Here and Gone Again

It's been a year and two days since I last posted on this blog. A lot has happened in that time. I finished another year at UT Arlington, which puts me halfway through school, found regular employment, traveled to the UK, attended several conferences and retreats, and have developed new relationships and grown so much spiritually.

I know the next year will hold many similar opportunities and lots of new experiences. Throughout it all, I hope to be more faithful in documenting my thoughts in my little corner of the internet. So I intend to return to this blog and write faithfully.

However, it may be next semester before that happens. As I write, I am sitting in a domestic violence shelter in Oklahoma. This shelter will be my home for the next two and a half months. I am here to help and minister to the women and children living in the shelter as God sees fit to use me. Throughout the summer, I will post regular updates at my mission blog, Hear Their Cry.

I will write again. This blog hasn't been abandoned!

My Week: Friends, Star Trek, and Drawing

I know, I know. My blog's been quiet this week. In my defense, I've kept fairly busy. With what, you may or may not be wondering? Much of the usual, such as CLEP studying, writing, and reading. But I had some fun new experiences this week as well!

Wednesday night I spent at my dear friends' the Durlings house. +Susannah and I enjoyed a delicious meal with her family and took a long walk in the rain before spending the evening watching the season finale of Supernatural. Thursday we rose not so bright and early for another walk and food (am I sensing a pattern here?) before heading to Dyno-rock Indoor Climbing Gym for our first adventure in rock climbing! We had a great time - Susannah was a natural and scaled several walls in no time. Between having shoes that were too tight and not being as strong and tough as she is, I didn't do as well, but I still had a great time. Definitely an experience we're repeating!

Yesterday I saw Star Trek Into Darkness with my dad and older brother Andrew. It was a great flick with superb acting; one I definitely recommend if you like a good sci-fi, whether or not you're a Trekkie - though I would suggest watching the 2009 movie first.


Today I've spent the majority of my day with my sketchpad on my lap and my pencils in my hand. Thursday evening Susannah drew some lovely fan art for me which I shall cherish forever - and which has inspired me to practice my drawing skills even more. I practiced an assortment of noses and eyes today, among other things. Shading is my weakness, as evident by those eyes, but I'll conquer it yet! Even though I have a long ways to go before I can consider myself a semi-decent artist, I do enjoy drawing.

So that's a brief assessment of my week. And tomorrow starts a brand new one!

The Power of Music

Everybody loves music. From alternative rock to electronic to classical to country, there's something for everyone. Each of us has our own personal taste. We all have that favorite playlist we love to listen to, or that one song we play repeatedly that appeals to us in a series of powerfully song lines. Music is so much more than just simple entertainment.

Music is powerful. It speaks to our very soul. It inspires us to be better people. It moves us to tears. It distracts us from pain. It soothes our rumpled spirits. It makes us smarter. It prompts us to go farther than we ever have before. 

Because of the effect music can have on us, it seems almost magical at times. On more than one occasion, I have been carried to different worlds thanks to the soaring vocals of a lead singer or the building strain of an orchestra. Music has helped me write more stirring scenes in my novel and get through a particularly unsavory school assignment. Even as I type, I have one of my favorite Pandora stations running in the background. Music has the capability to inspire creativity. 

But sometimes music is distracting. Like most students, I love to listen to my favorite tunes while I finish those questions or write that lab report.  But sometimes that same music keeps you from accomplishing your goal. It can drag you down obscure pathways and steal your focus. And sometimes you have to silence that outside stimulus and just think. 

I experienced this recently while writing a particularly difficult scene in my novel. With music blaring through my phone's tiny speaker, I kept writing and erasing as I struggled with pacing the development. I re-read my work and realized that the song clashed with what I was writing - the music was soaring while the scene was tense - so I flipped it off. With a little focus, words came to me more easily and the scene was quickly finished. I have also experienced this complicating effect of music while blogging and drawing.

Music can inspire creativity and have positive effects. But it can be a distraction as well. Know when to crank up the volume with your favorite tunes and when to leave the sound off. Who knows, it might make all the difference in your work.

Wrecked by Jeff Goins

For my birthday I received a copy of Wrecked by Jeff Goins. Jeff has a writing blog, http://goinswriter.com/, which I subscribe to. Jeff blogs about how to build an audience and provides inspiration and encouragement for writers.  As soon as I was introduced to his blog back in February, I knew I wanted to read his book. I'm pleased to say that Wrecked didn't disappoint.

According to Jeff Goins, to be wrecked is to find your life so affected by the suffering and helplessness around you that you can't return to how things were. The status quo has changed, the repetition of life has shattered, and you are forever altered. You have lost your self-centeredness and have become focused on the bigger world that is out there. It's a change of heart and mind.

Jeff discards our society's misguided notion that life is supposed to be comfortable. He talks about the importance of suffering.  In fact, he states that "stories worth telling are full of conflict." In a culture that always looks for the easiest, the fastest, the least painful way to accomplish things, I find this to be a refreshing point of view. 

Another point made by Jeff is that compassion literally means "to suffer with." Helping people doesn't make you feel better about yourself. In fact, philanthropy is painful and soul-wrenching. When you help someone who's hurting, you hurt, too. I experienced this while in Galveston over spring break. After distributing food to a needy community, I was pleased to be able to help these people, but I didn't experience that warm, fuzzy feeling I expected. After reading Jeff's countless anecdotes of this in Wrecked, I was glad to see that I'm not the only one.

One topic of focus throughout the book was commitment. Jeff acknowledges the thrill of adventure, but reminds us that any commitment can be risky, even dangerous. It's also character-building, and a necessary part of life. As someone who is very restless and constantly longs for adventure and new experiences, I believe these were words I needed to hear.

These were some of my favorite points in Wrecked, but this is only a small overview of the book. The whole work contains solid advice and wisdom, dotted with anecdotes from the lives of Jeff and others. This book is about balancing the tension between adventure and commitment. It's about how to handle your life when what you thought you knew has been turned upside-down. If you've been wrecked, then I recommend this book to you.

This Season of Summer

As the last day of classes has passed and finals have ended, I'm now free to enjoy summer! Historically I'm not a fan of this season of the year, partially because I detest warm weather, but for once I have been eagerly anticipating this. I'm enjoying the chance to break free of the tedious routine of each semester and move through each day freely. I have set several goals and intend to stay busy throughout these summer months.

The month of June should keep me particularly occupied. I'll be working on the UTA campus for two weeks at the beginning of June, followed immediately by being involved in my brother's wedding. Then it will be packing and heading out to Britain for 11 days with my older siblings. And once I get back, I'll be industriously scrapbooking and blogging about the trip.

Throughout May and July I intend to complete several goals. These include scholastic - passing two U.S History CLEPs - and fitness objectives. I have also committed to writing my first complete novel - approximately 100,000 words - throughout these months. I've worked on my novel in bits and pieces for ages, but I finally determined to sit down and write out a complete first draft. I'm extremely excited about this, and to be honest, quite interested to see how this first draft turns out.

Plus I'll stay busy with the norm - spending time with dear friends, learning new piano pieces, reading books (hoping to make it through at least a dozen this summer). And I'm going to step outside my comfort zone and try new things, such as going rock-wall climbing with my darling friend +Susannah in just a few weeks!

Why am I sharing this, you may ask? It seems to me that when I express my goals to others, they move beyond the nebulous stage of "I want" and into the firmer reality of "how can I?" There's a sense of accountability, perhaps responsibility that comes when other people know what you expect of yourself. So here I am, laying out my goals to further inspire myself to accomplish all my plans for the summer. And what a wonderful summer it's shaping up to be!

What about you? What are your goals for this summer? Maybe you'll be following the normal routine of work or school - and there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe, just maybe, you'll push yourself to try something new, to go on an adventure. Either way, make the most of this summer.

Back to Blogging; also, Books

Hello world! Today I finished my last day of school for the semester, so now I should have the time and mental energy to return to regular blogging. I've missed my blog and these little tidbits and musings I have shared with the world over the past few months.

I don't have anything truly exciting to share today, but I did want to show off my new acquisitions that I received for my birthday. I got several wonderful books to add to my ever-growing collection.

First up to bat: a signed copy of The Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker. Dekker is one of my favorite authors, and I'm in the process of collecting all of his novels to add to my library. I currently have about a dozen. I already own two signed by both him and Tosca Lee which I acquired when I met them last summer.

I received two more books which I've been eyeing for awhile. They are Wrecked by Jeff Goins and On Writing by Stephen King. I started Wrecked the evening I got it and will probably blog about both books once I finish them.


Finally, my brother +Aaron gifted me with a few more lovely books. I was thrilled to open my gift bag and spy two Hobbit-themed journals, one of which is leather-bound and one is a Moleskine. They have beautiful covers inscribed with the artwork from the map in the novel. I plan on taking one with me on my upcoming trip to Europe to fill as a travel notebook.

The last addition to my library is this absolutely gorgeous leather-bound, gold-edged edition of The Hobbit. Isn't it a little beauty? Tolkien was the author who sparked within me a love for fantasy and writing, and I vividly remember my first foray into the realm of Middle-earth through the pages of The Hobbit. To this day it remains one of my favorite books. Up to this point, I didn't own any of Tolkien's works - I'm glad that has changed!


Books are some of my best friends, and I love the potential of the empty page of an open journal, so these tomes will all be cherished additions to my collection. Even now I'm looking forward to perusing through the pages of my new treasures.


There is no friend as loyal as a book. 
 - Ernest Hemingway

Why I Write: Part 2

The second part in my Why I Write series. You can read the first post here. These are not in any particular order - I have a list of reasons as to why I write and will be sharing each one as I feel so inclined. 

Why I Write: To Explore What Moves Me

"Write about what interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else." C.S. Lewis."

Another reason why I write is to understand what moves me - my interests, my passions. I believe each writer is obsessed with one (or a few) specific emotions and ideas that consume them to the point where they're forced to write about them merely to keep a clear head. I know I am. I re-read everything I've written and find one particular similar strain running through each work.

For awhile I thought my overwhelming obsession was friendship. This belief was encouraged by the fact that I don't particularly care for romance novels or movies, always preferring platonic love to romantic. Don't get me wrong, I still like a well-written romance, but it has to have plenty of story to keep my attention. 

So I wrote about friendship, and continue to write about friendship. I pick up on this theme quickly in other works of fiction, and I cherish my own close friendships greatly.

Then I realized it's not just about friendship. Friendship is just a catalyst that leads to what truly moves me.

What moves me most is Sacrifice. 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." 

Most of us are probably familiar with this verse out of The Scriptures. It speaks of sacrifice - specifically the Ultimate Sacrifice. Laying down your life to protect someone or something that you love.

This is the particular form of sacrifice that I am most enamored with, that I find myself returning to repeatedly with pen in hand, that I will shed tears over. It manages to worm its way into almost everything I write, even if this was not the original intent.

But I have to remind myself that there are other forms of sacrifice, perhaps less serious, that are important as well. It's the little things that can make such a big difference in a life. Giving some change to that panhandler on the corner. Taking a few seconds out of your day to give directions to that stranger you don't like the looks of. 

Sometimes these little sacrifices can matter just as much as the bigger ones. And that's something I would do well to remember. In my obsession with giving it all for those you love, I could stand to be reminded of the small things that can make such a big impact on a life. 

As a writer, I write not only to share what moves me, but to explore it for my own purposes. This allows me to more intimately understand it. And expressing it is helps me keep a level head. This investigation helps me to grow. So here's to sacrifice - in both big ways and small.