You Can't Spell Reaction Without Action

Sometimes I wish I could lock myself in the highest room of the tallest tower and just think. Away from everyone and everything; away from distractions and problems and just to think things through. It goes without saying that very few situations can afford such a luxury. Many times a problem requires an answer on the spot or at the very least timely enough that something worse doesn't set in. For instance grape juice spilt on white carpet.... if that happened to me I'd wish that I had an hour or two to look up what the best removal method was and purchase necessary items for that method. However if I were to to do that the juice would turn into a nasty stain and my problem would be worse. Though I had good intentions, my inaction caused more problems than what I had to begin with. Then there are other problems that present themselves slightly more complex than grape juice; things like relationships. They are fragile things to begin with but if you throw a problem into the mix it can feel like you are walking on egg shells. If it is something that you prize or value, at least for me, you'd want to think about the best course of action. However, things like this are not always or rarely are straight forward. The problem can be about as complicated as it's participants are. There isn't always a right way or fail proof way of doing things, which is why having time to think things through would be so nice. But as with the grape juice it is a luxury that isn't feasible. Sometimes we can put a problem off for fear of the out come that the problem, which may have started out rather minor, grows due to indecision. It's not only that the problem might get worse but other problems might take root and start to grow as well. Things like resentment, anger, jealousy, bitterness, which in and of themselves are problems enough. It's kind of like taking a pill for a bad knee and getting several serious side effects that are just as serious as the original problem rather than going for the cure....it's easy to take a pill and pretend that everything is ok, but the pill doesn't fix anything it only masks the pain. Where as you could have a surgery to fix your knee and in the long wrong have less pain. That doesn't make it any easier though.

Prince and the Pauper

I've been studying the promises that God has given us in the Bible, and sometimes it just seems to be "too good to be true". I mean, everything that we could ever want/need is right there, completely taken care of. We get so beat down all the time thinking like everyone else on this world; forgetting that we are children of a king! We take this FAR and exceedingly to lightly. Do you understand what this means? All that it entails? Think about this, in all the movies the child/children of the king are given the best of everything; they are born to succeed. Everything they could ever need is taken care of completely. They come to expect that every need will be completely taken care of. I have said before that I don't want to let my inner nerd show too much and I think that it's necessary to repeat myself so that I can keep some sort of dignity here. I was watching Clash of the Titans and Perseus was a child of Zeus, which made him a Demi-God. Though he himself (for reasons of the story that are totally irrelevant to the point that I am trying to make) did not, everyone else around him expected him to be favored, they expected him to be cut above everyone else. Yes, I realize that the similarities are faint, but it struck me that, this character, son of a god, could walk in a victory that most others could not. He had the favor and affection of someone bigger than himself. Why are we to be any different? We serve a God who unlike these other fictitious depictions of deity, loves us all the time whether we deserve it or not, has seen where our feet are and where they will be, is never suprised, and who has given us the victory to every battle we could ever face. Why shouldn't we walk taller? Why shouldn't we be fully persuaded that our God will meet all of our needs? Why should we be down cast like everyone else down here? Why should we be moved by things down here? We are different! Face facts, we have more, Expect it! Walk in it!

Envy in the Arts

I love every facet of the arts. Music, painting, drawing, literary arts, sculpting, drama, poetry, dance, photography; I love it all. I can't do it all but that does not stop my appreciation for it. I mostly stay in the realm of painting and drawing (though I have dabbled in some of the other areas). The other day I got to thinking about each individual area, the pros and cons. The one thing that I thought about was how little of an effect drawing and painting have on emotions. When someone sings a song or a musician plays a instrument they can get you to feel things. They can make you feel sad, excited, happy, mad. In a movie, the background music manipulates how you feel about or accept the scene. A drama can move you to tears or cause you to laugh. A well written piece of poetry can give you cause to think. The creators of each of these things can share their emotion with you through their art. But I ask you, how many times has a painting moved you to tears? or caused you to laugh? How often does a portrait overwhelm you with emotion? The answer to all of these is seldom if ever. I envy this.... a lot. I want people to feel what I'm feeling. I want people to understand the meaning behind a picture. On the flipside, however, a picture gives an exact depiction of what I'm thinking. Music might fail in this area, as it gives guidelines for a picture, but the exact image is left up to the individual to build. With painting or drawing I can make you see exactally what I'm seeing. It's a trade off, for sure, I do envy the emotional aspect of things, but I guess that's what gives these things their individualty.

The A,B,C's of "I am"

The A,B,C's of what makes me me......

A_ awesome - what started out as a joke sort of caught on and just stuck around.
B_ bubble wrap - When life throws a bad day my way bubble wrap is a great remdy
C_ cautious - I never just jump into things I tend to observe and scope things first
D_ dance - My feet and hands just move.....I can't really help it
E_ encourage- there are alot of things that I can do wrong but this is one that I can do right
F_ friends - sunshine on a cloudy day
G_ graffiti - a form of art that has captured me
H_ happy- I like to make people happy....it's kinda my goal, my motto
I_ independent- somethings I just like to do for myself
J_ joke- I do it....perhaps to a fault
K_ Kreative- I'm so creative I put it under "k" instead
L_ lover and a fighter- Love makes you fight for things
M_mint chocolate chip ice cream the green kind
N_ night sky- the stars are so awe inspiring
O_ Oh No What Do We Do!?- one of my favorite lines
P_pandas- I love them!
Q_ Quiet- sometimes what you don't say is just as important as what you do
R_ reserved- I tend to play my cards pretty close to my chest
S_ sports- I LOVE FOOTBALL, and soccer, and college basketball and...
T_ t-shirts- ......50% of my wardrobe
U_ unwritten- I leave so much out and so much unsaid
V_ victory- I play to win
W_ wonder - just stop and imagine
X_ x-men - as if blogging wasn't nerdy enough I am a comic book reader to boot
Y_ young- let no one look down on you because of your age
Z_ zany - silliness is so much more fun than being serious. I like the off the wall stuff that tickles your intreague

There you have it a piece of me from the A,B,C's.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

I hear a lot of people say "guard your heart" as I'm sure you have as well. When you think of a knight guarding a castle, you think of a man in shining armor ready to defend the castle from any enemy, but "defend" doesn't just mean waiting for trouble to come to you. Sometimes in order to prevent an attack on your heart you must go to where the trouble is and stop it there before it even gets close to your heart. Think about this; if a country is going to be fighting a battle, wouldn't they rather be invading the other country as opposed to being invaded? It's a lot messier to win a battle when you are doing it from your own soil rather than going to the problem and attacking it there. Translated to my point, don't wait until issues or minor problems in your life are full blown strongholds. Take care of the things that are out to damage you and your heart at the source, instead of trying to ward it off once it has taken root in your soul.