words.

i am a writer. i am a listener and a thinker. i breathe in and speak out. i don't always say what i mean, but i try. and i believe that words can bend life.

God created the whole world by speaking (Genesis 1) and says that our tongues can either be like swords cutting others down or a balm healing up their wounds (Proverbs 12:18).

words take us places. they draw us in and out of... music, thought, literature, relationships, poetry, decisions, emotions... and make impressions--deep or shallow--in the surface and structure of our hearts.

choose words of beauty, then. of healing and love, of meaning and laughter. of learning and wonder.

this is what i hope & pray for... in my songwriting, in my interactions, in the way i breathe. . .

writing.

today was filled with so many great things: watching tennis, helping a friend with wedding decor, catching some sunshine, and playing some tunes.

tonight i worked on rewriting the hymn "Abide With Me"- it's a favorite, and i can't wait to record it in the studio this weekend. it's my first song using... 2 capos! poor Charles (my guitar) has had it for the evening though, so i guess we'll call it a night.

day 1.

i couldn't ask for a better day to start my new blog. . .  with my disc chair on the deck,  the neighbor's hound dog howling a few fences away, stack of books, flower pot full of sharpies, listening to some JJ Heller, & drinking up the sunshine of a warm February day in Nebraska.

writing is an opening of the soul. it's hard to do sometimes. i wrote this poem today for a class. . .

 Shalom

There is a time for all to falter
And stray beneath our skin
To wander in some darkness
To wallow in our sin.

And laughter cannot conceal us
Nor gestures bring us peace
But within a realm of vast dimension
We find stillness in release.

Like children we can come then
Encounter a brushing hand

Like the lost one after he squanders

Divinity breaches soiled plans.

Shadowland, shadowland
I will mirror God’s grace
In the ways that I am carried—
The depths... eternal embrace.

peace. love & wonder. . . as we journey through the bits and pieces. . . all the scraps of this thing called life.

-psalm 37: 4