Tag Archives: Donald Miller

Oct 22 2012
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Song Birds

Falling Forward…Again

It’s amazing how much a year can change things. A year changes everything. So, it’s fitting that this morning I found this blog post that I wrote a year ago Wednesday for skirt! Magazine. It’s funny how so many of the things that I felt this time last year are still the same, just the circumstances are different…much different. So as I find myself still falling forward, I hope that you find yourself falling too…into something old, something new or maybe something that you never expected. And no matter what it is, I hope that you find what you’re looking for.

Falling Forward

“I could not have known then that everybody, every person, has to leave, has to change like seasons; they have to or they die. The seasons remind me that I must keep changing.” -Donald Miller (Through Painted Deserts)

I tend to order the same thing at my favorite restaurants, and I hardly defer from my regular coffee order. I am by definition a creature of habit. Change in my life has never been a little thing, so at times I can be very resistant. But I have always known when I need to move on. I think sometimes, we get caught in the comfort of life and fail to see that we need to move past where we are. Since moving to Los Angeles three years ago, I have found an amazing community of people that fill my heart immensely-some more than others. Maybe it’s just the way that life is, but I have found myself moving in a much different direction than many people that I used to be so close to. I have found my time being filled with new projects and people that are very far from the people that I used to know. Sometimes, it makes my heart a little sad; it almost feels like we were never apart of each other’s lives. Where I am going is where I always needed to be, and maybe everyone won’t make the journey with me. However, I will never forget the ones that I met along the way because they made me who I am today. They helped me fall into the woman that I was always supposed to be, and I will never be the same. 

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Sep 24 2012
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Song Birds

Here I Go…

“Is it any wonder why we all leave home? People say, ‘I knew you when you were six years old’/ And you say, ‘But I’ve changed, I’ve changed, I’ve changed, I’ve changed.’” -The Head and the Heart “Ghosts”

“And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”  -Donald Miller “Through Painted Deserts”

Oh, a change is coming…and it feels so right.

 

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Mar 22 2012
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze

The Books That Boys Read

“Does ‘House of Leaves’/ Still lie on your bed?/ You told me to read/ But I still never read” -Jaymay (Big Ben)

It was seventh grade, and he was tall for the boys in our grade. His luscious hair glistened in the sunlight as I asked him, “What are you reading?” He gave me a look that those smart boys give and said, 1984, and just walked away. I went straight to the library and checked out that book the same day. And that’s when it started.

Somehow, I find myself attached to boys through literature. And yes, some of the books I have read in my life, some of my favorites, have been ones boys have loved themselves. And I dare to say there are a few bookshelves owned by men that have my favorites on them as well. Art connects people. And I’m sorry, but there is just something sexy about a man that reads. I have often found myself in some of the most wonderful conversations with guys about the books they have read. I remember seeing House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski sitting on the backseat as we made our way through the dazzling Northern California night. I remember long conversations and never-ending references to Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I remember all of the tiny treasures of every gem on my bookshelf from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield to Improvise by Mick Napier.

And even when I’m eighty, I will hold of these memories close to my heart. And maybe, just maybe, I will find the strength to finish House of Leaves…Maybe.

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Jan 12 2012
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze

Our Foolish Hearts

“I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.” -Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz)

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Nov 21 2011
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Song Birds

Seven Days of Thanks: Part 4

“Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon.” -Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz)

Day 4: Passionate discussions with dear friends that send my heart bursting.

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Oct 26 2011
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze, Song Birds

Are You There God? It’s Me, Amanda

“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.” -Donald Miller

A few times in my life, the most perfect things have simply found me just when I needed them, and Donald Miller (http://donmilleris.com/) is one of them. The first time that I sat down with Blue Like Jazz, my heart could not stop pounding. I felt like I had been searching for these words to be spoken my whole life, and I needed those very words more than ever. Every page was like a long over-due conversation with a best friend. Every chapter left me with a resounding vibrance that I had not felt in a very long time. As I sat there devouring his work, I could feel God. Sometimes, I wasn’t so sure that He was listening, but He was there all along. I was not searching for Him, but He found me when I least expected it. And just like Margaret said, “I know you’re there God. I know you wouldn’t have missed this for anything! Thank you God. Thanks an awful lot…”

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Sep 23 2011
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I Hope This Song Starts a Craze

Katie Byrd

The Santa Monica fog blanketed the morning. My left-over tea was cold, and my best friend was chattering from 3,000 miles away about a new path for herself. It was a dream that she had talked about for a long time actually, but I’m not sure if she knew that I was really listening. Katie paused, “Do you think that it’s crazy? I’ve never opened a business, but the idea just clicked the other day. It would be really hard, but I think that I can do it.” I grinned, “Kathryn Ruth, if anyone is going to start a riding therapy program, I do not think that there is anyone better suited than you.” She whispered, “Really?” I whispered back, “Absolutely.”

It takes some of us awhile to figure out what we really want in life. There is a tremendous pressure to feel like we have to have all of the answers, and sometimes, we completely skip over what our heart is telling us. For as long as I have known her, Kathryn Ruth, has been searching for her place like most of us. She has traveled all over the world and has now made her way back home. Coming home for some is kind of bittersweet. I know for Katie that she doesn’t want to “be stuck” in South Carolina. But sometimes, your dreams find you when you least expect it. And sometimes, you need to come home to find them. And now that she has found what her next step will be, I could not be more happy for her. So, go on Katie Byrd, fly high, and everyone else take note because that girl is going to change the world.

“And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?” -Donald Miller (Through Painted Deserts)

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Aug 15 2011
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Song Birds

Black And Orange

“Sometimes you have to watch someone else love something before you can love it yourself.” -Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz)

The park lights shimmered across the Bay as over forty thousand fans buzzed into AT&T Park. The chilly San Francisco evening wrapped around my brother, dad and I. That particular night, the Giants were honoring outfielders throughout the years. The bases quickly filled with the best of the best until there was only one spot left. I turned to my dad and whispered, “It’s going to be Barry.” He shook his head and whispered back, “It’s going to be Willie.” We bantered back and forth for a bit, and then the center field wall opened up. And Willie Mays the Say Hey Kid walked out. The park exploded in a single second, and then the jumbo-tron cut to left field as Barry Bonds floated out to meet his god-father. Tears formed in my eyes as they took the final spot together. I turned to my dad and felt his heart exploding just as mine was.

Growing up in the East Bay, being a San Francisco Giants fan was a rite of passage. My grandmother was born and raised in San Francisco and was a Seals fan before the Giants came to San Francisco in 1958. She passed her love of baseball onto my dad, and he passed it onto me. I would sit in my dad’s office for hours looking at all of his Giants memorabilia and staring at his picture of Willie McCovey. Mostly, I watched him. I watched the way that he would watch a game on television, the way he was at the park, the way that he would listen to KNBR 680 The Sports Leader, the way that he would read the sports section in the morning paper, and even the way that he talked about our Giants. Without even realizing it, I was listening to KNBR every morning, listening to every game, and falling deeply in love with the game of baseball, and the San Francisco Giants. I fell in love with something that maybe would not have meant so much to me if it did not mean something to my dad. I feel so incredibly lucky to love what my father loved, and what his mother loved before him. So, for all the home runs that I saw Barry Bonds hit into McCovey Cove, every time that we beat L.A., and the torture that lead us to being the 2010 World Champions, it would not mean the same to me if I had not seen my dad’s vibrant passion for his team from the city by the Bay. And I am so glad that I did.

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