For the Record

For the record...

There are few things to me

As therapeutic and fun

As thumbing through a stack

of used movies and music

Each has a story, owned by one or perhaps many

It could have come from across the street

Or from another state

The smell of the store

The stains on the floor

Who owned this before?

Why is it here now?

Did they outgrown this sound?

Were they hard up for cash?

(Lord knows I've been there too!)

Maybe he had two?

Or the wife said it had to go

It may have been junking up the garage

and they just needed the room

And so it became trash

Expendable

But in me it's found a home

A new place to crash

So for the record...

Thank you to whomever

Let this go from your possession

It will now bring me joy

For it's now come home to me

A treasure found and lost and found again

Excellence is a habit

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

I've been chewing on this quote for about a week now and have decided to use it as an overall mantra for the year to go along with our families focus on creativity in 2014. 

Hopefully this takes us one step closer to our lifelong goals of creating as much as we consume, and giving away as much as we live on. A 50/50 lifestyle. A few books that have inspired this way of thinking (if you're interested) are:

1. 7 by Jen Hatmaker
2. Radical by David Platt
3. Roaring Lambs by Bob Briner
4. An arrow pointing to heaven by James Bryan Smith (about Rich Mullins life)
5. No Compromise by Melody Green (about Keith Green)
6. Crazy Love - Francis Chan

I want to get in the habit, day after day of pursuing excellence and producing excellence. I may miss my mark more than I hit it, but I'm looking forward to looking back (that seems oxymoronic doesn't it?) on the year and seeing how many times I hit what I'm aiming at. At least I'm aiming at something...most years I've aimed at nothing specific and hit it every time. 

Here goes!

Josh