Day 394: amen

there's an old brewhouse of brick and tall windows downtown by the river. wallblank.com operates from here and i was there tonight again with my friend shawn, the site's owner and curator. turns out the building itself is bigger than i ever imagined and is filled with awesome creative spaces and vintage signs and mechanisms and one dusty old piano. i'm hoping to go back within a day or two to do some major photography work.

speaking of which, some of my photography was featured by a seattle band. check out garage voice's site here.

and i might have found a happy balance for employment and purpose. looks like i'll be starting a new position at my old sporting goods store in town to become a bike and snowboard technician. coming back to this place hasn't been as bad as i had feared it could have been. not bad at all, actually.

thanks so much for being a big part of everything that's happened on vancouver island, vancouver, seattle, fernie, montana, maple ridge, portland, and the ten thousand miles of road in between these places.

this is the end of the daily text version of the vagabonded raconteur. for now, at least. i promise nothing is going to change in real life. who knows, there may even be some short-term adventuring on the horizon already. but as for day-to-day, well, i've got to haul in the reigns of blogging so that i can refocus and concentrate on a few other aspects of development.

there's a column down a bit on the right side of the page that highlights certain portions of all this. i'll clean it up and make it a little more complete for you to review if you feel at a loss tomorrow morning. i'm probably going to feel at a loss tomorrow at midnight when, for the first time in three hundred ninety-four nights, i will not post.

here are two of my favorites right off the bat:

day 365: one year

day 238: thanks

and i've been gifted a flickr pro account, so i'll definitely be using that more often. you can see that grow here.



finally here are my goals, for i have long forsaken the pressures of plans and twisting of time:

- continue learning, using, and networking music, photography, writing, and video.
- become a certified bicycle and snowboard technician.
- work.
- keep the perspective and momentum that has resulted through all this.
- be ready for anything to happen next.
- always, always, always continue to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understandings. acknowledge Him in everything and allow these paths to continue to be directed.


thank you family, thank you friends, and thank you God for the opportunity, adventure, and life that has now become ALL THIS.

Day 337

day 1-337 in a photo slideshow under 50 pictures? yes. however a few of them were not taken by me as will soon become obvious.




click here to view same pictures with titles and/or descriptions on flickr

Day 142

monday, september 29, 2008

i was ready to post up hours ago but i procrastinated. then my computer froze. then i forgot. now i missed monday, officially, according to blogger. oh well. this is for monday, even tho it's early tuesday morning.

after doing some work outside and showering tonight, i hopped on the computer and was kind of overwhelmed with the sudden rush of people that started chatting. still it's good to talk to people back home and from everywhere else around the world.

someone asked what my favorite part of these travels have been so far.

my beard. it's finally full.

i was just kidding, sort of, but i hadn't really thought about the 'favorites' of the past one-fourty-two.

- meeting hundreds of new friends from around the world is definitely at the top of this progressing list. liking them and being liked back.
- experiencing the life i'd been wanting to live in an area i'd been long desiring to visit is also up there on the list as well.
- the coolest thing in all this so far, i'm sure, is the way each leg of the journey has been slightly anticipated but miraculously presented. right now i'm living with willing friends of whom i did not know more than just over a month ago.
- visiting downtown seattle and portland and seeing places i'd read about and admired was sweet.
- finally viewing the big mountains, sometimes several in the same gaze, is a solid realization of the rhymed lines at the top of this blog site that had been written early in the spring.
- visiting several different churches and starting to get involved in college groups and helping with youth groups is sweet.
- finally using couchsurfing.com, both for a place to stay while in portland and as a networking tool for future work in fernie.
- i'm finding and pursuing a deeper desire and motivation for living right and working hard to get there that couldn't quite be achieved before.

as of this fall, i'm officially and finally able to look back a year from an achieved position of fulfilled musings and tracings left on that road atlas, now able to actually breathe the realization of their inspirations.

Day 121

today was weird, in a way. a friend from back home, in rockford, came through washington on his way to where i'd just come from on vancouver island. the most surreal moment in all this happened as i stood in a parking lot and gave eric final directions over the phone to the spot where we were meeting for lunch. soon, i could see the first familiar car that wasn't from here come into the lot and i was genuinely excited as worlds united.

i've been gone from 'home' for four months now, i think, but after this reuniting, i couldn't have been convinced either way that i was away from home or, had i been home, that this encounter and reuniting could have made me feel any different about where i was in life and time. comfortable in my own skin.

every detail of this summer and post summer arrangements and work have been fulfilled in such unique and inspiring ways. everything. the last week of camp, i had trouble sleeping at night because i didn't know where i was going for sure. i didn't know about temp work. i didn't know if i was brave enough to take this risk.

i'm starting to find that money is an issue for everyone. this moreso than the big picture of man and society and culture and obvious knowledge. i mean this in a way that makes me think differently about how criminals become criminals and how some very average people might make a choice in fear or desperation. not just crime, and i'm no where near this place if you're wondering, but since everything seems to so heavily revolve around money, i see these reactions and lives as similar- no matter what place in life they are.

i was stressed about money earlier this week because after camp, they would only give me travel reimbursement since the canadian government hadn't given me a work permit upon entrance and, as i tried to go back and get one, they wouldn't give me one because i was working for a non-salary, religious organization. i told camp to donate what else they wouldn't legally give to me to a specific homeless ministry in vancouver and also to supporting aids children in africa. either way, any donation was well appointed. thank you.

i've met many people living lives where, no matter their socioeconomic status, their lifestyle always seems to fall just short of the amount of money they have or think they need or whatever.

i've stood in the driveway of massive mansions and i've met and eaten with bums on the street this summer. there is more to this life for both people.

i'm finding that one big decision isn't going to make or break me. one big decision probably shouldn't do that, really, except for maybe salvation. steps matter, for sure, and so far each one has seemed to be guided and successful and i'm very grateful for this, and in this stressing to continue without money ruling the relationship of life and living it. simplify. if you don't have enough something, you have too much something else.


six months ago, i created two lists. 'i am' and 'i would' each respectively summed up the evaluations of my current perspective and life and also visualized hopes of what life would be like when it was lived properly. here are a couple examples, and i share these in encouragement to create your own.


'i am'

i am tired
i am happy to be alive
i am clipped-winged
i am not at ease

i am looking to take a risk
i am willing to start over
i am looking for a permanent perspective. vision.
i am scared to death that it all will fall apart for good (and maybe that i would decide that that would be okay)


'i would'

i would take advantage of the knowledge of those around me
invest more in those around me
build a new kind of life
make more music
make more, new friends
i would risk

all this is changing and moving for the better.