silence.

this weekend i got caught up on my friend chris's blog. one day he decided that he would start to drive in silence during his commute. rather than spending the 12 minutes listening to a few songs, he chose to spend that time in prayer.

upon reading this, my first thought was "that would not be very peaceful if i turned off the music in my car."

for those of you who don't know, last year someone attempted to steal my catalytic converter. they didn't take it, but they did saw into my exhaust pipe. it has been welded, twice, but it's just a patch. it's not really fixed, and therefore my car is loud. and i mean l o u d. so i drown it out by blasting music.

i hide the noise with music, and the noise is the telltale sign that there is a problem with my car.

i could say the same about my heart.

it still counts, right?

i'm supposed to be blogging every day in september. i guess technically it's monday now, since it's 12:55am, and i did not blog on sunday. but i just got home, so it still counts, right? since i just now got home. and it's still sunday in half of the country's time zones. well, 1/4 of the country only has five minutes left.

anyway. my labor day weekend has turned out to be much more glorious than i anticipated. friday was a very relaxing evening at home with the roommates, watching a movie (love actually). last night and tonight both involved dancing up the town with some old college friends, and tomorrow a few friends are hosting a "s'moregasbord bon(d)fire" at their home.

staycation vs. vacation. it still counts, right?

breathe.

breathe.



breathe.






breathe.

community. part two.

as promised, here is another blog on community.

what does community mean to you? i have seen it in its various forms, and i think it really just comes down to one thing: love. to me community is like a family, in the sense that there comes those times when you have to chose love, whether you feel like it or not.

and then one may ask, what is love?

(you are now bobbing your head to the tune of the haddaway song, aren't you?)

nashville, i love you.

i talk about nashville and my love for this city a lot. but i can't help it. i just love it so much.

our mayor recently decided it would be cool if we could have some live music and drink some beer "right outside his office". so, we did. the local independent radio station (and other great local businesses) have started up a program called live on the green, and tonight was the first night.

so, there was live music. and beer. and food. all right in front of the courthouse. i mainly went to see ten out of tenn, but american bang and the toadies also played. (however, we did not stick around for the toadies.)

and i don't think you could have asked for better weather for an outdoor concert. perfect temperature, clear skies, and an almost-full moon.

oh, and it was free. even better.

community.

i just got home from my community group. we spent the majority of the night asking each other what we think community is, and what we expect from community.

it's late (i'm old) so more on that later. in the mean time, feel free to answer that question yourself.

being known.

on my way home from work friday, my best friend (stacy) called to vent about her work day. my commute is less than fifteen minutes. before i had reached my home she had come to the conclusion that she was going to drive the five hours down to nashville to visit me. thirty minutes later, she called to say her husband didn't want her to leave on such short notice. thirty minutes after that, she called to say he got over it and she was on her way.

sunday evening, stacy and i drove up to the suburbs to visit some of our other friends from college, amanda and amanda. (i will call one of these "puff" to avoid confusion. that was her nickname in college.) amanda had moved down here with her family a couple years ago, and puff just moved down a few weeks ago. they are now roommates, so we went to visit them.

during this visit, we were able to catch up on each others' lives, as well as reminisce about the past. puff is going through some tough things right now, and she mentioned that it was good to be around people who knew her. and that got me thinking...

about how i had known these girls for six years. about how i was such a different person six years ago. and how we have watched each other evolve. i then realized that most of the people i surround myself with on a daily basis have known me for less than a year. some a few years, but most only a few months.

there is something refreshing about being around people who know you so well and have known you so long. don't get me wrong - i absolutely love meeting new people and making new friends, but there is a comfort with those who know your story. in fact, i feel as though they may know my story better than i know it myself. but more on that later.

(sidenote: a blogger friend of mine has encouraged me to 'blog every day september'... so here we go.)