farther along than i once was

©2011 gary garbett.com

My closet and dresser are filled with years of gathered fabrics that I rarely ever wear. I just don't have the time or the place to, but each are on my list of things to one day accomplish. After not wearing one for several years, I purchased a new wristwatch last week. I use to always wear one and not really sure why I quit. I like knowing what time it is at any moment of the day. It's another tool to keep me on pace with my regimented routine.

Ah... routines. My father certainly had his. As a teen I promised myself I'd never fall to such day-to-day mundaneness. Seems as though time and age have both changed that for me. I'm always battling myself to find the time to accomplish even a few items each day that I've penciled in on my ever growing "must do" lists. Maybe what's really happening is that I'm really living someone else's life and theirs is just getting in the way of my living mine. Or even worse, maybe someone else really has mine. If so, I just hope their living it exactly the way that I planned it.

As for today, I can scratch, "post daily blog" from today's list. Enjoy yours.

exit ramps and larger voices calling

©2011 gary garbett.com

I sang along with Crosby, Stills, and Nash on Southern Cross this morning while driving by the overpass. I've probably heard this song a million times. It's one of those tunes that I always find myself singing along with. But for some reason, this morning was different. For the first time during those million and one listens, I actually heard the words and felt the emotion of the lyrics that I'd harmonized with for so many years.

....and music is her name.

a mile of an open heart and a six string

©2011 gary garbett.com

So much of how I perceive life to be is incredibly sacred. When I witness such an honest outpouring of it, it extends to me the greatest hope.

During my 6AM drive to the office a few weeks ago the expressiveness of a soul captured me. Along the monument of avenues was clearly the openness of a heart. One of pain, one of apology, and one of sincerity. Posted on each street pole for nearly a mile were single-line love notes, each beautifully hand written with a heavy black marker on random neon colored papers. Each were posted at the same height along the heavily traffic route, four to six per block. Without coming across as overly sugar coated, the mile of I love yous was the most sincere and genuine love letter I may have ever read. The sentiment was honest, confessional, joyful, sorrowful, and real. Following three sunrise mornings, random letters began to slowly go missing. By the end of the week, all were gone ....leaving nothing but a memory.

God bless the poets, the songwriters, and every love letter gone unread.