WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT!

Welcome to a new beginning. A new year. Who knows what will come of this year. Guess it's time to explore it.

As for those resolutions..
Hey, don't be too hard on yourself. Quite a few years ago I decided to try to go a years without buying any new music. Those who know me well know how hard that is for me. I just wanted to try. To prove to myself that I don't worship music, itself. I decided to try new years as an easy to remember date. I did succeed. After about four new years of trying. Talk about bummed. Yet, when I succeeded...I felt so good. A long fought victory. Other times I fought, I prayed, for days on end. desperately for something. For a change to come. You know, those: " this year, please make [blank] happen. - or stop happening." Only to eventually wake up & go "...wait, when did that finally happen? Where was I at?" Crazy. Change isn't often easy. Whether you suddenly have to deal with it having happened. Or if you are trying to instigate the change.

I have a friend who has decided to eliminate wasting time. I'm not sure when, or in what form, I began to really examine my life. To eliminate the wasteful, stressful parts. Talk about one thing leading to another. Who knew obtaining from music would lead to clothing changes, furniture changes... explorations into art. Long, meditative walks/hikes... you never know where a change can lead... even mistakes... can lead you somewhere. You may have needed to go there...more than you know.

Welcome to midnight. Remember though, there's another one in 24 hours. Every 24 hours. There are a lot of chances to start again. Don't give up.

Now.... I gotta kiss my girl!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May His grace drip from your fingers,
B

a day, a movie update, & welcoming midnight

Hello all. In the ongoing craziness that is me getting my CDL license, I passed the part of the test I took. [more on that later. For now..... I would like to shamelessly plug a movie. Partly in the secret hope it will play in York.
I believe that I've mentioned the organization 
  

It began with a story. And has become a movement. A movement of community. Some have seen me use their hashtags [#twloha #peopleneedotherpeople #loveisthemovement] I know I've used others... 
Some have seen my shirts. The "black title" one [with the Donald Miller quote on it]. The @sevenly colab shirt: "La Vie Et Belle", & my brown title shirt. 
They began by helping a girl named Renee. Who I got the pleasure of meeting this year. Along with meeting [several weeks later] Founder [& author of the story] Jamie Tworkowski.
I got a Christmas gift. -ok, well I wasn't the only one who got it. A film was made of Renee's story. 
Of the story behind this wonderful non-profit. I have posted before about the film. Which SONY has picked up, & will be releasing in March of 2015. So... I'm taking a little time before I go off to sleep for the last time this year to promote this film again. Since the new year starts a countdown to the movie.
[here's a link: To Write Love On Her Arms movie
& others: twloha on nbc twloha on cbs ]

The "plan" was to help a friend. How interesting it is that in helping one friend... they would make so many more... As they grew they wanted people to be able to talk about things like depression, self-injury, suicide, addictions, sexual abuse... because we all need to be real with at least one person. We all need people.We need each other. Sometimes it's hard to admit it. It can be hard to trust. Especially when trust has been betrayed. Yet we need others...sometimes to remind us that we matter. To remind us that how our story ends is very important to them. I would love to say more... however, tomorrow will be my longest New Years Eve, & I'm not going to survive it. I'm not going to simply "exist through & beyond it". I'm going to be fully alive in it.
To be fully awake. ...and I'm going to be thinking about Renee.... about Jamie... about TWLOHA.... about new beginnings, new chapters.......
and I'm going to remember their countdown.... an old t-shirt they made last year....
titled:
WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT
I do believe there are better days ahead. I do believe that there are awesome days to live for. Days that will be better than today. Yeah, there will be days to tolerate. Days where I'll still say: "due to lack of interest, today has been cancelled." However, there will be good days. Days to laugh with friends & family. Days to eat good food, while having good conversations, telling funny old stories. Days to just hang out. Days to take long wonderful hikes through the woods, days to take photos of sunsets & frost, snow & leaves, flowers in the rain...
Here's to those days.
May you have more than your "fair share" of them.

May His grace drip from your fingers,
B

The Anatomy of a Gift [revisited]

I have been told by my mother that people are the eternal treasure. I treasure my family & my friends. My growth group guys, my extended family, my church family...

People... are the only "thing" we can't replace. They are what matters the most.

More than trees...

more than pretty paper....

more than songs....

So..... if people are a gift to our lives. Then... here's the break down for you. A [hopefully wonderful] analogy for you this Christmas.

If a human is a gift to the rest of us, then.....

The clothes, hair color, jewelry, piercings, glasses, makeup, vehicle, house, job.....

that's the wrapping paper.

The body, itself,   the mind, the heart.... are the box.

The soul [intellect, emotions, personality] THAT'S the gift.

the part that makes you ...you.

YOU ARE A GIFT TO US. PLEASE don't forget. Among all that you ever read here, please don't forget that ever.

...so... we are left with:

The tag.

To me the tag is two sided.

On one side... is the boy in the manger.

To remind us who the gift is from......

& on the other side is the cross......

to remind us...

what the gift is worth.

Jesus is a gift to us. His story....to end all stories. The greatest love story, of all.

He gave us you.

You

are a gift to us.

So we thank Jesus.... for sharing.

For sharing you...

with us.

Merry Christmas....

& may His grace drip from your fingers,

B

Here... now

So..... been quite a while. I don't know what I have to say. I've been working on going through stuff here in the house. I, today, became capable of going online all over the house. An early/ unusual Christmas with my parents. I've had a router. I now have a laptop. [no smartphone yet, one step @ a time I guess.] I'm close to having a CDL driving license. I go for my "behind the wheel" test the last Tues of the year. That has been keeping me from writing... both on & off line. As has a request for a "not necessarily Christmas list". Which, being the person that I am, has been much different than what was thought when the request was made. Though I am close to finishing it, as I have envisioned it to be. Quite an exhaustive/ comprehensive list. It's in a spiral bound book form. Though in all fairness, much of it isn't for sale. It's more goals/ routines/ personal changes than it is a "I want to buy x". If anything I post here or else where looks funny or misspelled, please forgive me as I get used to this laptop. It is fun to be typing this in the basement.
Hopefully in the new year I'll get back to posting more....

As for this Christmas season... I have been much ..."blue-r" than I think I ever have. Which I don't understand. I can't say anything really awful has happened. I just noticed it a while ago. Though as I type a transition has been going on the last few days/ hours away from the blueness. I had a great Sat. Both this one & last one. Last week I made fudge, Chocolate Crinkles, & Sandtarts with my Mother. Most of the day. I didn't think the fudge would be good. We didn't remember how she used to make it. It. got. AMAZING! So thankful [I want to borrow from Renee & say: "thankfuls"] Anyway, I've been putting this laptop "through it's paces" for a few hours now. Listening to music [currently Pentatonix singing cool Christmas tunes]. Walking through the house trying to see if there are any "dead spots" in my wireless. going on facebook, twitter, pinterest, & here. I need a bit of a break. So for now, Have a wonderful Christmas, look forward to the new year. It's another adventure, another chapter in your life. Make it count. 
I don't want to be alive.... I want to be a living, breathing, growing human being.
I want my story to inspire people to continuously grow into better versions of themselves.

Remember...
The best presets aren't sitting under the tree, they're sitting around it.

May His grace drip from your fingers,
B