Life begins with letting go.

God, you've taught me a lot today. Not that you ever stop, maybe I've just been paying more attention.

God, you've shown me life starts when we let go. We have to let go of a lot in life. We let go of the womb, the innocence of youth. We let go of our favorite blanket, our favorite t-shirt. We let go of our preconceptions of who we thought we would be as adults. We let go of our dreams as it becomes apparent that they were only dreams, and the idea that the world is a great place when we experience the pain of unedited reality. We let go of our hearts when we trust them to You, and let go of the pain we suffer when we give it to You so we can heal. We let go of the sins of our past. We let go of those we love when they leave us to be with You. We let go of the way we think things should be when we yield to Your path for our lives. We let go of control in the name of living Your way.

At least, that's how it should be. Usually we screw it up somehow. Lord, help me to let go.

Father what is man that You are mindful of him?

Even now your eyes are courting sleep
But I'll stay by your side as I have always been
Sleep tonight, may your dreams reveal My love for you
Beyond what I must do, do you know My plans for you?

To separate myself from where my treasure lies
Then naked in this cold and lonely unforgiving life
Be stripped away of all delusions of the man I'd like to be
At the moment I am broken parts sure of only weaknesses
with nothing left to show, no illusions left to hide behind
Burning clean has been both agony and absolute release
Can I hope to pass this test, is my destiny this wilderness?

The hardest part of letting go
Is trusting You in everything
In laying bare my soul is truly seeing who I really am
Father what is man that You are mindful of him?

Can I pass this test, is my destiny this wilderness?

To stand alone against a life of wretchedness
Impossible to hope and so I plead Your graciousness
show me Your glory, may my life reflect Your presence
And never again find myself in anything less

The hardest part of letting go
Is trusting You in everything
In laying bare my soul is truly seeing who I really am
Father what is man that You are mindful of him?

Acquiesce - by Stavesacre - from Absolutes.

Welcome to my blog. This may not end well.

So it's been many years since I have blogged anything about anything, and haven't really felt compelled to do it, but who knows, it might be therapeutic to put my thoughts to the IBM Model M.

Have you heard of the Clack? Do you have the Clack? Maybe you should get tested. The Agfa Clack was a camera made between 1954 and 1965 in Germany. It was a camera for the masses, made to use 120 film and produce a negative that measures 6 by 9 centimeters. That's gigantic by today's standards. It's sort of like a Holga but way more stylish. And it produces surprisingly decent images. The viewfinder is ridiculously small, practically a pinhole. It has two aperture settings, two shutter speeds (bulb and 1/30th), and filter threads on the lens. Dead simple to use.

Mind you the camera just came in the mail today and I haven't actually used it yet, but I am looking forward to it.

$20 on the eBay. I probably overpaid.