Saturday, 16 August 2008

• Currently Reading The Violin Maker: Finding a Centuries-Old Tradition in a Brooklyn Workshop By John Marchese see related

   Home sweet home. I feel like a lobster. I look like a tomato. Why didn't I wear sunscreen? Why didn't I take my jacket into the prison with me this morning. I knew I was going to get sunburned, and I knew it was going to be freezing in the chapel. I'm just an idiot. Despite that, Miami Freedom Rally 2008 was good. The theme for the rallies this year is "Abiding in the Vine". To be honest, I think I need to hear it more than the guys do! I can be such a slow learner sometimes...maybe by the time the rallies are over and I've heard the same sermons over and over again I might finally get these concepts through my thick head. 
   I feel like what I got this weekend sounded something like this..."open your hands, DeLora." I don't even know that I'm quite sure what all that entails, but I think that I need more than just trying to figure out God's will. It's like He's saying, "Okay, lay down your agenda. Just stop trying to figure things out. Stop even trying to evaluate what may or may not be my will for you in a year or two, or long term. You know where you're supposed to be right now, so open your hands and abide." Easier said than done.
   You know, it's funny how much can change in a year. Last year when we did this rally I dove into it with all the passion, fire, and excitement that I had in me. I felt like I belonged. It felt like home. But I had to wonder, maybe it felt like home for all the wrong reasons. I loved doing what we were doing. I was ready to pack up and get in the bus and go back to full time with Echoes. This year...it's been different. I haven't really felt out of place, but it's different. I still love singing and playing, and especially on days like today, I'm happiest when I am. I love it. I love feeling the music come from somewhere inside me or from my fingers, but I look back over the year and I wonder how much I've improved, or if I even have at all. So much to learn, and so far to go...and I'm sure you're all getting board with this rambling, rather non-sensical post, so I'll leave you with a few pictures. 
  Loading the equipment into the bus after we got out of the prison.
    Me and my big, blue bus. :)
  So I know the pictures are awful, but you can just deal with it. :)

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