I had an awesome thanksgiving break! How was yours? Well I went back to New York for my break and spent it with my family. Its funny because, well my mom likes to decorate the house according to the holiday or season, and she likes to bring out decorations that me and my siblings might of made back when we were in Elementary school. A couple of the things she put out on display were little writings we wrote about, like thanksgiving and the pilgrims and Indians. There was a piece of literature that I wrote; it was about what I think thanksgiving is all about haha. I thought alot different back then; because then I thought it was just all about the good food, but now being away from home I see that its more about being with family and really giving thanks for your loved ones.
My break was eventful to say the least. Right off the bat, about a few hours after I arrived home on the plane, my dad got my jeep stuck in a ditch! I saw my whole family just about every night, which was awesome. My dad, my brothers and I went hunting a bunch of times. Its kind of become a tradition to go out in the woods thanksgiving morning, usually my uncle goes out too. If we don't get anything, at least it makes for a good/funny conversation around the dinner table that night. Later that night, a bunch of my extended family came over, which made things ten times louder. But I wouldn't have it any other way. My old high school basketball team was starting there season, so on the days I wasn't eating to much, I went and helped out my old coach with the guys. All and all break was good, but now its time to strap down and get ready for finals! I hope you all enjoyed your breaks just as much as I did!

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Dreams
by Langston Hughes

I was looking around on the Internet for a poem I could possibly do my blog on. I came across this poem and liked it; it was short and sweet. I think the first three lines of the poem are the most powerful. "Life is a broken winged bird", that stands out to me a lot; you could so easily picture a bird with a hurt wing hobbling around. Well that’s kind of how we are in life without dreams.
Dreams are such a good thing to have, even if the more then likely will not ever come true. Dreams change along the way for a lot of people. For instance, when you're a little child you dream of being an astronaught, but when you're older you dream of having a wife and kids or visa versa. I think I mentioned something about dreams in an earlier blog; imagine if no one had dreams, nothing would ever come to be. Martin Luther King would have just been a man. Someone like Thomas Edison would have never discovered the light bulb.
Dream big! Don't sell yourself short for something God can take and make HUGE! God knows your dreams better then you do. Personally I can think of so many times where I thought to myself “oh wow, that’s impossible” and God totally proves me wrong and makes a dream/fantasy a reality. He knows what your desires are. Pursue them with God! Don't set off to accomplish this great dream on your own. God intended our relationship to be a partnership; you’ll never have to do anything on your own. I was just thinking; I bet God has dreams too, I bet his dreams are to see the whole world get saved or to at least see every person hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This weekend was a very busy and crazy weekend. Our baseball team here at Southeastern volunteered to work the mens and women's soccer nationals along with women's volleyball nationals. I had to miss class on Friday and again on Monday. It was hectic to say the least. I was actually able to go to a church service Sunday night in Aburndale; it was a very good service! Very relaxed, but nothing was hidden. Sometimes is bugs me when the church has a hidden agenda; it just seems fake and planned, which it probably is.
I guess how I'm kind of relating this to class, is through the readings we did. We read out of Ezekiel; I don't quite remember the exact verse off the top of my head. It was a story about a man, who God was trying to show him how to go deeper in his relationship with him. He used a river to get his point across. The man said "Lord I want to go deeper", so god told him to step into the river. Soon the man's feet were submerged in the water. Then he said "but Lord I want to go deeper!", so God told him to walk out further into the river, soon enough the man was up to his knees in the river. I think you get the point by now, as to what God was teaching this man.
God in a sense is like the water, and once you "lay down" in the water in let it overflow your body, is when God can completely take control and use you to your maximum potential. I think its cool to see how God used circumstances like this in his "literature". I forget what they call it, I know there is a literary term for giving something life like qualities even though it isn't living. That might not make sense, but I'm trying to remember back to seventh grade English haha.

Ok so, when I first read the assingment for class on tuesday I was kind of scared. I didn't really know what to expect because I'm not really the type of guy that watches musicals. I was rudely mistaken; "Dr. Horrible" sing along blog was very funny. The actor who plays Dr. Horrible, I've seen before on other television comedys, so I knew he was going to be funny.
It started off kind of weird. I wasn't really sure if Dr. Horrible was a joke, or if he really was Dr. Horrible. I thought maybe he was just playing a goofy part as a joke. But as the show progressed I realized that he indeed was "Dr. Horrible". The whole show he was trying to accepted in to some kind of a hero league of some sort. He only had to do one though first... kill someone!
I think you can take a valuable lesson out of this. Sometimes we are so blinded by our long term goals, that we tend to ignore the stuff in between that help us get there. Usually we end up falling flat on our face. In this case, Dr. Horrible didn't kill who intended on, in fact he killed a girl who he adored very much. All because he was so caught up in the dream of his. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying dreams are bad by any means. I'm just saying that sometimes you need to stop and smell the flowers along the way. Dreams start small and eventually get big. There are alot of little stuff we need to do before that dream can become a reality.
If I was to go out tomorrow and say my dream is to be a proffesional baseball player and expect it to happen that next day, then I'm on something. I would have to put many hours in the weight room, eat a well balanced diet, run and throw every day and not be affraid of failure. Thats how dreams come true!

When I first pulled up to Lake Bonny I was surprised and a little bit relieved. I didn’t realize how close it was to school. I didn’t know what to really expect as Mark and myself drove around for a minute trying to find some parking. I was a little confused at first because I expected to pull up to an area that was heavily wooded, but instead there were lots of athletic fields and sports teams from the area practicing.
We eventually found a parking spot and the pathway that Professor Corrigan was talking about. Right away I noticed the colors and sounds of the woods. It was evening when we went, so the birds were pretty quiet, but wind was howling and making the trees sway back and forth. We started down the path and I immediately noticed flowers to the left. I didn’t know if they were wild flowers or not. I continued down the trail and crossed the bridge that was displayed on Professor Corrigan’s blog. I came out on the other side only to find that the bridge continued out over the water. It was a pretty cool site to see. This is where I stood and was just quiet for a few moments. The sky was getting dark but it was just light enough to see some fish jump in the water. After a little while we actually came across two older men that told us about a ten foot alligator that they just took out of the area. That thought kind of made me a little bit un-easy so we started to head back.
I’m glad I went to Lake Bonny. I’ve heard of it up to this point but I never actually saw it. It was a lot different than I thought it was going to be.

To be honest with you, I don't really know what to blog about tonight. So I'm just going to wing it and see where it goes! Three weeks till thanksgiving break, and things are starting to wind down around campus and in the classroom. Its a little weird to me, because I'm from New York and the weather is still in the 80's. I'm used to having to wear a hat and gloves by now. I mean don't get me wrong, I love the warm weather; I just miss home too.

Right now it makes me think about the writers and authors we've read in class and where they called home. Home for most of us made us who we are today, and I'm sure the writers we've read were influenced to write by where they were from or how they were brought up. Like me for instance; I was brought up in a household where we loved baseball. My brother player, my two older sister played softball. It was all around. Now look at me, I play baseball here at Southeastern University.

Makes me think about the works we've read where, the story is a little gloomy or sad. Maybe that author wasn't brought up in the best of conditions and writing was the way he or she expressed her feelings.