Fall Fun

Thanksgiving was great, and on Black Friday I went to downtown Claremont with my parents and then to my aunt's house in the San Dimas area.

It was a really great time just hanging out with family and eating pizza and left over pie. I got some really awesome pictures of the beautiful Liquid Amber trees in their yard, too!

~Enjoy~

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! Now, on to Christmas! :D

Home on the Range

So I've actually gotten to stay at home for the whole month of November! I think it is a record! In this month I did have to commute to downtown San Diego to audit the stores down there, but still got to sleep in my own bed at night. Ahhh, nice.

It is hard to believe that Christmas time is already upon us. At least that's what all the retailers and radio stations would have us to believe! It's not even Thanksgiving yet and we're already hearing Christmas music on the radio.

I think it's necessary that we experience Thanksgiving before Christmas - from a purely secular/material perspective (yet for spiritual motives), it is vital that we have a season where we realize all that God has given us and pause to give THANKS for it before Christmas - The holiday where we GET, GET, GET.

Like I said, this is a material perspective, for Christmas isn't really at all about getting material things... It's a day to celebrate the Savior come in human flesh. But even that is "getting" - For we did not earn His coming to save us... Rather, we earned His wrath and judgment. But He freely and unprovoked GAVE to us, that all who would receive Him would be saved...

Just some thoughts for the evening! Merry... Thanksgiving!

The Power and Beauty of Music

I've been Pondering the oddity of Music... It is such a beautiful and powerful thing. How is it that it has the ability to stir us to action, to bring us to tears, to encourage and strengthen us, to remind us of things since forgotten? How can notes, stacked upon each other, and rhythms... How can these be so absolutely life changing as they are?

I think myself strange - I am a musician, but don't often find myself listening to music. I shrug my shoulders as I watch my friends totally absorbed by the music world - iPods in their ears, or radio blaring non-stop... Yet me? I rarely find myself moved to delve with such immensity into the seas of sound.

But when I do... Then I am reminded of the beauty, awesomeness and power of music. And I wonder... Why do I run from it? Why do I hide? I know I am sounding... poetic and weird (it's the music!)... But it just baffles me why I avoid something I enjoy so much. Maybe there's some kind of subconscious psychological reason... Or maybe it's because I don't get the radio station I like at my house and I'm too lazy to get up and change CDs all the time, and don't like headphones on all the time...?

Hmmmm... Maybe I'll never know. But I am hoping that I don't soon forget how God works to minister so much through the mystery and art of music. :)