Mixture of Thought

This day has been filled with an array of ideas, and it has left me contemplative, to put it mildly. After network maintenance at the office concluded around 12:40am this morning, I was left to rest until the sun or my mind should awake me. The choice was then before me as to whether I should take the hours to rest from a weekend of illness and a late night of work or return to my desk 'round noontime and wrap up the weekend's proceedings. I opted for the second as the former seemed unnatural and wasted.

And so a rather traditional, yet oddly ambient afternoon ensued, beginning with a lunch at Pei Wei with my coworker. A rather unexceptional set of tasks--updates, change management, testing--carried me to the closing bell, and to the car I went. With the sun setting, I navigated south to a Barnes & Noble cafe and a friend who makes it home-like to many. Bible study commenced and then segued quickly to a writing piece, at the prompting of both an exchange with a friend and the subject matter of the study--prayer.

I was twice sincerely frightened at dramatic crescendos in the soundtracks of The Village and The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring as I pored over the material and wrote. And as time passed, words and excitement came over this patchwork metaphor of the Christian life as a canvas and painting. I know not whether the discourse maturely came forth; only the readership can tell. Regardless, though, it brought my time there to a close and off I went.

As I turned north, I thought to myself, "What a peculiar day! What is it that has made it seem so unlike a Monday?" Perhaps it is the Monday that should always be; one unstressed by a chaotic world, one which begins with the Word and prayer and which ends with a study of prayer and an expansion on the Word.

Finally, the evening concluded with takeout (Panda Express) and an episode of NCIS (online). Strangely enough, this served as the final ingredient in the mixture of thought as an undertone of destiny and choice weaved through the show. It presented a proposition: "Destiny cannot be changed, but it can be challenged." I'll not debate the veracity of the statement, but the story surrounding it was one which did provoke me to reflection. Regardless of how many years, trials, and circumstances led you to be who you now are, you still have the choice to change.

Ingredients of a day like today (how you combine them and in what proportions affects the final product): sleep, prayer, Scripture, choices, work, study, driving, writing, tea (Holiday Tea, in this case), music, Chinese food, TV (NCIS), and friends.

Referenced essay: Canvas of the Creator (Veritas Road)