Frozen lip, frozen dreams, and a frozen future

Well... I started this post, by titling it, and then posting it without words... that's embarrassing. For those of you who have come and looked at my blog during that time and wondered what the heck happened... let me tell you it was an accident. Not that any of you actually logged in during the 10 minutes that it was up without words, but I like to think someone might have.

So... today I went to the dentist. Dr. Gresik is a good man. A steady worker with a steady hand. I would hate to have a dentist without a steady hand... he's about to give you an injection of freezeing and all of a sudden his hand tremmors and instead of pushing the needle a few milimeters into the roof of your mouth, it gets lodged a centimeter in, releasing its poison into your brain and eyes. That was what I was thinking about while he was drugging my lip. "What would happen if part of my brain was frozen? I can't use what is frozen right now.... so maybe, would I not be able to use part of my brain? That would suck." I find it fascinating sometimes to track out the path in my mind that has been taken to get me from one topic to another. To me, it makes complete sense, but as soon as I speak, I get weird looks sometimes, and have to retrace my steps.

Man my lip is tingly.

It was weird, half of my tongue was frozen while the other half wasn't. It was pretty funky I've got to say. My tongue is pretty much back, but my lower right jaw is pretty crazy. It's pretty distracting actually. I'm trying to do every day things like sit and drive or walk, and I find myself playing around with my frozen lip. I probably look pretty goofy. Oh well.

So frozen lips... frozen dreams.

The window in my room, which is right above my head, is very drafty. It is letting a lot of cold air in. Not to mention I keep my fan going so that the ringing in my ears doesn't keep me awake Stupid ringing. So I have been having issues waking because my bed is so warm and the air in my room is so stinking cold. Oh frozen dreams.

Winter is coming... I am excited. Some people dread this time of the year, I rather look forward to it. Skiing, skating, sleeping with more night. Personally though, some of my favourite times are nights when it is cold and clear. The moon is out in full force blowing holes in the darkness left and right. Seeing the reflected sunlight on the snow is a pretty cool thing. Especially when you can take the time to enjoy it. Crazy times.

Really... we don't have 4 seasons... we have 2. Seasons of life and seasons of death. Realistically...

(pause)

Forgive me, I am sitting in starbucks and Katie and Amber came in. So we talked for a minute and then they peaced out. Any way...

2 seasons. Life and death. The season of life is spring and summer, everything is coming back to life and growing, new chutes form on trees, leaves grow babies are made by animals... there is life. Then comes the season of death. The leaves die off slowly, and most insects either die or sleep. Many animals go into near comatose or imitation of death states while the rest who are still awake are forced to look around for food, scrounge up as much as they can and live on what little there is out there.

Here is the interesting thing that I have been playing with in my mind recently. When the leaves die... they don't go out crabby, they don't just fall... they burn out bright. There is much more that my mind is thinking of but I am going to leave it at that for today. Have a wonderful day, and I hope that your thanksgiving was great. Go is peace.

Crapped on!

You know... sometimes you just get in those situations...

Where things are going great...

and then all of a sudden...

PLOP!

You're pooped on. Someone comes along and just drops something on you that shouldn't be dropped. Wherever you are... work, play, recreation... and someone just unloads on you. It's not cool. Like for real. And it doesn't make you feel that great either.

Now... we all get dumped on in our own situations, and in different contexts and we each handle it differently. I have realized though, that regardless of how we handle it, no one enjoys it. This crapping can take a number of different ways. Someone could hand off to you responsibility that shouldn't be yours but you're obligated to take, or someone can throw you for a loop and tell you things that you didn't really need to hear, or someone can just rip you appart out of anger. Regardless, none of these are particularly pleasant.

But I have a crapping to top many. It didn't happen at the work place, but while I was off galavanting along the shores of Lake Ontario. I was in the midst of conversation and rather enjoying it and I just felt a lightish tap on my left should. Approximately 4 inches from my head. I look over, and realized "Oh my, I think it's poop." And so upon the removal of my shirt and a deeper examination of what had landed on my sweater I deemed it to be some form of fowl droppings. Disgusted I was forced to go sweater less the rest of the night.

But regardless... it was kind of funny.

Life after camp

Yes. Camp has come to an end. The summer of it that is.

For those of you out in blog world and you randoms on the internet who don't know what I've been doing for the past while, I have been working at a non-denominational Christian camp. The past 2 months I have been running the CREW program which is the first year in the leadership track. It has been a stretching and trying experience. God has definitely been working in people's hearts and teaching them great things.

For myself it was a summer of learning about discipline and love and how the two of them need to go together.

I think the most interesting thing for me, or at least one of them was the understanding of actually what discipline was. So if we take the word discipline and break it down you can gain a further understanding of it's true nature.

Discipline...

Disciple - a follower or student of a teacher, leader or philosophy

Ine - belonging to or resembling in nature

so when the two of them are put together the understanding of what discipline is... is actually the action of following a teacher or leader until there is little or no difference between your actions. You move in step with it. This really changed the way that I look at discipline. It's so cool.

Any way life is shaping up to be similar to last year. I am working at camp for another year and will be living on site. I am excited for what God has for me this year and I am excited to see what will be coming the year after. Yep, that is all for now.

Reposting of a long lost thought

So this is a note that I wrote a while ago, perhaps a year and a bit and posted it else where, but I felt that it was nesecary to put it up on the old blog. So the time frame is not accurate anymore, but the theme is wonderful.

So, recently a friend and I were discussing life and how it relates to North American Society. And he said something to the effect of "people fill their lives by doing things and being busy, and they think that they find meaning in doing that. They think they find fulfillment through that. But in life you aren't meant to just be going, going, going. The times where you are not going is when you can be most at peace with yourself, and you can find fulfillment. The times where you simply exist and don't try to do find meaning in what you do. Simply exist.

So tonight, I went for stroll of sorts. I went to the bank. And then felt the urge to go down to the harbour. So I did. I went across the bridge and onto the docks, and strolled the docks, and finially, when I found the end of a dock that was bird poop-less. I sat. I sat and admired the beauty of the rolling hills that surround Westport. I sat and admired the calmness of the water that was around me on the dock. I sat and existed.

I didn't really think of anything. I just was sitting there, enjoying the fact that I could simply sit there and exist. It was a nice break from thinking about school, homework, and being a leader. I just allowed mysefl to sit there, calmly enjoying doing nothing.

Eventually I came back to thinking, and I thought about going swimming. I almost did. but I didn't

then I started walking around on the dock. And as I walked I noticed that every step I took a wave came out frmo around the dock. Every action I made, affected the water around me. If I took many steps then more waves would be formed, disturbing the water further. The more you disturb the water, the more the reflection of yourself is distorted.

And so I likened it to life.

Every action we do has a ripple effect on everything around us. A simple action affects much more than we normally see. The waves reach out, disipating far off in the distance. But the waves go far. They affect much more than we would think. The more actions we make, the more we disturb the water around us. And as the water is disturbed, our reflection is distorted.

In life, it seems that the actions we make, determine how people see us. Just like if we make many waves people may see a distorted view of us. Only when we can take time with people and just exist with them, can they truely see us for who we are. When they are released of the pressures surrounding them is when someone can be seen as what they are.

Similiarly, to know yourself you must take time to not act, but exist. And by existing you allow the ripples around you to subside and go away, so that you can clearly see yourself for who you are.

Rest

Man... something I am learning over and over is the need for rest. Real rest. A full day of just sitting down and existing. Not doing anything but enjoying the world as it is.

We spend so much of our days creating, but we spend so little time actually resting and enjoying the work that we have done.

It is good to be able to sit down and just enjoy the sound of the loon call echoing through the night, or the twinkle of the stars above us shining in the night, or the glass surface of a lake on a calm night. Such beauties are lost on us, for we spend so much time doing and not just being. I am going to just be.

It has been interesting to monitor my own ability to work during the week. I wasn't able to rest during my day off due to things I had previously committed to do, so I came into this week without having rest. My body didn't like that. It screamed throughout the day to stop. It yearned to be able to just sit and exist. My mind was clouded with a fog that no amount of coffee could lift. The only thing that rejuvenated me and allowed me to even finish this week was the strength and rest God gave me through a nap that beautifully fit into one afternoon where I was done. It will be interesting to watch and see how the amount of time I take to rest on my day off directly or indirectly effects my experience, the following week.

My prayer this week is that God just shows me how to rest in His love.

Faith

f You Believe You Can, You Can

If you think you are beaten--you are.

If you think you dare not--you don't.

If you want to win but think you can't,

It is almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose--you've lost.

For out in the world we find
That success begins with a fellow's will;

It's all in the state of mind.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man;

But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.

So here's the thing. A life of faith is a life of action. A life of action means that you are living by faith. Inaction means that somewhere along the line, your faith has failed, and what you say you believe, you actually don't, because if you did then you would act.

Hair

As you probably know, I have been part of a hair growing challenge. This challenge has gone over 8 months. Tonight my friend Lindsey braided my hair. How very nice of her. Here is photo evidence.

Creation

Dudes and dudettes...

Seriously, some days creation blows my mind. How intensely huge everything throughout the universe is, and then how intensely small are the particles that make these intensely huge things. Even just thinking about the Earth and it's size... it is fairly small, but we are so wrapped up with everything that goes on around us. We surround ourselves with things that don't even matter. We busy our lives to the point of exhaustion to accomplish what we think will bring us joy, when really, it only brings us more exhaustion.

Whereas if we stop.

Just for a second.

Look.

And enjoy.

There is beauty surrounding us. Everywhere. Birds, trees, humans, animals, the sky, the rain, the stars, rivers, lakes, oceans, streams, crops... EVERYTHING declares God's goodness and power.

When we take the two seconds to stop and look, and realize that someone actually created all this, it can mess you up man. In a good way. I like how Psalm 19 words it

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

³ There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

⁴ Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

All creation is screaming at you to look, listen, and marvel at what our wonderful God has made for us. The question is, will you choose to.

Redemption

So I have come to the conclusion that Jesus really likes to redeem things. He'll take us in our brokenness, fix us, and use us for His purposes. Man He's good. Some days it hard for me to want to listen to Him, but it is a matter of trusting what He has in store for me. He redeems out of love and it is good. God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good. Amen.

Relief

Man... somedays sickness just stinks. Hooray for grace and people being willing to work. Camp is wonderful for that. People are willing to fill in for you and help you out. The thing that I really like about it though, is that I love the place that I work.

Days days days days

Yes. So you work all day, and at camp, you come home to your lovely room mates. Which is good. Great even. They support you and encourage, and it's just a good time over all. Just a quick blurb into the life of people at camp.

Also sometimes you do campfires. And that is fun.

The End

Jazzy

There is nothing like sitting back and listening to some smooth jazz piano, played by one of the past greats. Oscar Peterson is a personal favourite. His style is so smooth, so fast, so pleasing to the ear, it draws listeners in. He was my first real introduction to jazz piano and as I continued to listen, I fell more and more in love with his playing. As I began to get more into jazz, I began to discover other greats, like Vince Guaraldi (the guy who wrote all the music for the Peanuts movies and shows) Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. Each musician has their own style of playing, their own taste of swing, and to study and just listen to their differences and similarities fascinates me. It's really cool to see how they differ yet all fall under the same category of jazz. Kind of speaks of regular life, and just how, each person has their own style of getting something accomplished. People go about in different ways to come to the same end. Oh Jazz, how you relate to life...

Have a wonderful evening, and may you rest with the rest of a hibernating bear.

The First Time

Yes. The time has come. Joseph Popma has a blog. Not that this will affect many of you, but it'll be kind of fun. We'll see how it goes.

I chose the title Pondering, Posing and Producing because this blog will hopefully stem from one of those three things, a pondering of mine, perhaps some photos, or something that I have produced, be it a story or a song or some artwork. Yea... that’s pretty much it.

Now this is for everyone who is not at camp currently. I am not ignoring you. Until you have experienced what it is like to live at the place that you work, you won't fully understand why someone else who is working and living at camp, doesn't have time to hang out. Here's the deal. I do not have a car. Being 15-18 minutes away, driving, from Westport means that unless you come get me, I can't hang out. I am 100% open to hanging out, just let me know when. Also my hours like to be sporadic and random sometime, so please be flexible. I am not segregating myself from people, as I have heard it rumoured, because you are not "religious enough for me", whatever that means. I simply have no method of leaving property. You may ask why, on my days off I don't come do things. This is a valid question. The answer to which is twofold. One, living away from home most of the week means that I want to spend my time with my family. They always come first. Also, during the week there can be intense burnout that happens, and if you do not take time on your days off to refuel, then you're done for the next week and you won't work very well, which, when you are leading team building exercises or keeping someone safe while they are 25 feet up in the air, is key to keeping your job. I do want to hang with you guys, and I really hope that I haven't been seemingly trying to distance myself from you. If I have, please forgive me. I hope this may clear up any misunderstandings that have come out over the last month and a half.

I hope that your days are wonderful and that you rest well tonight. Peace be with you.