A lot of people need to have things figured out. They set their life like they set their schedule, and hope to God that they can avoid any surprises. Then, there are some like my wife and I, who love to feel safe, secure, and all knowing, yet can never seem to shake this desire for change and the unexpected. Perhaps this is why we have been intending to set out a budget for years yet have not found the “time” to do it.
We crave the unknown, just as we crave the known. We enjoy the now, but cannot stop ourselves from looking forward and considering what drastic changes we should make in order to subdue this yearning in us for adventure and inspiration.
We wait for it, expect it…and when it takes too long, we consider ways to speed up the process.
Since we started dating five years ago, we have lived in California, Michigan, Tennessee, and now, Minnesota. Why Minnesota? We have no idea…it is a land of extremes. Humid gross summers, and sub-zero winters. True, the spring and fall here can be quite lovely, but I digress.We are expecting to leave here soon. You see, winter is coming…and with it comes a mood over this city that is not quite dead, but far from being alive. We survived last winter, which was one of the worst on record and our first here in Minnesota. If we survive this winter, we hope to pack up our lives again and run away…I mean, two winters in Minneapolis is enough right?
Coming to the conclusion that our lives are once again on the verge of being thrown into a deep freeze, I have decided to embark on a new project that could perhaps provide me a little hope to weather the coming months of…that thing that comes after Autumn.
You see, in my younger days I was sort of a wanderer. I never held down a job longer than two years (other than my first job, but I really didn’t know any better then), and I attended a couple different missions training schools in Texas through YWAM, which only wet my appetite even more for travel as I had the privilege to visit several new places including a few overseas. The more of the world I saw, the more I wanted to see.
I have now visited 46 of the 50 states and been to the majority of major cities in this country….Not to mention a ton of small towns in between. I started my cities prints back in June as a way to celebrate the places I have been, while hopefully earning a few dollars. On these terms, my prints have been a success. Even in a struggling economy, I have made several sales over these past few months, and though I still work sixty hours a week in smelly warehouses, this has become a sort of escape for me.
Each print tells it’s own story, and yet I realize that I have many other stories to tell. Story-telling can be a powerful tool in giving something meaning, and while I have failed a great deal in keeping this blog going, it is my intent to shift this from a “Look what I’ve done this week” type of blog to one that is centered in the art of story-telling. I hope to run several features in the weeks to come through this blog that stay true to this idea. The idea that the art of story telling is not dead, and is just as important as it once was before we found ways to busy ourselves and lose focus on those things that were once so important.
“I am sifting my memories, the way men pan the dirt under a barroom floor for the bits of gold dust that fall between the cracks. It's small mining-- small mining. You're too young a man to be panning memories, Adam. You should be getting yourself some new ones, so that the mining will be richer when you come to age.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
- Matt
Next Up: San Francisco: City on the Bay
