Crashing California

  As some of you may know — or not — I am embarking on a journey to do my own music project. I have no goals or aspirations with it except to craft the songs from my heart and make them available for sonic consumption.   I have wrestled with the "purpose" or  theme for the effort for some time, years actually because in the beginning I wanted the album to be about my dad, or for my dad, or a slap in the face of my Dad, etc., etc, and I finally came to the realization that it doesn't have to be about him at all. His choices have shaped me some, but I don't need to sit in that puddle of mud anymore and so began a "re-drafting" of my project. Since coming back from Dallas almost a year ago (!!) from a life-changing experience thanks to Rita Springer and her DIVE School, I have also been steadily journaling and writing, and becoming a better songwriter I would like to think ... or at least more practiced, and hey, practice can only make better, right? So, ...

I figure we can't ignore our other birdie babies =) Here's a recent video of them singing in the morning =)  Sunny is usually the obnoxious one (as shown here in full glory) Oscar makes a surprise appearance at the end. Sweetpea is the one in the front, who really does live up to her name. Sweetest bird on the block. ... alright, enough about the birds right? Till Next Blog! love, a.

Max enjoying the foam from Jay's latté I know, I know, we've become "those" crazy bird people. Yes, 2013 seems to have been the year of the birds for the Huzil's.  Our little family "flock" has been growing, and growing and our little home is now full of noise, food and poop. It's almost like having real kids. (Although we all know I can't speak completely to this, since we have no kids). I wanted to introduce you to Max (Maxamillion) Our latest—and prob. last ... hopefully last!— addition to the family. Max is a green cheek conure, a small parrot from South America.  He's quite a handful, and WAY more demanding than our little lovies, Sunny, Baby, Oscar and Sweetpea. But he's also, way more interactive, intelligent, and completely hand trained. He is pretty close to having a real little person. He's messy yes, NOT noisy at all (compared to the lovies, really! They can make your ears ring) and demands your attention.  But ...

Sometimes I wish I could turn the world off. Everything competes for my attention.  The next person selling something. The next thing that's going to make my life easier, more attractive.  This computer screen that I sit at all day, almost every day, for 8+ hours has too many rabbit holes to go down at any given time and my eyes become filled with the next thing to buy, the newest touching story or the latest horror story. ----------------------------------- I've been reading Matthew (yes I finally got into the new testament!) and I've slowed my reading down to almost a passage at a time because there is so much MEAT in these words I'm reading now, it's best to take a paragraph at a time and focus on it, instead of doing chapters. I am in Chapter 6 and reading about Jesus' teachings on money and worry and something has always pierced my heart in particular ... the whole section reads like this: 19  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,...

I had one of those "mind-blown" moments this morning during my quiet time ...  it's def. a blog kind of day. Truthfully I haven't felt moved to write, and when I did, life got in the way and my inspiration waned ... but not today. No today, I asked God to wake me up, and He did! I was really tired this morning. I had set my alarm to 5 a.m. because it's gives me enough time to read, write and pray before I work out and start the day, but it's hard to get up that early (no kidding right) and I was nursing an "all-day headache" from the day before so felt kind of entitled to sleep in. When my fuzzy eyes focused on the page this morning at 5:45 I literally wrote, "I'm tired today Lord, please wake me up". I'm reading Micah right now, and it has one of my favorite verses in it from 6:8 (there is so much meat in this book tho so it's cool to read it in context). So, I read chapters 6 and 7, and began to paraphrase and jour...

Calavera Lake at Sunrise I am enjoying my time.  Or at least, I'm trying to. One thing that I want to make sure to do, everyday before I'm gone, is to really enjoy my life.  I don't have to have a big house, or fancy cars, or fancy stuff, but I want the quality of my life to matter.  I want to be so filled with joy, with the Spirit, with life, that it spills out of me without even trying.  Some mornings I wake up and finally get my butt out the door to run, and I don't rush myself to finish. I have a feeling of entitlement I guess ... maybe it's wrong, and you could say I am selfish ... but with my time, I am. I spend 8-9 hours (on a good day) in front of the computer screen, with fluorescent lights above my head. Staring into the LED box from which I make my living by turning my ideas into a picture on screen.  One can begin to feel a bit like a drone, day after day.  Same place, same time. Five days in a row. Sitting and staring. Sitting an...