Vertical and Horizontal

It seems to me that people these days are either into vertical or horizontal, but very seldom both.  I believe that this makes for a sad situation.  People who are only into vertical, are only fooling themselves into believing that they have something when they really do not have it.  Horizontal people find themselves in empty and shallow lives and are constantly looking for an escape or for a quick fix to  the emptiness that they feel inside.

It is the few who are really both vertical and horizontal, who have the best of both worlds.  I have found that the horizontal finds its meaning from vertical and vertical finds its expression through horizontal.

For you see it is not vertical or horizontal.  It is either both or nothing.

Living In Eden

They spend time playing with the animals as all the wild animals are as tame as our house pets.  They go find the fruit of their choice to eat.  Maybe a peach or a mango.  After eating the fruit they decide to plant the seeds so they go to the edge of the garden to a clearing and plant the seeds.  As they plant, they start slinging dirt at each other and that leads to wrestling with each other.  As they roll on the ground, staring in each other's eyes, their hearts are full of love and so they make love right there and God is pleased with all of this.  

You see that is the life that we were created to live.  Everything else in our lives is there because we have added it.  

So, when any of us looks and see a glimpse of paradise, we see a glimpse of Eden and the longing that we have to be there is a reminder of what we were created for.  

When someone talks about being married to their soulmate, they have a glimpse of Eden and they are experiencing the relationship that we were created to experience.  

When we can understand what life was like in Eden, then we can understand the relationships that causes God to smile now.  We can also start to understand how things will be in the next kingdom.

Those are the thoughts that I have been pondering about these past few months.

My Review of the CD, "Back To Basics" by Jeff Pike

Along with the CD that Jeff put out with Hugo Durate, he has also put out a new CD of his own stuff.  This CD is a little different than most CD's as it is just one man and one instrument.  Sometimes that instrument was a piano and sometimes it was a guitar.  The music on the CD is a combination of older songs as well as new and never released before songs.

Of all the times that I have heard Jeff play, there has only been one time that I have seen him play with a full band.  Most of the time his gigs have been him and Hugo and maybe a couple of other guitarists who are also soloists.  The sound of those concerts mirror what Jeff has done on this CD.  It is not every musician that can sound good,  playing and singing by themselves but Jeff does good.

The sound of this Cd is a lot like the solo artists that I grew with in the 70's and I really love it.

Review of the CD, "Chill Before Use" by The Frozen Gringos

The Frozen Gringos are Hugo Durate and Jeff Pike.  Each of them are successful musicians who are the lead singer in their own bands.  They have come together for a couple of successful musical tours that have taken to areas where they do not get to travel to with their full bans too often.  The success of those tours have led to this CD.

Now the music of this CD was completely done by Jeff and Hugo, with Henry Jordan filling in the missing gaps.  All of the music on this CD is original music that was written by Hugo, and Hugo sings the lead on 12 of the 13 songs, with Jeff singing the lead on The Music Box.

Now my opinion of the CD is probably skewed because I really like both artists as musicians as well as friends, but I really like the CD and I rate it higher than some famous musicians who have released CD's this year with a lot of fanfare.

Outside looking in

I have been off this week on vacation, and how did I spend my vacation you ask?  I spent the week watching music venues that my friends were attending in Key West Fl.  There was this event down there called Meeting Of The Minds (MOTM for short).  Many of my friends went down there for this event.  One of the main things that goes on during this time is that a lot of musicians that play in the musical sub-genre called Trop Rock, will pack the town with concerts.  Some the places where these musicians perform, put the concerts on web cam where you can watch them for free.  Watching these free concerts is how I spent my vacation.  So this week, I have been on the outside looking inside all week.

If I reduced the story of my life into one catch phrase it would be "Outside looking inside".  Whenever I have been in group situations, this tends to be the case.  People tend want to be around me only until someone "cooler" comes along.  From the time that I was a kid, this has been the case.  Even my date life could be described that way as most of the girls that I dated in High School would go out with me (usually only once) and then find that someone who was a better match (one or two are still married to those guys even after all these years and I think that is great).  It makes no difference what venue that I am in, whether it is work, church, family or whatever it tends to play out this way and I find that I spend my time looking at couples and small groups and wonder if they are doing as well as it appears to me that they are.

Now I am not complaining.  Life has been this way for so long, that I have problems being on the inside in group situations.  I just don't know how to conduct myself and so I usually do or say something that will put people off.   Although I really do enjoy it the times people go out of their way to make sure that I am included.

The problem with this type of life is that you spend your life being disconnected.  I believe that loving relationships is what makes a life complete and you don't get that when you live outside looking inside. I find myself being like Casper the ghost at times as I look for people who will be my friend.  Other times I tend to feel like the Beast in "Beauty and The Beast"  as I feel like people will take one look at me and decide that they do not want to associate with me.

These are not good places to be.  The irony of this blog is that I feel like I have found a few people who want to be friends with me at this time and that makes all the difference in the world.  And by the way, as I type this blog, I have a concert from Koz's Green World Gallery on in another window and now back to the music.

What is marriage?

What is marriage if is not enjoying each other's company?

What is marriage if it is not sharing thoughts with each other?

What is marriage if it is not being totally honest with each other?

 What is marriage if it is not being a safe place for the each other?

What is marriage if there is never any touching, hand holding, or hugging?

What is marriage if there is never any intimacy?

Is it really marriage when it is just two people sharing a house, bank account and bills?

Just questions to ponder.

A safe place - Friends

There are times that I still miss my grandparents - Papa and Dodo.  One of things that I really miss, is that I could always go there when I felt overwhelmed, and just being there with them just seemed to make it better.  I did not even have to talk about what was overwhelming me.  There was just something about being in their presence that would calm my feelings and hope would replace the hopelessness that had dwelt within me.

This was something that my Aunt Dot noticed.  She once told me before she passed away that she knew that the biggest thing that I lost with the death of my grandparents was that I could no longer go there to feel safe.  There are some relationships that will do that for a person, but ever since then, those types of relationships for me, have been few and far between.

That brings me to this morning.  This morning I felt like I had been hit from several things at one time.  I was overwhelmed with emotion.  Now to be honest, I have a lot of friends out there who are going through "worst"things, but that still does not changed the way that I was overwhelmed.

Now while being overwhelmed, I also was gathering with friends to celebrate the "birthday" of the LSPHC during the afternoon.  Now this event was in Grapevine, so I had about a hour's worth of driving to get my emotions in check.  So, I spent the drive in thought, meditation, prayer, and I really got into music.  I put my Ipod on shuffle and just let it randomly pick from the 847 songs that I have programed on it.  Every song that came up spoke to what I was going through.  By the time that I got to the event, I had calmed down a lot.

Now no one there knew what I was going through and I doubt if any of them even realized that something was wrong with me.  I did not share any of this with them, because I did not feel the need to do so. But, an amazing thing still took place.  Just being around this group of friends, I felt better.  By the end of the afternoon, I felt a 100% better.  My soul received a strengthening and calming like it did when visiting my grandparents as a kid.  By the time that I got home this evening,  I was a different person than one who had left a few hours before. It is amazing what friendships can do for a person.