Trading Notes....

Every Monday, I have the blessing of joining my brother, Ryan, and a few others and experience something life-giving and life-changing.  We all meet at Ryan's and cook a crap-load of food and take it to the park across from the library in downtown Nashville where we sit and hang and provide food for the people that don't have any.  

I have had the chance to get to know people that I never thought to be interested in and heard stories that I never thought I would hear firsthand (some of which I could've done without!).  They share their gratefulness and we share our friendship and in the end, it really becomes this great big wisdom-exchanging-fest!  I have learned more about simplicity and pure joy in the last couple months than I ever have before.  I had a joke battle with an old man from AlabamER and greatly extended my library of football trivia with a die-hard Michigan fan (Go Wolverines).  I learned about the point of view from an alcoholic father looking down to his daughters and I've learned that even women that are hungry and cold want to look and feel pretty.  I've learned that pain is relative and loneliness is curable.  I learned all this by trading notes with people I would have never thought to ask.  

I am not always sure why I am placed in the situations and conversations that I am placed in, but I am SURE there is always a reason.  I have had to learn a lot about forgetting myself in these situations and allowing God the room to work.  Some of us get worried about what WE have to do and how WE can contribute to situations.  We feel this obligation and almost pressure to minister and preach, when all God wants us to do is to love and be with each other.  By being friends with my Monday people, I feel like I have been able to share me, they share them, and we all realize how much we belong together, how much we need each other.  

There are beautiful people in the world that the world has called ugly.  Introduce yourself.

We choose.

My words spoken per day in the past three days may have broken a record for me in my lifetime.  For some reason, I have found myself on the receiving end of a lot of verbal throw-up.  The good kind though.  Sorry for the visual, but it does the job.  Everyone from a young girl in a hard marriage to a grown man still dealing with the pain of his parent's divorce to a homeless man who can find his heart after losing his only love to breast cancer 30 years ago.  A dynamic bunch, but so beautifully similar.  I knew I had to gather this information and learn something about life.... and I did.  We will all have pain and we will all be scarred by it, but we can also fly above it and not be a RESULT of it. 

Bottom line:  

We all can find a reason to be absolutely nuts, IF we choose. 

We can all look at our stories on paper and see a total mess, if we choose.

We can all justify living a hopeless, loveless life, if we choose.

OR:

We all can take our old or current pain and damage and appreciate that we have seen the world in it's most real sense, and turn that into compassion.  Even passion, if we choose.

We can look at our lives less as "black and white stories on a page" and see it as a beautiful, multi-dimensional terrain with mountains and valleys and rivers and cliffs, if we choose.

We can finally accept that our only real hope and only real love comes from Jesus, and as hard as we try to be righteous, we are still imperfect, flawed humans.... IF we choose.

Hmmmm...  I am guilty of giving into the thoughts of the first section, but I can CHOOSE to change my mind about those in an instant!  I will probably have to do this everyday of my life.  But I am reminded everytime, that anything that this world can do to me, that my circumstances or just my situation can make me FEEL, God is stronger, bigger, better.  He can not only change my environment, he can go a step further and change my actual feelings, IF I choose.  Pretty mind-blowing, pretty exciting.  It's a challenge.  It's my challenge to me, and why not?  I challenge you. ;) 

Just something to think about. Love you guys. 

little bit of rumor control =)

Hey guys!

Just wanted to clear something up!  I have received emails inquiring about and discovered a posting on Wikipedia.com that I will be releasing a record in December called "Give Me One Moment With You".  =)  NOT SO MUCH.  Hehe... not quite sure where any of that came from, but just wanted to keep it all clear for ya!  See ya soon....

Upcoming showzzzzzz

Hey Guyzzz....

 I don't know why, but the use of multiple z's in a row remind me of being in high school and I like that feeling sometimes so that's how I'm gonna roll today =).  Hope thatzz ok with you.

Today, I kinda rolled out the calendar and filled in some squarez... no world tour YET, but just a couple stops to break up my time in the studio.   Here's the latest:

Mar 31. Santa Barbara, CA. Soho.  www.sohosb.com

April 9. Los Angeles, CA. DreamCenter. www.dreamcenter.org

April 12. Riverside, CA. TBA.

April 15. Seattle, WA. Nectar Lounge. www.nectarlounge.com

May 17. Shelbyville, TN. Calsonic Arena. 931.685.9434

May 31.  Hollywood, CA. The Beverly Hilton www.changetheworldawards.com

I will be giving some sneak peaks at the new stuff and play some more familiar songs for old time'zzz sake.  Love the day!

And so it begins...

Okay... I have to be honest, I have lost a bit of sleep over how I am going to approach THE FIRST POST (there was an orchestra hit in my head when I typed that).  For one, I am not the most amazing writer, and secondly, I am a bit of a scatterbrain so you might want to grab a cup of coffee before deciding to read any of my posts.  So, with that said I am just going to go for it.  For those who don't know me at all, I have had a fairly adventurous life as a recording artist.  When I was 14, I signed on to Word Records and began about an 8 year whirlwind of releasing records, touring, and a lot of other fun things in between.  I wouldn't trade a bit of it for anything, BUT about 2 years ago, I felt the need to catch my breath.  Not knowing quite what I was asking for, I made the attempt to escape music for a bit.  It didn't take long for me to realize that that wasn't what I wanted AT ALL.  What I needed to escape from was deadlines, guidelines, and airlines.  No doubt, that is what I signed up for and I blame no one for it.  It was simply a kick in the butt I felt to change directions.  Now before we start dissecting the wording of the previous sentence, let me clarify that I am not making a big announcement on what "industry"  or "market"  I will be moving into, it is truly pertaining to the way that I approach music... or more appropriately, the way it is approaching me.  It honestly feels like every song, every line and note is happening to me.  I am no longer chasing it or forcing it... it's just happening and that is what I have been praying for.  I've heard it said a couple times by 2 of my hero songwriters, Cindy Morgan and Drew Ramsey, that every song is already written, it's only a matter of us snatching it up and putting it down on paper.  I believe that now.  I believe in what I am writing, recording, experiencing.  In what God is leading me to express in my music and in how He will guide me to release it.  I hope you will join me in this journey.  That's where the good stuff is, in the journey.