“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” 

Miriam Beard

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.”

Mohammed

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

Maya Angelou

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”  

Mark Twain

In order to fully appreciate where I come from, who I am, and what I stand for; I must travel. 

Going places unknown, with no plan and just the bag in my back, is a rush. A journey with an end which changes a person can not be achieved in any other way. I am sure many can say that about many different things. To each their own. For me, traveling is a simple way of changing, growing, seeing God outside my small confines of Oklahoma.

a simple thought...

I am constantly amazed how people have the ability to bring hope, change, restoration, and healing to humanity in simple things. Whether by helping someone to write a song, listening, tattooing, cooking, teaching, decorating; the list is limitless. By doing what we enjoy with love and compassion, we change lives. We change the world we live in. And that brings hope. The peace in a storm.

I don't see the world becoming any less violent, but God's love and the love of others will become more visible and strong.

“Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon.”
Donald Miller

“...to be in a relationship with God is to be loved purely and furiously. And a person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can't accept who God is; a Being that is love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people...That is why God tells us so many times to love each other.”
Donal Miller

“One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Henry Miller

This guy Matt and I are going on a little journey to Europe. I have been playing with the idea of Europe for ages, but could not find the right time, money or travel buddy. Not this time. Matt asked me what I thought about going and if I would want to come. To be honest I sort of shrugged it off. Trying to get off work, changing and making all kinds of plans. Money.
Finally, I talked to some important people and they all thought I should go. Huh?
So here we go, January in Europe, Brrr. I am flying into Dublin, catching a bus, going to the Guinness brewery, staying the night, then meeting up with Matt in Amsterdam. We will be taking the train to Germany and Switzerland to stay with good friends, exploring old places and eating cheese and chocolate.
Boomsies. Any suggestions, send them my way.

"We get one story, you and I, and one story alone."

"It's a living book, this life; it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters, and it is almost over for you. It doesn't matter how old you are; it is coming to a close quickly, and soon the credits will roll and all your friends will fold out of your funeral and drive back to their homes in cold and still and silence. And they will make a fire and pour some wine and think about how you once were . . . and feel a kind of sickness at the idea you never again will be.

So soon you will be in that part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn its ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward its closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification.

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?” ― Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts

My time at home has often been trying to find the fine line of accepting where I am is where I should be and wanting to go, do and see. To pack my things, jump in my car and go, hoping it will turn out alright. I am not too afraid to do that, but sometimes you must learn to stay put, to appreciate where you are and how you can be fully there. I am not sure if I have succeeded in being fully here in a way others understand it, but I have tried my best.
With one life to live, I hope it involves a life without regrets. I want to turn 80 one day and think how I always chose to live fully. Everyone has a different idea of a life fully lived. Mine involves relationships, the continual search to be awed, to create, learn, listen, write, cherish, encourage, to not let fear be a barrier, be myself, and much more. More that is the makeup of who I am.
I do hope people leave my funeral, start a fire, enjoy wine and talk of who was once so near, but has gone off to something more beautiful...

oh the places you'll go...

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

paint by dreams

"It's a living book, this life; it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters, and it is almost over for you. It doesn't matter how old you are; it is coming to a close quickly, and soon the credits will roll and all your friends will fold out of your funeral and drive back to their homes in cold and still and silence. And they will make a fire and pour some wine and think about how you once were . . . and feel a kind of sickness at the idea you never again will be. 

So soon you will be in that part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn its ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward its closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification. 

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?” 

-Donald Miller Through Painted Deserts

I have a simple dream (one of many). Buy a VW van, pack my bags and drive. 

It is a funny thing when you realize you have gotten to live another dream you had and it also started very simply. A pencil and paper. 

Though that dream has since faded, as I suppose some should, so as to make room for more adventures.

We'll see where this one goes, but I know myself, and I will make it real.

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” 

― Eleanor Roosevelt

On a bunk bed in Koh Toa, Thailand

Fat Tires and Cigarettes

"...most of the time, all you have is the moment, and the imperfect love of the people around you."

--Anne Lamott

There have been few times in my life where God felt near, and even fewer (possibly never) when He was tangible, at least in how I expected He would feel. I don't know why, but I have always pictured me hand in hand with Jesus walking along the ocean on a quiet beach. Probably some sort of Christian commercialism. I think I saw it on a bookmark from Mardel. That has never happened, though if Heaven is close to a beach...I won't complain.

This is what I have learned in my short 25 years of knowing everything (which to the teens out there who haven't learned, it means you actually know nothing). God does not touch us often, in the dreamy sense, but He does use friends and family to lift our Spirits or bring a small glimmer of hope. A glimmer is all you need most days. Humanity has quite the knack for survival.  

When we feel so beaten and defeated, and in the moment you feel life can't get worse (you try and remind yourself of others stories of pain, though comparing gets us nowhere). God gives you a chin up. A friend sends a text reminding you what you mean to them, someone buys you a cup of coffee or whatever glimpse of love is needed. It is a funny dichotomy. A God so able, mostly chooses to let humanity choose to love each other. That's weird and oh so sweet at the same time.

It is good to remember to ask for encouragement. There is no shame in that. 

And to end this blog, another word from Annie...

"Hope is not about proving anything. It’s about choosing to believe this one thing: that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us."

GOD is love, so that's a good word. 

*Sorry for the use of language.

The sun has set pink and blue

The good times are just memories now

I have to let go somehow

Our paths have separated to something new

I've struck out on my own 

To an adventure unknown

I will never forget

I will never regret

But it's time to move on

I know I have to say goodbye

But no matter how hard I try I can't deny it

No I can't fight it

Even through all the hurt

Even through all the pain 

I'm trustin in your name

The sun will rise again

Friends will go but they will always come

and I know that I will never be alone 

You are the only one I can rely on

“No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath... We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?"
-Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts


There has been a few things that have happened recently that have brought about a nagging thought; like the car alarm down the street that just won't turn off. Life is short. I have come to believe it is something about turning 25. I want to do this thing to the fullest and with everything in me, but I have a few questions (actually, I have many questions, but here's a few).


How do you balance knowing when it is a time to earn money and the desire to get in my car and drive? I want to see this beautiful country. How do you balance others expectations and your desire to be you? It seems so much like a fight sometimes. My fists are up, ready to punch and block. 

H-O-M-E

Hi there! I just wanted to let you know I am back on Oklahoma soil. For those of you that have followed my journey to New Zealand and Thailand, thank you. Now for a new chapter in Tulsa.

Sometimes goodbye can be a beautiful word to say

a cup of earl grey

One important thing to learn to do well as you get older is bringing times or seasons to a close. To learn to transition well into the new and actually say goodbye to people, places, or whatever needs the goodbye so you can move on.

It is the hardest part about doing a DTS with YWAM. Sure, there can be other hard parts about it; culture shock, living with the same people for an extended period (and usually people you would not pick), and all the other things thrown your way, but none compares to saying goodbye and going home.
Home, where either nothing has changed or too much has changed it doesn't seem like the same place. It is always pleasant when both are experienced at the same time.

I am back in the stunningly, beautiful New Zealand. A place so close to my heart it is almost worth a tattoo. A permanent art piece marking my time here, so that I never forget. Don't pee your pants, Parents, I will not be doing it, notice the word "almost."

I am planning on transitioning well from my time here to Tulsa. Who knows though, stuff comes at you that you never plan.

Ending with a fantastic quote...
“Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” 
― Anne Lamott

Thai iced coffees are too good

I am sitting in a cafe sipping some lemon iced tea, while I take my time on the Internet. I am starting to think of my time here in Thailand and the difficulty ahead of going home. It is never an easy transition from being so far away from home to staying put. Although, I am quite excited for some specific things in Tulsa and America in general. I hope a few of you are willing to sit over a coffee and let me spill a bit about my time with YWAM. That will help me let go and move on to focusing on home. I think that is it for now. Tulsans, please enjoy the amazing weather for me. Go ride a bike or grill. Grilling in January? I think so. Also, if anyone wants two house show tickets to see Waterdeep in Nashville let me know.

I found some free wi-fi, so here comes an update of our time here. We have been in Ton Sai for the last month. It is a small beach village where people from all over come to rope climb. They are usually intense climbers. Although I have not seen Chris Sharma. We live in small huts with not so nice beds, flush our own toilets, and take cold showers. It is a little out of the comfort zone, but everything else outweighs it. Our crew is doing well! We are getting to know people and eating plenty of Thai food. We miss our YWAM Oxford friends, but overall Thailand is treating us well. We look forward to a visit from our friend Nicki, then after we head for debrief. To bring our trip to a close. I will be headed stateside on March 5, with a short visit to San Fran. Then home, where goodness awaits. Love, Jordan