History in the making..

This is my last post from my previous blog...
I thought I would start this one where the other left off...

Whenever I pass a used bookstore I always go in and check for my favorite paperback comedy/mystery playwrites from the 1920's to 1940's. I have been collecting them since I was about 12 years old when my best friend gave me a few she found in an old attic. She knew I liked the old music and took a chance I would fall in love with the books too.

The ones I love are rare, simple and unique. They have stories of life and people that are a mystery combination of a funny and endearing story that is told in a way that no other publications does. I love everything about them. I love the worn covers in many different deep hues. Some have actors notes on them or a stamp from a small playhouse that no longer exists. Sometimes I find a ticket stub, a sketch, or a sweet little love note written in them.

I love old books in general because they have history to them. These playwrites are a unique rarely appreciated part of history that gets disguarded quite often and so they are hard to come by.

A few weeks ago I went up to Seattle with a friend to a Sonics game because I was given tickets from my job @Expedia.com. We spontaniously decided to exit the freeway near Chinatown for some "authentic" chinese food. Off the ramp we spotted a previously loved items store (thrift) and took a chance to happen inside.

Of course I went to the used books section. I skimmed as I usually do looking for the size and style of book that my special playwrites come in and nabbed it when I saw one. I smiled and told my friend who looked at me excited and said "It's okay to jump up and down". So I laughed and jumped up and down. Finding one was a simple sweet pleasure to find such a personal treasure.

What I realized later was that finding this silly little book that is literally worth not more than a dollar wouldn't be a treasure to a lot of people but its part of my history of who I am that makes it my treasure. It had been over two years since I had found one worthy to add so this made finding it extra sweet with some frosting of great thai food later on that night. I found my favorite place to get my "chicken curry" in Seattle.

One funny thing about this also was that same week the Wedensday prior to the game I had gotten a fortune cookie saying "you will enjoy a trip to asia" on it. I laughed later when I realized afterwords that I had enjoyed this trip to my Seattle China town Asia.

"Murder at Cafe Noir" is the treasure I found. Although after reading most of the first half of it I did realize it does not fit my typical criteria for being one of my collection. I had to make a exception in this case. Typically I like them to be written in 1920's and not just style of with the characters but with the great character of this book I decided it was a keeper. It combined several of my favorite things. It's french nature with coffee, mystery, comedy, musical and has depth in it's characters.

It's a very real story that starts off with such a intimate portrait of its characters that it holds you. It's a combination of a dinner theatre with a choose your own adventure book. The play allows the audience to choose some of the plot.

The opening has a great thought..
Rick --"Have you ever wished you could just close your eyes and wake up in the past, at a point in your life that seemed a trivial decision, but turned out to be the most important and perhaps the worst mistake you ever made? Sure you have. I have lots of times. But this time it was different. This time I wished I had made a different choice, but deep down I knew that I wouldn't -- I couldn't."

Rick is a private detective who enters a cafe noir under cover to investigate the death of the owner of the cafe. His statement could really get one to ponder things. I think back in my own life and realized that Wow is that true.

Small decisions we make every day can be great mistakes that impact our lives for many years. I know I can think of one that inpacted my life for many years. I never really traced it back to that one choice but now I see that and wonder. If that one choice to send that one letter I sent many years ago hadn't been sent where would I be now?

There comes growth through trials and so sometimes those mistakes are meant to be made it seems. If I hadn't made that one I wouldn't have learned all I have and experienced all I have. So like Rick I am not sure I wouldn't make the same choice. Of course I don't know the flip side of what could have been even better if I had chosen differently but I never will. I can just be content with the choices I made.

Those choices brought me through the valley, through the muck, over the hill to find myself falling into the big pit, and then crawling out it on my last leg to find a ocean raging wild that I had to swim through already exhaused making me go crazy for a bit, and finally finding myself standing back up again just in time to see the hill ahead with something sweet and beautiful telling me to keep going. Yes that was a intentional run on..

I needed the music to keep me going. It has inspired me and been the biggest blessing of those sweet whispers of messages from God telling me to never give up. It's what I keep seeing in every day life. I see there are promises from God that nothing is impossible and even when it seems like it is. The promises are in nature, people, music, and the Bible.

They tell me to keep going because you will get back up again. Even if you fall back down again to just get back up.... get back up again. His grace is always there through our oceans raging wild that we sometimes created in our bad choices. Those that we made because of our history tell our story. We can have peace in that when we have a "bad day" our history proves God has been faithful to take us right back and pull us to our feet once more. The song "History" by Matthew West really speaks of this. It's been such a sweet blessing to me on my commute.

Finding this treasure of a little known and loved playwrite with its opening just kept me on my toes to keep remembering to remember that those "bad days" even when we make bad choice we are growing and creating our History in the making. Gods grace covers our history and it's up to us to learn from it and keep growing, coloring our world with open fields of wild flowers.

Song in my head: Jars of Clay - love song for a savior