Devon

It's amazing what can happen in your life if you just give it some time. Think about it. Take a moment and think about all the things you have done within the past week, the past month, the past few months, the past year. I started this blog with the intention of creating a memento for posterity's sake. I wanted something where I could record my thoughts and which I could use to track my growth as an individual. I have a pretty good idea as to why I stopped using this thing. Scratch that, there was no one singularity that had caused me to stop blogging. Be it lazyness, business, distraction, or the fact that I just plain lost interest, I had stopped. That much is true. But therein contains another truth. One that is more fact than conjecture.

So much has happened since my last post.

My last post was dated at October 3, 2008. Since then, I have aged to 25. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have all come and gone. A semester of school had ended and another one has just begun. The country had elected Barack Obama as its 44th President, the first African-American President in the history of the country. My car's odometer has just rolled over to 60000 miles, and...

I now have a girlfiend.

A lot of things can happen very quickly and can often create a maelstrom of our lives if we are not careful. Growth and change can either be a wonderful or catastrophic inevitability, events that can really mold a person and form their character to show who they really are.

Last Sunday, I had a photoshoot with a baby of two of my friends. Now, babies can be tricky to shoot. Their personality alone works against the photographer; babies are easily the most selfish creatures to ever exist. You can't tell them what to do, you have to work around their schedule, you have to bend over backwards just to make them smile or look your way, and when they're done, they're done. However, if you can get past these pitfalls, babies can be very rewarding to shoot. With babies, every side is their good side. Their skin is absolutely flawless and everything about them is soft.

We all started that way. But as time wore on, life has ways of changing that. Things happen that takes our perfect complexion and creates scars and calluses. Our hands that were once so soft becomes cracked and weathered. Our feet that were once so cute and chubby become callused and rough. Overall, life takes our soft skin and makes it tough, sometimes going so far as to create a shell.

That fact makes me wonder what will happen to this baby as he grows. What will the world of tomorrow hold for someone like him? What kind of a world are we going to leave him when it's time for him to take control, and what kind of a legacy are we going to leave behind? Only time will tell, I guess, so for now, enjoy his soft skin.

Black and Gold

The other night, my friend introduced me to a new song:

Apparently, this song is one of my friend's favorite songs of all time, and I gotta admit, I see where she's coming from. There's something about the song that makes it oh-so-delightful. It's got some sort of je ne sais quoi that seems to creep into your brain to caress the temporal lobes with is pulsating beat and delicious vamping. It is one of those songs that you can listen to sitting perfectly still, or reclined in a pleather sofa while party guests move in slow motion across an ultra-modern technologic penthouse. Heck, if you're up for it, you can even tear up the dance floor with this track and show the world what a good beat can do. In fact, my friend explained, that's exactly what happened when this song was played during one of the results shows of this season's Dancing With The Stars (September 30, 2008). However, this song is more than just a hot track. If you can get your ears past the techno beats and your legs past the urge to dance; if you can calm yourself and listen with all your heart to the lyrics, you might just find something very unexpected.

Need some help? Here are the lyrics:

If the fish swam
Out of the ocean
And grew legs
And they started walking
And the apes climbed down
From the trees
And grew tall
And they started talking

And the stars
Fell out of the sky
And my tears
Rolled into the ocean
Now I'm looking
For a reason why
You even set my world
Into motion

'cause if you're not
Really here
Then the stars
Don't even matter
Now I'm filled
To the top with fear
But it's all
Just a bunch of matter
'cause if you're not
Really here
Then I don't want
To be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold
Black and gold
Black and gold

I looked up
Into the night sky
And see a thousand eyes
Staring back
And all around
These golden beacons
I see nothing but black

I feel a way of something
Beyond them
I don't see
What I can feel
If vision
Is the only validation
Then most of my life
Isn't real

'cause if you're not
Really here
Then the stars
Don't even matter
Now I'm filled
To the top with fear
But it's all
Just a bunch of matter
'cause if you're not
Really here
Then i don't want
To be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold
Black and gold
Black and gold

{Sings quietly}
'cause if you're not
Really here
Then the stars
Don't even matter
Now I'm filled
To the top with fear
But it's all
Just a bunch of matter
'cause if you're not
Really here
Then i don't want
To be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold
Black and gold
Black and gold

See it yet?

According to some sources, this song was written during one the lowest points in Sam's musical career. His father was a minister as well as a recording artist himself, and for his son's training, brought him to a church to listen to the soulful music inside. Sam claims to believe in a higher power and considers himself to be a spiritual person who's not tied down to any one religion. Could this background be the influence that had led Sam to write a song about God? Could an openly gay man really be so spiritual that he would deny evolution, believe in the majesty of creation and seek a higher power that made it all? Could a dance beat really serve as a song of worship?

Honestly, I don't know.

These are just some questions that I left out to ponder over the weekend. Right now, I'm just enjoying this song and reveling in the fact that it contained such a heavy message... just hiding in plain sight.

Happy Sabbath, everyone!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; "and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

~Matthew 6:28-29 (NKJV)













Don't worry about today. Give it to the One who holds tomorrow in His hands.

But first be concerned about God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be provided for you as well.

~Matthew 6:33 (ISV)

Happy Sabbath!

A Toast

Here's to the union of my good friends: Antonio and Sharon Espinoza. A match made in Heaven, if Heaven were only a quiet suburb on the outskirts of Chicago's metropolis. Here's to the fond memories you two have made and cheers to the memories to come. Here's to seven years of adolescent dating and to the years that lay ahead.

Here's to that old and broken road, the one with detours and pitfalls and false leads, that had brought together the two of you.



Here's to the intimacy you two will share.





Here's to the idea of two becoming one: of one mind, one body, one soul. Here's to the fulfillment of "bone of my bone, flesh from my flesh." where they shall leave their mother and father, to become one.





Here's to the secret knowledge known only to the two of you, and to the exploration of the sacred beneath the blessed canopy of marriage.



Here's to the laughter and the dance.





Here's to the moments of joy and the smiles that exists for all to see...



...as well as the ones that exist for just the two of you.



Here's to dancing to the song of life and never forgetting that the road you travel will always be wider with your friends, your family, and your God by your side.



So, congratulations to the two of you! May God pour out an overabundance of his blessing for you both and bless you richly as you begin your new life together.

Lethargy

I really can't push myself to write in this thing anymore. It's sad, but it's true. The light is slowly burning out and my pen is running empty. My pencil is down to a nubbin and my eraser is cracked and dry. My source of inspiration is gone, I have distractions galore and I can't seem to pull together enough motivation to sit at my desk and type. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't have anything to write about. Personal thoughts and memories of the last few weeks have given me enough material to last me for days. No, writer's block is the least of my worries. Rather, I just don't have a reason to write anymore. Well, hopefully this post will get me going, and maybe I can find the reason of why I started this project in the first place.

Five Down

July 13 marked the day that the fifth member of my high school graduating class stepped into the shoes of matrimonial bliss. I consider that quite the feat since out of those five, four of them were still single when the diplomas were being handed out.

Sweet mercy, how time flies.

Every time something happens that results in a bunch of my old classmates getting together, I always feel a need to take stock and try to figure out what's changed since 2002. It's not as easy as it seems, because even though it was a small class, it was very easy to lose touch with everybody. So far as I know, five have been married with one of them already with a kid. Two others are engaged (not to each other) and are getting hitched later this year. The majority of those that went to college have already graduated. One is entering his third year in medical school. One is going into his second year in dental school. One is working as a mechanical engineer for Boeing. Three have finished nursing degrees with another one finishing up soon enough. A couple of them are working in business, one works in IT, a couple are working in the maintenance field and another is in meteorology. Two have joined the armed forces (Navy, Air Force) and are still serving. I've got classmates living in Hawaii, California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Seattle, Michigan, North Carolina and of course Illinois.

It has been a little over six years since we were all last seen together. Some things have changed, some things stayed the same, but so far, it seems everyone has done well for themselves. Despite all that has happened in the world and all the personal experiences we each had, we all appear to be moving along with our lives fairly well. God has kept us so far and has shows His great mercy on us all.

This fall, my old high school will be celebrating the first graduating class's ten-year reunion, and with me being part of alumni association this year, I get to be part of the planning of this milestone. So far, it seems that many members from the class of 1998 will be flying in from all over the country for this weekend. Who knows how much they've changed as individuals over the years? Depending on how you look at it, ten years can either feel like eons or flash right in front of you in a matter of minutes.

Four years from now, I myself will be celebrating my own class's ten-year reunion. So much has already changed in six years that it really makes me wonder what the next four will be like. How much more will my friends change? Who's going to be living where, or with whom for that matter? Who's going have a kid? Who's going to get married? Will the ones that are married still be married? Who is still going be alive? These are questions that I don't know the answers to, and I am pretty relieved that I can't answer. But get back to me in four years, and I'm pretty sure I can tell you the answers then.

As for my own stock? I'm a single, 24 year old with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and less than a tiny clue of what I'm going to be doing with my life. I work as a temporary lab technician for an oil company and I am still living at home. I might be going back to school this fall to try to finish up some classes to pursue a masters degree, or I might try to get into pharmacy school. Like I said, I really don't know what to do with my life. What I do know, however, is that like the rest of my class, God has kept me so far and continues to bless me on a daily basis. I can only live on with the hope that God has somethings special in the works for me, and that His plan for me is so much more than I can ever imagine. So, let's see where the next four years will take me.


Class of 2002 graduate Krissy and her dad.

The Watcher 1

Candid, street photography.















Taking good pictures of total strangers in public without getting called a creep, getting punched in the face or getting your camera broken? Yes, I'll take that challenge.