Journey of a Psalmist

I can't get this new Misty Edwards song out of my head, that says, "Did you learn to love? Is what You will will ask me. Did you learn to love? Not about my ministry. Did you learn to love? Not about my money." 2011. One of the best years of my life. Yes, still in the same situations, but I've found myself, my voice, and my mission. I can lose what few assets I own, but they can never take my purpose. I've traveled, gotten healthy, made new friends, learned a bit of salsa [long story ;-) ], some aikido, continued biking and tkd, and am taking up Spanish again. Saw Buddy Guy, went to Kansas City, spent time camping at the beautiful Silver Falls, and went to the coast. The two trips to Seattle were incredible and helped inspire a new productive side of creativity for me. And I got closure for questions and struggles that had hindered my relationship with God for a while. Cool stuff, huh? Yeah, okay, the head shave was a bit drastic, but it really doesn...

Can't say I'm really into Christmas. Don't really hate it, it's just another part of my environment while I get through my own life. I just don't see spending lots of money on gifts, when me and others I know don't have a lot of extra money to spare. And it's really the thought that counts anyway. Spent most of it working on and reading up on music biz, blog stuff, etc. Have two songs out, but that's just the beginning. For some reason I just want it to be done so I can get back into the groove. As much as I enjoy wobbling around, I want to get back to healthy. I just feel better all around when I'm healthy and productive. There are endless things to do and dreams to pursue and me sitting there watching Die Hard for two hours eating fatty foods just isn't that productive. For being influenced by a book called Four-hour work week, I sure am busy with my time these days. I don't think I can go back either. In 2012 my goal is to pursue ...

As I take the drive home from work it's one of those times I feel contemplative and not headbanging to German metal, but rather Loreena McKennitt's Dark Night of the Soul plays on the stereo. At least now I can say I understand what the song is talking about, having read the book and Song of Solomon and gone through some things myself. "As care and grief grew dim as in the mornings mist became the light There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair ." As those last lyrics came I looked and saw the hazy sky in the light of the slightly foggy morning, with Mt Hood taking on a blue hue. I wouldn't mind seeing some morning mist soon. As interesting as the first part of the song is, I think I like the last part. :-)

Life is very surreal these days and everything is being stretched. Let me explain my day a bit: Woke up early and worked in a cold warehouse for a few hours listening to audio of Tim Ferris (everything he writes is uncomfortable, that's why I need to listen) and Spanish lessons, while doing martial arts conditioning from time to time. A couple hours of sleep, then meet with Edgar Nunez for newer mentorship at a spanish-speaking tacohouse. Then workout with Jon. Then a phone conversation with a close lady friend of mine. Later after sleeping more I get up and know I need to get to work on copyrighting songs. After dinking around for a while, I finally go to my room to work. It's still hard. On my computer I dig out the prophetic word I had from presbytery around eight years ago which is speaking to my life right now as the mystery is being unlocked. Very surreal... There is an entrepreneurial opportunity I believe that's coming...There's a decision before you to ...

And so I sit here after yet another bountiful Thanksgiving meal. I can't possibly eat another yam at the moment and I just want to lie down. Is there a way to enjoy the rest while still focusing on my goals? I think so, and hope so. I think that's the challenging thing about rest is we all need it, and yet it's easy to lose momentum when you get caught up in it. Finishing up reading Mastery about martial arts and learning philosophy applied to life. Journey is better than destination type stuff. Great stuff. But I want to finish so I can start on The War of Art, which is about overcoming resistance toward goals. Resistance comes in such subtle ways, "I'm tired after work or whatever, I'll just watch this one tv program", "I'll just have this one donut.", etc. until you realize you've been on the couch for three hours and now just want go to sleep. There are ways to trick yourself, and head the right direction instead. If I can j...

People seem to be shocked by my new jedi look. C'mon guys, big deal. I have more important things going on in life than hairstyles (or lack thereof). I feel more alive than ever before these days despite my lack of sleep with everything I'm involved in. Let me explain a little bit. It's many guy's dream to quit their boring job and go do something cool like be a rock star or start a microbrewery or become a wilderness adventure guide. Trouble is life doesn't always seem to work that easily. There are mortgages, kids, etc. But guess what, I don't have those. haha So at my second job, when my Target store closes down and offers separation pay to take the lay-off, it sounds like an opportunity to me. Yes, they are gonna try to transfer those that want to. Given the choice, I told them I'm leaning toward quitting. I've got many creative ideas in music, business, and art/media that I'm starting to pursue, but with two jobs I don't have the...

What happens when a melancholy type who normally keeps to himself starts learning to interact with society around him while not compromising his own ideals? People around get surprised sometimes, and yet it makes total sense to the individual, meaning me of course. Introverted hippie to mildly social hipster. How? The answer: beer. Okay, just kidding. I'm on a train to Seattle on vacation. Not exactly new territory, but a cheap getaway. I've recently managed to put together the track to Far Beyond, which needs a few tweaks here and there, but I'm pretty pleased at how it's come out. I have a few other songs in the works as well. These are my dreams and fortunately I'm still in a position where I can fulfill them if I set my mind to it. I've had some epiphanies about myself lately, and the process is still going on, but I feel right about things. That there's no way to go but forward. I also shaved my head and dyed my gotee (though people don't...

Fits well into the whole mountain climbing theme. It's a great movie that can be watched on hulu or checked out at the library. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnR2dpLnS14

I finally a bit of time have some time to write, since I didn't work this morning, though I do work my other job later. I'm not sure what to write, except sum up my adventures, though that is a bit surfacy, but write a bit of what's going on with me, though lots of internal and hard to write out. I'll see what I can do... This week, took some time away to go to Silver Falls. I wanted to do a Survivorman thing, though it wasn't exactly wild, and I wasn't exactly eating bugs or fighting bears, but Silver Falls is one of my favorite places to go. Biking, hiking, photographing. Twas nice even in cloudy weather. Also recently started taking Aikido over summer, giving my knuckles and feet and much needed break from Taekwondo, and trying to learn things like falling, grappling, etc, a completely different side. The type of thing you see Steven Seagal do, but ever so slower and awkward. Fun stuff. Last night I went to the Blues Festival to see Buddy Guy. When I a...

Okay, so now that the Osama is dead, do we still have to take off our shoes at the airport? Okay, fine, I guess they still do what they gotta do. But at least trains you don't have to go through all that. I'm on one right now and trains beats planes anytime. Had vacation time so I figured, hey why not go travel. But as I'm on a budget, Seattle isn't far and my brother is a student/teacher at the University of Washington. Considered biking it, but then thought about how extremely long it is to drive there. Okay, maybe I can leave that project to the pros this time. I did bike to North Vancouver the other day, and also Clackamas Town Center and that's hardcore enough for me for now. Spent the first couple days of vacation catching up on friends. Then Wednesday took the train to Seattle. Taken the drive a couple times in the past, but these days gas is too expensive and it's hard on my old Plymouth. The train is a first for me actually, but after this I m...

Perhaps Ed Veisters is the real most interesting man in the world. Climbed Mount Everest five times, without supplemental oxygen. Also made an appearance in the movie Vertical Limit and the IMAX film Everest and wrote a book about K2. I find inspiration here for symbolic mountains of my own, but here's what Ed has to say about the real deal. When first he tried Everest he had to turn back, because of weather. Here he describes his first successful climb to the summit: It was twenty degrees below zero. The unforgiving Tibetan wind whipped around me, covering the footprints of my passage - a constant reminder of the challenges that lay ahead amid the rock and snow. I scanned ahead, following the outline that defined the massive shard of glistening crystal. Everest. It stood taunting me once again, spectacular crown sharply defined in the ethereal sky. ... (snip) Now, after years of preparation, I was back at base camp and ready: well trained, prepared, focused. I'd visua...

My blog, my blog, whatever happened to my blog? Well, I guess I got busy with life, and when I have so much on my place I can't always do everything. And I just don't feel the need these days to ramble on so much to the world about myself and my little issues. But you know, I do want to keep up writing, though I wish I was more prolific, and that I had more exciting stories to tell. Like the Don Equis beer guy, the most interesting man in the world. But hey my mom never had a tattoo that said "Son" and my blood doesn't smell like cologne. I'm not Hemingway safariing in Africa or Humphrey Bogart boating the Ulanga river in a movie, or Neil Peart the drummer and lyricist for the legendary band Rush who chronicled adventures bicyling through Camaroon. Or J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis hanging out at Oxford and creating entire imaginary worlds from their genius minds and stories blessing the lives of people around the world, from which they are still making mo...

Well, here I am in Kansas City once again. I've been here a few times and it's always in wintertime at the beginning of the year. Is there a summer in KC? To me it's like Narnia when I come here, always winter and never Christmas. Pretty typical for the House of Prayer, which is good. Didn't see any awakening meetings, but I see a lot of focus in the prayer room, particularly more on the nightwatch. Fine by me, long revival meetings wear me out. I do enjoy the renewal stuff, but I'm just fine going to the prayer room, taking communion, enjoying the music, worshiping or praying or reading a good book. I try to read a spiritual book when I come here, and the one I ended up reading this time was Dark Night of the Soul by St John of the Cross. Heard about it years ago from Pastor and then went through some experiences of my own. I recently got a CD by Canadian Celtic singer Loreena Mckennitt which happened to have a song based on the Dark Night. Was intrigued s...