freecation

i recently experienced what i like to call a freecation. a vacation. full of free.

here's the deal. i left work wednesday afternoon, spent the night with a friend in indianapolis, then thursday i drove the rest of the way up to michigan and stayed at my mom's house until sunday morning, when i then drove the rest of the way back to nashville. the only cost to me for this trip was gas. everything else was built-in. free places to stay, free meals (except for the two meals i ate while on the road, but those were normal groceries i bought before my trip and packed with me - no extra expenses).

but that's not entirely what i mean when i say this was a freecation. what i also mean is that it was very free-ing.

i absolutely love nashville, and if you've read any of my previous blog entries, you probably already know that. but nashville is a city and sometimes you need some air to breath. so when i say this trip was freeing picture the following:

driving through the rock formations of kentucky.



driving through the corn and soybean fields of indiana with fog in the far distance.



driving through the vineyards of southwest michigan.



watching the sunset over lake michigan.



freedom. space. fresh air.



(i lost my camera on my trip to new york, so all i have are iphone photos. at least until i get my film developed. yeah, film.)

a lesson from the bachelorette

now. i feel like i need to start this blog out by defending myself: i am not a regular bachelorette watcher. a couple weeks ago, laura, our downstairs neighbor came up to our apartment to watch the show, since she no longer has a tv. and as a result, my roommates and i decided we had to watch the last few weeks of it. so. there's that.

anyway. moving on.

last night they showed a clip of her talking to one of the guys she kicked off and she said something that struck me as being not quite right. though, given the world we live in i can totally see why she said this. the guy asked her, “when it’s all said and done, what do you want from life?” and her response was “i want a family that will fill me with unconditional love.”

first of all… your family will not unconditionally love you. they can try and maybe you’ll be lucky and you will have a family who will love you as well as any human can love in a fallen world, but it won’t be purely unconditional. only god can love like that. which brings me to my next point.

we should only expect unconditional love from god, because only he can provide it. and we should be so full of his unconditional love that it pours out of our life into the lives of those we call family (and friends. and neighbors. and enemies.)

so instead of wanting a family who unconditional loves us, we should allow ourselves to receive the unconditional love that god offers, and out of that love we love others.

does this make sense? do you agree? disagree? thoughts?

one weekend, three creative minds, and a dozen q-tips

saturday night, my roommates (stacy and kirsten) and i were sitting around the house. stacy came up with this brilliant idea to make a music video using one of andrew belle's songs. so we cut out pictures of our friends (andrew's bandmates), colored q-tips with permanent marker, and three hours later created this little gem of a video. enjoy.