Maybe because I've always been a slacker/late sleeper which has rendered morning time a novelty for me, maybe because the best cartoons always came on early in the morning (ahh, Aladdin), but for whatever reason, I've always been a fan of early morning; the feeling of being awake before the rest of the world.  So I was delighted to find that morning is also Henry David Thoreau's favorite time of day.

The feeling of awakening, fresh hope for a new day, new plans, new strength, a new heart, this is what Thoreau loves.  Morning stirs the heart to adventure.  Thoreau's assertion is that every great moment belonging to mankind was accomplished through hearts alive with the perspective of morning.  I'm reminded of Psalm 126:1 - "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream" (KJV); or maybe, they were like them  having just awakened, remembering their dream clearly, who haven't yet lived far enough into the day to conclude that their dream is nonsense.  I hope I never come to that conclusion.

If we could keep apace with the sun, says Thoreau, we would live in a perpetual state of morning.

Did you know, if you could just fall fast enough, you would never hit the ground?  Mr. Moore, whose whimsical Astronomy lectures made his my favorite class of college, could explain this better than me, but I'll give it a try:

an object that is up, gravity pulls down.  Now picture a bullet shot from a gun; it will make it pretty far in one direction before gravity finally pulls it down.  If that same bullet were shot with twice the momentum, it would go even farther.  Ten times the momentum, and it would go a whole lot farther.  Now, imagine the bullet being shot with such a great momentum that it goes over the earth's horizon, and as the earth curves underneath it, it even begins to make a trek into space before gravity finally is able to deter it - this bullet has travelled so far before finally falling, there is no longer any earth below to fall onto.  The bullet continues to fall, and every time gravity pulls it down, it is moving so fast that it just misses the earth, and will continue to fall forever in orbit around the earth.  This is what our satellites do.  To fly, one has to fall fast enough.  No one would ever think the way to reach Heaven is to fall, or that the way to reach life is to die.

If only I could orbit, I would keep pace with the sun, and live in a perpetual state of morning.  This is easy to blog about, much harder to live die out; please pray for me, that others will be able to ready my life, rather than this blog, and see the point I'm trying to make.

But let's not forget:  "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit."  (Ecclesiastes 7:8, KJV).

-

"A song for pilgrims ascending to Jersusalem.

When the Lord brought back his exiles to Zion, it was like a dream!  We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.  And the other nations said, 'What amazing things the Lord has done for them.'  Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!  What joy!

Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert.  Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.  They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest."
(New Living Translation)

I'm not sure for a final name for this poem, but for now it's called "Billboards Lie."  If you're driving by the auto mall in Shreveport, you may see the billboard that inspired this.
---
"Billboards Lie"

I was driving on the industrial loop, thinking nothing about nursing homes
when my eye was captured by a billboard of an elderly lady, her face lifted, eyes closed, smiling blissfully
and I thought to myself:  that is where I want to place my loved one!,
buying only the best love for her.
As I travel within the empire,
I try my best to shield my eyes from its ridiculous lies.
---

I thought of the perfect name for a daughter:  Uvula!

Oft have I punctuated my entries with poetry, but today I think I'll really spice things up by opening with a poem and then talking about other stuff.  This poem is based around Ecclesiastes 4:7 - "For in the multitude of dreams and many words here are also divers vanities, but fear thou God."

-----{following is poem}

"The Multitude of Dreams and Many Words"

When I was a teen
on the couch in my living room I had a dream
about my best friend in the whole wide world
He was a bear
I can't begin to describe the bond that we shared

When I opened my eyes
I wanted to cry
desperate to return to the love inside of my mind

In Ecclesiastes
where it tells of the vanity of "the multitude of dreams"
I think I know what it means

-----{eop (end of poem)}

What to say?  I just don't update like I used to, but I still love blogging.  I can picture you now:  you've become a skeleton from long months of staring at the computer screen in hope long-dead that I will ever update.  The dried, crusty drool has petrified on your half-open jaw.

Well, this Xanga entry will be but a drop in the dry, crusty (like your petrified drool) desert of your longing that I have created through extended Xanga inaction.  Still, maybe this drop of hope will tide you over through the long days of waiting for my next update.

A blue/green fly just landed on top of the computer I'm using to type this.  If you've ever had the pleasure of pooping in the woods then you are probably familiar with big, blue/green flies that zone in on feces in no time flat as if they warped in from another dimension.  I think it's one of those.  Joey just brushed the side of my face with his fist trying to catch it.  Or punch it, or squash it; I'm not sure which.

Ok, Joey's talking about the fly now:  "What if the fly took me over?  And it, like, learned how to control my mind.  And it made me do this:  [running his body into a window, which flies think are just open space] bzzzzzzzz ..."

Ok, it keeps buzzing into me.  I rollerbladed earlier and haven't showered yet ...

Sheri and Trista from ETBU came and spent the night with Joey and I Wednesday.  They have a habit of lying in bed for a long time giggling and talking before going to sleep, so Joey and I invaded their personal silly time and joined in the fun.  It was gr8.  And so has leaving this entry been.

I found out last night in my Internet Programming class that web surfers often form lasting impressions of web pages within the first few milliseconds of viewing them and are turned off by images that take a long time to load.  In light of this development, my sincerest apologies go out to everyone for the huge google map image in my last entry, as it was completely inconsiderate toward all of us minimally-cognitive seekers of instant gratification.  I didn't even wait for it to load before clicking the "New Entry" button above it to write this entry.

Speaking of me taking a class, I am taking five (which will hereafter be referred to simply as "5") classes this semester and am already really enjoying them.  I am taking some really interesting computer classes (Networking, Programming with Internet Technologies, and even Adobe Photoshop) and the second Astronomy course.  I think that deserves a high 5!

Again, I apologize for the forced reference to the number 5 in the final sentence of the previous paragraph.  The joke in the opening sentence of the same paragraph, stating that all future references to the number would be written using its symbolic form, would have been rendered less funny by the absence of any future references to the number.

Sorry for all the apologies.

I had a good Christmas Break.  I spent most of it in Center, got to spend time with my grandparents and see my bro's (and sis's) some, and took a trip to Corpus Christi with Joey to visit my sister and brother-in-law for the first time since their move there.  A skate park at the beach - what a novel idea.  Joey and I were playing Yu-gi-oh when the New Year arrived.

I hope all of you are having good semesters (if you are not a student, feel free to replace the word "semester" with your preferred unit for measuring life's seasons). I leave you with a poem I wrote over the break.

-----
"The Heart of the King"
Proverbs 25:3, Mark 10:27, Hebrews 9:24 (New Living Translation)

What are some of the things which have caught my imagination?

Oh, the vastness of the depth of the peace of the ocean
(an emotion-boggling creation)
gliding as far as I can across the tops of waves to explore a piece of the ocean
(an endless destination)
my eyes afloat before they sink to see surrounding brown, accompanied by the underwater's resounding sound
(what a sensation!)
more than I could ever drink
(more than I could ever think)

When I was told the story of a boy carried to a fairy-tale land
(a whimsical dimension)
imagine my imagination as he looked to the stars, and I realized he had an alternate outer space paralleling ours!
(another infinite ascension)
the unsearchable landscapes this universe held
(galaxies that will never receive mention)
universes are as numerous as the stars in the sky
(the heavens are as empty as the ocean is dry)

"The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable"
through a Savior, unknowable love has been made knowable
"for with God, all things are possible"
tangible things are shadows pointing to that which is real:
Your "love is deeper than the holler, stronger than the river ... and longer than the song of a whippoorwill"
-----

Props to Randy Travis for the quotation in the last line.