MetroMonk

Sometimes I sit, I am sitting. I am still, I am stilling. I hear, I am hearing. I listen, I am listening. I write, I am writing. I breathe, I am breathing.  I feel, I am feeling. I sip, I am sipping. I watch, I am watching. I look, I am looking. I see, I am seeing.  I search, I am searching. I find, I am finding. I rise, I am rising. I fall, I am falling.  I die, I am dying. I live, I am living.  I pray, I am praying. 

I'm in and out of chaos constantly.  Peace and chaos reside beside each other.  I have always run to my solace, My escape, From the chaotic, Peace, Calm, Chaos. Always turning, Round and round, One chases the other. They're like partners, Identical twins, Or close relatives.  Together they dance,  Hand in each other's hand, They dance. 

Religious Alert!!!  Right now (as I write this) it's technically still Easter season. It's the last week in the 7th week of Easter. Next week, this coming Sunday kicks off Pentecost. I'm not going to get into any more religious technicalities than that, but for relevancy of this post, the timing matters. All this boils down to a point- Easter reminds us that dead things can come back to life again. #DeadThingsCanLiveAgain 6 years ago I started to pray. I was living in Michigan and each morning I would sit, have a cup of coffee and write. I was really praying. I called it: 20/20/20. 20 minutes of reading the Bible, 20 minutes of journalism and 20 minutes of reading something else. That was a manageable practice for me. Spending time with The Lord wasn't new to me, but spending money at Starbucks each morning to do so was. It's been a high priority discipline of mine ever since. That's a whole lot of coffee. This is a story about a journey. It's a j...

It's all one can do, Love today.  Love those around you,  Love them, Because they, like you, Will pass away.  So embrace it,  Embrace them.  Be love,  Love, Embrace, Hug, Draw close, Work, Eat, Live, Breathe, Rest,  Grow, Pray, Sit, Inhale, Exhale, Die. 

Here's a contribution I recently wrote for another blog (@YNPN of the Triangle NC) that I felt like I should include on my own blog page. Enjoy. I see it ALL THE TIME. Burnout. It happens to the best of ‘em. Burnout creeps up like a silent ninja in the night. You don’t even know it hits you until it’s too late. Let’s pretend there is a recipe for Burnout. Take the following 10 ingredients, mix them together in any order you’d like, and just let it bake. For some, it takes days, others months, and still others, years.  Whatever the case, without change, you’ll find you have a classic case of Burnout on your hands. Say “yes” to everything. Just say “no” to boundaries. #Overrated Don’t have a hobby. Spread yourself thin, Try to do many things at once. Do everything yourself. Why delegate? No one can do your job as well as you. Eat, Sleep, Drink your job. Stay at it all day, even on the weekends and on vacations. Find your self-worth only in your jo...

I know that you really don't know the other person. You gotta watch out for you, because you can't trust anyone. That's what conventional wisdom says. I hate that. I want to trust others. I often do. I will always error on the side of over trusting people. I always get burned though. Yeah...people suck. People can be friendly to your face, then say other things when you're not there. Say what you want, but I won't apologize.  I'm loud. I'm sarcastic to the point of being offensive.  I'm friendly to the point that you might think I'm flirting (I'm not).  I'm honest. Very honest.  I say what I think.  I rarely care what others think.  I'm energetic.  I'm a little bit weird.  I don't take life too seriously.   I love most days like it'll be my last.  I drink.  I smoke cigars.  I like loud music. Everywhere all the time.  I like to dance.  I joke around.  I laugh lots.  I am involved in lots and lots of things....

My morning coffee time is more than just the coffee.  It's about talking with The Lord. Listening. Being still. It's about a conversation. It's a conversation that we've been having for years. It's where The Lord reveals stuff to me. Not always, but quite a lot though.  The seasons in my life have changed, they always change. The pages in my life's story have turned. I'm in a different chapter. The adventure is different. My struggles have changed, but so have my joys. My life is in a different place than it was 2 years ago. But... I still wake up each morning, coffee is always warm and The Lord is still with me. He's there, he's always there. He never changes. He is always there, and that is why I continue to come.  I come to coffee to talk with God. The brews change (some I like more than others), but God is always there. He never changes.  I think about why sharing this is important to me. I guess because I want to share that the most valuable dis...

Sitting,             Settling,                          Stirring,                                       Wading, Watching, Seeing, Wading, Sifting. Breathing, Settling, Eyes tearing, Hearting beating, Nostrils flaring, Body shifting,                        Then stilling. Calming,                Honing,                              Eyes lifting,                                                 I'm listening. Distracting. The world is moving (around me). I'm breathing, My ch...

I come in for coffee,  and like usual, the morning was going smooth. I got a great seat with not a lot of people nearby at a local Starbucks in downtown Raleigh. It just so happened I sat down next to the "wrong" guy.  He was a nice and unalarming fellow. The moment I sat down he asks what I ordered. I told him, "The same thing I get every morning- just a cup of their bold drip coffee." He asks what a drip coffee is. I'm like "What!?!" So I tell him and he then asks what the difference is between that and Folgers. I almost slapped him in the face, but I withheld. So I responded to the gentleman's inquiry and told him that all coffees taste different because of different brewing methods, different roasters and different regions. He asks what the difference is between that and a latte. Alongside of that he asked me what a latte was.  For real dude!!! Like, you're sitting in a Starbucks asking me what a latte is. Are you alive? At tha...

Can't Skyline of downtown Raleigh, NC Can't believe it really has been over two months since my last post. Ugh, not good. It's certainly not due to a lack of thought or inspiration. To be honest, this "transition chapter" of my life has been wrought with sloppiness and difficult times. I will share more about that in the next post or two...hopefully. But I need to write. I find this compulsion inside of me to blog all the time. I like to develop rhythms in my life, but whenever that compulsion to write that is within me comes, it's never at a good time. I know then that is exactly the time to write, but I have 2 kids and other life responsibilities that have to be seated in a higher priority. So that's that. Hello again. So let's talk about "The City." I'll tell you why I love the city, but I really can't do it in one sentence. I love the city (be it Chicago, Portland, Miami, Baltimore, Raleigh or wherever), because of the peop...