Currently Listening Here in America (Bonus DVD) By Rich Mullins see related

Step by Step and Mile by Mile

Rich Mullins was the singer / songwriter who came up with "Our God is an Awesome God" and other anthems you might recognize.  He was one of those guys who had walked a lot of lonely sidewalks and driven a lot of long, hard roads... so I appreciate his perspective, knowing God's Grace as he did. He was killed in a car accident, and you should ask me sometime what I have to say about that particular wreck...   But anyway, my favorite song of his is the one that is officially titled "Sometimes by Step"  and to which I refer to as "Step by Step".  It has NOTHING to do with a twelve step program, as you can see:

"Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break
Sometimes the morning came too soon
Sometimes the day could be so hot
There was so much work left to do
But so much You'd already done

CHORUS:
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

I like that part about  "Sometimes I think of Abraham, and one star he saw had been lit for me".  That is pretty cool, and brings tears to me eyes to think of God knowing he would save me all those thousands of years before I was born.   And that other line, "He was a stranger in this land and I am that no less than he".    And, of course, being a driver, I think of that other line, where he sings of how we are on "this road to righteousness".   and instead of just "step by step", many times when I am out there on 261 tween Walla Walla and Washtucna, I sing, "mile by mile" He will lead me, and I will follow him all my days.

Currently Listening By George (& Ira): Red Hot on Gershwin By Various Artists Nice Work If You Can Get It see related

Preferring a Quiet but Full Life...

The wife and I just came in from attending (and enjoying!) a performance of The Great American Songbook, featuring songs by Cole Porter and George & Ira Gershwin.  Of the two, I have always liked the music of the Gershwin brothers better. Seems that George was the pianist and composer, while Ira was the lyricist and writer.  Being a word-man myself, I can relate more to Ira than George. 

Reading through the program, I came across a quote from Ira, where Ira says, "I always felt that if George hadn't been my brother and pushed me, I'd have been contented to be a bookkeeper."  I smiled at this, because my whole life I have had numerous (many) people "pushing" me, telling me I had (have) such great potential, wanting me to be more / do more / "succeed" more... while I have instead worked harder, not smarter...  and then to be where I am now, content to be a courier, a high mileage delivery man, an enduro driver of long roads, or, as the program continued, "preferring a quiet but full life."  It's all something to think about...

Currently Listening Home By Fernando Ortega Give Me Jesus see related

Remember this Traveler

Fernando Ortega is a singer / songwriter I appreciate.  I enjoy the quiet calmness of his work, which reminds me of a Jim Brickman piano style.  Recently I heard his song "Traveler", and because I too am on the road so much, empathized with the words... modifying them and making them my own.  Spring is trying hard to win the arm wrestle with Winter up here in the Inland Northwest, but this song reminds me so much of thos early early mornings on the highway in the depths of the frozen cold and the icy road.

Fernando's Original                              David's Version

Neon lights flickering                            Headlights flickering
Outside the cafe                                    There at the rest stop
Ice on the windshield                           Ice on the windshield
Stars in a black sea                             Stars in a black sea of darkness
On a winter road                                    On a winter road
Flurries of snow                                     Flurries of snow
I'm ready to go                                       I'm ready to go, again                        


Past farmhouse and pasture            Past farmhouse and wheat fields
Our voices together                             My voice to the Father    
Rises to the drumming                      Rises to the roaring
Of big rigs and trailers                       Of big-rigs and trailers I pass in the darkness
Long hours to daylight                       Still hours to daylight
A rumbling bus                                    The humming of my tires
Our bed and our board                      as I roll down the highway

Heavenly Father                                  Heavenly Father
Remember the traveler                     Remember this traveler
Bring us safely home                         Bring me safely home

In the towns off this highway            In the early morning
The people are kind                           Long before daybreak
They welcome us in                           I sing as I press on
I sing in their church halls                down miles of the highway
Old hymns and prayer songs          Old hymns and prayer songs
With lifted hearts                                 With lifted heart
We rejoice in the Lord                       my voice to the Father

Heavenly Father                                 Heavenly Father
Remember the traveler                     Remember this traveler
Bring us safely home                        Bring me safely home
Safely home                                        Safely home

Currently Reading Wide Open Spaces: A Cowboy Celebrates God's Country By Jack Terry see related

The Great Emptiness

Wrapped up in my love for the Open Range and the Western Plains of Eastern Washington, are those parts of my delivery route where I cross some pretty remote & wild back country.    This area  --  with no cell phone reception at all, and a super sparse vehicular traffic (three cars in two hours)  --  is located between, say, the  Walla Walla  Valley to the south and, say, the highlands of the Columbia Basin to the North, with the Snake River Valley sandwiched  in between.  As I leave Walla Walla and head north on county roads, it is no wonder I begin thinking in “Western Terms”, and consider my forebears of Pony Express fame.  I reconsider whether Nevada’s Hwy 50  --  so-called “The loneliest road in America”  --  really is,   start humming Robert Fletcher’s “Don’t Fence Me In”,   and  recall Tony Hillerman’s words of his character Joe Leaphorn “…headed for Tuba City & the great emptiness of the multicolored cliffs and canyons that lay beyond it.”

While it is true that I have driven this route hundreds of times now, it is equally true that each day IS a challenge… an adventure into the unknown. Joseph Campbell writes,  "Adventure is its own reward - but it's necessarily dangerous, having both negative and positive possibilities, all of them beyond your control."   Joe Leydon words concerning the past are true for me today when he  says, "The West was not a safe place and people had to be hard." 

Following up on this, Christian Bale, referring to a particular Western movie he is acting in, says, "I think there is a modern day fascination with a time when you had to be entirely self-sufficient, when you weren't getting any help from anybody.  And I think there's always the question of, 'Well, would I have been able to do that?'  It's always about testing your mettle.  You are comparing yourself and think, 'Could I survive under those conditions?' 

Each day, as I roll into Washtucna, or approach I-90 from the wildlands of the south, I think to myself, "Well... I did it... once again..."  and then I thank God for helping me not only only make it through another day, but get a little closer to Him.

Currently Reading The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night's Sleep By William C. Dement, Christopher Vaughan see related

The Big Sleep

It is approaching noon on Saturday, the first of September.  It is Labor Day Week End.  Usually I refer to weekends as weakends, due to me being pretty worn out by the time the end of a week comes along.  However, I just got up, after having slept a long 11 or 12 hours (went to bed late and slept in until 11:15am), and boy do I feel GREAT!

Yes, there have been times in my life when I got adequate rest, but it has been rare to me, frankly, so the feeling feels foreign, frankly.  (How's THAT for alliteration?)   By this I mean that I usually do NOT get enough sleep, in my view, and it has been this way for years and years.   Indeed, I often get about 6 to 7 hours of sleep, and I sure would like a consistent 8 hours or more.  I recall numerous people I have known  -- my sister is one of them  --   I recall, who "needs" more than 8 hours of sleep and is able to often get 9 or 10 hours to their favor, and they tell me they could not operate well without it.   Unfortunately, my job requirements  -- from Agricultural work to Management work in the past all the way to Temporary work and then Delivery work today  --  have most often required an early rising on my part and thus faced me with going to bed early  -- by 8 or 9 pm at night  --  and being in relationship  --  wife and family and fellowship in the 80s and 90s  --   and then home work  and wife from 2000 on  -- have kept me from going to sleep at an hour I would have liked for years and years now.

Indeed, it has been when I ran away from others that I found I got adequate rest, and this MAY BE part of the reason I have increasingly tended to become more of a recluse at times or a so-called loner, based on having a) time for myself such as reading or writing  and b) not having to "fight" others about going to bed when I am tired, and then sleeping as long as I needed.  Examples would be back in California  a) growing up in rural Fallbrook and feeling the relative quiet of country living,  b) when I chose a while at our home in suburban Escondido to have separate sleeping quarters... or c)  when I worked for my brother in 2001 in eastern San Diego County in a rural location of Descanso (which, smilingly means "rest") and the location was so incredibly quiet as compared to the busy streets I had gotten used to in Escondido or Spokane, that I still remember it as the mostest and bestest place I have ever lived  -- for about three months or so  --  that I had good rest all the time. 

That I often work long hours each day probably has something to do with eithr sleeping deeply or needing to sleep longly...   As a youth, as I said, I was raised on Country Sunshine and worked for my folks hoeing weeds or spreading fertilizer or mowing weeds or harvesting fruit or laying pipe or the like and of course long hours of labor  --  as I moved into adulthood on the farm  --   made for the desire and need of a good night's rest.  Whereas modern life is based largely on a 40 hour work week and 8 hours a day, the Agricultural standard has long been based  -- even in these modern times  --  on a 60 hour work week and a 10 hour day.  Add to this the extremes of harvest  --  grains like wheat harvest and stone fruits like peaches, say, are famous  --  and one has the makings of 80 or 100 hour weeks.  In my years  --  early 70s to late 90s --  in the Avocado and citrus world, because the avocados are harvested for not merely a month or two but for a whopping 8 to 11 months out of the year, this 80 hours or more lifestyle of work continued for 70% to 92% of my life for at least 26 years of my life.  My longest work weeks of my life are / were in the 113 to 117 hour range, for multiple weeks. 

In addition, other extremes of my work / project times of my life included hiking for 14 hours straight on the Pacific Crest Trail to outwalk the weather, or driving from Spokane to California 36 hours straight in the winter to outdrive the storm  -- afterwhich I slept for 16 hours straight at a REST AREA (!)  --  or when I went from Southern California to Oregon and back in 24 hours to see if I could do it, to going from Spokane to Escondido and back in a weekend to get my dog, and that sort of thing. Up here in the northwest I have often driving long ways and slept in the car after the delivery was accomplished.  All this work predicated getting adequate rest, which was rarely done, so, yeah, I have spent most of my life tired...  and come to think of it may explain part of the reason I have been angry or onery anyway much of my adult life.

Today I have a courier business called David's FULL GALLOP Delivery and drive plus or minus 450 miles a day  --  Monday was only 432 and Friday was over 469  --  and this routinely lasts from 5:30 am when I leave the house to 5:30pm when I get home.  I get up around 4:45 or so and go to bed around 9 if I am REALLY lucky and 10 or so usually, so I am operating on not enough rest ALL the time.  So, of course it was nice to have 11 or so hours of sleep and sitting here at the computer at mid-day, I feel more well rested at the moment than I have in months.