"Sunlight angles on wooden floor at dawn
Ceiling fan is on, chopping all my dreams
What is left of them I take to sleep again
Where I dare pretend I'm more than I seem"
--Wilco ("Sky Blue Sky")

I was gifted with "Sky Blue Sky" and, of course,
it's really growing on me. It's Wilco afterall.
Wilco is just one of those bands for me that
although perhaps the first listen through I'm
like, "Well, that's ok," with subsequent listens
I catch little lyrical things and instrumentations
and such that are just not like any other band,
and I dig it.

I've heard it said that there is nothing new that
a musician/band can produce, and it's all in the
way you put your musical influences together.
So all we songwriting types are doing is piecing
together the way others have done it in the past
in slightly different ways. Perhaps, but I still
think that makes it "new." I don't think it makes
it less original, because nobody can piece things
together exactly like someone else. We're unique
creatures, all with some new way of looking at things
to offer to each other.

But really, the best thing any of us has to offer
anybody else is selfless love, you know? I mean, how
easy is it to just get stuck in your own world, your
own head, and largely forget that you are just a little
piece of a world so much bigger, with purposes so
much bigger to serve than just your own. I guess that
is to say, it is easy to forget about the reality of God,
His sovereignty, His astounding beauty which is fuller
and more complete than the beauty of any one of us
by ourselves, and His limitless capacity to love.

So I want my life to be different. I want to take this life
I've been given and, no matter what God brings me to
and through, always seek to serve rather than be served,
and to offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving to my great
God. Lord, this is what I want, though I am still far off.

I've been making friends with a lot of homeless people
and random strangers lately. This is what comes of
hanging out downtown latish. Naomi and I met and
talked to this one guy for a long time, and we actually
ended up praying with him before the night was over.
He may not have fit the definition of a Saint, but he sure
seemed to have a connection with and a certain understanding
of who God is.

ALSO, I've been playing my guitar more lately....in the park!
Yes, it is fun to be playing an insturment that you can take
outside into the open air and share with the bugs and the
critters and the random bikeriders and dog-walkers. Fun.

And of course, been cooking a lot. Made a cake last night
using a mixture of cocoa and carob powder (natural chocolate
substitute) and it was pretty yummy.

Wow, why am I writing so much? Guess I feel like I've been hitting
some kind of internal growth spurt and feel the need to share.
Also, this has been a relaxed-paced week that I will look back
on with fondness in a month or two when things are CRAZY busy
again.

One last thing. I have started experimenting with creating percussion
tracks for my songs using fun things like whisks, graters, high heel
shoes and boxes. It's a good time. : )

"I can feel it, now it's time
Open your eyes
Fears be gone, it won't be long
There's a light in the skies
It's ok to look outside
The day it will abide
Watch the sunrise"
--Big Star (checked out from library)

OK, I'm gonna go watch the sunrise. Alright, so I'm a little late for that,
but I'm taking a morning walk and the sun will be rising.

Oh! Have I mentioned my new adorable little nephew? I must. I still don't
think they've picked out a name for him yet, but he's adopted and he's tiny
and beautiful and he's got some flavor is his skin! Yes, he's the first of our
immediate clan with some ethnicity. I'm a proud ant. : )

Hope you are well, friend. If you miss me at all like I miss you, then I can
sympathize with you. Thank the Lord we will all someday be together
forever. But for now, we find dear ones whose faces are near us to keep
our lives company, and it is beautiful.