A journey begins.

I start this off with an apology for never writing here anymore. I've taken to writing on an anonymous tumblr account because I find that the people who read this are almost always the people who misunderstand it, and I find it nearly impossible to write authentic and true things when dealing with that reality.

Anyways.

I hopped in a car (after about 2 hours of adjusting luggage and the tarp covering it in the hopes that the rain would not make bringing said luggage an exercise in futility), and took off for Nashville, TN on a quite unique mission with some close friends. A couple of months ago the idea emerged to take a trip to Florida and then fill in the trip down with as many shows as we could get in various cities along the way where we knew people, and I decided to make sure that happened no matter what barriers stumbled into our path.

Anyways, the details of this trip will be quite available as we continue along, so I won't focus on those things. I've attempted to use this site as a means by which I can break down and quantify the experiences of my life and figure out what they mean, so I will continue to do so here.

As I sit here in Nashville, and I think quite vividly of the last time I was here, it's hard not to look back upon the journey that has taken place since. A pretty distinct path was carved out in my life as a result of being here all that time ago, and it's hard for me to think of it as a particularly good moment as I could have saved myself an awful lot of time and hurt in my life by making some slightly different choices at that time...but that is life.

The truth is there are a thousand moments I can look back upon and know that I made the wrong decision. Decisions that have cost me an incredible amount of comfort and opportunity that would have made things much easier for today's installment of Ben Taylor. And yet a life that could be lived with the constant benefit of hindsight would not really be worth writing about.

There are an incredibly small number of opportunities that a man gets in this world to find himself upon the the highest level of life's peaks. Life is a series of peaks and valleys no doubt...but the vast majority of it is spent between those heights and depths in moments which are not nearly as exciting or noteworthy.

I find that in the highest moments that we owe it to our future selves to soak in every detail of the mountaintop scenery around us. Collecting and creating souvenirs to reflect upon when life seems dull and arbitrary. Not so that we can idly reminisce and feel sorry that our lives can't be like that all the time, but so that we can remind ourselves that the path toward God isn't solely one of suffering and sacrifice. A life lived for God is one of boundless adventure and endless meaning.

I suppose everybody who lives gets to experience life's mountaintops whether they see God in them or not. I just happen to know who to thank when they come rolling in.

I'm thankful today that patience is rewarded. I'm thankful that I can choose to feel free and available to experience life's adventure rather than focusing upon the loneliness that inevitably comes with this sort of life. I'm thankful to have friends who have the character and discipline I've craved for as long as I remember wanting things.

Most of all...I'm thankful I get to spend a little time being thankful. It feels good to go into a time of prayer without a long list of laments and requests, and rather to just be able to enjoy a little time with the God who is always there just as completely whether times are good or bad.