Is it slimy? Sure! I'll try it...

I made guacamole for the first time ever today. I usually hate the stuff. Green and slimy taste good? nuh uh.
Not too bad though. I guess I've eaten worse...

Annus Mirabilis

Only a few weeks left of 2007. Dave, carpe diem!

Another poem from four years ago.

I found another poem from the MTC, although I think it is actually two poems that I'm merging into one. I don't even remember writing it.

AND THERE GOES ANOTHER DAY

Sounds of silence, clouds of thought

Works of action, knowledge sought

What is the song of life?

Morning comes, and evenings fast--

Hold the night! Make it last!

We lost the melody.

We lost the song of life today

The drums, the flutes, they went away.

Sleep, Sound of Death, lives on.

Sunshine of the afternoon

The voices, laughter, happy tune

All bow to evenings turn.

Circle, sleep, then back again

Look around, another sin--

Regrets of midday notes.

Measuring love and measuring me

The world alone, this world I see;

The measures run their course.

The melody is dying now
Tell me why, don't tell me how;

But future sounds remain.

Somehow the tune is never out

The trumpets play, the tubas shout

Life's songs keep playing on.

This life is short, slow years leap by

The mind will look, the time will die

Only tomorrow lives on.

Then life is done, the memories

Are faint. And yet, within the breeze,

Of light--yesteryears live on.

Yestermonths and yesterdays--

Plastic forks, silver trays;

Sorrow and success.

Spring to fall, Fall fell away

June, July, August, May

The clock ticks tock, ticks tock.

What's important what is right

The fun is gone, we fought the fight

Only tomorrow lives on.

Fast friends have long past slipped away

The ice of time, the call of play

Never takes survivors.

The summer wind, the winter chill

Sinful pleasures, righteous will

Gone and gone again.

Heart beats fluttered, seasons ran

Across the land and back again

Take a breath and think

Reflect on life--Your heart may sink

Your spirit fail, your mind will shrink--

Was it enough? Was it enough?

Not enough, as enough may be

But hurry, hurry is the plea--

Tomorrow DOES live on!

Today is now, and now is past

Then was now, but now is fast

So take on tomorrow.

Now use your time; use it well.

Joy must come, for Adam fell,

This life is not your own.

This life is hers, and his, and mine

Give love to all, and you'll be fine.

But, pray, remember God!

Remember Past--the Past of all

Where'n heavn dwelt, and God did call

To all, "Return to me."

Brother Christ, he led the way

For us he lived, our sins did pay--

His Eternal Sacrifice.

So take tomorrow, with all your might

Use today, and fight the fight

Your actions witness truth.

Truth is light, Light of God

Let light increase and spread abroad.

Your actions witness him.

Your actions, your tomorrows,

Bearing pains and holding sorrows:

A testament of God.

David B. Heywood

wow---that one was a little long. I'm tired now. Might shorten and revise in the forthcoming weeks.

A poem for Christmas

When I was in the MTC, I wrote a poem around Christmastime. I remembered that I had wrote it tonight, and so now I want to revise and improve it.

To Her Carpenter

Joseph, Joseph, have I lost you?
Joseph, Joseph, dearest love--
Know ye now my heart is still true
Yet--One I carry--Precious Dove

I have never known another
I have only wished for thee
But the Son of God must enter
Through a vessel, such as me.

How I watched and how I waited
For the Perfect Lamb to come.
No Jew hoped and prayed as I did
For the Babe of Jeruselum.

Public sorrow, death tomorrow--
Of such I will not ever fear!
Perfect love will two hearts borrow
Returned with but a saddened tear?

Thou may hate and scorn my features
"Put away" my heart this day;
But for a Savior of all creatures
Scorn must not be too much to pay.

Only till my heart stops beating
Will I ever cease my prayers
Angel's voice and love repeating
Cradles now my sorr'ws and cares.

Ok...that's where I ended in my MTC journal. What could be a good ending for the poem?

A Farewell to Omsk

I love to read humor columns, funny stories, jokes--things that make me laugh.

One of my favorite humorists is S.J. Perelman. He wrote for The New Yorker and Hollywood movies from the 1930's (he died in 1979). I love his clever wit, unparalleled vocabulary, and literary playfulness. His writing can be a little cynical, caustic, and arrogant at times, but reading his work makes me go out of my way to look up words because I want to understand his humor. Here are a few phrases that I think are stand-alone funny that I collected from books I've read.

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care not who writes the nations laws.

(Girls) eat a spoonful of yogurt when they're alone, but when your buying, man it's like Thanksgiving.

Kalbfus laughed uproariously, less at the witticism than because this was the first time anyone had addressed him in three days.

A: Then why are you staring at those clouds so pensively?
B: Perhaps I am more cirrus-minded than the other girls.

I noticed that she was eating a small umbrella-shaped object and asked her what it was. "An umbrella," she replied shortly.

It is a confessional in which dentists take down their back hair and stammer out the secrets of their craft.

I wouldn't duplicate that experience for all of the rubies in the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. Just in a matter of speaking, that is. If anybody wants to talk a deal, I can be in Rangoon in two days.

For all I knew, they might be the most odious of companions--Texas oil tycoons or social butterflies from Pasadena or football enthusiasts: crashing bores of the kind who range the world solely in search of victims

In search of passion

Recent events have slapped me in the face and forced me to wake up. As hard as it is, life changes; the road your driving on gets icy and snowy and the windshield suddenly fogs up. With your vision dimmed, driving forward on the hope that you're going the right way and you're still in your lane and, the minor details of what song is playing on the radio or how cold your feet are don't seem to matter.

Or do they? With knuckles white and eyes focused, wouldn't it help to have your favorite song blasting and your feet warm?

I was talking to a girl named Whitney a week or two ago. She said she was dating a guy who didn't seem to have a passion for anything. My accounting ears perked and the "too close to home" radar started beeping. Was I the same way? What are my passions in life? How can I be a more passionate person?

The philosopher Hegel once said:
"We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion."

And so my search in the next few days is to reexamine myself, find my passions, create new goals, and enjoy every minute I'm out on the road, be it in a blizzard or a Wal*Mart parking lot.

I laugh because I must not cry

Netsui means "enthusiasm" in Japanese. Enthusiasm, optimism, positivity--these are traits that I want to develop. To me, optimism is often a mark of faith. Of course there are going to be troubles, of course life will be hard, of course at times it will seem that the weather, your alarm clock, the cracks in the sidewalk, and even that funny sound that comes when the dryer has been on for ten minutes are all against you. But things will work out. Answers will come. Light will prevail.

It's up to me to make the best of all the opportunities that I'm given, but, more importantly, to help others find joy. So that's netsui. Enthusiasm towards life, the pursuit of joy, and the task to spread the joy and good news to others.