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Roomfuls of Scary People

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  Rooms full of people I’m acquainted with or that sorta know me - those are the ones that scare me the most. As someone who has battled with anxiety that affects several aspects of my life, the social anxiety is one that, while I’ve come measurably far in, I still face on a very regular basis and continues to cause that literal stomach knot to drop on in for those all-to-frequent visits.  - “Why Michael, you’re a crazy extrovert with enough crackhead energy to power a small house for a not insignificant amount of time! Aren’t rooms full of people where you come away from most alive?”, you might ask. Theoretically, yes, we extroverts are the ones that get together in groups, seduce the introverts into joining, and then bleed them of their energy so that we leave full and overflowing and the introverts leave drained and in desperate need of their “me time”. (Inspiration for whatever that is that I just wrote is credited to Lani Fahnestock, although after what I did to butcher her commen
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On Miracles & Thorns...

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               Several weeks ago, I was getting into Sunday morning Praise & Worship at church, when the band started playing a song I hadn’t heard before - Too Good to Not Believe by Bethel. Yeah, some of you probably have heard this song, but I’ll be honest with you - I don’t make a personal habit of listening to 10-minute-long, “let’s-repeat-the-bridge-1700-times” Praise and Worship music if given the choice. Not to completely besmirch that type of music, because I do actually enjoy playing/singing it myself; I just shorten my versions of it significantly. Anyways, it was the lyrics “I’ve seen cancer disappear, I’ve seen metal plates dissolve… ...I’ve seen real life resurrection, I’ve seen mental health restored, Don’t you tell me He can’t do it, don’t you tell me He can’t do it…” that popped out at me. - Now, I’ll also interject here with another observation from the past week that got me thinking even more. A few days ago, a social media post was passed around that, while not
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Le Guerrier

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Picture with me, if you will, a warrior - A warrior that stands tall, strolls purposefully, speaks with poise and confidence. But-- this is what you see - the image that your minds eye presents to you. Now, go beyond the picture... Enter it, if you will, but don't stop there; continue, until you reach the entrance to the mind of the warrior. Now, proceed, slowly, into the mind of the warrior. You will be greeted - but not with the trumpets of victory, the thunderous roar of a lion's heart, the pounding of triumph-charged adrenaline. No! You stagger backward, clawing back to the entrance; however the light wanes... It snuffs out like a candle in the breeze. THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTED! That brilliant light surrounding our warrior on the outside wanes, and you are surrounded, nay, enveloped with a dark cloud so thick you begin to panic. The fear of suffocation become reality; you begin to forget what it was like to experience light . Time slows to a crawl. You feel yo
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This Needs a Better Title, but I Can't Think of One - Basically It's About a Guy Named Guy

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Guy Knickerbocker - the first time I met this man several years ago, it was all I could do to remain calm and composed as he struggled to articulate himself. It literally took him almost 10 minutes to say something that the average human could have expressed in 2 minutes or less. You see, Guy Knickerbocker is a surviving stroke victim. The stroke statistics for the United States alone are quite alarming. About every 40 seconds someone in the U.S. has a stroke.  Every 4 minutes someone dies of a stroke. Of the 15 million people worldwide who suffer from a stroke each year, 5 million die and another 5 million are permanently disabled. (Stroke statistics quoted from https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm and http://www.strokecenter.org/patients/about-stroke/stroke-statistics/) While Guy was blessed to remain in the 66% of stroke victims to remain alive, he joined the 33% of those who are permanently disabled. Visually, Guy would appear to be your typical 80-something year-old man
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A Different CBS Experience...

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 Dear reader, I feel the compelling urge to warn you that what you are about to read is quite literally my stream of consciousness (Yes, I absolutely LOVE that phrase! It emphasizes so well how my brain processes things.). It scares me to think about how much my readers may possibly learn about me through my writings, since I try to be as open and honest with myself as I can about what I'm feeling and pondering, and those things will manifest themselves throughout my writings. In fact, my biggest fear in actually "blogging" these writings was that people would get to know more about me than I was comfortable with them knowing, but I've decided to use this opportunity for personal growth. If you as a reader find some meaningful content within these writings, Praise be to God! If not, know this - I am writing this stuff for my personal sanity; I can only hope that these writings challenge you to think.                                                       -------------
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