January 26, 2008 at 12:36 am (Uncategorized)
did you catch the moon the other morning
so bright i thought the lights were on
streaming out into the hall
downstairs i found a window
there she was, beaming freely at the sun
unimpeded glory on her face
nothing but thin air between them
the brilliance of her full, unbridled self
reflecting him who would soon shine
took away my breath and caused deep shadows
across this world they have in common
look how wonderfully they’re bound
this day the world and all that’s in it
were left to their own things
but all like me who watched their dance
were spellbound, woken
unimpeded glory on her face–
I want to be like that
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January 25, 2008 at 6:27 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: lipstick, Nate Dean, slide guitar
In the studio this week: two intense days of guitar overdubs, fattening up the initial tracks with both dirt and sweetness. All I know is, Nate Dean the guitarist is a pro-fessional. The way he plays is visceral; you feel it deep inside. Very moving. ‘Most everything he plays is perfect, but when I had ideas a little different from his, he immediately turned and made them happen. For that I hold him in the highest respect and predict he will be extremely successful in all he does. Another high five: he can play slide guitar on a regular old, low-strung electric with nothing but a tube of pink lipstick, and that’s no lie. I’ve got pictures on my phone to prove it.
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January 17, 2008 at 11:41 am (Uncategorized)
Just got home from the studio! Doug came back and put his kit drum on Believe and Delight, a move I am so happy to have made. Brandon’s percussive drums are tight, but the tracks needed more: a good, solid floor, which Doug has such remarkable skills to give. Have I mentioned how much I love these guys? It’s like painting a masterpiece all at once with your brothers and LOVING how it turns out. As you turn to each other and just grin, you all get how very, very cool it is to connect like that, and life is good.
Cannot wait for you guys to hear this music. Goosebumps.
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January 16, 2008 at 7:18 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: designpfile, goals, God, nap, to-do lists
‘Tis the season to clean out and start fresh. Yesterday I tore out some old 2007 pages of my binder that holds all my to-do lists, from daily things to someday maybes.
So much hope came out of that mundane task!
See, I didn’t check off all the boxes. Usually that would get me down a little. I get great pleasure from accomplishing, so I delight in checking things off as I do them, but get this: from the perspective of months later, most of those unchecked boxes’ tasks didn’t matter, and the ones that did matter got resolved in spite of me. Procrastination actually helped, because they worked out in their own time and in a natural way.
Writing things down makes them happen, I’m convinced. Of the goals I’ve set for family and music and marriage and personal growth and relationships, all of them are coming true, and all this amidst my screw ups and failings. Amazing! I am not in charge as much as I think I have to be. Stuff still gets done. God’s doing it. He really does love me, He really is good, and He really is able to do abundantly, infinitely more than I could ask or imagine. (This goes for you, too. Believe it. Credendo vides.)
See the website and the myspace? There’s proof. Thanks to my good friend Alicia Ruhl and her dear husband Ryan, the myspace finally represents the music and me with such excellence. Thank you guys! Alicia is one of the best graphic design artists I’ve ever seen, let alone know. (SHAMELESS PLUG:) Visit www.designpfile.com to see more of what I mean. Business cards become pieces of art under her care. (I know. She’s done mine.) And the cd booklet she’s designing for the album? OMG BEAUTIFUL. Just you wait. Mmmm.
So do the best thing ever and hire her for your business cards. Posters, too. Brochures, catalogs, technical pieces, she does it all, and she’s got an incredible gift: great taste.
END OF PLUG. Signing off to take a nap! (since God’s got it all covered. . . .)
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January 15, 2008 at 12:14 am (Uncategorized)
I said my webmaster’s site wrong the first time, so let me get it right: www.cjpstudio.com is the correct address for you to see Chad’s other work. So grateful am I to him right now. Please go!
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January 14, 2008 at 6:11 pm (Uncategorized)
I’m reading my favorite author, Walter Wangerin, right now in a double dose. Saint Julian is a tragedy, and man is it ever. The character is golden, given every possible advantage in life, even supernatural abilities, but he is haunted by an overwhelming guilt for bad things he’s done. This gnawing guilt ultimately drives him to sabotage and abandon every single good in his life, feeling deeply that he doesn’t deserve them. Julian hits the bottom hard and drags there a long time, but as far as he tried to run from it, love catches him from many angles and wins, though not like the reader may expect.
This writer has an uncanny knack for coming in with such beautiful language and storytelling, such an arresting style, that you never see the lessons coming until they’re in you for good.
Today I am forever healed, I will say, of rejecting the good favor and gifts of God and man in my life because of feeling I am not good enough. The pain this character Julian lived unneedlessly makes me want to shout from every housetop: Jesus Christ has borne your punishment! Do not redo what has been done! Confess it and let it go! Live, really live, in the goodness He died to free you unto, or it was for nothing!
I pray these words reverberate forever in my heart, and yours, and the space these words occupy in so many ways throughout the world, and heal many a guilty heart.
Read Saint Julian by Walter Wangerin and see all that I’m talking about for yourself.
And then pick up his novel called Jesus. . . oh my goodness, amazing. . . .
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January 13, 2008 at 4:56 am (Uncategorized)
Today is a red letter day! The new website is about to go up for all to see, and I am breathing sigh after sigh of grateful relief. Experts are worth more to those who’ve been trying to do the job on their own and finally got frustrated.
Welcome Chad Jackson! You’re a Godsend, an answer to a thousand prayers only Paul and the kids heard as I tried my best not to cuss out the computer. . . .
Check out his website, www.cjpstudios.com, and maybe he’ll be a Godsend to you, too. Who knows. Anyway, thanks God and Chad!
Viva www.loriharris.com!!! Go see!
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January 10, 2008 at 9:24 pm (Uncategorized)
Once I sat in a giant chair in a casino, swallowed by arms stretching up over my head like a huge U. What a perfect place to repose while still being amidst all the hubbub.
That was a princess chair.
With all that room, friends could sit in there with me! Our backs cupped by tall upholstered arms, our rears cradled by an ample seat, we could face each other and do some good talking in that chair.
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