Hi everyone!
Sorry for not posting much in the past 2 weeks. It’s rare for me to post so little…but know that it’s been due to a lot of creativity in other areas! I’m working on songwriting…as in the new year I should be going into the studio to start…da,da daaaaa (drum roll!) a NEW ALBUM! I’m so excited. More on that to come soon : )
As part of my songwriting, I need to stay inspired. One of the ways I do this is by reading the Bible, or walking by the beautiful San Diego ocean. I also love eating sushi and listening to the band Sigur Ros on repeat! All this seems to help songwriting somehow : )
Another thing that helps is to watch soul-stirring movies. My all time favorite film is Dead Poets Society. I obviously don’t agree with suicide, or with a few other elements in the movie. But the overall theme of the movie blows me away.
I love it when Robin Williams breaks into the tradition and monotony of a private boys school with the message of waking up, becoming fully alive and making every second count. He quotes a poem as he points them toward black and white photos of boys that attended their school years ago, but are now dead and buried. The poem says “gather ye rosebuds while ye may – old time is still a flying. And the flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying”. He tells them to “carpe diem” – Latin for ’seize the day’. “Make your live extra-ordinary” he tells them. Here’s a still shot from the movie:
I love that moment in the film, when one of the students called Todd comes back to his room and writes Seize The Day in big letters on his paper pad. Some students left the class mocking Williams and his poetry. But Todd and many others walked away forever changed.
The same is true for us today. There are countless generations of people who are dead and gone. They had their moment, their time to walk and breathe. One day they will hopefully dance with Jesus. But for now at least, they are absent from Earth. Therefore we have a massive gift – the simple fact that we are alive.
One day we’ll peer back into time and Earth, through the hallways of eternity. And we’ll be stunned at how momentary and short our lives were. They are like a speck of dust on the scales of forevermore. They are shorter than a breath. Gone like a shadow.
Being alive is a tremendously powerful position. Powerful simply because one life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can totally change the world. Lets lift up our eyes beyond the nitty gritty of our To Do List…lift our thoughts from what we need to get done for Christmas… and lets zoom out. Lets take the ending of 2008 as a good time to ask big, beautiful and bold questions about how we could truly ‘carpe diem’…
Dream big. You are more powerful than you know. Let’s seize the day, and in Jesus’ power, believe anything is possible. If you don’t have a dream for your life – or even if you do – set some time aside, get quiet, and ask God to reveal to you more of what His dream is for your life. What is it? I’d love to hear…. : )
Love,
Vicky