Here’s something I learned after a decade of working in the health and wellness field – trying to change a person’s mind about nutrition is hard. Many of our nutritional beliefs are passed down from our parents, and while proper eating principles are timeless, our food supply has changed and we must adapt. For the purposes of this post, nutrition = what one eats, what they don’t eat, and what vitamins they take (if any).
An undiscovered world
awaits your big blue eyes.
It’s beautiful,
magical,
and at times terrifying.
This crazy place is now your home,
your playground.
It’s vast, yet can feel small.
Open, but can be suffocating.
It’s yours to shape.
To mold like clay and create anew,
rediscovering and redesigning as you grow.
That’s the challenge of life here,
to keep seeing through fresh eyes and
not become numb to the beauty and need all around you.
They are everywhere, if you are willing to look.
I’ll guide you if you can show me.
Wrecked is one of those books that can change you, if you let it. I’d go as far as say it’s a must read.
The message within it’s pages is quite literally the opposite of the way our culture lives. As the book starts making you uncomfortable, you begin to understand why – it is speaking directly to the heart of humanity:
I want to begin by saying that Wrecked is a gift. An invitation to a better, more purposeful life. As I was turning the pages I could envision my journey to where God has brought me, and was compelled to commit and endure more than ever.
For our generation and the one coming after us, I think Jeff has done a rare thing – put out the right book for the right time.
Never a passing moment too soon
saving me from rationality.
Escape my head, tear out my heart
for it hurts too much to beat.
Beat me to death if I would let it…
But where do I hide
with no sanctuary of the mind preserved?
In the early hours before daybreak
I am left trembling in the shadows.
Show me the way, for I will follow you…
I wrote this while laying in bed sometime around 3:00am staring at my 3 day old boy. He amazes me, and is giving me a better understanding of God’s love for us.
It’s overwhelming.
After the poem are pictures and the story.
Today I have the good fortune of having a post featured at Jeremy Statton’s blog as a part of the Secretly Incredible series. It is a poem that I wrote as a tribute to my Uncle Ernest Battershell. He was a great, quiet man who influenced those around him by his life and actions. I wish you could have met him. Click through after the excerpt for the poem.
Excerpt:
My Uncle Ernie was that rare man who spent a lifetime in hard, manual work and finished strong. I would spend much of my summers at his house when I was young, learning to ride a horse, how to play checkers, and how to overcome challenges.
He was a self-sufficient farmer whose life taught me patience, devotion, discipline, kindness, and rest. I do not recall talking about these things, but observing them by his actions. I never heard him speak in anger, in fact he had few words, but those he chose to speak carried great weight and wisdom. I wouldn’t come to understand that wisdom until years after his passing.
A decade has passed in the blink of an eye
yet I cannot remember my life without you.
All fleeting thoughts and cherished memories
are intricately entwined with images of you:
youthful,
vibrant,
stealing my heart.
That is still how I see you.
Captivating me endlessly with your presence.
Longing in your absence.
Reveling in your love.
Our adventure has just begun,
much is left to discover
many years left to explore
as we are writing a love story for the ages.
Be sure to change the settings to watch in HD.
This is what has been keeping me busy for the past 3 months. As soon as I found out we were having a child, I knew I wanted their room to inspire adventure, creativity, and exploration. Having a place to like that to grow up in would be amazing!
When I was a boy, the Legend of Zelda series embodied those values for me, and the beautiful cel-shaded art style from Wind Waker/Spirit Tracks seemed to be the perfect fit for a young hero’s room.
Clairvoyant whispers,
fleeting visions
reveal the future, disjointed.
So abruptly it must be a dream.
Synaptic potentials randomly discharged,
a subconscious creation or Divine inspiration?
If they were only true…
they offer hope, purpose
but what do they mean?
It’s too surreal.
One could get lost searching
in the dark corners of the mind
and return broken, bitter.
How do you follow blindly?
Trust innately, discern reality
when perception distorts your experience?
If you could put it all together,
make sense of your senses
you could find Meaning,
Illusion of control,
Peace.
