The best part of waking up is that stuff I pour in my cup. And, if I can say this frankly, you can just tell that the stuff in the cup, well, you know when it's real. And that's the thing, when it's real, I'm lovin' it. It doesn't matter what's going on, I know I can have it my way, that life is good.
So, when something needs did, I just do it. I'm not talking about things that are so easy cavemen can do. I'm talking about taking care of business. I don't mess around waiting until I'm in good hands. There's no way I would wait. Not even when I'm hungry. No, sir. Do you know what I say when I'm hungry: why wait? Do you know what my breakfast of champions is? Did someone say McDonalds? Give me a break. Give me a BREAK. The only thing that helps me take a licking and keep on ticking, the only thing that, guaranteed, is good to the last drop, happens during that pause that refreshes. And that little energy keeps me going and going and going so that I can be all that I can be.
As a matter of fact, when I'm feeling this rhythm, knowin' it's real, downin' that cup, I walk out of my front door grabbin' life by the horns. Oh what a feeling! Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don't. But when I'm feeling like this I'd even walk a mile for a camel just to ask you if you'd met life today. They say lions leap from strength to strength, but I say put a tiger in your tank. Your road will never be the same. You're moving forward on that fuel for the soul and gathering that strength of experience. And at that moment, inspiration is standard, the standard of the world.
They say a diamond is forever. They say... they say a lot of things. But I say, new doors are opened. Be one who roves the land and then goes beyond. It's like nothing else on Earth. Life, liberty and the pursuit...come on, just a little dab'll do ya!
When you get it, you get it.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Friday, July 22, 2011
I'm ok, it's just my septum is deviated
There was once I time when I could smell, when I had more than 30% usage of my nasal passages, when food actually had different tastes and it mattered where on my "palate" I maneuvered my food. I know most of you can't believe that, but it's true. I wasn't always like this. But I have been unable to enjoy savory smells for almost six years now.
The first time I broke my nose, I was 16, and to be honest, I didn't actually break it myself. I had help from a certain friend (who will remain nameless, unless he, the un-named decides to come forth). His elbow found the side of the bridge of my nose and successfully collapsed it. I'm not bitter. For my sixteenth birthday, I got a nose job and life smelled good again.
Less than a year later, a different elbow found the other side of the bridge. My nose resembled the first letter of my last name and most of the air traffic had to detour through my oral passage since the nasal passages were blocked off. Thankfully, for purely aesthetic reasons, a couple weeks after the fresh break, an elbow different from the other two, met my nose right at the crest of the "C" and straightened it back out; it was unable to reopen the passages however, and the detour has been somewhat permanent.
From that moment on, things changed. Sunglasses now sit ever so slightly crooked on my face, so that I constantly look puzzled on a sunny day. Scented candles are just candles. One day in Bed, Bath and Beyond, a friend literally fell on the store's floor laughing because my nose was inside an Apple Cinnamon scented candle jar, and I could just barely smell the Apple. Trying to pull as much sweet-scented air into my nostrils as possible, it sounded like air escaping from a tire. Mixed with my friend's laughter, it was the sound of defeat.
My hearing is great. I think it has become even sharper trying to make up for my lack of taste and smell. And my sense of touch is even heightened. The feeling of a hot drink, I savor that feeling. Or in the early morning, hearing cereal fall into a bowl and the sound of the milk pouring over Raisin Bran Crunch. My mouth waters when I think of the cold milk jumping off of the spoon onto my palate. But that's where the problem lies.
By the time milk's texture changes, it is far too late. It should have been thrown out weeks ago. But before the texture changes, you can smell it. I can see mold on bread and cheese. I can't smell the warning that milk tries to give me.
The first time I used sour milk on my cereal, I was in college. No surprise there. College is where milk sours and the frat boy still drinks it because it will make a good story. "Oh man! That guy used a half-gallon of sour milk on French Toast Crunch and he said it tasted like sweet tarts!" Cool points go up. But not if you don't mean to do it. My roommate walked out that morning after I had just polished off a big bowl of awesome cereal. He grabs the milk, opens it and immediately puts it an arms length away, then turns his head trying to go further. He looks at me. I look at him. Then drop my eyes to the last spoonful of milk, I drop the spoon with a clank. That clank, mixed with his laughter? Yes, the sound of defeat.
I've been careful ever since. And I haven't messed up once...until recently. I didn't have such a long streak because my taste or smell has gotten better. No, I've gotten smarter. I hand the milk to a bystander to sniff it first. Which is always a tricky move because someone asking to smell milk is expecting it to be sour, so it "smells sour" to them. I wait until someone else drinks it first. If no one is around, I don't eat cereal. It's foolproof. But I got cocky...
...and my wife drinks Almond Milk. So, she doesn't regularly open the milk. So milk is chilling in the fridge and, unbeknownst to me, fermenting because I'm not drinking it fast enough. Before I know it, I'm getting a call from my wife asking me if I had cereal this morning. I certainly did and it was yummy. I hear disappointment on the other side of the phone. I'm sorry, I say, I'll eat a better balanced breakfast tomorrow or a good dinner tonight. No, my handsome hunk of a man, she says, I opened the milk and...
That's all I needed to hear.
The first time I broke my nose, I was 16, and to be honest, I didn't actually break it myself. I had help from a certain friend (who will remain nameless, unless he, the un-named decides to come forth). His elbow found the side of the bridge of my nose and successfully collapsed it. I'm not bitter. For my sixteenth birthday, I got a nose job and life smelled good again.
Less than a year later, a different elbow found the other side of the bridge. My nose resembled the first letter of my last name and most of the air traffic had to detour through my oral passage since the nasal passages were blocked off. Thankfully, for purely aesthetic reasons, a couple weeks after the fresh break, an elbow different from the other two, met my nose right at the crest of the "C" and straightened it back out; it was unable to reopen the passages however, and the detour has been somewhat permanent.
From that moment on, things changed. Sunglasses now sit ever so slightly crooked on my face, so that I constantly look puzzled on a sunny day. Scented candles are just candles. One day in Bed, Bath and Beyond, a friend literally fell on the store's floor laughing because my nose was inside an Apple Cinnamon scented candle jar, and I could just barely smell the Apple. Trying to pull as much sweet-scented air into my nostrils as possible, it sounded like air escaping from a tire. Mixed with my friend's laughter, it was the sound of defeat.
My hearing is great. I think it has become even sharper trying to make up for my lack of taste and smell. And my sense of touch is even heightened. The feeling of a hot drink, I savor that feeling. Or in the early morning, hearing cereal fall into a bowl and the sound of the milk pouring over Raisin Bran Crunch. My mouth waters when I think of the cold milk jumping off of the spoon onto my palate. But that's where the problem lies.
By the time milk's texture changes, it is far too late. It should have been thrown out weeks ago. But before the texture changes, you can smell it. I can see mold on bread and cheese. I can't smell the warning that milk tries to give me.
The first time I used sour milk on my cereal, I was in college. No surprise there. College is where milk sours and the frat boy still drinks it because it will make a good story. "Oh man! That guy used a half-gallon of sour milk on French Toast Crunch and he said it tasted like sweet tarts!" Cool points go up. But not if you don't mean to do it. My roommate walked out that morning after I had just polished off a big bowl of awesome cereal. He grabs the milk, opens it and immediately puts it an arms length away, then turns his head trying to go further. He looks at me. I look at him. Then drop my eyes to the last spoonful of milk, I drop the spoon with a clank. That clank, mixed with his laughter? Yes, the sound of defeat.
I've been careful ever since. And I haven't messed up once...until recently. I didn't have such a long streak because my taste or smell has gotten better. No, I've gotten smarter. I hand the milk to a bystander to sniff it first. Which is always a tricky move because someone asking to smell milk is expecting it to be sour, so it "smells sour" to them. I wait until someone else drinks it first. If no one is around, I don't eat cereal. It's foolproof. But I got cocky...
...and my wife drinks Almond Milk. So, she doesn't regularly open the milk. So milk is chilling in the fridge and, unbeknownst to me, fermenting because I'm not drinking it fast enough. Before I know it, I'm getting a call from my wife asking me if I had cereal this morning. I certainly did and it was yummy. I hear disappointment on the other side of the phone. I'm sorry, I say, I'll eat a better balanced breakfast tomorrow or a good dinner tonight. No, my handsome hunk of a man, she says, I opened the milk and...
That's all I needed to hear.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Talk is Cheap
I recently posted a question on Facebook, asking for thoughts about this statement: Words become realities. It got varied responses. Some supported it; others argued that a person's actions are the greater reality. Then it got into the philosophical, talking about a person's thoughts which are made of words and words from the thoughts soon express themselves through speaking and then turn into actions and take a breath.
It is interesting to me. Especially because I see the importance of words. There is a certain measure of power in being able to see words become realities. There is also the reality that in all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty (Proverbs 14:23). So, the true power is in the ability to make the word become, in a way, tangible. If we are just doing or laboring, there is reward and outcome, but there is not anything new. Does that make sense? However, if someone simply talks, but they cannot follow through, there is no power in their words. It's like the wind. Actually, it's less than the wind, because even the wind, though it doesn't have substance, can cause drastic change.
Truthfully, there is only One who can cause the Word to be tangible. Being able to follow through on what you say is a characteristic that is not of dust, but something more eternal. The solution for a person who lacks the discipline to incarnate their words is to know God whose kingdom is not just in words, but Power. And the solution to one who just labors, but never creates is to get into the source of Life, where new things are constantly happening.
It is interesting to me. Especially because I see the importance of words. There is a certain measure of power in being able to see words become realities. There is also the reality that in all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty (Proverbs 14:23). So, the true power is in the ability to make the word become, in a way, tangible. If we are just doing or laboring, there is reward and outcome, but there is not anything new. Does that make sense? However, if someone simply talks, but they cannot follow through, there is no power in their words. It's like the wind. Actually, it's less than the wind, because even the wind, though it doesn't have substance, can cause drastic change.
Truthfully, there is only One who can cause the Word to be tangible. Being able to follow through on what you say is a characteristic that is not of dust, but something more eternal. The solution for a person who lacks the discipline to incarnate their words is to know God whose kingdom is not just in words, but Power. And the solution to one who just labors, but never creates is to get into the source of Life, where new things are constantly happening.
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