Roadtrip with God

I want to go on an adventure with God. Putting him in the driver's seat and seeing what a crazy trip that He'll take me on. He's a much better driver than I am, and unlike mwa, He won't get me lost but will lead me in the right direction.

I am yIN San Diego and, for the moment, groaning

I've been in San Diego since the evening of last Thursday, the 19th. I hit the road driving on Monday, the 16th.

I have never driven so long by myself before. It was a crazy, exhausting ride. The second day, when I was driving through Colorado I hydroplaned (it was sporadically raining intensely and then dry as a gumdrop) going at least 60-70 mph. The whole experience was much like bungee-jumping: sheer terror for 5 seconds and then everything is fine.

God was DEFINITELY sending his angels to watch over me that day because, miraculously, not only was I not hurt at all but my car somehow escaped unscathed saved for a flat tire (I was going so fast that I had lodged some grass and shrubbery into the rims of my right-side wheels, which led to the leaking of the front one and the popping of the rear one).

I called Progressive and had a spare put on the back and the front tire was fixed in just the nick of time by some very kind CostCo workers who did so free of charge to me.

Besides that minor mishap, the journey to San Diego went pretty smoothly.

I was exhausted once I arrived. It was very odd for me, being a very social person, not having much contact with people over four days time. I did get a chance to catch up with some awesome friends who saved me from being bored to death (thank you guys (and girls)).

So, I've been in San Diego since Thursday; I've been away from Saint Paul for a week now and I haven't had much contact with people at all. I am feeling rather lonely.

I am hypervigilant whenever I feel lonely or down for a few days since I know what it is like to slide into SAD and being down for awhile. I don't think that's what this is, at least I hope it's not. It's probably just adjustment and missing good company.

Anyways, it's funny how cyclical life can be and it's awesome how there is meaning and opportunity in every difficulty and hardship and unpleasantness that we go through.

Life is in Christ and nothing else really matters...everything is an opportunity in Christ to grow.

Change the world, bit by bit, one random act of kindness at a time.

SaYIN Diego

I am hitting the road tomorrow morning. I am off to San Diego!!!! Woot woot!!!

I will try to drive around 12 hours and make it to Denver by the end of the first day. On the second day of my trip I am going to try to make it to the Grand Canyon by sundown and set up shop and sleep there.

On the third day I am going to get up early and spend as much time as I see fit hiking the muy grande Grand Canyon. I've never been there but always longed to go. So...i hope so.

After hiking the Grand Canyon, if I have enough time I will try to drive the remaining 8 hours that is left and make it to San Diego by sundown on the third day. We'll see how this goes.

I'll probably be blogging in the near future and find that my trip went 1% as planned and 99% crazy-style (I'll probably end up stuck in Mexico for a few months or something).

I am excited...excited! All I know is that I am going on an adventure with God and I don't think i'm ready but He was born ready (actually I don't think He was ever born, but...)

I have a crazy story about an, literally, everlasting gobstopper that I'll have to post about sometime soon. not tonight. too tired.

it's been a good week. it's been a good life. friends and love and God and travels. seven and seven. seven in root to root seven. lucky slevin. lucky sleeping. good luck sleeping. good will hunting...i'm tired and it really show. :))))

adios amigos. i'll catch you once i'm in "america's finest city" (one of san diego's nicknames).

Ratatouillie in San Diego

hello. good morning. saw ratatouille (sp?) yesterday. like some others I was pleasantly surprised. when i first saw the previews i thought "what a joke. gimme a break. the premise is a rat who becomes a great cook by puppetteering a human aka pinocchio style." also, the previews didn't --as shania twain might say-- impress me much. i didn't find anything in the previews particularly laughworthy or attention-grabbing. however, when the reviews started coming in-A, A-, A, A- and a good friend told me how she was dragged into the movie with the same mindset as i but left pleasantly surprised i started to think that maybe ratatouillie was worth my 5 bucks.

then, once i determined that i wanted to see ratatouille i started to get excited and anticipate it. i didn't want to get too excited though because from past experience i know that if i get my expectations too high up then no matter how good a movie actually is it will not fail to disappoint and not live up to my impossibly sky-high expectations. inevitably though, the more i tried not to have expectations the more i DID have expectations. but surprisingly, ratatouille still not only lived up to my expectations but far surpassed them.

maybe i'm just on a high after watching this pixar delight but right now i'm going to say that it's so good that it's tied with "finding nemo" as my fave pixar pic. i laughed and (almost) cried and in the end i must say it was better than "cats" (at least until i actually see "cats")

so i'm getting ready to move to san diego pretty soon. i'm excited but also nervous. i know that the past doesn't always repeat itself and i also know that what we expect, anticipate and believe makes it more likely to come true (aka self-fulfilling prophecies) but a part of me is still dreading the fall and winter since i have been low-energy and down during that season for as long as i can remember. however, i could be standing on the brink of the cliff of an exciting and radical change for the better and just can't imagine what the freefall will be like until i actually experience it. who am i to predict the future? looking back and then flashing forward would i ever have guessed an inkling of half of what i would enjoy, learn and experience during the past four years? not a sumo wrestler's chance in a marathon. i have no idea what the next week holds let alone the next year.

the best way to approach uncertainty is with an eager expectation of hope and faith. what happens when the faith and hope don't feel that eager and natural coming though? well, then you think back and remember in the depths of your being what past experiences of faith and hope were like and then you accept by faith, with a confident assurance of things not seen that they will be well...and that all shall be well whenever you choose to meet whatever you may meet with, not your own, but God's life and love.

that sounds cliched but it's true. actually it's become very cliche to say it's cliched but true. what would really be original is to say what's true without having to falsely apologize with "this may sound really cliche but..."

oh, i almost forgot! i just found out recently that one of the most intelligent, charismatic and ebulliant men of the 21st century has his own blog.

Always A Choice

We always have a choice. We can't choose our temperament. We can't choose our circumstances. However, given all the many things that we cannot choose we still always have a choice. And that is one of the things that can make a life meaningful no matter what the circumstance.

A case in point: Holocaust victims, confined to a squalid life inside of Auschwitz. Although these men and women were stripped of almost all their human dignities, there was something that the Nazis could not touch. Most of those in the concentration camps succumbed to hopelessness and despair and reduced themselves to treating themselves and other's around them as less-than-human. An extraordinary few, though, chose to continue to treat themselves and others with dignity and kindness, even at the risk of their own lives. These few, in the most dire circumstances, show us that we always have a choice. Those choices, as hard as they may be, can bring meaning, love and hope to any circumstance.

EMPHASIZING the EMPHATIC!!!!!!! (eating crap+not exercising = super skinny??)

Wow, everytime I post I write this--but it's true: it's been FOREVER since I last posted (not including the poem I wrote a few days ago).

Met with my bro a few days ago. We are crazy different. It's always interesting to be with him but afterwards I am always pretty ponderous.

I purchased John Mayer's "Continuum" (his latest cd) on Itunes. I LOVE it! The first 7 songs are all really good. I especially like "Heart of Life." It sounds different, even Beatle-esque.

I usually reflect and reminesce on either time, people, life or God in my posts but, hmm, in this one I have just written about none of that "deep" stuff.

"Life is in Christ and nothing else really matters...Everything is an opportunity in Christ to grow." I'd like to make this my mantra. It is such a great saying and it sort of reminds me of Ephesians 3:19: "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" in that you can get so much out of the words if you emphasize them at different points. Let me explain...

Ephesians 3:19 is FILLED with numerous emphatic words like FILLED, MEASURE< ALL, GOD, FULLNESS. All these words are used in a single sentence and all of them are used to emphasize the unfathomable DEPTH and BREADTH that GOD encompasses. Trying saying the sentence and emphasizing a different emphatic word each time (i.e. FILLED to the measure of all the fullness of God...filled to the MEASURE of all the fullness of God...filled to the measure of ALL the fullness of God...filled to the measure of all the FULLNESS of God...filled to the measure of all the fullness of GOD).

Fun huh? Now try reading through Ephesians 3:19 and emphasizing all the emphatic words (i.e. FILLED to the MEASURE of ALL the FULLNESS of GOD).

Now lets try this little ditty using my mantra: "LIFE is in Christ and nothing else really matters...everything is an opportunity in Christ to grow; Life is in CHRIST and nothing else really matters...everything is an opportunity in CHRIST to grow; Life is in Christ and NOTHING else really matters...everything is an opportunity in Christ to grow; Life is in Christ and nothing else REALLY matters...everything is an opportunity in Christ to grow; Life is in Christ and nothing else really matters...EVERYTHING is an opportunity in Christ to grow; Life is in Christ and nothing else really matters...everything is an OPPORTUNITY in Christ to grow;
Life is in Christ and nothing else really matters...everything is an opportunity in Christ to GROW.

Finally here's the mantra with all the emphatic words emphasized (LIFE is in CHRIST and NOTHING else REALLY matters...EVERYTHING is an OPPORTUNITY in CHRIST to GROW).

Don't you get a lot more out of the words after going through that exercise?

Speaking of exercise I haven't done any in the last 10 days. Plus, I've been eating a lot of crap When I don't exercise and eat lots of crap instead of gaining weight I tend to lose it. Crazy.

On that note I'm going to stop procrastinating and mow the lawn and then shoot some hoops mos def.

Come on baby let's dance

Come on baby let's dance

Round and round the circle we go

Where we end up only God knows

Swinging forth and bursting through

It's time for us to create something new and stay true

Lets show them what we're all about

Lets twist and shout and run all about

Let them show us what they're all about

We'll just stay here and pout

Hanging out

Hanging

Out

Baby let's dance come on