December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)
This year, I think I've let go of a need for excess. I have already been blessed with way more than I need and I just don't see the need to have excessive amounts of stuff in my life. I've gotten to the point where I am much happier sharing experiences with people and building relationships than buying gifts. Maybe it's a disillusionment with stuff. I'm sick of having my own life cluttered with stuff. Of course, I have the occasional purchase (ahem, grey boots I'm talking to you) that just makes me happy, but overall I'm disinterested in excess. Moving on from excess to experience.
December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)
I read this prompt and thought, huh? How did I cultivate a sense of wonder? More like did I cultivate a sense of wonder? I didn't stare up at majestic mountains and wonder at their beauty like the great artists. I did not marvel at the twinkling stars in the universe. A sense of wonder, really?
I, once again, am selling myself short.
I did wonder. I wondered what it would be like to learn how to make my pictures look their greatest, so I took a photoshop class. I wondered what it would feel like to have a picture of every single day of my life in 2010 to look back on, so I took on Project Life. I wondered if I could learn to draw in Illustrator, so I signed up for an online class and practiced like crazy. I wondered about my family history, so I peppered my family with questions and searched for answers. I wondered about a lot of things this year, and I wasn't afraid to try things out and seek an answer.
December 3 – Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)
I love this prompt. I don't know why I don't take more time to think about significant moments and take a little bit of time to journal them. In fact, I liked this prompt so much that I made Daryll write about it too. His response surprised me, we'll see if it does the same for you...
Trish's Response:
The warm air of sunset hit our backs as we wound through the vineyard perched on bails of hay in the back of a tractor. Mere hours before Daryll, Megan, and I had no idea that Sip, Savor, and Stomp even existed, yet here we were at Wilson Creek Winery with the taste of almond champagne on our lips and the scent of early Autumn in the air. We reached a clearing at the top of the vineyard where we were greeted with an acoustic guitar melody and a breathtaking view of miles of grapevine. We sampled many wines, light and aromatic whites, smooth and bold reds, but always coming back to the defining unique flavor of the almond champagne. It seemed only fitting that we would be drawn to such an unusual champagne, when after all we were there under unusual circumstances. After an already euphoric weekend of visiting with our other friend Meg and cheering against USC in its loss to Washington, Megan suggested that we travel up to wine country for some tasting. A quick google search and an RSVP phone call later, we were on our way. The fact that this was so uncharacteristic of me made it all the more exciting. Photography and capturing moments is so important to me and this occasion proved not to be an exception. The warm afternoon glow was the perfect lighting for our many pictures frolicking in the vineyard.
After appetizers, we meandered back down to the main ballroom where a tantalizing buffet of savory dishes awaited us. The singer's thick heavy voice boomed through the room, now with a little more fervor with the addition of a band, and many people rose to feet and glided across the dance floor. Finally, it was time for the moment we had been anticipating.
We walked out into the crisp evening air, each with a glass of wine in hand, and waited in line for our turn. Megan and I timidly stepped into the barrel and the cold and moist explosion of grapes massaged the bottoms of our feet. Now, loosening up we pulled up our skirts and started our stomp around the barrel. We couldn't help but smile and laugh at how surreal this moment in time was. Next, Daryll climbed in and I could tell his surprise at the slimy crushed grapes beneath his feet. A smile spread across his face as well as we looked at each other in the barrel of grapes. As I sit here tonight, sipping on almond champagne, I can't help but be transported back into that moment. For once, I had put all stress and worries aside and I was living.
Daryll's Response:
Feeling alive. Alive as in breathing, eating, and sleeping, or something more? I hate applying tags like “most”, “lease”, “best”, “worst”, “always”, “never” because it feels like that is trapping yourself into something that you can’t “ever” change. So I’ll just think of it as a time I felt alive this year.
One moment that really came to mind was the Sugarland concert at the country music Stagecoach festival this year. The whole weekend was a lot of fun and aliveness, meeting new people, getting to know acquaintances better, and having a great time with my wife in her element too! (Like Stampede, where you feel like an idiot for not wearing a cowboy hat, plaid, or actually liking the taste of Coors Light)
But for me, I’m a pretty big music guy. A lot of times I like to feel like I’ve “discovered” bands along the way. For example, I always tell the story about first listening to Switchfoot in junior high church and the first time I saw them in concert they were horrible. Or the time in 1999 I first saw Tyrone Wells as lead singer of Skypark. Other finds include Mat Kearney, Anberlin, Mae, Needtobreathe and *John Mark McMillan. When I first started dating Trish, it was hard for me to listen to so much country music because I originally assumed it was all horrible music. Turns out this isn’t the case at all. Just the country I had been exposed to previously. But really all music has good ones and bad ones. Would the Beatles (as the Rock n Roll band representative) be proud of Nickelback? I don’t think so.
So here I was about to listen to Sugarland, a female-fronted country band I had heard on the radio and had a few good songs I liked. But certainly no chance for me to be their discoverer. What I didn’t know is that I was just already missing out! The lights went out, then came up again to start the concert. I’ve long been a fan of outdoor music festivals, and though I prefer intimate settings where everyone crowds together and gets all sweaty, there is something for being on blankets and chairs with a couple thousand other people. From the first song, it was clear this band knew how to perform. Especially considering I was a few football fields back from the stage and only vaguely knew a few of the songs, this band really put on a great show. I think the whole place got quiet when the lead singer Jennifer Nettles was singing “Stay” with her incredibly powerful voice. With a great concert like this, you automatically become friends with those around you as you belt out the words and hope the chorus doesn’t change too soon. It was a neat time looking around at all of these strangers captivated by this band – with only the occasional person too drunk to know what was going on.
After we came back from Stagecoach, I even downloaded the CD and blared it out of my car while driving with the windows down for several days.
So, that’s my alive moment that comes to mind when thinking about 2010. Life-changing? Certainly not. But the older I get the more I come to appreciate simple moments like discovering a new band or a truly great concert.
*Probably my favorite new CD of the year was John Mark McMillan’s The Medicine. An amazing musician and artist, his songs also really make me feel alive when listening and turning up really loud even on the slow songs.
p.s. for your enjoyment, here's Tyrone Wells's song "More". I think that it sums up this prompt quite nicely.
December 2 – Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it? (Author: Leo Babauta)
I'm not sure how applicable the "writing" part of this prompt is to me, so I'm changing it to "What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your creativity?". And perhaps I should be asking myself why do I do those things?
I love being creative. I love creating with my hands, with my computer, with my camera. So why don't I spend more time doing that? Why do I allow things to distract me from my creativity? Honestly, some of it is laziness. It was a lot easier to sit down and watch Grey's Anatomy tonight than finish the Christmas banner that's sitting desolately in the scrap room. (Does it count if I was multitasking and editing pictures while the show was on?) Another aspect of it is perfectionism. I can't stand it when things don't turn out perfect and I have to be in the right frame of mind to even attempt to achieve that unattainable standard that my brain has set for itself. Finally, another portion is a fear of failure. I know I'm creative and talented. And I know other people have noticed. The question is now, what am I going to do with all that talent? Surely it's wasted being spread around from one creative medium to another, but how can I reign in and focus on just one aspect when there's so much more to learn? So much more to do...
I want to create just because I love creating. Not for anyone else's sake. Not for a potential future business idea. Not because of any expectations that I have placed on myself. Just for the love of creativity.
We had such an amazing Thanksgiving weekend with our Families. Thanksgiving day was a low-key feast at our home with Don and Andrea, Mom and Pete, Grandpa, and Amy and Conor.
We ate Poblano and Cilantro Roasted Turkey (from A Southern Fairytale), corn casserole, brie mashed potatoes, Mom's famous green beans, rosemary rolls, butternut squash and cranberry gratin (first time I'd ever made or ate it!), stuffing, spinach with garlic chips (from Pioneer Woman), and winter sangria. Of course we also had a lot of homemade desserts: Mom's upside down pumpkin cake, pumpkin pie, and cranberry apple pie! We worked off the dinner by playing Wii Just Dance 2 and throwing around the football out front with the pups in hot pursuit! After my family left, we capped off the night with a viewing of It's a Wonderful Life, the official kick-off to the Christmas season!
On Friday, we had a quick visit with Daryll's grandparents and Great Aunt and Uncle at our house! Afterward, Andrea and I ventured off in search of Black Friday deals, but our adventure came to a quick end when we found out the wait at Kohl's was 2 hours! Yikes! Instead, we decided to get our Christmas tree and an early jump on the season! We picked out a beauty (but she's still waiting to get decorated...)
I finally, finally got around to changing up my blog template! My new Christmas-y blog makes me so happy! I've been holding off on decorating the house until after Thanksgiving (I'm a purist and it breaks my own rules for life to decorate any earlier & I wanted to keep the Thanksgiving decor up until after the fam saw it), but I'm glad to get a jump on the blog! I have a few new posts coming up soon, so hopefully you haven't completely given up on Daily Dose of Dorman yet!
