one sweet trip...

Pearl and I are just in from one of the sweetest trips to Georgia I think I’ve ever had. My family has started the tradition of taking a collection of photos from our little mini vacations together and creating a little coffee table book of our time. As we wrapped up the creation of the book together I was asked to write the section of text that would open up the book. I felt like this pretty well captures my view of this trip.

“a Celebration... of a year of life... of time together... of long hugs... of evening walks... of deep laughs... and of a family who is defined by it’s love…

Celebration was the reason for these delightful days of time well spent together. We gathered together to publicly celebrate Garrett’s first birthday, but truth be told it was also a celebration of our family. Of being able to see each other for another time, to laugh at each other’s funny moments, to share the stories that tell the collection of our days, and to see the joy glisten in each others eyes as time is simply being well spent together.

These are the images that filled our days, but many other images now rest in the recesses our memories and excitement builds as we now turn from this celebration of being together to the next.”

Here are a couple of the images that marked the highlights of our time.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

one man's junk is... well... let's be honest, another man's junk

Was unpacking clothes from our recent trip to Georgia. It seems like I always have a couple of extra items to put up when I return from being with my family… well specifically my mom. Her love language is gifts and she loves the gift of clothing the most. So whenever the opportunity arises for her to buy a new shirt, pair of pants, or even just underwear and socks she get’s all excited and starts pulling out her credit card. Once again I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing, it’s just my mom’s thing. I hate spending money on clothes, so I think it’s a good thing for me.

Well, I’ve been trying to limit how many unnecessary clothes I keep in my closet, to limit the excessive unused clothing that will ultimately rot from simply sitting and try to pass these unwanted articles to a needy soul that might just actually use them.

So upon the unpacking of this trips new bounty I decided a fall closet cleaning was in order.

I started with the dress pants and shirts, then quickly moved to the shorts, then shirts and pants, then over to the sock stash, and finally found myself sitting in the middle of a pile of shoes asking which ones would make the cut and which ones… well would be quickly finding a new home.

I easily tossed a couple of ratty pairs out, then a pair I never really liked to begin with, but then I picked one pair and thought

“wow I haven’t warn these in years, they still have a lot of life in them, practically new… maybe I should keep em.”

At this moment a wave of embarrassment landed on me as I realized the stupidity of my comment. See, the holey ratty pairs where tossed into the “good will” pile with out a second thought, but when a pair that I haven’t warn in literally over a year but still looked new came into question I paused, and thought about hording the good ones to myself. Give away the junk but keep the nice.

We’ve all said “one man’s junk is another’s treasure” well I think we use that line of thinking to pass off our junk that really is just another man’s junk.

I long for the day when I naturally think about not just giving away my junk, but graciously and excitedly give the things that still have value and are worth using. To not simply pass my junk off to someone else and feel like I’ve done a good deed, but to pass along things of value and usefulness, that may be “excess or unusable” to me, but actually treasures to someone else.


On a side note – I’ve not decided to never buy another hanger, if clothes come in… well then clothes need to go out. May be knowing I’ll have to give up something will keep me from buying unneeded items, and when new items are blessed my way, I can bless good items to someone else.

Country table Commercial and a great steak

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be a part of a pretty cool project. A local restaurant was putting together a television commercial that was part video, part still images; and I was asked to take the photos for the project. If I was honest I would say my favorite part was not taking the photos, or even seeing the final video, although I was very pleased with both, but in helping to solve a major problem. See, the steak we had worked with it couldn’t be served to customers and it would have simply been wrong to throw it away… so I did a real noble thing and offered to eat it so it wouldn’t go to waste. Mom would have been proud of me for not allow food to go to waste, someone had to do, and I’m just glad I was able to help out.

Last thing. I was asked to clarify that the coupons that are being talked about in the video are $50 coupons being sold for $30… I’m not a math major but I think that’s a pretty good deal.

a trash walk...

The other day I went for a walk around my neighborhood. You know type of walk where you really have no destination or purpose in mind other then simply enjoying the bright leaves and breathing the crisp fall air as deeply as you can. I don't do this enough, it's good for my soul. I've come to the realization that I'm very "plugged in" to technology, the internet, facebook, twitter, etc. and I don't especially like that, so these walks are becoming a high priority for me.

Well, on this walk I noticed a cigarette butt, and then a chips bag, and then a bottle, and then somehow I found myself laying on the sidewalk taking pictures of these random pieces of trash. Yes, you would have passed a grown adult male laying on sidewalk with camera in hand intensely focusing on a piece of trash, and I'm sure some folks driving by wanted to take my picture at this awkward sight.

Well, above is a little collection of what I saw and as I look at it makes me to wonder what if I started picking up instead of just walking by... who knows, it might in a small way to change my block, my city, our world.

So next time you pass an adult male laying on the side walk with a camera in hand intensely focusing on a piece of trash, look to see if he also has a small trash bag with him, if so it might just be me.

till next time...