Who I am

For a long time I have had aspirations of being a writer.  I've often felt that I have this story inside of me that I just couldn't get out.  Then life happened.  A wife and two kids later and I am still trying to find the time to get that story out.

I love my life.  I love my wife and I love my kids.  I enjoy my job and aggressively dive into new challenges.  I enjoy the time I give to the students at the church I attend.  God has blessed me.  He has given me gifts of communication and discernment.  He has given me gifts of teaching and writing.  I want to expand on these gifts.

I've tried my hand at blogs before.  I never took the time to write.  I always felt I had to write something amazing for people to read.  Frankly, I don't care if people read.  I read a blog this morning that inspired me in a way.  It was shared by one of my Facebook and twitter friends who is a blogger and writer.  It was about another writer who goes through the process of how he gets words down on paper.

I found it enlightening.

The irony was that he shared something that I recently heard from my brother in law.  My brother in law Josh is the youth pastor at the church my family attends.  He has gotten more into a teaching role during the main services and I am always amazed at his ability to deliver a solid, biblical message as if he is having a conversation with someone in a coffee shop.  No notes.  Everything off the top of his head.  And he shows evidence of his preparedness by not stumbling or stammering.  I asked him recently how he does it.  How he is so prepared that he is able to communicate eloquently without sounding like he has his message memorized.  What spurned the question was that I heard someone else ask him about it and his response was that he tried to internalize it.  I asked him what he meant by that.  He said that he often carries a pocket size moleskin and whenever he has thoughts about his message he will write something down.  He spends all of his free time, driving, working out, whatever, thinking about crafting his message.

This morning while I was reading said blog the writer said the same thing.  He will carry a pocket size moleskin with him and write down things that come to mind that he can look back on down the line and create a story out of it.

In a sense this is my pocket size moleskin.  I will get a physical one also, but I want this space to be for anything and everything.

I like baseball and basketball.  I'm going to write about them.

I like politics.  I'm going to write about them.

I like culture and current events.  I will offer commentary on them.

Currently I write a monthly column for the town paper where I work as part of my professional duties.  I want to increase my writing skills and I want this space to be about that.

The title, "Long Road North," comes from a story that I had in my head during my college years that I never got down on paper.  My hope is that I can finally make that happen.

Welcome to my journey.