Newspaper Clipping

SELF-PORTRAIT
by Zozan Hawez

Born in a safe family
But a dangerous area,
Iraq,
I heard guns at a young age, so young
They made a decision to
raise us safe
So packed our things
And went far away.

Now, in the city of rain,
I try to forget my past,
But memories never
fade.

This is my life,
It happened for a reason,
I happened for a reason.

Steps...

The more steps you take

The more that you leave behind

So who is following you now?

--"Steps" by Willet

MyFlyWithMeCover by Angela Lupinacci

It's Official: Angela Lupinacci Has Just Become A Musical Inspiration of Mine :)

Nobody Says It Quite Like Jack Does...

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love--a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

-C.S. Lewis

Orianthi - Courage ft. Lacey

i heart this video. ^_^

Inside a Cutter's Mind: Understanding And Helping Those Who Self-injure by Jerusha Clark





very informative and helpful...




View all my reviews

Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


i absolutely LOVED the imagery that Olsson creates!




View all my reviews

Jeremy Willet Is A Musician With A Message

  
     Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Rachel Scott—a victim at the Columbine School Shooting—wrote, “I won’t be labeled as average.” Jeremy Willet, in a song that he has written called “Thirsty,” sings, “Change will only come when, we get up off the floor/And it’s in my blood, it’s the language that I dream in...”

     Jeremy Willet is helping to bring awareness about global poverty, as well as a message of hope, to those that he meets. Quite frankly, he is not afraid to be a part of the life-saving change that is needed to save lives around the world—in fact, he embraces it.

     This December, Jeremy and his brothers, also known as the rock band Willet which has been touring internationally since 2006, will be performing their fifth annual “Willet Snow on Christmas?” tour from Dec. 8-19 in 15 different cities on the U.S. East Coast.

     The band is composed of three brothers from Maryland, including Jeremy Willet with vocals, acoustic guitar and keyboards; Justin Willet on electric guitar and Jordan Willet on bass guitar. Jeremy Willet, 25, describes their music as having “heavy guitar hooks, melodic vocals and symphonic production” and “thought-provoking lyrics inspired from scripture from the Bible and global poverty.” He says that Chevelle, Switchfoot and Blindside are some of the band’s musical influences.

   What an average tour day looks like for Jeremy:

Between 8am-10am: Wake up, read Bible, drink some coffee, and load up in van.

10am - 3pm: Drive to next city

3pm-4pm: Radio/TV/newspaper interviews

4pm-5:30pm: Set up for concert

6pm - 7pm: Prayer/Bible study before show

7pm - 8:30: Concert / autographs

9pm - 10:30pm: Tear down

10:30pm – Midnight: grab some food, drive to hotel/host home

     Willet has also played at festivals that have featured bands such as Switchfoot, Relient K, and the Newsboys, and has been on tour with Electric & Musical Industries (EMI) recording artist Sanctus Real.

     Jeremy said Christmas especially has deep meaning to him.

     “Christmas to me is a celebration of the birth of our Savior and an extension of the rest of the year that we should be living our lives for Jesus,” he said. “Christians especially get upset when people call it a ‘holiday’ instead of saying ‘Christmas’, etc., but I don't get caught up in the wording or politics of it. Call it what you want, at the end of the day, it is all about who you believe in, and how you live your life.”

     In addition to writing and playing music, Jeremy recently co-authored a book called “carried.” with friend and youth pastor Justin Hanneken.

     “We wrote ‘carried.’ after a trip to Africa together in 2009,” he said. “It brings a unique perspective from a youth pastor that ministers in one location weekly, and a Christian touring musician that is in a different city each night. The book is all about how we should lay down our ‘kingdoms’ that we have built up—consumerism, materialism, patriotism—and instead, pick up our cross.”

     Jeremy describes what happens at a Willet concert, and what he hopes people take away from the concert when they leave.

     “At a Willet concert, people experience an hour of hearing/seeing our original songs performed live, sometimes synced with videos on a backdrop,” he said.

     At every Willet concert, the band shares an update about an international community that they work in. Currently, Willet works in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Haiti and visits these countries several times each year.

     “Our hope is that people walk away from a Willet concert with a sense of urgency to sponsor a child from one of the communities that we work in,” he said. “We have seen that when one person/family takes the time and sacrifice to sponsor one child living in extreme poverty, then an entire community is transformed. Over the past five years, over 2,000 children have been sponsored through Willet concerts.”

     He says that Willet first decided to take on the endeavor of sponsoring children following their first trip to Ethiopia, Africa, in 2007. Jeremy said the songs that songs directly address child sponsorship are the entire record “Virus” that they released in 2008, as well as “Shelter” off their ‘Teeth of a Lion, Fangs of a Lioness” album.

     “I sponsored my first child after meeting Food for the Hungry at a festival and hearing about their strategy to address both physical and spiritual needs in poverty-stricken communities,” he said. “Their vision to work with pastors, community leaders and the children is fantastic! When someone sponsors a child, they also provide funding for a missionary in that community to tell the children about Jesus!”

     Jeremy says that he and his wife, Kat, have sponsored three children, and have had the chance to meet one of them.

     “In 2011, we are adopting our first child from Africa as well,” he excitedly said. “We are so excited to become parents to an orphan!”

         

     If high school students and their families would like to become involved with sponsoring a child this Christmas, Jeremy recommends either going to www.fh.org/willet or coming to one of the 15 cities on the Christmas tour listed at http://www.willetonline.com/.

         

     The last song on Willet’s latest album "Teeth of a Lion, Fangs of a Lioness" is called "Steps." The lyrics are: "The more steps you take/The more that you leave behind/So who is following you now?" With this in mind, Jeremy sums up how he hopes to impact and influence others by the way that he lives.

     “My goal is this—songs are important, music is fun, touring the world is a blast, but ultimately, all of that will pass away and be replaced by the ‘next thing,’” he said. “What really matters in this life is our relationship with Jesus, and how we love those around us. We do a lot internationally, but one of my favorite things to do in the U.S. is to go and meet homeless people under a railroad track in my hometown and take them out to dinner and talk to them. People living in poverty—domestic or international—deserve to be shown love. That is what The Bible is all about! That is what Jesus did! And...I want my life to look like Jesus.”

Fall Leaves (a haiku)



Autumn 2010

Fall Leaves 

Beautiful colors--

Crimson, gold, and jade--

What caused you to fall?

My Best Friend (a tanka)



Kaitlynn, 2/2010.

 My Best Friend


Loves God and people
Is as sincere as they come
She is an artist,
French-speaker, writer, and sage
My best friend's name is Kaitlynn.

Criticism of Ernest Hemingway's Article "Old Constan"

The Toronto Daily Star's October 28, 1922 article featuring "Old Constan" penned by the late Ernest Hemingway, an author from the "Lost Generation," was designed with the intention of acquainting the reader with the sights, smells, tastes, and sounds of early twentieth-century Turkey. Hemingway described the always-bustling city of Constantinople(now the modern-day capital Istanbul) with such particulars that made even the most commonplace sights something of a foreign enigma to be eagerly decoded by the interested reader. Of the East, he depicted both the charm, as well as the harsh realities that were familiar to the area post-World War I.

"In the morning when you wake and see a mist over the Golden Horn with the minarets rising out of it slim and clean towards the sun and muezzin calling the faithful to prayer in a voice that soars and dips like an aria from a Russian opera, you have the magic of the East...," began his vibrant report on "Constan," as the locals fondly then referred to Constantinople. This journalistic piece's descriptions have kept my attention and also have inspired me to one day see some of the awesome sights that Hemingway glimpsed during his time in Turkey.

Hemingway wrote this piece in the first-person form(in present times this is usually discouraged), filling it with vivid imagery of Turkey during the early 1920s. If only there were more reports with such descriptions as these in the newspapers today--perhaps the reader would then feel as if he were actually alongside the reporter, encountering the sights and sounds of the destinations that are novel to his present experiences thus far, instead of simply dismissing the current events happening across the globe as matters that should not concern him; since, he does not, at present, reside there.

While enjoying a number of his lovely descriptions of "Constan," I noted that certain sadness seemed to linger on even after I was finished consuming all of the information in this piece. It seems that he, in my opinion, although justly describing the harsh realities of life post-World War I, continued to paint to a superfluous degree a rather hopeless, pessimistic view of everyday life in Turkey and of life in general.

While I do not argue that his writing career had some fine points in it, I, being an ardent reader, was disappointed by his overall gloomy approach to the topic. While this article was indeed a form of journalism, I would refrain from calling it truly "great."

Chasing Tail Lights(book)

Chasing Tail Lights

i really like this photo of nikita...

Nikita Odnoralov (Everfound), Main Stage, Lifelight 2010. 

Everfound Rock the Halls in Russian

My favorite Christmas song('O Holy Night') + Russian = AWESOME! :)

Like what you see? Please feel free to check out the band's website, http://www.everfoundmusic.com/. Sposiba! (Thank you!) :)

The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love (Live)

"Can't buy me love, everybody tells me so/Can't buy me love, no no no, no/Say you don't need no diamond ring and I'll be satisfied/Tell me that you want the kind of thing that money just can't buy/I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love..."

Black Hills Bison in October Snowfall (2009)

Black Hills Bison in October Snowfall (2009)

i love this photo...

Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry

I Don't Believe in Coincidences, And This is Why... :)

I don't believe in coincidences anymore--only in divine appointments. It seems that one story amazingly leads into another, and into another. God the Author has created beautiful stories, each one a chapter that is contributing with countless others into what seems to be a never-ending myriad of mellifluous melodies for His glory. Since meeting Ruslan Odnoralov, keyboardist and guitarist from the band Everfound at the Lifelight Christian music festival in 2008, I especially have refused to give any credit to "chance" or to "luck." At first, my conversation with Ruslan didn't seem like a big deal, but what has come as a result from it has made quite a series of wonderful impressions on my life. Little did I realize at the time, that, had I not walked into the merch tent that Friday afternoon, I would not have met so many AWESOME people! I thank God that I just 'happened' to walk into the merch tent, 'happened' to walk over to Everfound's table, and just 'happened' to talk with Ruslan, and become interested in Everfound's music. The following year, Everfound was at Lifelight again. While waiting in an autograph line for them after their show, I met an incredible friend of mine. Her name is Amy M. She is so sweet, and is very dear to my heart. After meeting Amy, another great story began. During this past year at Lifelight 2010, I was walking through the merch tent, and heard a voice behind me cry out, "I LOVE EVERFOUND!" I turned around and saw my soon-to-be friend Aiste M. standing there. She is such a delight, and also is my Russian-learning buddy! Here another great story began, as well. These are just two of the melodies that are being beautifully played out in this overall indescribably amazing song of the Master Musician's, with "I don't believe in coincidences anymore" being but six of the lyrics in the chorus that is my life.

Driving Through the Black Hills in October



Black Hills, South Dakota, USA~2010



Driving through the Black Hills in October 

I look out, and see the autumn colors



And sip my coffee and gaze at the snow

That adorns both the ground and pine trees' gold.

The heater's warmth and voices conversing

Blending together with pine trees's scent

Create a beautiful memory here

As we go through the Hills in October.



~2010~this was inspired by a car ride that I went on during the day in October last year... :)