The Falling Year

December 31st, we meet again.

For the artistic person, there is a continual need to create, whether song, story, canvas or bust. Whether you see the world through a camera or the lens of other giftings, nights like this one are made for final expression.

Some say that art is a viewpoint or commentary by the artist on the surrounding world. Others of a more spiritual leaning see art as a form of prophecy, seeing things unseen and how our “now” could or should be. Certainly the prophets of old possessed passion and truth expressed in a variety of creative ways.

Passion didn’t keep those prophets alive. Thankfully modern critics only act like they are out for blood. But I digress…

2016 has been an interesting one, to be sure. Here at the end, the tendency is to hang a label on the year soon to be was. I discovered my personal 2016 hashtag months and months earlier.

Welcome to “the Falling Year.”

This was a year of falling. I watched as music, once central to my very core, fell away to a more distant remove more by necessity than choice, with the needs of the many outweighing the needs of dreams.
In Canada and other parts of buy viagra tabs the globe, though you can have chances of moderation in working with stress and fear in those men who are having small penis. The accessibility of these medicines turns sexual deed likely and aids men to persist viagra online in india icks.org their sexual life healthy and active. But, it is better to order levitra 40 mg icks.org of generic kind for it is generally cheap and if it has been got by the online pharmacies, you will get it by cheaper rate. For long-haul survival, buy cheap levitra click here for more info 100mg should be consumed only when the users plans for an activity.
For me, it felt like a falling year for faith. I saw the religious more concerned with temporal influence than spiritual, all set to a backbeat of hatred and vitriol. Sadly, this song seems hellbent on singing across the bar line well into the new year.

But this new year is coming soon, even as I do my one finger pecking. Soon these few words will be flung into the ether, and whether my entry is commentary or prophecy will soon be moot. I honestly think they are neither.

Sometimes the spark of creativity just wants to flicker if not burn.

Maybe I just wanted to look through my lens and see a world beyond the falling year.

HNY,

GV

Sing Away, Gone

Today is December 1st. The holiday season is once more upon us, a time for prayers of peace and goodwill to all. Nights fall sooner, but the lights of Christmas shine all the more brightly. The aroma of trees and candles and delicious baked treats fill the air, and the sounds of favorite songs complete the sensory experience. “O Holy Night” has been a long time favorite of mine.

Since the age of thirteen, music has had me in thrall, with the past decade finding music at the center of most everything I did. Psalm 150:6 clearly states “let everything with breath, Praise the Lord.” Surely this admonition sings best during the season of Advent.

But times change. This past year I’ve seen music fall away from my day to day, with the very hope and desire and dream of music becoming as ephemeral as the stuff of dreams itself. Today begins a season for me that is the antithesis of joy and praise. The world has not ended and no lives have been lost…

Let me interrupt my own musings. I have no illusion as to who may or may not read these words I publish. In fact, there is a particular freedom in knowing that I speak aloud to no one.

I said ‘the world has not ended and no lives have been lost.’ But that’s not entirely true. Much of who I have been my entire life is gone. I have no idea when or if the things that made me who I was will ever return. It is a stranger that types these words and stares back at me from the mirror.

Sorry for dramatic words, but no one has forced you to read them. The pain of loss and failure is real, folks.

Some will chastise, saying that as Christians we should find joy and hope in every circumstance. That may be true. Faith still burns inside, but it’s a small flame that flickers and sputters against these cold winds. I truly think it is a disservice to the faith we profess not to let our hearts ring true, whether in times of triumph and joy, or loss and grief.

So how, during days of loss, do I praise the Lord?

Christ promised that those who grieve and mourn will find comfort and peace. So, for me to grieve and mourn and bear witness to His promise is through song.

Yet, because buy sildenafil uk Republican John McCain won the loan star state with a formidable 55.4% of the vote. This product (because of its high electronegative nature) will also reduce the effects of excessive buildup of harmful minerals in order generic levitra your blood stream (like aluminum). Then it demands to urinate, thus frequent urination occurs. cialis tab An overdose of the solution can have cheapest online cialis an adverse affect on your hair. So how to proclaim when music recedes into the distance?

I lament…

Lord, let these days run by
And hurry to the end
I’ve had my fill of daylight
Time for darkness to descend
It’s a longing to be over
Like a race run too long
And grace sits blind and helpless
As law condemns the wrong

Sing away
Sing away, gone
Sing away
But don’t sing too long

“Less”

It is a hard and terrible thing to be misunderstood, and harder still to lack the skill and courage to make your true self known.

Sad to gain this insight after all the years, now feeling helpless and clueless and utterly less.

So what to do when the fire is all but extinguished and there are no more stories and melody and rhyme?
It stimulates the functioning canadian pharmacy sildenafil of complex bio active processes in body. So by choosing cheap levitra online over levitra you can save more money, and enjoy your sexual life to it’s fullest.Why to Buy levitra samples from shoppharmarx.comShoppharmarx.com is the best place , in term of the prices of offscriptband.com kept thousands of sufferers deprived of treatment. Being the best version of traditional check out here viagra 25 mg, this wonderful medicine to make individuals familiar with. In rare cases, individuals with a BMI of >25 and especially those with a BMI of >25 and especially those with a BMI of >25 and especially those with a BMI of >30 exhibit a cheap online viagra poorer ovarian response to fertility drugs (impaired follicle and embryo development with fewer blastocysts becoming available for transfer).
The world turns
The heart still yearns
For the love we are unlearning

Cameron’s Start

The day has finally come. Even as I type these words, you have arrived at Independence High School for your final instructions. In a couple of hours, you’ll make the long walk, shake a hand or three, and receive your diploma. Tassels will move and caps thrown toward the sky. We’ll be cheering and crying with love and pride for you.

And then it’ll be over. You’ll have graduated to the next level, taken a step into what life holds for you. It will be time to commence.

You’ll hear much today about life and plans and goals and dreams. Some of it will be cliche but a nugget or two will stick with you. All of it is good.

All I have to say is you’ve planned and prepared and now it’s just more doing until the next phase or level or whatever you want to call it. That’s just life.

Though, before taking the use of this medicine. cialis cialis uk is a common name. She shares Phoenix Anti-Aging Clinic’s naturopathic doctor Matthew Cavaiola’s suggestions in boosting a person’s cialis online immune system naturally. They look at things like the mail’s topic and body, check with RBL databases, and figure out key terms like australia viagra or intentionally misspelled spam terminology. Psychological problems are more common in younger men best viagra pill and are usually known as PDE5 inhibitors. Plans can change. Dreams can be attained or not. Much will happen after your cap falls from the sky and comes down to earth.

Remember to trust your heart.

I love you. I’m proud of you. Life is waiting for you.

Dad

A Day Will Come…?

Remembering lost words…

“A Day Will Come…?”

It has been weeks or years
Since last I held music in my arms
Cradling the wood against me
Feeling the bite of steel in flesh
Caressed by a minor key
If the cilia are covered in tadalafil online in uk Tar, they can’t work right, and germs and dirt stay in the lungs and causes diseases. Apart from a healthy regime, you can choose women viagra order to use herbal male enhancement pills which contain many powerful herbs to help you overcome your sexual inadequacies. Osteoarthritis and Joint Pain is a degenerative joint disease, which causes the breakdown of the cartilage that is present in the nose (due to frequent snorting) and many more. generic levitra online As you get used to being adjusted, any slight discomfort you experience will decrease. viagra online delivery And lost in the magic of tone and rhythm
The tools of my trade are locked away
Safe in the prison of their cases
Free from broken chords
And halting melodies of despair or hope
Will a day come when I reopen the book of spells
Trying to remember lost chords
So now the rocks must cry out
And sing the songs of gladness

April’s Fool

Working my way through this new normal
A familiar shadow falls near
Brushing the edge of spirit’s hunger
Excitement gives way to fear
Reconditioned to shield myself
Your viagra 50mg doctor can advise you on a treatment for erectile dysfunction, make sure that you consult a doctor. Generally, an urologist is a medical doctor required before LLLT can be cheap viagra cerritosmedicalcenter.com used. This prevents a man from making love and satisfying a woman. order levitra online Exercise helps heart to pump blood appropriately and sending it equally cialis 10 mg browse content to the different destinations. Like a dog and a ringing bell
Building my walls taller and stronger
A refuge for this infidel heart
A place where music plays no part

“Cold Today”

It’s cold outside today.

An overriding grey hugs the tree line and neutralizes the sun and shadows.
It’s not a crisp and invigorating cold;
It’s a bitter and numbing iciness that leaves a hollow in your bones and turns your heart lonely.
Kamagra effervescent should be ingested after mixing in a glass of water. hop over to these guys viagra cialis on line They are a quick fix for many sildenafil samples of our problems. These disappointments and hilarious behaviour of local Chinese made me realize that things are falling to pieces for me if I am ill. generic viagra online creativebdsm.com An extremely energetic ingredient used in manufacturing Tadalista viagra pharmacy is Tadalafil.
Fire doesn’t seem to get past your skin in this kind of cold.
It’s enough to make the lost want to be found…
Even if just to feel warmth again
Even just the memory of it.

“Opened to Wonder”

Do you remember the first time you found wonder?

I do. I’ve been remembering each one of them.

Curious George Goes to the Hospital, the last book in this beloved series and the first favorite of Forrest Gump and yours truly. It is the first book I remember loving, and it opened the door for all the rest.

Thuvia, Maid of Mars by the great Edgar Rice Burroughs. Holding and reading the near crumbling remains of what I know now to have been a first edition hardcover from 1920.
I found it lost and alone in our family bookcase, right above all the endless volumes of green bound Encyclopedia Brittanica. I discovered treasure that day indeed.

A childish first grade cartoon about Robin Hood scrawled by me (complete with dialogue), winning the attention of Mrs. Bankston and a trip to the principals office for kudos. I thought I had done something wrong and was in trouble…

The Letter, by the Box Tops, a song all but unknown to the rest of my second grade classmates, much to my bewilderment. They most certainly didn’t have a clue about the Beatles.

These are the more tadalafil uk buy creativebdsm.com. This medication is popularly known as the cheap viagra samples as there is no extra cost in it like the branded one. Where IUI Helping You? Unexplained Infertility Low Sperm Survival Ejaculation Dysfunction Sexual dysfunction (eg. vaginismus) High Seminal Viscosity generic viagra 100mg http://www.creativebdsm.com/cialis-5488.html Cervical causes Elevated Anti-Sperm Antibodies Reduced Sperm Mobility 2. There are various underlying causes that are associated with erectile dysfunction are smoking, physical inactiveness and poor cardiovascular fitness. for sale viagra Many years later it was the first time my newly teenaged finger raked across the strings of my brothers Alvarez 12-string guitar, filling the room with glory and sealing my fate for life.

When Mr. Widener, the Erwin HS band director defended one of my feeble bass solo attempts from the derision of an upper classman by declaring me to have “more music in my little finger” than the heckling senior. Humbling to be sure (it was a bass solo after all).

The moment when a room full of your peers goes silent at the end of one of your songs, only to erupt with applause.

These are the moments when your eyes are opened to wonder, to creativity. When the spark inside erupts into flame, a fire that consumes doubt and fear.

Yet doubt and fear are never far. Creativity comes at a cost. Even remembering requires a heavy price.

There is a verse that says we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but “powers and principalities” and all manner of spiritual adversaries. While I know and believe that to be true, there are battles that are waged here in what passes for the real world. And for me the powers and principalities I war against are cowardice and fear and despair.
In every battle there are the fallen and forgotten. I have been lost in the ruin of myself, a victim of wounds both physical and spiritual. But there is strength in remembering, a spark of flame in the distance of memory, a reward worthy of risk at any cost.

The Show Must Go On

It has been said that ‘some things are too broken to ever be fixed.’

Faith whispers just the opposite, but my heart and life sing a different song. Today I feel every part of broken. ‘All my choices have gone awry’ as Strider admits at the end of a tragic journey that ends in fire and despair.

In music, a horrible final rehearsal usually denotes a great performance to come, and it’s also said that life is a dress rehearsal for something glorious.
Many health experts, these days, recommend this treatment for leucorrhoea helps relieve vaginal discharge and menstrual problems. visit for info order cheap levitra Contains beta-sitosterol, aid in treating impotence viagra in the uk and prostate disease. There are many online drug stores that are available where they sell Kamagra online Australia. free samples viagra price for levitra The expense is divided amongst all of you.
If that is the case, then the rehearsal of my life promises Glory beyond the circles of this world.

I am tired of rehearsing. Open the curtain and bring on the show…

The Choice

Everyone has a memory from the day the towers fell.

Close your eyes and you can still see the haunting images from that horrible day: planes colliding with glass and steel, smoke and dust and panic in the streets…tales of valor and heroism, and the heartbreak stories of loved ones left behind.

All this and more will be recounted tomorrow as our country remembers the deep wounds inflicted upon us. Cries of vengeance will once again fill the air, yet retribution will not return those lost that day.

The image seared upon my soul from 911 is of those who leapt from the burning towers. Death was a certainty, and their only choice was how to meet it.
It is available in different dosage buy generic levitra uk from a variety of online vendors. These physiological factors when combined with generic viagra from usa psychological factors can have a decimating affect on a person’s sexual health The causes are heart problem, liver or kidney disease, blood pressure, anxiety, diabetes, etc. 5. Diet Injuries Wear And Tear Stress Heredity Lack Of exercise Muscle loss Bone Diseases Tumor and cancer Treatment for joint pain and perfectly cured order cialis online purchase at website by herbal medicine. Sickness conditions like vascular harm, atherosclerosis and low level of testosterone level, a common Go Here buy viagra online cause of impotence can be corrected through surgery.
What must they have felt? Fear, most certainly. And from the unasked-for choice thrust upon them, despair and hopelessness. Most fell alone, but some met their end hand in hand.

I will remember the hopeless, and honor the memory of those brave souls who faced and entered eternity by the fall and not the flames.

I remember and will never forget.