1 day until Christmas…

24Dec09

I came home late from work last night and found a small package on my front porch. The package was not a surprise. I was expecting it and I knew what I would find inside. I picked up the vintage gray, mottled paper envelope off the ground and carried it inside.
I had [...]

Filed under: cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  7 Comments
Tags: broken, Christmas, cultural, culture, day, envelope, gray, growth, heart, heartbroken, jesus, mary, mom, old, one, package, personal, self-expression, shadow, vintage

4 days until Christmas…

21Dec09

A friend of mine had a very interesting question for me yesterday.  He asked, “Would you still be blogging everyday if you were married?”  My reaction at that moment was yes, probably, but the process might look a little different.  I might just be blogging random stories, and would not have made the 25 day [...]

Filed under: am i still here?, cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  5 Comments
Tags: band, blog, blogging, Christmas, colors, creative, down, email, friends, loneliness, lonely, marriage, married, moving, movingcolorsband.com, photography, question, time, tinselectomy, upside-down

9 days until Christmas…

17Dec09

Tick.  Tick.  Tick.
Only 9 days now.
Tick.  Tick.
Christmas will be here soon.  I have this gut feeling… I’m forgetting something.  What is it?  There’s no time to think about it.
Tick.
Time, our most valuable commodity.  Time, our best friend and our worst enemy.  Time is money.  I think the Eagles understand the meaning of time.  In their [...]

Filed under: am i still here?, cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  8 Comments
Tags: achievements, busy, busyness, card, cards, Christmas, consumerism, creative, expectations, flies, friends, jody, love, magnetic, poetry, reality, spirit, success, tidings, time, whydidyougivemethis, word, words

10 days until Christmas…

16Dec09

Yesterday I was pondering my favorite Bible verse, Romans 12:2.  It’s so applicable to the Christmas consumerism and might just be another clue in finding the Christmas spirit.  Here is the verse in two popular translations.
NIV – Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person [...]

Filed under: creative weirdness, cultural experiences, gallery, trying to matter   |  1 Comment
Tags: acts, art, Christmas, creative, dark side, excess, excessable, kindness, light, nice, painting, photography, random, romans, romans 12:2, santa, shopping, sons of lwala, tinselectomy, transformation, unselfish

11 days until Christmas…

15Dec09

I can’t believe it’s only eleven more days until Christmas.  There’s still so much to do before then, right?  Where is my Christmas to do list… wait.  I didn’t make one, nor do I really have many Christmas things to do.  Plenty of other busyness, but not as much related to Christmas, with the exception [...]

Filed under: am i still here?, cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  2 Comments
Tags: excess, tv, Christmas, candy, che, mexico, spirit, busyness, zambia, africa, post, office, passport, materialism, shoes, mismatched

12 days until Christmas…

14Dec09

I’m at the hospital this morning.  My friend Elizabeth is having her final surgery this morning.  E has been battling breast cancer, and is fully expected to beat it.  I’m at Medical City Hospital, and this is one crazy place.  The cute little old man at the information booth sent me to the wrong floor. [...]

Filed under: am i still here?, trying to matter   |  3 Comments
Tags: block, Christmas, dallas, elizabeth, friends, frisco, homeless, it's a wonderful life, movie, outside, party, photo, photography, spirit, surgery

13 days until Christmas…

13Dec09

Bright and early yesterday morning, I got a glimpse into a new world, one I had not experienced before.  The new world?  Wrestling.  My son has been doing this for a couple of months now, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to take him to a tournament.
The night before, we drove [...]

Filed under: cultural experiences, seriously, trying to matter   |  3 Comments
Tags: friends, excess, shopping, Christmas, tinselectomy, spirit, cracker, jack, wrestling, mall, competitive, electronic, pacifier, mood, joy

15 days until Christmas…

11Dec09

I was listening to talk radio on my way to work yesterday.  It was so incredibly cold I didn’t want to let go of my warm coffee mug to steer the car, much less turn on the radio.  The news guy was reporting on the experiences of the fake mall Santas this year, disclosing the [...]

Filed under: cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  7 Comments
Tags: fun, excess, Christmas, casa, hogar, elim, che, mexico, tinselectomy, homeless, santa, history, necessities, lap, believe, be, furry, red, suit

16 days until Christmas…

10Dec09

As we were driving home last, I thought about our house being one of the few without Christmas lights.  I had every intention of putting lights up, but we still haven’t.  I have a few strands of lights on the garage, however it would look like I had a few random strands unless I got [...]

Filed under: creative weirdness, cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  4 Comments
Tags: florida, weirdness, photography, painting, shopping, Christmas, tinselectomy, spirit, trees, lights, texas, flamingo, skelemingo, skelly, adhd, ocd, boo, booing, booed, enchanted, forest

17 days until Christmas…

09Dec09

It was clear to me this morning at 5:30am what I needed to write about, a new and unexpected Christmas cheer.  Yesterday’s schedule was filled with ‘tinselectomy‘ opportunities and I had an expectation of how each of them would play out.  I was so off base, but it made me understand how I and other [...]

Filed under: creative weirdness, cultural experiences, trying to matter   |  5 Comments
Tags: jody, fun, photography, Christmas, casa, hogar, elim, che, tinselectomy, homeless, work, spirit, steve, hodges, frisco, texas, exxon, jobs, economy, cheer, lunch, dallas, downtown, spanish, locks of love, pantene, brown, nancy, powell, amy, tuggey, chicago, shares, reality