This Geek Thing

I've had some thoughts on this whole Geek discussion that's going on, so here they are.

As defined by dictionary.com

geek

 [geek]  Show IPA Slang.

noun

1.

a digital-technology expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often useddisparagingly by others).

2.

a person who has excessive enthusiasm for and some expertise about a specialized subject oractivity: a foreign-film geek.

3.

a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.

Origin: 
 1915- 20; probably variant of geck  (mainly Scots ) fool < Dutch  or Low German gek

I left out the fourth definition. Follow the link if you want. It's interesting if you like getting funnel cake.

For a majority of my life the second two were how I primarily heard the word being used. I can't pin point the first time but it was probably in elementary school. So somewhere in the mid to late 80's. By this point I probably already was the 2nd option. I was very enthusiastic about most cartoons. Especially He-Man and Transformers, or any cartoon with animals.

At age 9, while walking with my sister-in-law to a park, I was talking excitedly about something, and she called me weird. Since it was said pleasantly, I said, 'Thank you!" I embraced that description.

Later I would get into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (something that solidified one of the longest and best friendships of my life.) In middle school I got into comic books (particularly X-Men) and movies. I never stopped liking one thing in favor of another. I just added to my interests.

I was always on the outside. Besides a few friends that had the same, or at least similar interests my only other friends during middle school and high school were my friends from my church youth group. 

Even there I was on the fringe because I always had my backpack with my sketchbook and comics with me, and I'm sure other reasons. At school, being a Christian and into comics had me sticking out like a sore thumb. I didn't care. I didn't like the things I did for anyone besides myself. I wasn't making a point. I just like what I like.

College saw me finally adding the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit offically to my geekhood. I had grown up with the animated movies, but never read the books. So I made sure I read them before the movies hit. Now, they are probably the biggest area of my geek knowledge.

I was in college before I started self-applying the term 'geek.' Before then I was just weird. I wasn't a geek because I was ostracized, I was ostracized because I was a geek. 

Then the 2000's came. Huge successful movies about comic book heroes started getting made. X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman relaunch, Watchmen, and eventually TV shows like Heroes . My particular brand of geek was getting noticed. And I was okay with it! I didn't care that now new people were learning who the X-Men were. Even if they messed them up in the movie.

Being a geek wasn't a status or desirable thing. It was just a broad descriptor for people really into specific things. Geek wasn't pointed at comic books and super heroes alone. You could be a music geek, game geek (now gamers) or whatever.

Next came The Big Bang Theory. A show about 4 geeky nerds who live in LA. It's a funny show. I enjoy it a lot. I don't think it accurately portrays anyone I know that is into comics or other geeky stuff. It got the concept of comics and geeks into a wider pop culture dialogue.

Then Patton Oswalt puts out a blog post about being an 'otaku.' Saying he's not a geek, but was 30 years ago when it wasn't cool. This post kinda made me mad.

Frankly, I'm not of the mentality that being a geek is something to hoard. I'm sorry for all the people out there who were physically/emotionally bullied for having interests in the 'not normal.' As far as I'm concerned being a geek wasn't some sort of anti-establishment, proto-hipster way to like things that weren't popular.

Being a geek means you really like something and have a wide and specific knowledge base in that subject. Geek is a generic term. It is not limited to comic books, or video games or anything. I'm sick and tired of all these people who are upset that what they like is suddenly widely popular. It doesn't change what you like! Unless you only like those things because there was limited interest in it.

I don't know what to tell you then.

Right now there is a trendy fad to be geeky or nerdy. It might last a long time. It might not. Why does it matter to you if someone else claims to be a geek? If you've been a geek your whole life, and meet someone who is just now discovering these things, are they not allowed to consider themselves a geek too?

Why is calling your self a geek some sort of victim of bullying or being ostracized merit badge?

And for all the 'fake' geek stuff. Yes, I do believe there are people who are fake about being a geek. Just like there are people who are fake about what sports team they like, or what their religious beliefs are. Every sub-culture, category, and social group has people who make them look bad, and don't really belong in that group.

Let's not become the bullies and jerks we endured. Excluding others just because they didn't go through what we went through. That's a Magneto thing. And despite current alignments. He's a bad guy. You want to keep geekdom different from all the other groups out there? Be accepting!

Your type of geek might be very different from my type of geek. Good! Cause if we all liked the exact same thing...fill in the creepy utopian controlled future story of your choosing!

So lets stop all these rants about how popular culture has killed being a geek. All the things geeks love are still out there. So embrace what you love and let other embrace what they love. And when this trendy fad passes, we can continue on...hopefully with a few more geeks by our side!

Geekfully yours...

grace, peace + hope

-Jesse

What Just Happened? 2013 in Review

It's been a helluva year.

I'm not just saying that about my personal year. It's been one crazy year. There have been mega-highs and ultra lows. The most diffinitive thing I can say about 2013, personally, is that it ripped in like a hurricane and punched out faster than mantis shrimp.

The first half of the year was marked with deaths, loss, and change. Lots of change. My step-dad, his dog, a friend. Moved myself twice before July. Moved mom to Florida, first time she's lived outside the Susquehanna Valley since 1980. My jobs flipped as to which was the predominant job (this is a change I am most happy about.) New car, new phone (finally entered the realm of 'smart' phones.)

The early part of the year saw the beginning of an endeavor almost 25 years in the making. Life long friend, Shawn and I began laying the foundation for Counter Monkey Comics, and what would be our first (and not last) appearance at the Baltimore Comic Con.

Between moving myself, my mom, a family vacation, 2 jobs and all the beautiful insanity of life we reached our goals for the convention and I self published my first comic book. Which is now entirely SOLD OUT! It wasn't a profit winning undertaking, but it was fun and so very satisfying.

The second half of the year, which saw the completion of the comic, it's printing and the convention - also allowed me to settle into a rhythm of sorts in this new normal. Teeth were pulled, literally. And I realized that I was finally entering the goals I had set for myself when I moved back to PA in May, 2011.

A little over 2 years and a lot of unexpected twists and turns and foolish selfmade detours, and I was finally getting to where I wanted to be for this chapter of my life.

I can't be the only one to have realized this. Many times. While perpetually forgetting it: Stop trying to make God's plan for your life something you can plot out and control.

I'm a firm believer in not saying, "I can't." But this is one of those situations where it applies.

I had this vision of what I wanted to do when  I moved back to PA. Then I read inspiring books. Had conversations with wonderful and amazing people. I lost sight of my vision and started following the experiences of someone else.

In a way my step-dad's passing presented the opportunity of solitude and silence to hear something God must have been saying for the year and a half prior.

"Kid, what're you doing? These are good things, but not what you were made for."

Some how I had gotten it in my head that pursuing my dreams of writing/drawing and storytelling were some how selfish and unimportant. No one said this to me. I said it to myself. I had convinced myself that I was not severing God fully if I wasn't immersed in helping people with every waking breath. I filled myself with pride and some sort of ambition to do things I wasn't called to do. I misread situations as signs and direction.

Like so many, I became my own worst enemy. Fortunately God doesn't give up on us. No matter how long it takes, when we truly let our hearts be still, we can hear him. And I did.

Write    Draw   Tell stories   Love God & Neighbors

These are my directives. I can't compare what God has given me to do to what others are doing. I can't map out what roads his leading will take me on, or what people I will encounter along the way.

So, 2013, you were a hell of a year. In good times and hard. You were better to others, and even worse to many more. You're a part of my history now, and I can't change that, nor do I want to. In ending this post, here's one of my favorite quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring:

"Home is behind, the world ahead,
and there are many paths to tread
through shadows to the edge of night,
until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
we'll wander back and home to bed.
Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
away shall fade! Away shall fade!"

 Have an incredible 2014. It'll be incredible at times. It will have moments that truly suck. There will be days or hours that seem unbearbale followed by moments that set your soul aflame.

Just put one foot in front of the other, and keep living. No matter what tomorrow brings, only you control how you will respond or react. Strive to respond rather than react.

The world is what you make of it, so let's make it better this year.


grace, peace + HOPE
-Jesse

In Passing

I just learned that a friend passed away six days ago.  I'm really bummed.  Not that this is in anyway about me.  I'm just...*sigh*...I don't know.

I met Karl not quite a year ago in South Africa.  Our BGC team had just arrived at Botshabelo for our service trip and we met Karl as we started work on tearing down the roof of the residence we were going to be rebuilding.  There was no big introduction, no big to-do.  He was just there, working.  Hard.  Within the first few minutes I knew I was going to enjoy working with this guy.

He had such a great attitude and personality.  If we ran into a difficult patch of work, he'd step back and really think his way around it, and we'd just go for it.  He seemed to work tirelessly too.

But what really impressed me about him was when the work day ended.   The way he loved the kids at the orphanage, and they loved him!  There was just something so real and genuine about Karl.  He spoke his mind, but he did so with his heart.  Which makes all the difference.

We got to spend a lot of time working together over the three weeks I was there.  We had a lot of conversations about everything from writing, God, elephants, nature, and just living life.  They were some of the best conversations I've ever had.

Every year I've gone to South Africa there have been a few things/events/people that stand out from each trip.  Getting to know Karl was, without a doubt, the most memorable part of my trip last year.  There were talks about trying to meet up again in the future for some other world traveling adventure.

Well, you're on the biggest adventure now Karl.  You will be missed.  You made a life-long difference in this Yank.  Whenever I get to make that adventure among the gypsies, you'll be right there with me.

Good rest, Godspeed...


grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Incitement - Vox Populi

Did you ever believe?
Were you ever a dreamer?
Ever imagine heart open and free?

                  from "Vox Populi" by 30 Seconds to Mars

Something is happening.

I am inspired.  Stoked.  Excited.  Amped.

This is no euphoria induced moment of stimulated brain activity.  This is genuine, unadulterated inspiration.  And I have to say, it's about bloody time.  The past two years have been awkward and challenging.  But this post isn't about that.  I just want to make it clear that that I've been in some sort of quagmire.  My very own "Swamp of Sadness," if you'll allow a NeverEnding Story reference.

I've had moments of creative success.  Weighed down by a lot of life and other things.  Many were consequences of my own actions/choices.  I've no delusions about that.  I can be my own worst enemy sometimes.  I just don't know how to get out of my own way.  I'm stubborn that way.

Yet, here I am.  I feel as if I've been banging against the soundproof glass of my own hubris.  It's finally broken and the air is flowing again.  It's like a waterfall exploding life into my imagination.

This isn't just about creativity either.  At least not just in the artistic/writing sense.  But I'll get to that in a minute.

As for the creativity...I haven't written any poems in almost 2 years.  Not even bad ones.  I haven't worked on my "epic" for almost nearly as long.  Granted I've put another project ahead of those, one that I'm taking to the Baltimore Comic-Con in September.  But even that has felt like a burden, with moments of joy.  But all that is changing.  The rivers of creativity have broken free of the levee and are rushing wild and free.

I'm tired of sitting on my hands and worrying if these projects will make it.  Wondering if there will be a response to what I'm creating.  It doesn't matter.  They need to happen.  They need to be set free and let out.  It's time to stop waiting for whatever it is I've been waiting for.

I'm also done waiting for some specific 'ministry' to fit into my life.  Oddly, the comic Coffee with Jesus has struck me deeply today.  There is one where a guy promises to make changes in his life ending with spending more time with Jesus.  Jesus points out that he should start with that, and see how the rest pan out.

I hear ya big guy.  I hear ya.

The sad thing is, I know all this stuff.  But for some reason, after watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation tonight, and listening to Led Zepplin's When the Levee  Breaks, and 30 Seconds to Mars'  Vox Populi on the drive home, my mind, imagination, and heart lit up like freakin' Rockefeller Center at Christmas!  I don't know what that combination did, but it did.  Stoked.  Amped.  Inspired.

Make someone's day better.  Every day. 


I know, rivetingly original right?  But hey, it's possible.  This world is full of darkness and shadows.  We don't trust our government.  Doesn't matter what side you're on.  Everyone thinks politicians are hiding something.  Or even full out lying about something or everything.  There is distrust, hate, anger, fear and everything else running rampant in our streets and hearts.

But what good is any of that?

Damn right.  Not a single solitary bit.  I'm sick and tired of being afraid.  Tired of hiding behind excuses and misunderstandings.  I'm done.  Sure, I have no idea what tomorrow holds.  I could die in a car accident.  I could catch some disease.  Maybe something more horrific like a terrorist attack.  Maybe, someone won't like my clothes!  The horror.  Someone might laugh at me in a store.  Maybe I'll offend a friend because of my beliefs.

Done.  I'm just done with all of that.

You know what else might happen tomorrow?  Nothing.  Because I refuse to do anything.  We refuse to do anything.  Earlier this week I was a little off in my mood.  I was being a little short with a friend.  Not their fault, but they were getting my offishness.  After a good conversation I learned they had been having a really bad day.  Made my little problems of not enough sleep/bumping my head with a post not that big a deal.

We've all got problems.  We can wait for people to notice ours and be sympathetic toward us, or we can stop, look, listen for what's going on with them.  Go watch the movie The Impossible.  It's a gut wrenching tale of a family that went through the tsunami in 2004.  Despite fearing her children and husband were dead, a mother and her eldest son stop to help a small boy.  It went against basic instincts of survival.  But they saved that kids life.

What I'm rambling on about here is that I, no...WE must put ourselves off our own radar.  Before you get snarky with your check out person at Wal-Mart, realize they might be having the worst day of their life.  Or maybe breakfast just didn't agree with them.  What does it hurt you and me to be nice?  It might cost us a little pride, or pity, or whatever chip we might be carrying on our shoulder today.

Don't surrender to the easy.  The convenient.  The darkness.  Make a difference in someone's life.  Make someone's life better today.  Not to make yourself feel good (which you probably will) but because being nice is unexpected, and so uncommon.

I'm trying to incite a riot of kindness and love here.  Let's flip the day on it's head and make someone smile.  And don't just settle for family or friends.  Let kindness, hope, love and compassion grown in your heart like a garden.  Take the fruit and pass it around.  For me this comes out of my faith.  But it's not about earning points or following a dogma.

It's about seeing the folks around you as people, and not obstacles to get around or tools to get you what you want.  We are all at different places in life.  We can't expect everyone around us to be on the same page as us, or even in the same book.  But being kind, and genuine...that transcends languages, orientations, choices, politics, and just about everything.  Doesn't mean it's appreciated, or always noticed.  That doesn't make it any less kind or real.

So, be inspired.  In life, creativity, whatever.  Make someone's day better today.  Tomorrow.  Whenever.  Wherever

Ever want to just stop?
Do you want to surrender?
Or fight for victory?

Don't quit. Incite kindness and inspiration.  We the people, YOU and me, have a voice.

Even if no one is listening.

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

True North

On Christmas Day I went to see the movie Lincoln.  It was an incredibly filmed and acted movie.  I'm sure it will win a few awards in the coming months.  But like many movies, I hope, it speaks to people.  That it will challenge them and spur them on in their lives.


One moment that really reached through the screen and slapped me in the face more effectively than any 3D presentation I've ever seen was when Abe talks about a compass and true north.

A compass will point you true north. but it won’t show you the swamps between you and there.  If you don’t avoid the swamps, and get bogged down, what’s the use of knowing true north?

Now, I don't know if this is something the president has ever said or not.  It's still an effective and powerful thought.  At first glimpse this idea could be seen as compromising your beliefs.  I don't hold to that opinion.

True North is a guide.  It's a way to know where you are and to check your bearings.  To know that you need to move more East or West.  To know where, when and how to correct your course to remain on your path.

Like the example of a swamp, sometimes you cannot simply press on.  You have to go around.  Or find your way through, at a much slower, and riskier path.  Maybe it's not a swamp.  Maybe it is a mountain in your way.  You can keep marching straight north if you like.  Perhaps you'll make it over the mountain that way.   Or, maybe, just maybe that path will defeat you.  Or claim the lives of those traveling with you.

More likely you will look for a pass, or a route that will take you quickly and safely over, or as close to those as possible, and allow you to pick up following true north on the other side.

Cause the only way to pass a mountain that is blocking your forward advance is through it.  Like a tunnel.  It's destructive.  To the mountain and those blasting through.  And you end up robbing yourself of the journey and experiences that wait in the struggle over the mountain.

For those who follow Jesus as their true north, remember this; there is room to move about.  Jesus gave a few very strong and specific commands, but they are also many broad strokes.  Sometimes Jesus will lead you to a mountain, or a swamp.  Don't blast through the mountain, or chop down a forest to build a bridge over the swamp.  Look for the detours and smaller paths that He will lead you to.

If you are at that mountain, it means there is a difficult bit of journey ahead, and you will be changed, challenged, and exhausted by it.  But you will come down the other side different.  Stronger, because your weakness allows Jesus to work.  Wiser, because your mistakes led to Jesus teaching you.  Better, because you spent that much more time in His presence, following where he leads.

No journey is a straight line.  (Unless you live in the Midwest where it's really boring to drive.)  Turning East or West does not always mean going off course and missing the mark.  Sometimes the road takes a curve or bend that eventually leads you back North.

Know where you are going, but discover the road along the way.


grace, peace + hope-Jesse

Home is Behind, The World is Ahead

Music gets under my skin like few things do.  And one band that delivers song after song right through me is, Mumford & Sons.  I can't find a thing I don't like about their latest album.  But this post isn't about a band.  But I wanted to post lyrics from their song Babel that are just ringing true this morning.

'Cause I know my weakness, know my voice,
And I believe in grace and choice
And I know perhaps my heart is fast,
But I’ll be born without a mask

2012 was not an easy year.  But why should it have been?  And I know my year compared to others wasn't that bad.  I'm not complaining.  But it was rough.  And 2011 wasn't a smooth year either.  Again, why should it have bee?

I moved from Illinois back to Pennsylvania in May 2011.  I left behind a lot of comfort.  A good job, a cosy home, great friends, and a clear defined roll in ministry.  It was familiar, comfortable, and for lack of better words, pretty much what I always wanted.  At least in some regards.  But a curious thing started in 2010, the things I thought I wanted began to change.  Or become redefined.  The comfort of where I was was not comfortable in my spirit.

That's not saying anything about or against any of those things.  For those of you who are on a similar journey with me, in following God, know that he doesn't usually let us settle in with comfort, ease, and familiarity for long.

So here I am, a year and a half later and I feel like every step that I've taken since then has been one hammer fall after another.  The ringing metal of a blacksmith at his trade echoing through my soul like a pebble falling into a canyon.

I don't want to be anywhere else.


Contrary to what many 'reality' shows, celebrities, movies, and other things tell you.  Life is not about living comfortably.  At least not if you want to follow Jesus.  Oh there will be times of rest, peace, and comfort, but it won't necessarily come from nice things.  It generally will come from an exhausting day spent giving of yourself to others.  Knowing that His love and hope have been poured into people around you.

Last night on returning from a New Years Eve get together my good friend asked me what my dreams of the future looked like.  It was a very good question.  One I do tumble about the old noggin frequently.  But I've not been asked to put words to it for some time.  I'm not satisfied with the response I gave, though I wouldn't say it was inaccurate, but it was a finger painting compared to what I really see in the fully detailed painting in my heart.

She asked what it looked like where I was, who or what was around me.  I rambled off a few things about traveling and working/living in various communities around the globe, particularly in Africa and Europe, and a few other things.  But when I got home and close my eyes this is what I saw:

I'm sitting on a small stool in a dimly lit room.  There are a few other people with me.  I can't tell who they are specifically.  One of them is family.  Be it one of my brothers, my sister, or maybe a wife.  Three of the others are people who live in whatever town/village/city we are in.  The remaining two are travelers or visitors.  I don't know where this place is, but it's not the USA.

We are sitting around this smallish room, not crowded, but tight.  There are remains of a meal on plates on our laps or tables and the arms of chairs.  I'm holing a cup of water.  Everyone is tired, dirty, and there are scrapes and bruises on all of us.  But we are all smiling and laughing.  I am happy.  Some one is telling a story and I nearly choke on my water.  (If you've been around me while I'm eating or drinking and funny stories are being told, you can easily picture this.)

Whatever we are working on is coming along.  There are complications and difficulties.  But all endeavors worth time, sweat, and blood have such things.  We have every right to be discouraged and frustrated, and there may be some elements of that, but we will tackle the project again tomorrow.  And the problems will be overcome.  The laughter subsides and well all grow pensive for a moment before the light flickers out and my image fades...I know that I'm at home.

 That's what I see in my future.  It's out there and I'm headed towards it.  I don't know when or where, but I'm putting one tired foot in front of the other moving towards it.

Like Bilbo Baggins, we sometimes rush out the door without our handkerchiefs.  Thing is, the journey we are on may not give time for the comforts of a handkerchief.  Gandalf wisely replies to Bilbo's query on whether he can promise that Bilbo will make it home:

"No... and if you do, you will not be the same."

At first that is too much for Bilbo and he refuses to go.  But he knows that he must.  And he does.  And as soon as he leaves his door he begins to miss that which he was leaving behind.  It starts out as a point of weakness.  But in time his longing for home, allows him to become empathetic toward his companions lack of a home, and his goal is to help them get one.


Home is behind, the world is ahead...


grace, peace + hope (always hope)
-Jesse

90 - You've Come to Journeys End

The final song.

It has been a journey my friends.  I hope you have enjoyed it!

This song has been picked out and waiting for this day for almost 3 months.  And now it's here.  It seemed a fitting song all things considered.  At least for me.

It's a song that carried me off to sleep countless hundreds of times.  It is ethereal, haunting, and beautiful.  It was the last song in the last film of an incredible trilogy.  The movies defied all my expectations.  Well, most of them.  And this song was the perfect way to wrap out the franchise.

Song 90/Day 90        "Into the West" sung by Annie Lennox from the Academy Award Winning* motion picture soundtrack, The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King.

*The Oscar was for this song: music and lyrics by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox

This song comforts me and brings tears to my eyes at the same time.  It's a bittersweet lullaby.

In it are words used in the film when Gandalf tells Pippin what happens when they die.  It's beautiful imagery taken in part from the final chapter of Tolkien's book.  The song was written as a lament from Galadriel.  And with that in mind it's even more enchanting as Cate Blanchette's performance as that figure is stunning and breathtaking.

This song just chills me in the most positive of ways, down to my core.  I love falling asleep to it.  It's not a song I think that can just be listened to for "fun."  At least not for me.  There is a weight and responsibility that comes with it.  Almost like someone carrying an ember to the next village in a time when fire was the gold men longed for.

The simplicity of the music in this song, the horns, and her voice just thrill the mind.

I couldn't think of a better song to say farewell to this series, and the season I love so much.  It's cold, damp, and wet out as I write this.  But this song kindles the fire of hope and "what is to come" in my heart and mind.

Hope fades
Into the world of night
Through shadows falling
Out of memory and time
Don't say: "We have come now to the end"
White shores are calling
You and I will meet again
And you'll be here in my arms
Just sleeping

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

89 - 'Cause Holy Cow, I Love Your Eyes

It's the penultimate song!

It has been quite a ride doing this series.  But it has been fun for me, and I hope you've come across some songs you might not have heard before.  If more came out of this, all the better!  I won't be posting on this particular title every day anymore.  But I'll try to get at least one a week of somesort here.  I've got two others that I write. 

One is a movie/comic book/music/whatever review called Critical Masses.  The other is a blog on discipleship at the oh so cleverly named M28 Discipleship Blog.  I'm not the only contributor there, but I do a lot of the heavy lifting.  There are links to them over---------------->here

under the title of "Go Here."

Enough self promotion...on to the music!

This song comes from, what I have to consider my favorite band, Elbow.  I have posted several of their songs on this list, and I could have posted a lot more.  You can click the HERE to read the first song post with them, and how I "discovered" their music.

Song 89        "One Day Like This" from Elbow and their album The Seldom Seen Kid

This song starts off with some beautiful strings and grows and develops from there into a big sweeping declaration of hope.  At least that's what it does for me.  And you should know by now what hope means to me.  If not, let's just say it is one of the forces that move me every day.  Not a specific hope, just pure unadulterated hope.  It might not always show...or be on my sleeve, but give me a moment and it'll come back to the surface.

'Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light
Yeah, lying with you half awake
Stumbling over what to say
Well, anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day

It's easy to get caught in the rut of life.  The routine of everyday.  Waking up.  Going to work.  Probably a job you don't get excited about.  Or at least the excitement has gone.  Maybe your relationships are the same.  Stale.  Boring.  Tired.  But guess what.  A lot of that stuff is up to you.  At least how you see it.

If you see your life through a grimy window, and realize it's a dirty room covered in dust and cobwebs...well, guess who cleans it?  Yeah, you.  Take the advice of this song...

So throw those curtains wide
One day like this a year would see me right
Throw those curtains wide
One day like this a year would see me right

Think about that.  One day a year will set that guy right.  Wouldn't that be great!?  To have such an awesome day, that you're so charged and filled you make it 365 days.  I know that seems impossible, and maybe it is.  But I tell you what, you can make a choice every morning to not let the grime, dust, and cobwebs back in.

I don't mean that in some hippie-dippy way that you just need to have a positive outlook or anything like that.  Sure, stuff will come a long that is disappointing and frustrating.  Like not realizing your car has a switch for parking lights that stay on when the keys are removed, and you disconnect your battery cable for 3 weeks until you remember to google search your problem...realizing all you had to do was hit an oh-so-obvoius-it's hidden-button.  Or something serious like cancer.

You have a choice.  You can react slightly poorly like I did with my car.  Or with grace and dignity like I've seen people approach cancer.  I'm sure they have their moments of fear and breakdown..even if just inside.  But we choose how we move on.  We can let these things define us, or shape us.

It might seem subtle, but there is a difference.  Defining means that's the end.  There is this limited extent of who we are.  Or we can be shaped.  Moulded into something different, but similar.

Okay, I'm going to leave it at that.  I'm putting my soapbox away.

Go, listen to the music.  Enjoy.  And throw those curtains as wide as you can!!!  (Just be dressed!)

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse