he wishes for the cloths of heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
- William Butler Yeats

breathe

forgive my evasive eloquence
i had an idea of what i wanted to say
but they all scattered when you answered
my heart quickened
my palms sweated
my head pounded
so loud i couldn't articulate
my inadequate words
they fled, rushed out and disappeared
i wish i had a river, i could skate away on
i wish i had a cloud, i could float away on

i can't stand to watch you walk away
your faced turned makes it hard to hear the words you say
muscles on my face form a smile,
hiding the tears i cry on the inside.
i wish that you would just sit down and stay for a while.

i don't want to watch you walk away
your head turned, it's hard to notice the things you say
how did we end up this way
won't you just please stay

i finally found a job

i got a job at gap. . .who would have ever guessed that i would be working at the gap. isn't that weird. i go for orientation tomorrow.

thoughts in editing

this paradym has got to shift
from sex, drugs and rock n roll
to a new drift
of things that sustain the soul
seek love, joy, and peace for a lift

day i got back

here is something that came to me as i was driving on the day i got back from ghana:

comin home seems like a dream to me
i've got to hold on to these memories
steppin off the plane felt fake
like i never really left this place
maybe i slept and imagined it
but at the same time home doesn't seem real in the least bit
two different worlds the one i left
and the one i came home to
maybe it's me the change happened to

?women?

i am completely and irrevocably confused/frustrated/dumbfounded/insert any other synonyms with girls. they are so mysterious, which i like. i mean mystery is a good thing. our god is super mysterious, but at the same time, i am wholy at loss for what to do. i just don't understand.

college is a huge waiste of time. i have said it before and i will say it again. i have a college degree, but yet i can't get a job, so why did i waiste all that time sitting in classrooms?

something i read today

there is a crack, a crack in everything.
that's how the light gets in.
-leonard cohen

Inadequate words

i want to describe what my experience in ghana was like. to paint a picture of sorts, but words seem so inadequate. i can't seem to describe it. to share stories doesn't seem to work because they only work with the images that i have been given. even the healing that occured in my own soul cannot be captured with words. . .it so transcends words. d

Something from old

you and i collide
we meet where the pink hue meets the dark mass
where the orange globe floats on the wet blue liquid
where the grass bends to the mighty melodious song

What's taken me so long

i apologize for my lack of posts as of late. i have been busy lately cleaning out my old room. i am moving to rocklin, and my little sister is moving into my old room, so i am in the process of cleaning. who knew i had so much stuff? anyway, more to come soon.

I'm still in Ghana

so i have tried and tried and i have failed and failed. i can't get the pixs to upload to my blog. the connection keeps timing out, so i guess you will have to wait to see the pixs. oh well. but i can still share stories. so today is sunday and the matron of the hospital invited me to go to church with her. she goes to a pentacostal church, now mind you i have never been to a pentacostal church, but i had i images in mind. it was. . .good and fun and awkward and embarrassing. . .if you ever come to ghana and decide to go to church just know that any church you go to you will have to stand up in front of the congregation and introduce yourself, so just be ready, you have been warned. i had to introduce myself the first time i went to church in ghana, which is another story altogether, and i had to introduce myself this morning. this time wasn't so bad, there were only about thirty people there, but still anybody who knows me, knows that i do not do well in front of large groups of people, especially when they are complete strangers and we hardly speak the same language. anyways, i did as i was told and told them the basic info: name, where i am staying in ghana, where i am from, and what church i attend at home. the music and dancing part of the service was awesome to see. of course, i couldn't understand the words, but it was still an awesome sight and sound to behold. when the service was over, people were shaking my hands because i was new. and then this little girl, who couldn't have been more than two or three, came over and without saying a word grabbed my left pinky and just stood there beside me. it was the most peculiar thing. i looked at her and smiled and asked her name, but she didn't respond. either she didn't speak english, or she just wanted to hold my finger and not talk. she was the cutest kid i have ever seen, and i wanted to keep her for my own. even when i went to leave, she followed, tightly clenched to my little finger, but then someone came and took her, i assume her parent or sibling. i didn't have my camera, otherwise i would have surely taken pictures of her.
i got some roommates today. some CHOs, community health officers, came for the week to observe the nurse stations that nkwanta has set up in the villages to break the distance barrier between the villages and the hospital. so this week hopefully won't be so lonely. so that is my update for now.

This is my first time in Africa

I arrived at Kotoka International Airport at about 7 pm on Thursday evening. It took forever to go through the check in process. It wasn't even customs...i just walked through customs, but before you get to customs, you have to check in, and that took forever. My driver picked up outside and we headed for my home for the next two days. I booked a room at Crystal Hostel, but I was taken to somebody else's house because there wasn't room for me at the hostel. So we arrived, and I went to bed. It had been a long journey from San Francisco. The next day I went to town with a guy that I was staying with. We went to see the Supreme Court, and this memorial park for Ghana's first president after they gained independence. Accra, that's the name of the city, was CROWDED. I mean people everywhere. And the traffic was like I have never seen. It takes forever AND a day to get anywhere.

A Test

i was just testing to see if i could upload pictures to my blog. these are from our yosemite trip 2006. we went over father's day weekend. it was fan-flippin-tastic.

AFRICA

I am going to AFRICA!!!! Ghana to be exact. Wild ride this life. I am so excited and in a dream like state.

inspired by a stranger

i know we are strangers
meeting just this night
but i hope that more than physicality
would pass through this embrace
know that my heart breaks with yours
my tears are spilt with yours
my spirit is wounded alongside yours
find comfort in company

How arrogant of me to think that I can justify Christ's sacrifice!

faceless ghost

On my way to Rocklin yesterday to see my good friend Andy, I was struck by something, and I had to pull off the freeway to write it down. I share it with you now,

I am emotionally unstable.
I am not willing or even possibly able
To take this step you are asking me to take,
To bear this cross,
To break where you are asking me to break.
How can I help those
Love those
Forgive those
Who need it
Who require it
Who deserve it,
When i cannot
Love myself
Help myself
Or forgive myself
When I need it?

I am just trying to love this man that I am,
To make him the best that he can
Be,
Loving the most,
Hearing the most,
Helping the most,
Understanding the most,
Forgiving the most,
Healing the most,
All the while on this crazy journey
To bring glory and honor to the Heavenly host.
So when I am laid to rest,
Remember me only as a faceless ghost.

I hate being socially retarded/relationally inept.

wow. today was a really hard day. i almost lost it a couple of times. i suck........sometimes.

not finished yet

wasted space with,
dying dreams
that consist of,
worthless words

inspired on the streets of aging (still in progress)

this is my street
this is my block, my hood
that's my bubble gum
house that sits on this
avenue of busyness and chaos
sleeping on the sidewalk of sirens and traffic
in the middle of the ghetto
surrounded by portraits
painted by faceless street artists
canvases of buiding sides, fences, signs

that house wreaks of memories
so thick i can smell them in my nostrils even now, miles away
the lovely fragrance causes my eyes to tear
those walls of lies and laughter and family gatherings
the christmases, easters, birthdays, no reasons

i am freaking out because of uncertainty and lack of direction


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
if you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.
- ivan illich

don't take my lack of conversation as lack of interest.
it is quite the opposite,
i am so captivated by your existence,
painting your table with salt,
that words evade my mouth.
a myriad of thoughts dance in my space,
but you scare me into silence,
for i am fragile and easily broken.
those moments of silence are not awkward,
but cherished that you would choose to share them with me.

restlessness anyone?

i have this restlessness dwelling inside of me and i can't seem to fulfill it. i feel like i am not where i am supposed to be...of course, i don't know where i am supposed to be so maybe that's just how i feel all the time, no matter where i go. like right now i feel like i should be some where else, but maybe when i get there i will feel like i should be somewhere else. never finding peace. people have told me that the reason i feel this way is my own doing, but why would i do that to myself? i don't know what's going on. i feel like i am supposed to be doing something other than what i am doing presently. but i can't figure out what that something is. annoying? yes. frustrating? hell yes. i keep trying to leave this place, but it seems like every time i try, it doesn't work out. i just don't want to waste my life, but that is what it feels like i am doing, and i don't know what to do about it.

blah

i have no words for the way i feel right now...but i can tell you that it is not good. i am so sick of these emotions. excuse, i would like to trade these in for some new ones. i think that i have had these for quite long enough...if not too long. ok, how about a refund then? no refunds? well, then.....................

sideways, crossways, or downways

i don't know what i am doing,
i don't know where i am,
what part am i to perform in your play?
i can't tell if i am sideways, crossways, or downways.
but i am here to serve and love
whoever, wherever, whenever.
my spirit gushes restlessness,
my soul wrestles purpose,
running in the pursuit of you.

i can't tell you how much i crave intimacy
with my lord
i seek him as one does a lover,
but he hides from my advances
playing hard to get

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort at:
Easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships-
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at:

Injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed:
For those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world; So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

shouts fall (in progress)

i am beautiful.

did you hear that? i said,
i am beautiful.
your rejection has no bearing on me.
my lord, my savior whispers my worth
into my soul.
he reveals my identity:
beloved, child.
your shouts fall on a deaf heart.
you cannot break me.
you cannot ruin me.
you cannot destroy this beauty.

those things that lack

everything is hanging by a string, he is so close
to offering what he has held back.
but those words are risky, those words are
hazardous, saying those things that lack.
this situation is not familiar, not having been
in anything similar.
oh, to be real.
oh, to be honest.
what freedom comes with a dose of those two.
but insecurity is a daunting foe,
with whom he has an ongoing struggle.

i don't know who you are,
but i am searching for you.
the idea of you has been with me since before time
enjoying purply skies with shared moments of bliss
i can't see your face, but i know your touch, know your smile.
explanation is not available to my words.
------------------------------------------------
this string is so fragile
i am terrified that the slightest breathe might shatter it

Two Things

first, can you love yourself, but not like yourself at the same time?

second, a quote from donald miller that rocked my world today, "It is a very different thing to break a rule than it is to cheat on a lover."

gain through sacrifice

i read something today in the relevant leader, that is the little insert in the relevant media network box we get at church that explains what is in the box. anyways, i read an article about gaining through sacrifice, or gaining through giving up things. it talks about how we hang on to things because they are familiar and comfortable, but not necessarily the best for us. it said that maybe those things that we hold on to are actually holding us back. if only we would venture out and sacrifice those things, then we would see something better. we would gain something incredible if only we would give up those easy, familiar things that we cling to. so that reminded me of this quote that i love by thomas merton..."my lord god, i have no idea where i am going. i do not see the road ahead of me. i cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do i really know myself, and the fact that i think that i am following your will does not mean that i am actually doing so. but i believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you." thomas merton

games

this is a poem i wrote awhile ago, but i like it, so i republished it.

we play hide and seek,
you and i.
you forever hiding,
and i,
forever seeking,
but you hide in spaces i cannot reach,
in worlds i do not exist,
in realities i cannot fathom.
but i cannot give up the search,
cannot give up hope,
that one day
i will find you.

no title

my spirit is worn,
to the point where i don't know
what i am doing
where i am going
who i am.
maybe the parts worn away were only
parts that needed to be removed.
rough spots on the exterior of my beauty.
so now, i must rely on god for
what to do,
where to go,
who to be.

no title

i am so fuckin broken that i cannot sleep,
the tears that roll down my cheek are too familiar,
screaming,
unattractive, unloveable, undesirable.

no title

the response i have is ineffable.
i am incapable of using this medium;
words, thoughts, prayers, songs
inadequate,
they cannot capture my answer entirely.
i want to offer something of worth,
but i do not possess such things.
all i can offer is me
broken, used, borrowed, and wounded.

my new friend sam

so i went shopping for groceries last night at safeway. i needed lunch meat, so i went over to that section, but they were out of the turkey i usually buy, so i didn't buy any, i thought i would just buy lunch today at work. so at lunch time, i went to subway because they have this daily special for 2.49, which is a pretty good deal, so i started out going there, but there wasn't any place to park, so then i decided that super taqueria is just down the street, so i thought i would go there. so i park and walk to the taqueria, and outside is, what i assume, a homeless man asking for some spare change. i have seen him before and bought him lunch before, so i said how about some food instead, and he was happy to take my offer. i asked what he wanted and he said whatever would be fine, but he did mention a beef burrito. i stood in line and ordered a chicken burrito, that was for me, and a beef burrito. and as i was standing there, i realized how little i was giving this man. i mean all i was giving him was a 3 dollar burrito, big frickin deal! i wanted to give him so much more. but honestly what do i have to offer? should i have given him all my money in my wallet when he asked for some spare change, should i have offered my apartment for him to shower, to sleep, should i have offered to bring him lunch again and hang out and talk...jesus said to give your cloak when they ask for your shirt, and to go three miles when they ask you to go one...so i assume jesus was getting at the point that we should give more than we are asked. so then i thought that i should sit and talk with this man while we ate our food, but then i thought, why would this man want to talk to some punk kid who is trying to feel good about himself, because he did what jesus asked of him. anyway, i went outside and gave the man his food, and he was overly thankful. i asked him his name, and he said sam. i introduced myself and he said nice to meet you mr. aaron. thats funny....mr. aaron. i can't tell you how much inner turmoil this kind of stuff causes me. on my way back to work, i started to cry...but maybe that's just cause i'm a bit of a cryer. i just want to love you sam. i don't know how to do that.

what i meant to say was that
i miss you
what i meat to say was that
i think you're wonderful
but i just guard my heart
cause i'm scared to let you in
you intimidate me
with your phenomenality
what i meant to say is not what i said
what i meant to say never left my lips

a movie line revised

sometimes i feel so f-in sorry for myself, that i find it difficult to breathe

do you ever become so overwhelmed by God's love, that you weep? i do.

still thinking out loud

is it selfish of me to want a partner to join me on this road? i mean sometimes i feel like i just need to leave and go somewhere to love people and to serve god. i feel like i am being selfish because i want to get married and because i want to become a doctor. those things take time. i mean a lot of time, and i could be spending that time somewhere else, loving someone, serving god. i don't know. all i know that is that i don't want to miss the train because i was waiting for something or someone. and is that wrong to want to get married first and then do all of the things that i want to do? i mean i want my wife to share in all of those experiences because how much more rich and fulfilling would those experiences be with her there. i guess it comes down to the fact that i am worried that i am waisting my life right now because i am not doing much. i feel like i could be doing so much more. i have so much more potential that i am not walking toward. this may sound strange, because it is strange to say, but i don't think that i ever want to be satisfied, because then i might not want anymore, i might not want to strive to be better, i might become complacent...........

thinking out loud

bare with me as i think out loud...it may not come out exactly right, but i will use my words as best as i can...here we go: do you ever notice that anything that you want to do that is good is hard? i mean like i want to be a doctor, i can't really tell you why, i just do. it's just what is in me to do. i just feel like that is what i was created to do(at least, i feel this way now, things may change, we'll see). but that is a frickin hard thing to do. i mean i had to go to college, and now i have to appy to med school, scratch that, i have to apply and get in, then i have to go through med school and graduate, only to spend years in a residency. all that so i can be a doctor. why couldn't i have been meant to be a musician, or a skateboarder, or a lottery winner? along those lines, i want to go to other countries and practice medicine. i want to bring medicine and food and clean water to the poorest of the poor, which is a difficult thing to do initofitself. so i want to be a missionary doctor, of sorts, i guess you could say. but i look down that road and see difficulty, struggle, failure, but that is the road that is before me, so i must walk, right? i don't know. i mean i'm aiming to change the world here, but who knows how far i will get, if i will get anywhere. and i would like to have a partner in all of this, which is another ginormously difficult task. to find someone that is all the things that i want, and for me to be all the things that she wants, and for us to be those things at the same time, and for us to meet at that time, what are the odds? it seems like another daunting task. but i don't know if i can do what i want to do without her. in fact, i would dare to be so bold as to say that i won't do all of the things or be all of the things without her. so there it is all these ideas/desires that are intertwined/intermingled/woven together that occupy my intellect far too often.

it seems silly, sometimes, these romanticized ideas
they play like a movie in the black space that occupies my process
do i romanticize them, or has the world been selling lies
i would dare to say the latter is the fact
in no manner am i saying it's fluid,
exhausting, more appropriate
so i push on to push for something more
along the way maybe we'll collide

why i don't have a radio

life's like a lifeboat,
trying to prove our worth,
convincing others not to sacrifice us,
just so they can find some earth,
if all there is is this world it doesn't make any sense,
all this shit is irrelevant,
i tell you there's more,
i can't tell you how i know,
it's just built into my bones, my hair, and my eyes
i can feel it more than i can describe
so don't settle for what they're selling
it's all a bunch of lies
it's all a bunch of lies

one of my favorites

i'm going crazy chasing time,
when there's too much on my mind,
i just slow and give it rest,
in the arms of the divine.
-jeremy boldt

no title

you broke me,
and nothing can mend those memories,
forever will i carry those scars,
for never will i be the same, and
never will i be the way i was, free and beautiful,
i cannot put me back together
the pieces are too badly damaged
for eternity you will never grasp the disfigurement you caused

---------------------------------------------------------

i want to be the one who fills others
name me with a label of negative impression if you will
that won't hider my mission of
loving people

no title

i am so fuckin broken that it hurts to breathe
the cracks in me run too deep
the sap, that is my soul, is emanating out
bleeding out through crevices, that
penetrate to my core
allowing my vitality to slip away, slowly
walking around with a gaping wound
holding my insides on the outside
bleeding all over myself
people move out of the way
as to avoid contact with such hurt

the weight of this life, wonderfilled and disconnected, is leaden.
i swear, sometimes, in the lonely dark, it almost crushes me.

i want to be better. . .but what is better? what does that look like? better than what. . .what i was before? growth is an interesting process. i guess you don't know you've changed, until it's too late.

and if i weep, let it be as a man who is longing for his home.
-rich mullins

last night at the gathering, a sunday night 'service' at a church in rocklin, i was thinking while the music was happening that any response i have to my lord is so inadequate. i mean, honestly, can my terrible singing really be praise? my words, my thoughts, my prayers, my songs are. . .are nothing compared to what he did for me. i am so overwhelmed sometimes by the love i am given that i cry. . .because i don't understand it. i am so unworthy, and yet he calls me his own child. i know it's not much, but i give it to you.

A POTENTIAL LIST

A POTENTIAL LIST OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS I MIGHT APPLY TO:
UCLA
UCD
UCSD
UCI
USC
U COLORADO
U HAWAII
LOYOLA CHICAGO
BOSTON
CREIGHTON
ALBANY
NYU
OREGON H&S
U WASHINGTON

i stare at this abyss that is my blog and it beckons me to write something, communicate with this space. but what is the point, what is the purpose of this process? why do i blog? why do i do any of the things that i do? i don't think that things are supposed to be analyzed as much as i analyze them, but then why do i? it seems like i over think everything, why? it's f-in annoying. i get tired of hearing myself think. sometimes i just want my mind to stop. be silent in noise and thought. but it's no use. my mind is constantly going over things. i woke up the other night at like 330 in the morning, now it may be due to the fact that i was sleeping in a chair, but it may also be due to the fact that my mind had thoughts that it needed processed. i know that sounds weird, but it was like my mind couldn't wait any longer, it had to get these thoughts out. and so i sat in the chair in the dark thinking for awhile. so back to my perculiarity of over analyzing everything. why? stop it and just enjoy things for a change without thinking about every minute detail.

this book searching for god knows what by donald miller is an excellent book. how have formulas and lists and step by step processes affected our perception of the gospel? can you separate the truth from the emotion, the meaning from the feeling? are you missing something when you just look at the facts, what you are suppose to do, instead of treating it all like a living breathing thing, that changes?