Friday, November 30, 2007
Quote of the week
Nothing makes people in the church more angry than grace. It’s ironic: we stumble into a party we weren’t invited to and find the uninvited standing at the door making sure no other uninviteds get in. Then a strange phenomenon occurs: as soon as we are included in the party because of Jesus’ irresponsible love, we decide to make grace 'more responsible' by becoming self-appointed Kingdom Monitors, guarding the kingdom of God, keeping the riffraff out (which as I understand it, are who the kingdom of God is supposed to include.) - Michael Yaconelli in Messy Spirituality
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Raul Midon
Just discovered this guy's music tonight and I'm a fan! He's fantastic and he's a NM native!
Good feeling music with positive lyrics!
He has a new album out with a wonderful song called "All the Answers" which you can find at his myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/raulmidon
Like this song alot too.
Enjoy!
Good feeling music with positive lyrics!
He has a new album out with a wonderful song called "All the Answers" which you can find at his myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/raulmidon
Like this song alot too.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
IF by Joni Mitchell
Posted by my friend elsewhere.
All I can say is wow...thanks G!
If
by Joni Mitchell
If you can keep your head
While all about you
People are losing theirs and blaming you
If you can trust yourself
When everybody doubts you
And make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait
And not get tired of waiting
And when lied about
Stand tall
Don’t deal in lies
And when hated
Don’t give in to hating back
Don’t need to look so good
Don’t need to talk too wise.
If you can dream
And not make dreams your master
If you can think
And not make intellect your game
If you can meet
With triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
If you can force your heart
And nerve and sinew
To serve you
After all of them are gone
And so hold on
When there is nothing in you
Nothing but the will
That’s telling you to hold on!
Hold on!
If you can bear to hear
The truth you’ve spoken
Twisted and misconstrued
By some smug fool
Or watch your life’s work
Torn apart and broken down
And still stoop to build again
With worn out tools.
If you can draw a crowd
And keep your virtue
Or walk with Kings
And keep the common touch
If neither enemies nor loving friends
Can hurt you
If everybody counts with you
But none too much.
If you can fill the journey
Of a minute
With sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
Then
The Earth is yours
And Everything that’s in it
But more than that
I know
You’ll be alright
You’ll be alright.
Cause you’ve got the fight
You’ve got the insight
You’ve got the fight
You’ve got the insight
Copyright © 2007; Crazy Crow Music
Printed from the official Joni Mitchell website: JoniMitchell.com
All I can say is wow...thanks G!
If
by Joni Mitchell
If you can keep your head
While all about you
People are losing theirs and blaming you
If you can trust yourself
When everybody doubts you
And make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait
And not get tired of waiting
And when lied about
Stand tall
Don’t deal in lies
And when hated
Don’t give in to hating back
Don’t need to look so good
Don’t need to talk too wise.
If you can dream
And not make dreams your master
If you can think
And not make intellect your game
If you can meet
With triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
If you can force your heart
And nerve and sinew
To serve you
After all of them are gone
And so hold on
When there is nothing in you
Nothing but the will
That’s telling you to hold on!
Hold on!
If you can bear to hear
The truth you’ve spoken
Twisted and misconstrued
By some smug fool
Or watch your life’s work
Torn apart and broken down
And still stoop to build again
With worn out tools.
If you can draw a crowd
And keep your virtue
Or walk with Kings
And keep the common touch
If neither enemies nor loving friends
Can hurt you
If everybody counts with you
But none too much.
If you can fill the journey
Of a minute
With sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight
Then
The Earth is yours
And Everything that’s in it
But more than that
I know
You’ll be alright
You’ll be alright.
Cause you’ve got the fight
You’ve got the insight
You’ve got the fight
You’ve got the insight
Copyright © 2007; Crazy Crow Music
Printed from the official Joni Mitchell website: JoniMitchell.com
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday Funnies
According to a news report, a certain private school in Victoria, BC recently was faced with a unique problem.
A number of grade 12 girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done.She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.
To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.
He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.
Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
A number of grade 12 girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done.She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.
To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.
He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.
Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
9 Faces
Thumbed through this book at the bookstore and found a great creative exercise on which I've been doing for about 5 days now. The idea is to draw 9 circles on a piece of paper, then turn those 9 circles into human faces. They suggest that you use different kinds of media on different days and that you don't spend alot of time on each face, just draw.
It's been a brain stretcher that's for sure!!
First day was pretty timid with my drawings, but now, I've drawn all the faces that were already in my brain, and am needing to get more creative with expessions etc in order to draw new faces. Also, finding myself looking at people on tv, magazines and real life for details and patterns. We look at faces every day, but do we really LOOK at faces?? You will if you try to draw nine of them every day.
For some reason, I'm finding drawing faces more meaningful and fulfilling than doing the 3 morning pages suggested by "The Artist Way".
Give it a go and let me know what you experience after a couple weeks of daily drawing.
You can see the exact wording and example by looking up the book on Amazon and doing the "search inside option" for "faces" or look for page 177.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1581804385/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-6155437-3658360#reader-link
Monday, November 19, 2007
Find out who your friends are
I love this new song by Tracy Lawrence!!
The guy on the video reminds me sooo much of my brother when we were younger. He and his buddies were always getting stuck some ditch or mesa somewhere and needing a tow! They looked just like that guy too, with their pickups, caps and cut off shirts.
Also, a good reminder to be thankful to the folks that stick around after the sh*t hits the fan and, for me anyway, to always remember where you came from.
and yep...that IS George Jones.
The guy on the video reminds me sooo much of my brother when we were younger. He and his buddies were always getting stuck some ditch or mesa somewhere and needing a tow! They looked just like that guy too, with their pickups, caps and cut off shirts.
Also, a good reminder to be thankful to the folks that stick around after the sh*t hits the fan and, for me anyway, to always remember where you came from.
and yep...that IS George Jones.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sunday Funnies
This made me laugh till I cried...I love the expressions on their faces when they see the shapes!!
Community
Today I got to thinking about how I'm becoming a part of this great little community that's forming round the coffeeshop and how it's all because I took one little risk.
For a few months I saw signs at the market advertising African Drumming Sessions at this little coffeeshop. I wanted to go, but could never work up the courage.
Then, one day, I did.
I went over to the cafe, talked to the owner, and found out there was loads of activities going on there and that drumming was just one small part.
Just working up the courage to go speak to the owner, who turned out to be a total sweetie, has lead to the following cool stuff happening in the last couple months:
- Learning african drumming
- Meeting some terrific, creative, positive people
- Worked up the courage to hang my photos
- Put my first product (journals) for sale
- Have a place to sell more products (cards) once I get them produced
- Sold some work
- Got invited to participate in my first arts & crafts show
- Just landed my first advertising project from someone who owns a local business
What's all that got to do with community you may ask.
Well, everything.
It's because we're part of the community that we go pay $15 a week to drum whenever the instructor is in town. We could do it for free elsewhere.
It's because I'm part of the community that the owners hung my work in an easy to see, but out of the way place so it could hang longer than the normal 1 month.
It's because of community that my drumming friend asked me if I wanted the advertising gig. I thought she wanted some help learning how to use her computer so I said yes when she asked if I had some free time to do lessons.
It feels good to be a part of something that's organic, local and engergetic after hanging out at a virtual "community" that basically sucked the life out of my soul and wounded me for a while.
I love the positive energy, and way this group is starting to look out for each other in little ways.
Who would have thought all of that would come from a flyer in a supermarket.
For a few months I saw signs at the market advertising African Drumming Sessions at this little coffeeshop. I wanted to go, but could never work up the courage.
Then, one day, I did.
I went over to the cafe, talked to the owner, and found out there was loads of activities going on there and that drumming was just one small part.
Just working up the courage to go speak to the owner, who turned out to be a total sweetie, has lead to the following cool stuff happening in the last couple months:
- Learning african drumming
- Meeting some terrific, creative, positive people
- Worked up the courage to hang my photos
- Put my first product (journals) for sale
- Have a place to sell more products (cards) once I get them produced
- Sold some work
- Got invited to participate in my first arts & crafts show
- Just landed my first advertising project from someone who owns a local business
What's all that got to do with community you may ask.
Well, everything.
It's because we're part of the community that we go pay $15 a week to drum whenever the instructor is in town. We could do it for free elsewhere.
It's because I'm part of the community that the owners hung my work in an easy to see, but out of the way place so it could hang longer than the normal 1 month.
It's because of community that my drumming friend asked me if I wanted the advertising gig. I thought she wanted some help learning how to use her computer so I said yes when she asked if I had some free time to do lessons.
It feels good to be a part of something that's organic, local and engergetic after hanging out at a virtual "community" that basically sucked the life out of my soul and wounded me for a while.
I love the positive energy, and way this group is starting to look out for each other in little ways.
Who would have thought all of that would come from a flyer in a supermarket.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
ASBO Truth
Man, I can sooo relate to this one. And no, it's absolutely no fun at all!! Still looking around waiting for the next round of "bullets" to come flying by even though I've removed myself from the target range.
The worse part is still not knowing who the snipers are, and who is just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Someone the other day told me that all he wanted was the "benefit of the doubt". But how in the hell can you do that without opening yourself up for being a target again? At what point does that become less about forgiveness and more about stupidity?
That's what snipers do, they ceate doubt and fear where there could be trust and healthy relationships. The cowards aim to destroy one person or group and end up destroying much, much more without even knowing it.
Jon's right, it's no fun!!
Find more cartoons here: http://asbojesus.wordpress.com/
Sunday, November 11, 2007
TED Talks Larry Lessig
This is one of the best TED talks I've seen to date. He does a fantastic job with his presentation and with his content.
Check it out here.
http://www.kinnon.tv/2007/11/larry-lessig-te.html?cid=89500966
Thanks Bill ;-)
Check it out here.
http://www.kinnon.tv/2007/11/larry-lessig-te.html?cid=89500966
Thanks Bill ;-)
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Catching Up
AWESOME drumming session last night!!
We had about 15 people in a little coffee shop, drumming our brains out! That's the best group of folks and we all get along really well. Lots of sore hands and muscles from playing and laughing so much. Didn't want it to end.
Get to play one more time next week, before the instructor does his yearly journey south to Mexico for the winter.
Feel balanced and grounded after that session.
Finally found out that it was the gal that owns the coffee shop that gave my name to June and Crew. Apparently June hangs out at the coffee shop from time to time and saw my stuff down there. So, that's cool....
Hoping to have a 6 month project in Calif coming up very shortly. Not sure if it'll work out, but I'm really hoping it does. Really hoping!! It'd be a great gig, lots of hours but they'd all count towards my project management certification, so that'd be worth it. Plus, could use the $$
Been thinking alot about how much cynicism there is in the environments I'm in these days. I don't like it. Want to have something different for my life and I'm finding that the less I hang in those places, or with those people who have gotten in the habit of being cynical, the happier I feel and more productive I feel like being.
Don't think creativity can grow and thrive in an environment of constant cynicism and I want to live a more creative life.
Still working out what that means exactly.
Excited to be spending the weekend at a photo workshop taught by this guy:
http://www.lewiskemper.com/homepage.html
We had about 15 people in a little coffee shop, drumming our brains out! That's the best group of folks and we all get along really well. Lots of sore hands and muscles from playing and laughing so much. Didn't want it to end.
Get to play one more time next week, before the instructor does his yearly journey south to Mexico for the winter.
Feel balanced and grounded after that session.
Finally found out that it was the gal that owns the coffee shop that gave my name to June and Crew. Apparently June hangs out at the coffee shop from time to time and saw my stuff down there. So, that's cool....
Hoping to have a 6 month project in Calif coming up very shortly. Not sure if it'll work out, but I'm really hoping it does. Really hoping!! It'd be a great gig, lots of hours but they'd all count towards my project management certification, so that'd be worth it. Plus, could use the $$
Been thinking alot about how much cynicism there is in the environments I'm in these days. I don't like it. Want to have something different for my life and I'm finding that the less I hang in those places, or with those people who have gotten in the habit of being cynical, the happier I feel and more productive I feel like being.
Don't think creativity can grow and thrive in an environment of constant cynicism and I want to live a more creative life.
Still working out what that means exactly.
Excited to be spending the weekend at a photo workshop taught by this guy:
http://www.lewiskemper.com/homepage.html
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Sunday Funnies
Thought this was pretty clever.
You can find more here at Peculiar Poetry:
http://www.peculiar-poetry.com/funny-adults
What Do You Want Bud?
I saw a Buddhist monk today
At a hot dog stand
The cook stood at the griddle
Doing his thing
“What can I make you” was his
Gruff demand
The monk replied, “Make me one
With everything”
Copyright © Paul Curtis. All Rights Reserved
You can find more here at Peculiar Poetry:
http://www.peculiar-poetry.com/funny-adults
What Do You Want Bud?
I saw a Buddhist monk today
At a hot dog stand
The cook stood at the griddle
Doing his thing
“What can I make you” was his
Gruff demand
The monk replied, “Make me one
With everything”
Copyright © Paul Curtis. All Rights Reserved
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