After giving it some thought I have decided to begin steering my blog back to my personal life – and not just blog about technology stuff. I honestly haven’t come up with a great solution for blogging about my personal life, my thoughts, and generally what I’m doing and thinking about doing in the technology industry (like the post I wrote back in March on Technology Solutions for Nonprofit Organizations) versus raw technical topics that 3/4 of my friends & family would have no interest in (and hardly any understanding about).
So if you are one of those 3/4, I apologize.
As I am continuously working on ideas and plans for launching Barred Owl Web (Editing note: it used to be a different name) into a full-time venture that will provide web hosting and technical support to nonprofit organizations around the world, I do plan on blogging about pure, raw technical topics. But those will be on Barred Owl Web’ (edit: was Smooth Stone Services) website from now on (that website has recently been redesigned and upgraded with more features including an interactive forum & wiki as well as a blog for site administrators – like me).
I’ve had an interesting past few days, as well as an interesting few months. As many of my friends know, I am now officially in my last week of work at TechMission, the nonprofit organization I worked with as an AmeriCorps intern, for the past year. Next Wednesday, June 2nd, will be my last day. On Monday, June 14, I will begin a new internship with a freaking-awesome company called Acquia that provides Drupal services. I’m pumped.
In addition to my time at TechMission, I have worked hard on my own business plan and in building a stronger foundation for Barred Owl Web to eventually turn into my full time business / ministry. All of this time working has kept me busy to the point of not doing much else. Building your own business on top of working a full time job is hard! But this is what I plan on doing for at least the next year or two – and maybe longer.
But right now, I feel like I’m on a bunch of different rabbit trails. Here’s the main point of my blog tonight: I’m getting really excited for my future (whatever that is), but also have a lot of things on my mind. Just a few minutes ago, I set the following to be my Facebook status message:
I forgot how much of what encourages me: a) talking to old college friends on the phone; b) listening to Sleeping at Last (and other music – I don’t turn my stereo on much); c) Taking an evening to “chill” – do a bit of yard work, eat a good dinner, don’t have anywhere to go; or d) All of the Above. If you answered “D” then you win… well nothing. But it’s been a good night.
I have a friend getting married in under two weeks. For the first time in a long time, I cleaned my room yesterday. After being literally sick for about a month, I think I’m finally starting to feel better. And tonight – I took time to chill. Life is good.
Listening to Sleeping at Last a few minutes ago, their song Needle & Thread came on. I’ve never been one to pay attention to lyrics much, but a certain part of the song always sticks out to me whenever I listen to it: We are made of love.
I looked up the lyrics tonight, and they are beautiful. Here’s an excerpt:
That we are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of it.“You were a million years of work,”
Said God and His angels, with needle and thread.
They kissed your head and said,
“You’re a good kid and you make us proud.
So just give your best and the rest will come,
And we’ll see you soon.”
As I move on from TechMission to my next adventure at Acquia, I want to give my best in all I do. But more than that, I want to give my best in everything I do – building my own business, eventually doing “community development”, and even simply living life.
It’s the simple things in life – taking time to relax, read the Bible, do something physical, listen to good music, talk to old college roommates on the phone – that I don’t do nearly as often as I think I should. But, as Sleeping at Last mentions in another one of their songs, “You are meant for amazing things.”
Life is Short. Why waste it by staying too busy all the time?
