I am currently in Georgia interning for Huff Recording Studios. I’m having a great time! This past fourth of July weekend will be one of the most memorable that I have celebrated. Not so much because we did anything off the wall, but mainly because it was different than my tradition.
On Saturday my cousins and newfound friends and I took in the sights and sounds of Turner field. The Braves went head to head with the Florida Marlins. Sporting events are always good for bringing out the quacks. In front of us, there was a gentleman cheering his team to victory with the sound of the trump. Every strike, double play, steal, and homerun were followed by the regal sound of some sort of medieval looking horn adorned with a lovely gold tassel. I rather enjoyed watching him toot his horn. He also had a whistle that he blew in between good plays! While seated alone during a nacho run (in which our dear friend Rodney roamed the stadium barefoot), I was blessed to have a young man plop his carcass down beside me, slosh his beer about and ask my name. It was quite the encounter. Luckily his dad turned around and told him he was a nut and that he needed to leave me alone. Wow! I was told to take such accostment as a compliment. Hmmm…. Not so sure about that.
Sunday was filled with more family and friends, church, picnicking, trips to the neglected park bathrooms (in which there was ZERO toilet paper), corn hole, and fireworks. Spending so much time outside over the holiday felt so good after being holed up in the studio everyday!
With my friends back home maintaining our tradition of fireworks and mullet hunting, my attention was called to the beauty of contrast. Without tradition, spontaneity is blasé and forgettable, and vice versa. What do the good days mean without the crappy days really? And doesn’t the beauty of life make death worth it? All throughout the Bible God is trying to communicate to us this valuable relationship between the ups and downs.
Philippians 4:11 KJV
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am , therewith to be content
Ecclesiastes 7:3 KJV
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant , and a time to pluck up that which is planted ; 3 A time to kill , and a time to heal ; a time to break down , and a time to build up ; 4 A time to weep , and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn , and a time to dance ; 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together ; a time to embrace , and a time to refrain from embracing ; 6 A time to get , and a time to lose ; a time to keep , and a time to cast away ; 7 A time to rend , and a time to sew ; a time to keep silence , and a time to speak ; 8 A time to love , and a time to hate ; a time of war, and a time of peace.
I hope to live with this principal smack dab between my eyes. When life seemingly sucks, I hope to be able to see it as beauty and relish the good things that much more! I want the drunk guy hitting on me to make Prince Charming even more obvious to me.
As people, contrast makes us better.
Proverbs 27:17 KJV
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend
CONTRAST MAKES LIFE RICH!
Africa 2008 with my friends Patience and Ebenezer
