Adventurous Love

Shade

a seed falls                 to the ground and dies
a man sets his wife in the ground and cries
the seed sprouts                     thirsty for change
the man asks friends for help which in itself is strange

can light break                            bonds of dirt and grime
can hope break through the pain of being hurt another time?
a blade of green        bursts through the crackling crust
he wishes she was here, to reteach him how to trust

first bud                  opens up a leafy straw
can cataracts reflect on what they hardly even saw?
soon stem       begins to strengthen itself
old man recollects re(se)eding sight and health

green grows best with rest and openness
caring for a son, he’s lost, he does confess

                             that love is frail.

bark begins to form a frame it takes its shape
sunken skin, hair down the drain, he’s losing weight

he makes up for lost time by sharing his hope
he tries to tell his son               every silly joke
the bud becomes a twig       twig becomes an arm
he tries to be a shelter      protecting him from harm

seed set in time becomes a too tall tree
set against the house it is a sight to see
its brea(d)th reaches wide and shares its shade with the son
the man sets down his spade and knows his time has come

the friendship of a son who knows his dad is frail
the falling of a twig completes his toy boats sail
they sit on a swing swung from the too tall tree
they laugh and somehow know it’s their last memory

I just got back from one of the best bible quiz meets yet. It was so fun seeing everyone again, and worship and the message were really great too. I was stirred to memorize more of the bible. I thought a neat way would be to sing it. Then I thought it would be neat to add some instruments. It was a lot of fun and definitely very unpolished but I got 11 different instruments in there and had fun just kind of spontaneously making a song to scripture. This blog is sort of turning into just the place where I put new music I record and that’s been ok. I’m too busy in this season to maintain a blog so it’s cool just to have a place where I can post some stuff and then link to it on facebook. Here’s the song

Invisible God (remix)

We just had so much fun in my Bio Lab presenting the Saskatchewan Boreal Shield ecoregion. We dressed up like Alice in Wonderland characters mixed with animals from our ecoregion, so we had the cheshire mink, Alice, The Mad Hatter Lumberjack (me), A Black Spruce Tree, A beaver that was late for a very important date, and a wise owl. I wrote this rap about the biodiversity in the region and had a lot of fun with it. I recorded it as a song and also here are the words. Do you think I could make a go of rapping in the niche market of biological rap?

Well I’m the mad hatter lumberjack! I rhyme like a heart attack I hurt your chest and pain your brain you’re thinking I might be insane. But let me tell you something I’ll keep it real, this forest is…

Boreal!!

I confess we’re blessed by this biodiverse nest, now don’t get stressed even if it’s on the lab test, this place aint messed see a owl puff out her chest and if you show interest you can invest, and be impressed by a simple nature quest and you can truly see diversity in fungi and trees, and in the birds and the bees. In poplar pine and the black spruce trees. In conifers, aspen and moss ground cover, birch poplar pine and many many others

lakes, bogs, forest and rock outcroppings
find specific animals just based upon their droppings
Balsam, Jack, and tamarack see a spruce it might be black
friendly deer have got your back but don’t eat shrooms they might be whack
wild rice grows great in fact, piled, stacked, it stays intact
more matter of fact than anywhere else that can be tracked

Check boreal compared to Taiga shield
we got more humans and we got higher yield
The marshes and prairie sloughs can be great can confuse
Check your views on prairie dudes, cause I know that they’re obtuse

Now check the range of animals that we got here
wolf, marten mink man don’t got fear
Birds, ravens owls will watch you in the night, and in the day to day see em play call like a songbird DJ, or blue jay eatin a minnow fish fillet.

Though one fifth the size, bog, and marshes comprise
where the muskeg lies, a sight for sore eyes, causes life to rise, biodiverse and wise,
we got blueberry, rosemary and labrador tea,
sasparilla, goldenrod, and water lilies
pin cherry, paper birch and white birch trees
cottongrass, feathermoss and cranberries

So check it out Alice, you need to explore, you got curious eyes it’s time to find out more
life is all around you if you stop and stare, look an owl’s there! just be aware, and fare, well
I like to rap and tell, it’s been swell, so see ya later as well

Here are a few more songs I’ve recorded recently. The first is “In a Sweater Poorly Knit” a cover of a great MeWithoutYou song. While doing an assignment I listened to it on repeat like 30 times and some of the words really got into my heart. Especially the last lines “I do not exist, only you exist” To me it’s not in a literal sense but the sense of wonder when you are looking at a huge vast expanse and you barely exist in comparison with he great vastness
In a sweater poorly knit

Then I was just playing along on mandolin over a youtube rap beat but I thought it sounded kind of neat
Mandolin on Rap beat

The last is a spontaneous song, I was playing the chords to “How he loves” and just started singing along with whatever came to mind about God.
When everything comes true

This weekend I was a leader with caring hearts camp. Here is their video from last year

It was a really amazing experience. The kids there have been through so much pain, so many difficult things. I don’t even think I knew that some of these situations even really existed. But they have so much resiliency and are learning to cope with their pain and see the beauty in life. Most of all I learned from them is compassion and comforting those who mourn. I often feel kind of awkward and uncomfortable when someone is hurting, because I don’t know what they need. But most often it’s just a hug, or just being there with them.

On the world race was where I first realized that I have a really hard time bringing myself into a situation and really investing my heart into people with pain. I don’t know what I’m afraid of. Of loving people I won’t see again, of letting in too much pain that I won’t be able to stop it. God has given me so much healing and peace from the different painful experiences in my own life. I want to trust him with sharing the pain of other people. I sometimes try to distance my heart or hide behind joking around, but deep down I think we all long to connect and really love each other.

It was a really beautiful weekend. I got to meet so many deeply loving and caring people. Especially being almost only immersed in Christian care and perspectives and help to those grieving it was good to step out of my own paradigms for a weekend to see love in action through all sorts of people. I’m so glad I got to go and I definitely want to be a part of it in the fall.

A few weeks ago I watched a movie on Netflix that astounded me. It was called “Think Global, Act Rural”. They go through the beginning of modern pesticides and herbicides and trace it back to after WW2 they had all of these surplus deadly chemicals that they didn’t know what to do with. It began a large-scale battle with nature to try and get it to do what we want. Unfortunately nature is actually quite cooperative with us already if we work with it and not against it.

The most interesting part of the video is an interview with a soil microbiologist. He is so passionate about dirt. There are so many millions of living organisms in dirt and they dig little tunnels that helps water flow through dirt and get soaked into the ground. Unfortunately when we use pesticides it calls all of those little organisms and dirt becomes hard, dead and unsupportive of life. Pretty soon plants are being grown entirely on the chemicals instead of this beautiful biodiverse interconnected relationship where all the different organisms help each other. Dirt should easily break apart and be in lots of little pieces like couscous instead of big hard clumps. That’s how you know if it’s dead or alive.

Then I read this fascinating article about front lawns

http://www.vergepermaculture.ca/blog/2011/05/04/grass-isnt-greener

It’s amazing how one of the most counter-cultural and subversive things you can do is plant a garden instead of a lawn. It goes against the grain of our culture but it can really make a difference the more people that do it. The article goes to show that we are not struggling with overpopulation, we are struggling with selfishness, ignorance, and reputation. Grass is the largest crop in north america. It uses between 30-60% of all our freshwater.

As a christian I still ultimately and completely believe that Jesus is the hope of the world. However while he was on the earth he had compassion on the hungry and fed them and healed them. I believe in supernatural food reproduction and healing, but why not natural as well? If we get rid of pesticides, herbicides and chemical growth enhancers we can stop having those run into our waterways, rivers and even oceans and help heal the planet. If everybody just grew their own food we could send all of our surplus to places that need it the most.

It’s so fascinating to learn more about this and other natural ways that we can make a big difference. I started reading a book called Mycelium running about how mushrooms and their fungal counterparts can help so much in detoxifying waste, oil spills, cancer, and the air. I just read in the news this morning about massive spraying to stop mosquitoes this summer in my city. I wonder if there is a better way like nurturing environments for bugs that eat mosquitoes. Anyways, these are just some of my recent thoughts on the environment and learning how we can make a difference.

I was just reminiscing a little bit today and watching some old videos and thought I would share some. Almost two years ago today (in 9 days) I went to training camp for the world race. It was an experience that greatly shaped my life. Before going my friends and I made a fun video song

David Grew Up

Then training camp for the world race was one of the funnest and most powerful experiences of my life. The presence of God poured out during worship, we did a treasure hunt that was one of the craziest of my whole life. God gave us like 40 clues and I think at least 35 we found specifically in amazing ways. We did a grief journal which helped me so much to understand how painful events in my past affected my present in so many ways and held me back. The guys had a bonding time where we did a super difficult physical challenge and it really brought us together. Here is the video of the team Joholo that I got put together with. Still some of my favourite people in the whole world. They encouraged me so much and I always felt like I was capable of anything when I was around them. Also so funny, and adventurous.

joholo… that just happened. from Grant Tarjick on Vimeo.

I just got back from watching Source Code. Everything was just pretty average for a Hollywood movie. But there was one thing that shook me and really helped to reevaluate my life. In the story I don’t want to much away but he has little time to live and he has to make the most of the last 8 minutes of his life and the things he does are just incredible. From reconciling and comforting his father to kissing the girl he loves and helping make the whole train of passengers laugh and giving all his money away. It was a really powerful reminder that our time here is limited. We might have more than 8 minutes but every minute is still just as precious.

I don’t want to waste another day on facebook or another hour putting off what I most want to do. I have all these adventures in the back of my head and a gigantic bucket list rolling around there somewhere. But sometimes the small things, the comments I wish that I said I hold back out of fear. I hold back from the acts of courage that could really make a difference. The status quo is far easier.

The movie just opened my eyes again to how much possibility there is in each moment if we will just take a few risks. I want to have a life similar to Peter the disciple who loved greatly and jumped off the boat before he really had any idea of what he was doing. I want to have a wikipedia entry written about me before I die because at least I want to do something great or unique. But more than fame or anything else is taking a risk to make someone else smile. Talking to the stranger, cheering up the lonely, being there continually for those that are losing grip of their hope.

It’s really entirely cliché but this life is too short to waste. Tell the girl you love her, quit your job and follow your dreams or even start doing your job as if it was your dream job, put everything you have into it and grow to love everyone around you so much it hurts. Learn to be vulnerable, to live knowing you’re worthy of love and respect as are those around you.

I drove back tonight knowing that I want to get back into blogging. Not so much because I want to keep people updated or have people value what I have to say. But because thoughts build on themselves, sometimes our ideas only become great as we mull them over and talk about them and ruminate on them. I want to learn how to write because I would love to write a book someday. I would love to encourage others, and share any of the things I’ve learned and even sometimes with my own problems as soon as I talk about them the answer becomes clear.

What movies have influenced your life? Watching the new Star Trek movie in Kenya also had a really big impact on my life.

You can get bored of miracles, you can lose your delight in life and the beauty of nature around you. But if you look to Jesus you can’t help but be fascinated. Your heart becomes tender as you see the tenderness and love of his heart. Your selfishness is seen as ugly as it is in light of Jesus but it just melts away because only selfless love makes sense in the light of Jesus’ glory.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Cor 4:4-6

When we gaze on him we become like him. That’s what the world needs. It needs us to look and smell like Jesus. To be entranced, amazed, overjoyed and in love with him. Clever arguments fall to the wayside in light of his beauty. The beauty of a people in love with Him. I know I’m so far from that but it’s all I want this morning as I write this. For the church, the bride of Jesus Christ to take her eyes off of her own foibles and imperfections and look to the one who is deeply in love with her.