocals. i heard about the show via some friends and although the music was drenched in girl drama/brooding angst, her talent was obvious. one song stood out to me midway through the set. it was a song written during her time away from new orleans in the wake of katrina, and while it seems that the emotions from those years are beginning to fade, it was this song that really got me thinking. the chorus, which i can't promise that i remember word for word and isn't on her myspace page, carried within it the seeds which would grow into a little thought plant in my brain. "i miss my home. i can't wait to be back where i belong." or something like that. though the intensity of the song has surely lost something of what it was back when she was writing it and singing it in another place feeling the fullness of its weight, i embraced her thoughts and found myself remembering something. one of those cliche christian comments that walks by me every day until finally i look up at it's face and recognize it as an old friend. i am living in a world that is not my home. my very being longs to be in that place that i have never been, yet would recognize in a heartbeat. a place i have never seen, but miss as if it were all i had ever known. at random times this reality is refreshed in my life, and her words brought me back to it because they spoke of my own longing to me. reminding me that no matter how much i dull the voice of my heart with the things of this world, it still knows glimpses of home when it sees it, and it beats all that much harder to let me know that i cannot really ignore it when it really wants to speak.

Posted in: on Monday, June 08, 2009 at at 7:10 PM 0 comments  

a lovely tradition:

Posted in: on Monday, May 04, 2009 at at 8:56 PM 0 comments  

Appalachian Trail

I'll be posting on tumblr (2175) for the next several months so as to keep my adventure on the Appalachian Trail self contained...

...it may be a bit sporadic, as i will only be in town every week or so, and am not assured internet access even then, but, i'll do my best to get fun stories and pictures up along the way.

things i'd like for you to know:
1) i'd love to see me friends along the way.  shoot me an email if you would like to hike a certain weekend or section of the trail.  i'll let you know where i'll be or when i'll be near where you are.
2) i will have a lot of free time so i am taking book recommendations. if you think your favorite book is worth me wasting a couple of days on, let me know what it is.

Posted in: on Friday, April 03, 2009 at at 7:13 PM 0 comments  

coffee

an hour and a half ago my parents and i went out for breakfast.  as we left the neighborhood i mentioned that i always thought the stores at the front of the neighborhood should include a coffee shop.  we created one in our minds.  discussed the clientele, what sort of pastries, hours of operation, etc.  just now as we returned to the neighborhood, an hour and a half later, we decided on a name.  well not really a name per-se, but the subtitle.  under the name on the sign (stuart's coffee, or glaser's pretty good coffee, or otherwise) would be this written in smaller print:

"people who really love coffee say, ...'it's ok' "
i think it's hilarious.  and that obviously my parents and i make the best marketing team ever.

Posted in: on Thursday, April 02, 2009 at at 11:36 AM 0 comments  

google reader

what's wrong here? i mean really, i've been using this thing for not quite a year and i'm just now commenting on how it's changed my life? opps. some of my favorite parts of the ongoing technological explosion are the unrelenting advances produced in the efficiency of circulating thought. why do i love the fact the ideas and information can move and spread more and more easily and effectively?  i mean we only have to go back 560 years and there's no printing press/effective production of books .  thanks gutenberg.  now i can find the exact date gutenberg did his thing in like .2 seconds via google and wiki.  now, there are obvious reasons that spreading ideas efficiently is of benefit.  one could compose a long list of them having to do with further progress and benefits for humanity in general.  i will not.  i will compose a selfish list...and it will be why i like google reader:  just last year i would have visited each and every blog that i enjoy reading, the bbc, friends on flickr, and a smattering of other sites one by one, which, as you know, can be a seriously time consuming effort.  what a waste of my life.  now i go to one page, one glorious page, and it tells me if any of those have updates, lets me read them, save them if i'd like, forward them along to others, etc.  and then i'm done.  all the minutes/hours that used to be page after page loading are mine to do with as i like.  one page.  i love google reader.  along the same lines, i also love: high speed internet, fast computers, and easy mac in a bowl.

Posted in: on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at at 4:25 PM 0 comments  

145

 1 I will exalt you, my God and King,
      and praise your name forever and ever.
 2 I will praise you every day;
      yes, I will praise you forever.
 3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
      No one can measure his greatness.

 4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
      let them proclaim your power.
 5 I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor
      and your wonderful miracles.
 6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue;
      I will proclaim your greatness.
 7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness;
      they will sing with joy about your righteousness.

i love verse four tucked neatly between verses of praise.  the writer of this psalm spent his days praising god...then it passed on to the next generation.  that generation passed it to the next generation, and they to their children, and so on for thousands of years, and now here i am...reading these words and praising god.  i can't get over that.  i feel as if i can join in with david dancing and singing in his throne room before god.  i have the feeling that god can take in the praise of his people from every generation as one choir throughout time singing a chorus of his goodness and love.

Posted in: on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at at 1:53 PM 0 comments  

by the end of today

i posted a video from fiftypeopleonequestion.com a while back set in new orleans.  i was struck again today by the ending to the ny version.  all of these are great videos but the response that struck me was to the question, "what do you wish to happen by the end of today?"


"i wish that i began the day with a wish actually...so, maybe i'll wish for that tomorrow."

it was a great response, and makes me think.  what would happen if i began my days with a desire...with some sort of tangible direction?  what if, as i focused on it throughout my day, i became aware of the passing day?  what if i recognized the significance of merely being alive to be able to pursue the things i say that i believe in?

i'll compare this to another quote i heard, directed specifically at the stereotype that my generation is lazy:  "it's not that we're lazy, it's that we refuse to accept inefficiency in any area of our life."  this comes out of a work setting, and roughly paints a picture of a generation that gets the job done quickly and then is ready to move on.  either to other productive things, or moving on to wasting time.  i mean how often do you see real actual work happen on the office.  going back further, this is where the idea for office space came from.  some jobs, corporate or otherwise, give us enough "real work" to fill up a few efficient hours of the week.  we are left with the remainder to fill with fluff.

what happens when we refuse to fill a huge chunk of our week (life) with fluff?  is this something that a typical job setting can wrap it's head around?  no idea.  just thought i'd ask.  i work at a church and i work with youth.  so, it's already a different kind of job than most.  but, i am supposed to take rest and refuel.  i'm encouraged to pursue what i am passionate about, what i was created to do and love, so that i can better lead youth to do the same.  to live well, is part of doing my job well.  the past few week i have directed partially to cutting fluff.  i don't want to waste time, because that is wasting the investment that is being put into me via my salary.  i can cut fluff to create time for...well, a million other things that could be considered ministry.  but, that is my job.  on the other hand, a corporate office would only see a lazy 20 something.  because there you don't leave the office to go hang with kids, or spend time alone praying...on a mountain, or catch up with volunteer leaders by having lunch or throwing a frisbee, etc.  i really have it easy, but i wonder how many companies out there care about having healthy employees.  mentally, physically, spiritually.  or would give them the kind of freedom to live life with dreams.  hmm.  

i know this was two ideas poorly woven, but they seem to go together for me.  it's hard to deny that wanting to live purposefully can only gather steam if it can pass into all areas of life, even the measly 40 hours a week that is work.

Posted in: on at at 1:38 AM 0 comments  

"It’s the mundane that halts my creativity.  I would love a real space, my own space, where everything could be together and my energy could flow endlessly.  Is that every one’s dream?  I think this is a dream worth cultivating."

Posted in: on at at 12:52 AM 0 comments  

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