Difference between revisions of "Tracker: Notebook 2024"

Latest revision as of 16:33, 9 June 2024

Poetry, May 2024

5/9/24

find your wings (poem)

One of those things:
look around
maybe breathe

Don't forget to find your wings:
spread them hard
fly, believe

Talent (poem)

The things that work
Can often be so easily forgot
The things that work
So easily are things that can't be taught
Talents granted
From the King
By heaven, they were bought
Then graciously Were given to me Without my having sought

Road (poem)

Been a while
I know
Been a terrible road
The things that you don't know
Before you're called to go

hard (poem)

Is it that hard
to speak in a rhythm
in a rhyme
with a boom
with a bang

Is it that hard
to feel in a prism
with a sigh
with a laugh
with a pang

Is it that hard
to fall in a chasm
in the air
do not care
'til I'm there

Is it that hard
to turn like a schism
hand on stone
from the bone
don't let go

planting (poem)

wisdom is the color of my heart
as I want it to be
so I'll plant my sight on wisdom
until I am a tree

The Presence (poem)

Joy is in the presence of the Lord
Where is it I'm living, by that word?
Where am I, adrift on endless clouds
When this painful living gets too loud?
Ah, find me, Spirit! Find me, Prince of Peace
Make this inner chaos finally cease
I praise You: may I enter at the gates
And finally find the joy in Your embrace?

Eye Be Single (poem)

Find a song in my heart
And a light on my steps
My eyes towards the heavens
To see what is next

5/13/24

Brightness Arrayed (poem)

Ah, another grand day!
My eyes see the light, I pray
That my heart is also swayed
By the brightness now arrayed
Before my waking face
When I look toward Your grace

me (poem)

awkward, sometimes
it would be nice to be
another person
yet still me

may happiness (poem)

may happiness precede and follow you
and always walk with you
may the rains shower on you
and bring new life to you
may the sun shine brightly
and the moon glow nightly
lighting your way
for you I will pray

5/30/24

abloom (poem)

happiness
I close my eyes
brace my soul
I feel the light
I open hands
my heart abloom
cleanse my spirit
and make room

ever calling (poem)

sometimes we forget the important things
perhaps drift from our roots or lose our wings
and yet a Voice e'er calling before us sings
look to me! it cries, from darkness brings

Poetry, June 2024

6/9/24

before my eyes (poem)

endless ages pass
the flicker of eternal streams
that which waking lies
before my eyes and in dreams
all the visions cast
upon my canvas mind
held until they last
shining in my sight

Your Path (poem)

God of my fathers, my mothers, my friends
Who held me and kept me, beginning to end
Be with me now as I go 'round this bend
Your path before me, I trust You will mend

Prose, May 2024

5/9/24

Focus on God Who Bears our Burdens

From the Old Testament to the New, God promises to bear our burdens, if we will just come to Him.

"Blessed be the Lord God, who daily bears our burdens, God who is our salvation." – Psalm 68:19 NJV (verify)

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." – Matthew 11:28 NKJV

"Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." – I Peter 5:6-7 NKJV

Every day, when the sorrows of this world press down upon me, when I'm missing the loved ones I have lost, when my failures and mistakes weigh on me, I have such a tendency to berate myself or struggle under the weary heaviness of it all, forgetting that these are burdens! All I need do is come to Him. I can cast away my burdens and give them into His hands, and He will care for me and give me rest.

It is so often my heart that is my greatest burden, every time my humanity or this world in all its imperfections seems to much to bear. But God promises His strength in our weakness and His peace in our hearts.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." – Philippians 4:2 NKJV

5/13/24

Notes on Worldbuilding: World-Growing

Worldbuilding appears to be much like conlanging. Before one goes making up a wild new detail, perhaps one ought to revisit the material already present and "grow" a new detail. In the case of developing modern banking, for example, one should look at the original methods of long-distance trade and commerce one has already developed and determine how this people would solve that problem, rather than turning solely to how Earth peoples have.

Prose, June 2024

6/2/24

They crossed Wa Shioke on the Lihuela-tsau Road, then turned seaward at the Iiyetretha Passage. Irya was a little surprised that they chose to walk the entire way, a twelve-day journey on foot, but said nothing about it, taking his turns to gather wood for evening fires and putting on food at the regular encampments. Truthfully, he hadn't taken this way before, and he wondered a little at taking it now.

Leshet lived up to her name, quiet and explaining little. Her husband Kosye told barracks stories, interesting tidbits of deployments aimed at enlivening dinner rather than revealing information. Irya too told stories and picked out images from the stars and didn't talk about the coastline ahead, altogether too verdant for winter.

Leshet caught him looking at it once. "When he does act," she said quietly, "he never does it by halves."

Irya considered that point for a long moment. "He who holds power over life and death?"

"Yes."

It was enough to realize that Leshet had encountered the high one before the events of the black rain. He considered asking her about it, but let the moment linger perhaps too long. She was nodding a goodnight and ducking into her tent.

They reached the Alhaies plain on the thirteenth day toward the end of the sun watch of the morning, approaching noon. The grassy fields were distinct from the farmland beyond them, a soil more crumbly and dry and less suited to growing crops. Instead, comfortably-sized homes were scattered across the plain, each perhaps twenty claws or so apart, and a winding dirt road darted and wove between them.

Leshet's was somewhere toward the middle of the plain. They passed under a copse of evergreen trees, their needles still hugging shivers of frost, though the dragon's breath winds had melted the rest off the ground. A garden sat in the front of the house, seeming properly winterized. He wondered if she paid a helper to maintain it when she was deployed. They passed between the northern and southern sections of the garden up the little cobbled walk to her front door, and she let them in to a surprisingly and pleasantly warm front entry.

"Shoes off," Kosye commented as he put his own boots against the wall.

Leshet glanced around and murmured, "It's good to be home."