I was reading my cousin's blog this evening. She had finished reading "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" by Jen Hatmaker and had decided to take principles of the book and plug them into her plan for Lent. I am drawn by anything that highlights our own culture of consumerism (even within the church) and contrasts it against the culture of most of the world. When kids travel to Mexico on missions, the one thing they always comment on is how "happy" the Mexican kids seem even though they have nothing. And here we are in our Great American Culture and depression, suicide, bullying, adultery and greed abound.
Her week two is against materialism. She is abstaining from making any new purchases and also donating 1/3-1/2 of her and her family's clothing. If you have two coats, then you've stolen one from the poor. That is the quote, I think.
I remember coming home from spending a summer in a third world country and I was so incensed by the greed of America. I remember coming home and unloading on my father everything I felt concerning his big screen TV and fancy cars. Although I wouldn't take back my sentiments, I did apologize and regret my words and tone. I cannot tell others how they should live their lives, I should only live mine in the best way I can.
Anybody who's known us for long has seen our progression (and I'm sure some would consider regression) in the land of materialism. My most expensive possession is my camera. It's funny to think that my one little camera body is more expensive than our pickup. We've gone from a house full of stuff (granted, stuff from Goodwill. . .) to a house full of not our stuff to a tiny one-bedroom apartment that could hold little except the necessities (oh, and my elliptical. . . entirely different story there) and finally to the little house we are now living in. Our goal in moving into this space was to keep all unnecessary clutter from our lives. Just yesterday I put up my five coffee shop canvas photos that hung in my show at Black Dog last March. . . and Jered was concerned the front room would look too cluttered. How funny.
What I do spend money on, though, is clothing. Not as much as one might think. I am pleased to say that most of what I own are hand me downs or found for pennies at garage sales or inner-city thrift stores. But then I did pass an incredibly cute spring dress at Target today and I think I do rather need a new light spring dress.
Every day I wake up and my goal of the day is to Honor God. Next, Honor my Husband. And in those things, Honor myself. The world is large and loud and to focus on these two first things can be difficult at times. I did not buy the dress at Target. And after reading my cousin's post, I took out a plastic sack and filled it with clothes I don't wear.
When we moved from Grandpa's house into our tiny apartment, I went though all my clothes and gave away about half of them. There was simply no room. We donated half our library to the church. We packed up boxes full of kitchen appliances and told my mom to pick them up with her SUV.
None of those things do I think of now nor do I miss.
There's something about loosening the ties that bind.
I realize that's hilarious coming from a girl who owns thousands upon thousands of dollars in photography equipment. Not to mention two desktops and two laptop computers.
And an elliptical.
So, I love the idea of limiting our consumerism and our greed. But I need to remember that the Lord brings blessings into our lives at times and who am I to turn down a blessing?
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
end of February post
It's too bad that I can't post music on this post. I know some blogging websites do but I guess blogger is not one of them. Sad.
If I could post music, I would post a song my husband wrote. "Bouyancy" is what it is called although I call it the "Do-do-do-do-do-do" song. It gets stuck in my head. Constantly.
We're playing a for-real show in a couple weeks at 'The Refuge' which is down in Overland Park. It's a cool space. This will be our first time playing together (us and Cameron) since we moved to Hannibal. This will also be the first show where instead of playing guitar, I'll be singing. Yes. For-real singing. I finally feel confident enough to get on stage in front of lots and lots of people and sing. Of course, Jered will be singing with me but that's not the point. I cannot believe I'm doing this.
Jered's been writing some very beautiful music these past few years. I'd forgotten how impossibly cool his songs were until we were hanging out with Cameron last week and I was shuffling through his songs and picking out ones I wanted to hear. I picked out five. We only have time to play maybe three or four. Sad for us. I'm pretty excited, though, that he gets to finally play this music of his-- and that I get to be with him on stage.
Perhaps my newish-found confidence comes from my job. Or running races. Or leading young women in our youth group. Or maybe it's just 'cause I'm 29 and life moves ever-on and to be frank, there are lots and lots of terrible singers out there who either 1. Don't know they're terrible or 2. Love singing and they don't care how bad they are. Either way, I'm not too terrible and I do like to sing so. . . there we go.
One of my favorite places to sing is in church. I love singing hymns. One of my all time favorite hymns is "Christ our Lord has Risen Today!" which is an Easter song I guess, but I don't really care. When we sing this song, I think of First Presbyterian in Hannibal and I think of that gigantic, old organ and those fabulous stained glass windows that let in the bright yellow sunshine to bounce around that grand high-ceiling room. Oh man, that was pretty darn cool. I remember the first day we accidentally went to that church one Sunday (funny story if you'd like to hear it sometime. . . how we found ourselves in a very traditional Presbyterian church the third Sunday we lived there) and we went to Sunday school and it was nice and all but we were whispering to each other about how we'd made such a mistake and we would certainly find the church we'd been looking for next week. . . but man, when that organ played. . . And we stood in that huge hall with it's mahogany pews and tall, golden stained glass windows. . . And the people sang those beautiful songs and there was such Reverence. The Doxology was beautiful. The Apostles' Creed was beautiful. Everything was Holy and Beautiful.
One of my other favorite hymns is "In Christ Alone" which we used to sing at my church back in St Louis. I've never heard it sung anywhere else with the passion that those people sang it with. I loved how every verse and chorus of the song would build and build and build. When it got to chorus:
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ. . .
People would cheer. And this was not a cheering church. This was not a jump up and down and shout and lay hands and slay in the spirit and all type of church. This was a very nice church full of very nice middle-class Webster Groves people. But, when the song would build to the power and victory of Christ, there was barely a dry eye in the congregation. It was pretty powerful. And apparently left quite the impression.
I realize I blog a lot about music. And running.
So today I was running and listening to music. I was listening to this Moby CD that I'd heard before and it hadn't really moved me in any way, but then Jered and I listened to it again this past Saturday while driving out to have dinner with friends and the music was just So Cool! It's music to move to-- that is the stuff Moby does, I know-- but we were cruising down Shawnee Mission Pkway heading toward the Plaza and moby just fit the mood of the evening so well. And that's what I was listening to at the park today and it just fit my mood so well. And it fit the sky so well. And the breeze. And the feeling of matching my step with the music just put me in sync with the Universe Itself.
And to think I almost didn't go to the park today. I wanted to go home right after work and see my husband. But working out on the elliptical for all it's cardio benefits doesn't quite move the soul the same way.
Jered just played me a song on the computer, "Good Morning" by Mandesa and TobyMac. He prefaced the song with "Now, I don't normally listen to songs like this. . ." but he said the song reminded him of me. Having listened to it, I agree with both points. He wants to play this song before morning youth every Sunday. I might claim it as my own personal anthem. Except I don't normally listen to songs like this. . .
but then who really should limit the power of music?
If I could post music, I would post a song my husband wrote. "Bouyancy" is what it is called although I call it the "Do-do-do-do-do-do" song. It gets stuck in my head. Constantly.
We're playing a for-real show in a couple weeks at 'The Refuge' which is down in Overland Park. It's a cool space. This will be our first time playing together (us and Cameron) since we moved to Hannibal. This will also be the first show where instead of playing guitar, I'll be singing. Yes. For-real singing. I finally feel confident enough to get on stage in front of lots and lots of people and sing. Of course, Jered will be singing with me but that's not the point. I cannot believe I'm doing this.
Jered's been writing some very beautiful music these past few years. I'd forgotten how impossibly cool his songs were until we were hanging out with Cameron last week and I was shuffling through his songs and picking out ones I wanted to hear. I picked out five. We only have time to play maybe three or four. Sad for us. I'm pretty excited, though, that he gets to finally play this music of his-- and that I get to be with him on stage.
Perhaps my newish-found confidence comes from my job. Or running races. Or leading young women in our youth group. Or maybe it's just 'cause I'm 29 and life moves ever-on and to be frank, there are lots and lots of terrible singers out there who either 1. Don't know they're terrible or 2. Love singing and they don't care how bad they are. Either way, I'm not too terrible and I do like to sing so. . . there we go.
One of my favorite places to sing is in church. I love singing hymns. One of my all time favorite hymns is "Christ our Lord has Risen Today!" which is an Easter song I guess, but I don't really care. When we sing this song, I think of First Presbyterian in Hannibal and I think of that gigantic, old organ and those fabulous stained glass windows that let in the bright yellow sunshine to bounce around that grand high-ceiling room. Oh man, that was pretty darn cool. I remember the first day we accidentally went to that church one Sunday (funny story if you'd like to hear it sometime. . . how we found ourselves in a very traditional Presbyterian church the third Sunday we lived there) and we went to Sunday school and it was nice and all but we were whispering to each other about how we'd made such a mistake and we would certainly find the church we'd been looking for next week. . . but man, when that organ played. . . And we stood in that huge hall with it's mahogany pews and tall, golden stained glass windows. . . And the people sang those beautiful songs and there was such Reverence. The Doxology was beautiful. The Apostles' Creed was beautiful. Everything was Holy and Beautiful.
One of my other favorite hymns is "In Christ Alone" which we used to sing at my church back in St Louis. I've never heard it sung anywhere else with the passion that those people sang it with. I loved how every verse and chorus of the song would build and build and build. When it got to chorus:
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ. . .
People would cheer. And this was not a cheering church. This was not a jump up and down and shout and lay hands and slay in the spirit and all type of church. This was a very nice church full of very nice middle-class Webster Groves people. But, when the song would build to the power and victory of Christ, there was barely a dry eye in the congregation. It was pretty powerful. And apparently left quite the impression.
I realize I blog a lot about music. And running.
So today I was running and listening to music. I was listening to this Moby CD that I'd heard before and it hadn't really moved me in any way, but then Jered and I listened to it again this past Saturday while driving out to have dinner with friends and the music was just So Cool! It's music to move to-- that is the stuff Moby does, I know-- but we were cruising down Shawnee Mission Pkway heading toward the Plaza and moby just fit the mood of the evening so well. And that's what I was listening to at the park today and it just fit my mood so well. And it fit the sky so well. And the breeze. And the feeling of matching my step with the music just put me in sync with the Universe Itself.
And to think I almost didn't go to the park today. I wanted to go home right after work and see my husband. But working out on the elliptical for all it's cardio benefits doesn't quite move the soul the same way.
Jered just played me a song on the computer, "Good Morning" by Mandesa and TobyMac. He prefaced the song with "Now, I don't normally listen to songs like this. . ." but he said the song reminded him of me. Having listened to it, I agree with both points. He wants to play this song before morning youth every Sunday. I might claim it as my own personal anthem. Except I don't normally listen to songs like this. . .
but then who really should limit the power of music?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
this music of February
I am a very Month-oriented person. Don't ask me why. Perhaps it's because I like to put things into categories and lists and columns and this makes me a very Type-A person sometimes. Did you know that I used to organize my CD collection into months? A good friend of mine used to do this and I think I might've made fun of her at first ("Oh, no, we can't listen to this CD, this is an April CD. . .") but then the idea seemed kinda cool and neatly fit into my categorizing-type-A-personality so well that I fell into the habit. Can I confess that it is still a habit I somewhat keep?
Currently, Jered and I are at home and we're listening to the Sigur Ros album titled "Ágætis byrjun" and I've had this disk for maybe the better part of 12 years and I admit I've listened to this album every February for 12 years and refuse to listen to it at any other time of the year. This is one of my favorite albums of all time. Do I know what the lyrics mean? No. Why? Because they're all in Icelandic.
Please don't laugh.
But I have no idea what this album is about or what the titles of any of the songs are or what they mean.
But this is probably in my top 5 of all-time favorite albums.
That is the power of music.
I am the first to say that lyrics are nearly essential to great song-writing but this album is what puts the "nearly" in the above remark. The vocals of this album is merely another instrument in the great orchestration of what is Ágætis byrjun. Yes, I've heard Sigur Ros's other albums and maybe it's just because I loved this one first and first loves last the longest. . . whatever the reason, this is the album I go to.
This album reminds me of everything I like about February. It reminds me of college Freshman year when I fell in love with Webster U's campus. It was so. . . old. and beautiful. and unique. I took pictures in the snow that year of Webster Hall and of various statues and of Pierson House where I would take my poetry classes and of the Tech building where I virtually lived for 3 years. . .
It reminds me of working at Java Jive. It reminds me of standing behind that long, wooden bar with the glass and syrup bottles behind me. It reminds me of opening on snowy mornings and experimenting with filo dough and puff pastry in the kitchen because there wasn't a single. soul. on any of the streets at 8 in the morning.
It reminds me of doing yoga in Grandpa's living room when we first moved back to KC and I was so worried because our house in Hannibal was being lived in by strangers and we couldn't find jobs and I thought to myself, 'everything is going to be all right. . .'
I hope today sticks in my memory.
I hope being at home with Jered and making jalapeno/mozzarella/mushroom omelets and drinking coffee and editing completely gorgeous February photographs that I had the incredible fortune to take (I mean, really! I cannot even believe I am so lucky as to have the ability and chance to get paid to go out with wonderful people and take their pictures all over town. . . to create such soul-inspiring moments and immortalize them for these people. . . to capture images they will display in their homes and show their children and grandchildren. . . makes me want to cry sometimes. . .).
I digress.
This music makes me want to drive with the windows down through the deserted streets of St Louis at two O'clock in the morning and just. . .
drive.
Ever feel like that? Ever feel like words are so inadequate to describe what you want to?
Perhaps that's why I take pictures.
A picture of Sigur Ros would be the view down De Mun Ave at night. Snow on the ground. Kaldis lit up ahead.
Those of you who know what I'm talking about, let's get an Amen.
Currently, Jered and I are at home and we're listening to the Sigur Ros album titled "Ágætis byrjun" and I've had this disk for maybe the better part of 12 years and I admit I've listened to this album every February for 12 years and refuse to listen to it at any other time of the year. This is one of my favorite albums of all time. Do I know what the lyrics mean? No. Why? Because they're all in Icelandic.
Please don't laugh.
But I have no idea what this album is about or what the titles of any of the songs are or what they mean.
But this is probably in my top 5 of all-time favorite albums.
That is the power of music.
I am the first to say that lyrics are nearly essential to great song-writing but this album is what puts the "nearly" in the above remark. The vocals of this album is merely another instrument in the great orchestration of what is Ágætis byrjun. Yes, I've heard Sigur Ros's other albums and maybe it's just because I loved this one first and first loves last the longest. . . whatever the reason, this is the album I go to.
This album reminds me of everything I like about February. It reminds me of college Freshman year when I fell in love with Webster U's campus. It was so. . . old. and beautiful. and unique. I took pictures in the snow that year of Webster Hall and of various statues and of Pierson House where I would take my poetry classes and of the Tech building where I virtually lived for 3 years. . .
It reminds me of working at Java Jive. It reminds me of standing behind that long, wooden bar with the glass and syrup bottles behind me. It reminds me of opening on snowy mornings and experimenting with filo dough and puff pastry in the kitchen because there wasn't a single. soul. on any of the streets at 8 in the morning.
It reminds me of doing yoga in Grandpa's living room when we first moved back to KC and I was so worried because our house in Hannibal was being lived in by strangers and we couldn't find jobs and I thought to myself, 'everything is going to be all right. . .'
I hope today sticks in my memory.
I hope being at home with Jered and making jalapeno/mozzarella/mushroom omelets and drinking coffee and editing completely gorgeous February photographs that I had the incredible fortune to take (I mean, really! I cannot even believe I am so lucky as to have the ability and chance to get paid to go out with wonderful people and take their pictures all over town. . . to create such soul-inspiring moments and immortalize them for these people. . . to capture images they will display in their homes and show their children and grandchildren. . . makes me want to cry sometimes. . .).
I digress.
This music makes me want to drive with the windows down through the deserted streets of St Louis at two O'clock in the morning and just. . .
drive.
Ever feel like that? Ever feel like words are so inadequate to describe what you want to?
Perhaps that's why I take pictures.
A picture of Sigur Ros would be the view down De Mun Ave at night. Snow on the ground. Kaldis lit up ahead.
Those of you who know what I'm talking about, let's get an Amen.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
feeling icky
And here I thought our exercising and my drinking 1-2 packets of emergen-C every day would help me stave off the terrible cold/flu/whatever that's been circling around. Oh no. Guess not. Boo to that. Only good thing about feeling terrible is that Jered's been good about making me lots and lots of tea. Oh, and he scraped off the truck this morning so I could drive to work. Such a wonderful husband he is.
So I will not complain. Here I am on this Sunday night waiting for Jered to get home from church. I worked today and then came home to work some more. . . on photos of course. I had a double-senior shoot and a couple's shoot to edit through and I reached my half way mark just at the Superbowl's half time show began. I'm not the absolute biggest Madonna fan, but I do enjoy most of her music. Half time show was good. Like a Prayer was perfect song to end on although I'm not quite sure what it has to do with World Peace. But then, yay for World Peace.
I made tofu and black beans and rice for dinner. Throw back to the Hannibal days when this was a regular meal for me while jered worked. Of course, I usually had peppers and jalapenos to cut up as well and I could've diced some onion and jalapenos but, well, just not feeling so great this evening. Ny-Quil and bed by 8 has been standard the past couple nights and I don't see tonight shaping up to be much different. But maybe I'll curl up with Mockingjay (oh yes, onto the third book) and save the Couple Shoot for tomorrow night. Maybe. We'll see.
So I will not complain. Here I am on this Sunday night waiting for Jered to get home from church. I worked today and then came home to work some more. . . on photos of course. I had a double-senior shoot and a couple's shoot to edit through and I reached my half way mark just at the Superbowl's half time show began. I'm not the absolute biggest Madonna fan, but I do enjoy most of her music. Half time show was good. Like a Prayer was perfect song to end on although I'm not quite sure what it has to do with World Peace. But then, yay for World Peace.
I made tofu and black beans and rice for dinner. Throw back to the Hannibal days when this was a regular meal for me while jered worked. Of course, I usually had peppers and jalapenos to cut up as well and I could've diced some onion and jalapenos but, well, just not feeling so great this evening. Ny-Quil and bed by 8 has been standard the past couple nights and I don't see tonight shaping up to be much different. But maybe I'll curl up with Mockingjay (oh yes, onto the third book) and save the Couple Shoot for tomorrow night. Maybe. We'll see.
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