Brown Paper Bags Aren't Always Full of Poop

The thing about life is, it never stops happening. Sometimes, you want nothing more than to stop it for just a couple minutes, an hour. It might be that something wonderful is happening, and you don't want it to end. Or maybe you are having one of those days where you clean your glasses with hair spray, and you really just wish you could step out of life for a couple hours. But, like a freight train full of memories, life just keeps barreling down the tracks.

Too often, we focus on how terrifying it can be to have a train headed for us. A lot happens in life (train full of memories, remember) and it is so easy to paint our walls with the bad stuff. The bad job, the failed class, the painful breakup, the gross body.... Those are such heavy things to carry around. If those bad things are the rocks we put in our knapsack, there is no way we will get off the tracks in time.

This has happened to me many times. At any given time I could tell you probably 12 negatives I am thinking about. But I realize how bad it is. So I have taken to focusing on good things in my life. In the interest of motivating you to do likewise, I am going to share a few of my favorite things.

Rock climbing. Yes, I know this is a climbing gym. All you purists can take your pretentious opinions elsewhere. I climb in the gym, and I like it. I like the feel of moving across the wall, between the holds. I love forcing my body to do hard movements. I love feeling the power in my muscles as I pull my body higher on the wall. When I am climbing, everything else just doesn't matter. I am climbing. I'll think about life when I'm done.

Another thing I love is music. I love writing music. I love playing music. I love listening to music. At this point in my life, I am writing music with my friend Nicolle Okoren. We are actually writing some really great stuff. I'll let you know when we play a show. The music I am listening to currently is also bringing me a lot of joy. You will find a sampling below.

There really isn't a lot of terribly deep ideas in this block of text. Mostly, I just want to encourage you all to remember what is good about your life. I know that it isn't always going to be rainbows and butterflies. But sometimes it is. And those memories are what I choose to paint the room of my life. I am curious...what are your glad things? Please tell me what you love. Maybe I will too.