For years I’ve wished that some of my favorite musical artists would utilize and publish other creative outlets besides simply their music.

One reason would simply be the increase in the amount of creative writing that I’d be able to experience from them. The other reason is that it would showcase their talents in a different context (poetry, prose, etc.) allowing us a deeper insight into their genius.

Tonight a favorite singer/songwriter/lyricist posted a link to her blog and it is exactly what I’d hoped for.

Odds & Ends

Anna Nalick has been one of my favorite artists for about 6 years now. I am so glad she is willing to share her view of the world around us. Thanks, Anna!

I watched The Golden Compass the other night with the family. It is a fantasy, in which two polar bears battled to see who would be king. The fight was won when one bear hit the other so hard that his bottom jaw was torn off. This is the conversation that followed.

Gwen – “Did he win?”

Me – “He ripped his jaw off!”

Gwen – “But will that kill him?”

Jen – “He probably hopes he’ll die now!”

Gwen – “So having your jaw ripped off will kill you?”

Me- “You’d most likely bleed to death.”

Gwen – “Great, now I have something else to be afraid of.”

To stay awake during my commute I constantly change the radio stations in hopes of finding something that will keep me from nodding off. This ensures that I hear a variety of what is available and snippets of things I might’ve never stopped on.

I passed someone praying a prayer with this sentence in it.

“…dear God help us to be better followers of Jesus by giving up our belief in evolution.”

Wow. Either he or I deeply misunderstand what he meant when Jesus said “Follow me.”

Amazing song….amazing lyrics. Hoping for “something there in between”.

Lyrics:
All your twisted thoughts free flow
To everlasting memories
Show soul
Kiss the stars with me
And dread the wait for
Stupid calls returning us to life
We say to those who are in love
It can’t be true ’cause we’re too young
I know that’s true because
so long I was
So in love with you
So I thought

A year goes by
And I can’t talk about it
The times were right
But I couldn’t talk about it

On my knees
Dim lighted room
Thoughts free flow try to consume
Myself in this
I’m not faithless
Just paranoid of getting lost or that I might lose
Ignorance is bliss cherish it
Pretty neighborhoods
You learn too much to hold
Believe it not
And fight the tears
With pretty smiles and lies
About the times

A year goes by
And I can’t talk about it
The times were right
But I couldn’t talk about it

The times weren’t right
And I couldn’t talk about it
The times were right
But I couldn’t talk about it

Choris Romance says goodnight
Close your eyes and I’ll close mine
Remember you, remember me
Hurt the first, the last, between
Choris Romance says goodnight
Close your eyes and I’ll close mine
Remember you, remember me
Hurt the first, the last, between

And I’m praying that we will see
Something there in between
Then and there that exceeds all we can dream
So we can talk about it

[guitar solo]

Just maybe, we might see
Something there in between
Then and there that exceeds all we can dream

And all these twisted thoughts I see
Something there in between
And all these twisted thoughts I see
Something there in between
And all these twisted thoughts I see
Something there in between

Just maybe, we might see
Jesus, there in between
Then and there that exceeds all we can dream [repeat 3x]

And all these twisted thoughts I see
Jesus, there in between

As I was walking through a cemetery next to my brother’s house in New Hampshire I saw this inscription on the gravestone of a 14 year old girl.

“Stop youth as you pass by, remember you are born to die.”

It seemed to be a very dark final comment when surrounded by the hopeful quips of after life and new dawnings.

from. Youtube

“Enough,” said the judge.
There was utter silence all around me. And now for the first time I knew what I had been doing. While I was reading, it had, once and again, seemed strange to me that the reading took so long; for the book was a small one. Now I knew that I had been reading it over and over–perhaps a dozen times. I would have read it forever, quick as I could, starting the first word again almost before the last was out of my mouth, if the judge had not stopped me. And the voice I read it in was strange to my ears. There was given to me a certainty that this, at last, was my real voice.
There was silence in the dark assembly long enough for me to have read my book out yet again. At last the judge spoke.
“Are you answered?” he said.
“Yes,” said I.

– CS Lewis – ‘Til We Have Faces