JT's Thoughts

It happened. I didn’t realize how quickly it happened but it did. I became the stereo typical blogger. I started blogging and as soon as I started I stopped. Such is life. It’s funny to me that the only people I know who do it consistently their blog is tied to their job or income.

Anyway, my thoughts today are: silence. I have come to realize that it is really hard to find a place of silence. By silence I mean a place where the only thing you can hear is maybe some animals outside and yourself breathe. No sound of kids, no sound of traffic, no sounds of the refrigerator, or the heat and ventilation system. Just pure silence. So far in my quest for silence I have found one place that contains this silence, our den in our house. This is only while other people in the house are asleep (meaning before 6:00 am and after 9:30pm). It took me over a month just to find this one place.

Silence I am finding, at least this is true for my life, is something I need. I function much better when I have 10 - 15 minutes of pure silence a day than when I go without it. In this silence I try to think about nothing in particular and I try to focus on hearing silence. (I love the sound).

One thought I had the other day is that throughout most of the history of the world there was a considerable amount of silence and solitude built into the life of every person. Before the indurstrial revolution we didn’t have machines making a bunch of noise. I don’t remember who said it but in the book “The Attentive Life” by Leighton Ford he quotes another person saying that most problems in life could be prevented by spending one hour in silence by ourselves in a room. That is an interesting thought, wonder if it’s true?

Have a great weekend!

JT

Have you ever thought about your life and thought, “I never thought I would be where I am at at this age.” I don’t mean this in a negative sense, I mean it in more of a “wow, life sure didn’t go like I had planned.” I have had those thoughts lately.

These thoughts about my life have primarily come from the fact that I am to be laid off come end of December, I am 27, married, have a kid, my newest car that we own was made my freshman year of high school (1996), I am still not sure what I want to do with my life, and I could stand to lose a few pounds. Now I have no regrets over being married to my wife, I have no regrets having Naomi, in fact I love both of those aspects of my life, it’s just that I thought I would know more than I do. I thought I would know what I am supposed to do with my life at age 27, I thought I would know what I am good at by now, I thought I would own a home, I thought I wouldn’t struggle with being over weight like I do, and I didn’t think I would have to pick up as many kid toys as I do.

There are many aspects of my life that have surprised me in a good way too: I never would have guessed I could love someone so much (my wife), I never thought I would love another girl but my wife (my daughter), I would never have guessed having kids was so fun, and I never would have guessed that I would love the construction industry as much as I do.

Life just throws you curve balls, no matter how much you think about it, no matter how much you plan, no matter how much you talk about it, no matter how much you pray about it, thinks don’t quite like you thought they would.

Since I am a Christian I have often asked God what He wants me to do, what His plans are for my life, what is my calling in this life? His answer: silence. Now in this I must say that I am aware that there are biblical things God asks me to do, but I am talking more so about big ticket items like: do you want me to work in the workplace or in a church, what city should I live in, what gifts do I have that would most benefit others and how do you want me to grow those. Silence. What do you want me to do in church? Silence.

I am learning to love the silence more and more. God will tell me what to do, where to go, and what to say, in His time. Right now, I am just going to enjoy Him and the silence.

The only thing that God is very vocal to me about right now is telling me who He is and how he does things. Man I will tell you what, I thought I knew who God was, man was I wrong. Not that He is completely different than I thought, more so that there is a whole lot more to Him than I realized. I thought I had Him figured out and now I realize I don’t even really know Him. It’s like when you talk to your spouse or a close friend and they tell you something they have been passionate about for sometime and they never told you, you are like “who are you, and why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” that is God to me right now “You are like what?”

Anyway, long post. If you know of any job leads let me know. Come the end of December I will be on permanent vacation with my family :). Who knows, maybe we will go to New Zealand or something ;).

Peace out yo!

JT

Friendship is one of my favorite topics, yet is a topic that is mostly neglected by people. I find both a practical need for friendship in my life and also a biblical need for friendship, yet in general the church lacks true friendship. In church I see acquaintances, comrades, buddies, but not friends. What is the difference? A friend will be committed no matter your life situation. There is always time for a friend. There is always another seat at the table, always another meal, always another prayer, always a life to be shared with a friend. There is always room in the schedule, sleep is overrated if a friend needs help at a late hour, friends always have an open ear, but not necessarily a mouth ready to share their perspective.

A friend, bottom line, is committed to you. Whether you are doing great, or horrible, that friend is there and know you will make it through, even if that takes a couple of years or decades. There is a belief in the friend. Friendship is a lot like a healthy marriage. There is commitment, love, service, time spent, and gifts given with a friend.

I believe that there is a resounding feeling among people in our society that they are looking for true connection to other people. They are not looking for the phone call once a week, they are not looking for the nod at church, they are not looking for the “hey how are you doing?” but looking for a commitment, an investment, they are looking for true friendship. I have seen this in the church when I was at a men’s meeting and at the end of the talk the men were asking questions specifically to this topic. They wanted to know how to have friendships that were committed to each other, how to have a best friend. These men were in their 40s and 50s and yet they said they still didn’t have committed friends. A coworker recently said “JT, it’s hard to start a life long friendship when you are 50.” The point being is that your life is half over at 50 so you can’t have a life long friendship. So make the investment now.

Now I must make a statement, I have some very close guy friends, so please don’t be offended if you are close to me, this is in no means a shot at you. This more so is a comment on the church at large that friendship is a priority and that I believe there is the beginnings of a realization that we can do all the stuff in our lives and yet still feel alone. I also believe that there are a number of people who have close friends within the church, however, I think sometimes we can prioritize wrongly and put stuff and doing before friendship.

So how practically do we put this into our lives/schedule. Like anything, if it is important to you you will make time for it.

1. Make time for friendship. I carve out 2 times a month to get together with guys. If something else comes up, like a class or a ministry time, I still keep that time with my guys. It takes precedence over ministry for that day of the week, my friends are important to me. I want friendship, I need friendship, I can’t do this on my own, and I need a break a couple times a week to relax and talk about anything that comes to the mind.

2. Call friends just to talk, no agenda, no needing anything, no prayer requests, just to talk.

3. See what  friend needs practically. Are they moving? Is there family sick? Could they use prayer? Do they need to talk something out? Figure out what they need and help them.

4. Be committed. If they are having a hard year, decade, or life still be there for them. Don’t go any where.

Hopefully this blesses someone out in the worldwide web. Let me know your thoughts, hopefully I didn’t step on anyones toes too badly :).

Peace out,

JT

This last weekend went to a pumpkin patch in Snohomish Washington. We went with our friends Tifani and Michael up in Bothel. Man it was fun, though I think we went more for the photo opportunity than for our kids to enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, Naomi enjoyed hitting those pumpkins as hard as she could, and she couldn’t stop flirting with Elijah (Michael and Tifani’s son), but I think we went for the photo op more than anything.

Well, we just bought tickets to visit Gavin and Patty Brem at the end of this month down in Salinas California. We are so excited for it. We are going to take a 4 day weekend, the last of my vacation for the year, and heading down there. We are praying for Noami to do well on the flights, as well as, Naomi to sleep in her pack and play.

After we get back I go back to work for 4 days and then am off on a business trip to Phoenix Arizona for a week, Amy and Naomi are coming with. I know I know, rough life. It is a conference held by the Green Building Council and is tilted “Greenbuild Expo.” It should be quite fascinating and educational, well at least for me. I will be hopefully blogging on it each day if you are interested in green building/life. My other blog is entitled “sustainable life” on Tumblr. I haven’t blogged much on it as I really don’t like to rant and rave about sustainability even though I like the idea so much. Anyway check out USGBC.org if interested in sustainable building.

Speaking of ranting and raving. One thing that I have come to learn in life is that ranting and raving doesn’t really do a whole lot of good. I mean it is a great idea if you are passionate about something and speak your mind but if we really want to influence a culture/person/group we need to have active patience. This seams like a contradiction in terms, however it makes a lot of sense. What I mean by this is that we must wait for the subject to be brought up in an open manner in conversation, or if we are trying to influence a person we need to wait for the person’s life to bring the subject up. It is kind of like getting unsolicited advice, the advice is purely that, unsolicited. The advice has no real application for your life. If, however, your life is at a spot, and you are willing, for someone’s perspective on the subject you then begin to listen. This is what I mean by active patience, waiting for life to bring up the subject and then helping the culture/person/group in that subject.

I have eaten 6 cookies that my wife made tonight, 3 with ice cream. I am not normally a cookie person but when you put peanut butter/chocolate chips in the I can’t resist.

Well, hope all is well with all of ya.

Peace out,

JT

I love the idea of passing things to my children. Not antiques, but things that they can remember of me, or things they continue to use themselves. With this in mind I have come to the conclusion that I want to try using a straight razor for shaving. My reasons go beyond nostalgia, though this is a large determining factor, they include: hopefully saving money, getting a baby butt smooth shave for my wife, and taking better care of my skin.

My hope is to buy a straight razor, use it, and maybe report my findings. Heck, if it becomes a cost saver maybe other guys will start using it.

If any men (or women, yes you too can shave with a straight razor… how do you think they did it 100 years ago?) out there in the world wide web are interested, there is a lot of good information found on www.straightrazorplace.com

Well, we have a busy weekend this weekend, pumpkin patch tomorrow, then spending time with Naomi, then my parents are coming up from Portland for church on Sunday, and then the Hawks play the Jaguars. Oh by the way the Jaguars are my favorite football team outside of the Hawks, don’t know why, but they are.

Here is an updated picture of my adoring wife and fun daughter.

Hope all is well with everyone I know…

Off to watch a movie with my adoring wife.

J.T.

My wife (Amy) is an amazing woman. She hasn’t been feeling that great this weekend, we think she has a sinus infection, but despite this she planned an “at home” date. So we waited for Naomi to go to bed and we commenced on the date. Amy went shopping earlier that day for our supplies: strawberries and cheescake for dipping in our homemade milk chocolate fondue. She also bought me one of my favorite candies, Sour Patch Kids. Once the fondue was done we opened a couple of Blue Moon Belgian White beers and watched Ernest Goes to Jail. (Speaking of which I just looked up and the guy who played Ernest died back in 2000 in case you are curious, we were.)

After all that I had to get up the next morning for work (Saturday) and needed an energy drink to get going. (I need to be at work by 7am and have an hour commute to Bremerton). By that time I had waaaaayyyy to much sugar in my system and was feeling slightly ill.

Well, not sure what else to blog about, though it is kind of fun. Didn’t realize it was so hard to find something to randomly right about once a week. Our lives are not so interesting that I can write about Amy, I, and Naomi all the time, and though I have opinions, I don’t think people want to hear me rant about stuff, nor do I want to be preachy. We will see how this turns out…

Oh, by the way, in case you wanted to know, the Naomi moment of the week was Amy finding Naomi naked in our dryer, not running, and miraculously Naomi had peed in the dryer… hmmm might want clean that out.

Oh yeah, GO HAWKS!!!!!

Well I have now become a blogger, or at least started a blog.

My hope in doing a blog was to create a place for my thoughts to go considering I have many of them and I often find that writing helps me formulate what I am trying to think about and put them into words. Interestingly enough I have a tendency to do fairly well when presenting in front of an audience, but at the same time have the ability to not communicate what I want to say in conversation. Kind of an interesting dilemma. (Wow dilemma is a hard word to spell). So writing allows me to get my thoughts on to paper and to say, edit, delete, add what I need till I feel like I have appropriately communicated what I want. So we will see how this goes. Hope it will be interesting for anyone reading this.

So a little about me, or at least more than my profile says, I am a Christian, hippie, greenie, who loves good food, loves the Seahawks, and loves my wife and daughter. I am in many sense a contradiction of definitions. (Though I think most of the Seattle area is in terms of being very earth friendly and at the same time having the loudest football stadium/fan base in the nation).

I enjoy the idea of resting but at times have a hard time walking what I like to talk about. I love to improve things whether it is at work, the home, or in a community. I loooove community, but it is very hard to find in America. (That is multiple blogs in itself). And I love a good beer with either my wife or with guy friends.

So, that is a brief statement about me. My goal is to blog once a week and see how it goes. Hopefully it will get some thoughts on paper and out of my head.

Off to the fair with my wife and daughter.

JT