Pick up your garbage.

Chances are if you've ever walked with me outside for more than 5 feet you've seen me stop to pick up a piece of trash. Here is a video and a slide show that show just a few of the reasons I do.

I'll also never, ever willingly just let a balloon drift up into the air and out of reach if it can be avoided.


http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/g-word-shorts-plastic-vs-plankton.html

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/chris-jordan-midway-birds.html


This is our planet, people! Let's take care of it, shall we?

IT'S SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!

After going to my car just a few minutes ago I turned around and discovered that last nights rainstorm was indeed a magical one. No joke, that rain had magic powers. Yesterday all the trees and bushes surrounding my house had buds, but were still pretty wintry-looking. But today there was GREEN. Little grean leaves beginning to poke out of all those buds.

(Random story: one time when I was really little I remember sitting in the backseat of my car as my parents talked. At one point I was pretty sure they were admiring all the "bugs" in the trees. It was probably a bit earlier in the year than April, so there wasn't any green. I remember looking out the window to try and see all the "bugs." But I couldn't. Yet my parents kept talking all about these "bugs" and made it sound like there were a zillion of them. I'm sure I spent the year thinking my parentals were crazy. Then the next year I realized they had been saying BUDS, not bugs.)

I even made my dad come outside to admire all the green with me. He was a good sport and did, but did give me that "why are you so surprised?" look. Which is fine. I just can't help it. This is my favorite day of the year. The first day of the year where it's sunshiny, warm, clear, you can go out without a jacket and be perfectly comfortable and everything, for the first time you can remember since last September is GREEN. It is my favorite.

There is something a little different about it this year though. Usually for me this is the beginning of the countdown to camp. The beginning of the countdown to the day where I know without a doubt I will pack all my belongings up and move into camp. This year, that is not the case. At least not yet if it's going to happen at all. I have a job at a church and will be leading a mission trip and VBS so two weeks of my summer are going to be spent doing those things. My family has something like 3 or 4 trips planned. I'd like to keep doing things with my youth if at all possible throughout the summer like Wednesday hang times or frisbee nights or something.

But with all of that there's not much room for camp. At least not full time, live in every week kind of camp that I'm used to. This might be my first summer in 8 summers that I'm not at camp. I never thought that that would be me. I'm so used to watching other people come to camp for a summer or two and then moving on. But I've always gone back. Not necessarily to the same camp, but to camp. Since '03. I guess I'm just not really sure how I'm feeling at this moment. I know camps will (hopefully) always be around (support them!!!!). And I know my degree is in camping and so is the majority of my work experience so jumping back in next year or the year after or whenever I finally do shouldn't be a problem.

But.... I love camp. Even when I have a less-than-desirable summer. (Like the last two.) I know I'm going to miss it. Actually, it's funny to me that I do miss it so much when the past two summers were so crummy. But I suppose that's how you know you're where you're supposed to be, and know you're doing what you love. When you love it even when it's not the best.

Anywho, this summer is going to be great anyway. I have lots of travel opportunity. I'll be going on (not to mention leading) a mission trip and will be learning tons. Perhaps this will be a good thing and not a completely terrible one. Who knows?! All I know is I'm going to make the most of it no matter what happens.

And perhaps find a camp or two to let me volunteer for a few weeks :)

"Girly"

I painted my toenails and fingernails tonight.

Doing so just reminded me how un-"girly" I really am on a regular basis.

The jury is still out as to whether this is a good, bad or indifferent thing.

An Idle Mind

First let me say that all in all I'm pretty pleased with life at the moment. My last post pretty much sums up the majority of my mental health, and I'm so greatful.

Today when driving home by myself, however, I found my mind wandering to my ever predictible single status and I had one of those "poor me, poor me" moments. Is it spring? I'm not sure. But I need to find something to do during my long drives by myself other than dwell on what doesn't make me happy. I need to learn to story tell or something.

Because we all know an Idle Mind is the devil's playground. And he will wreck havoc with my mind if I let my mind wander when I'm alone.

It's that moment....

It's that moment when you're just standing there and then all of a sudden someone is hugging you, and then before you know it someone else yells "me too" and makes it a group hug....

It's that moment when you finally pull up to the spot you've been looking for to pick up your friend and can hand over the keys of your car and they will drive you to your next destination....

It's that moment when you think you won't be able to laugh any harder then you are at that moment, and you're laughing with someone you just really got to know the day before....

It's that moment when someone asks you to share about your life and then just sits and listens because they truly want to know the answer....

It's that moment when you can walk into a group of people you haven't seen for months or years and pick up as if no time has passed at all....

It's that moment when you have to end a good phone conversation but the person promises to call back as soon as they can because they know there's even more to talk about....

It's that moment when you realize you're only going to have 40 minutes to visit, but it's enough because that's 39 more than you really needed....

It's that moment when the rainbow pops out of the sky, as vibrant as can be....




It's that moment when you realize that life is, really and truly, good.

Only Almost a Month Late

Hey. So this post was supposed to be written on Feb. 14. However, being the huge slacker I am, it's just been sitting in my brain for almost a month.

ANYWAY...

Valentine's Day.

I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. I love it because I love love. I love the idea of being in love. I love brotherly love. I love romantic movies, watching cute couples, showing love to my friends and family. Really, I love love. But I also kind of hate Valentine's Day because there are so many people who don't like the holiday and try to make it "Singles Awareness Day," and instead of alieviating the singleness issue, seem to highlight it. Like I don't struggle with those depressing thoughts enough already. Sometimes I actually hate cute couples instead of liking them like previously stated. (If you're new, which I don't think many are, I am single. And have been for 23 years as of the 19th of this month. (But, really I guess less than that because, honestly, who dates when the are 2?))

Well, let me tell you what I did this Valentine's Day. I took communion. Three times.

First at the church where I was speaking about camp (something that I love).
Next, at a retirement community where my mom was telling Bible stories for their evening worship. (Being with my family is something I love).
And finally at a Candlelight service for the Greater Cincinnati Young Men's Chrysalis. (A program that I have been involved in for many years and have come to love, and love all the people involved with it).

Communion. Three times.

Communion for me reminds me of the greatest sacrifice ever made. The fact that the Creator of the Universe loves me to make that kind of sacrifice.... It floored me this Valentine's Day.

And in the light of that LOVE, why would I worry about being single?

I wouldn't.

And it was a great day.



I know it's belated, but: Happy Valentine's Day!!

A Mix of Emotions

Today was such a strange day emotionally for me. I woke up this morning and did my usual online email checking, facebook checking, blog reading and more email checking routine. During this, however, I was stopped cold in my tracks because the handy little birthday reminder thing on my homepage of facebook told me that to day was Philip's birthday. Normally I find the birthday reminder thing helpful and a great way to remember to wish someone a happy birthday.

This reminder was different though. My friend Philip was not happy on this earth and decided to take himself off of it back in the fall of 2008. What made this even harder for me, was the fact that I did not hear about his passing until 2 weeks after the fact and did not get the opportunity to go to his funeral because I was on my backcountry trip at the time. The birthday reminder was strange to see.

I spent considerable time today thinking about Phil. He was a friend from my youth group and we spent considerable time together on things like confirmation trips, mission trips, playing ultimate frisbee, and everything youth-group oriented. He was undoubtably one of my favorite people at church and hanging out with him was always fun, especially with his incredibly dry sense of humor.

I am still sad that he apparently had more stuggles than anyone knew about, but I have no doubt that he is now partying it up up in heaven and is considerably happier than he ever would have been here.

I was also happy today because it was sunny and snowy and the woods on the drive back to my house today were gorgeous. I wish Phil had been around to see it. And to celebrate his 24th birthday.

So I was happy, sad, and a whole lot of other things today. But mostly, I just want to wish my friend Phil, wherever he is today, a very happy birthday. And to tell him that I miss him. Oh so much.