"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him." - Henry David Thoreau
Though busy with my daily work-life (and grateful for every minute of it), my heart and passion still lies with photography. There is something so beautiful and simplistic about following your dreams...and where that might take you. I love Thoreau's perspective on pursuing dreams with no apologies. Don't we often find excuses to settle, to not reach our full God-given potential? I don't really feel like I've settled, but I feel I'm on a journey to something amazing. I'm excited about every step.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Searching. Jazz. And a million miles.
It's been a long time since I've posted. I tend to go through spurts of motivation and inspiration. Right now it's a moment of motivation...not sure where I stand on the inspiration.
I want to write. I want to express. But I find myself finding my own words in someone else's writing. Has that happened to you? I feel like someone else is better at expressing and voicing the thoughts in my head...almost down to a T.
One inspired author that speaks to my heart and my soul is Donald Miller. He's blunt, sincere, curious, passionate, and might possibly be able to read my mind.
His writings on faith and life and his journey...they make me laugh and they help me to almost better understand myself. He puts into simple words the crazy, disturbing, hilarious, outrageous, melodramatic, heartfelt, pondering thoughts that constantly go on behind my daily smiling face.
If you haven't read him...do it. You won't be sorry.
"Sometimes when I watch my dog, I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just IS a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make both her and me happy. It makes me wonder if that was the intention for man, to chase sticks and ducks, to name animals, to create families, and to keep looking back at God to feed off his pleasure at our pleasure." A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
"All this beauty exists so you and I can see His glory, His artwork. It's like an invitation to worship Him, to know Him."
"...to be in a relationship with God is to be loved purely and furiously. And a person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can't accept who God is; a Being that is love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people...That is why God tells us so many times to love each other." Blue Like Jazz
"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?" Through Painted Deserts
"I do not believe a person can take two issues from Scripture, those being abortion and gay marriage, and adhere to them as sins, then neglect much of the rest and call himself a fundamentalist or even a conservative. The person who believes the sum of his morality involves gay marriage and abortion alone, and neglects health care and world trade and the environment and loving his neighbor and feeding the poor is, by definition, a theological liberal, because he takes what he wants from Scripture and ignores the rest." Searching for God Knows What
"Dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe."
(Thank you Darci and Tiffany for introducing me to such a great writer that speaks to my heart through faith and love.)
I want to write. I want to express. But I find myself finding my own words in someone else's writing. Has that happened to you? I feel like someone else is better at expressing and voicing the thoughts in my head...almost down to a T.
One inspired author that speaks to my heart and my soul is Donald Miller. He's blunt, sincere, curious, passionate, and might possibly be able to read my mind.
His writings on faith and life and his journey...they make me laugh and they help me to almost better understand myself. He puts into simple words the crazy, disturbing, hilarious, outrageous, melodramatic, heartfelt, pondering thoughts that constantly go on behind my daily smiling face.
If you haven't read him...do it. You won't be sorry.
"Sometimes when I watch my dog, I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just IS a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make both her and me happy. It makes me wonder if that was the intention for man, to chase sticks and ducks, to name animals, to create families, and to keep looking back at God to feed off his pleasure at our pleasure." A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
"All this beauty exists so you and I can see His glory, His artwork. It's like an invitation to worship Him, to know Him."
"...to be in a relationship with God is to be loved purely and furiously. And a person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can't accept who God is; a Being that is love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people...That is why God tells us so many times to love each other." Blue Like Jazz
"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?" Through Painted Deserts
"I do not believe a person can take two issues from Scripture, those being abortion and gay marriage, and adhere to them as sins, then neglect much of the rest and call himself a fundamentalist or even a conservative. The person who believes the sum of his morality involves gay marriage and abortion alone, and neglects health care and world trade and the environment and loving his neighbor and feeding the poor is, by definition, a theological liberal, because he takes what he wants from Scripture and ignores the rest." Searching for God Knows What
"Dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe."
(Thank you Darci and Tiffany for introducing me to such a great writer that speaks to my heart through faith and love.)
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