1. Sleep and risk waking up in the middle of the night with no chance of going back to sleep

2. Continue checking a million emails and risk falling asleep on the couch

3. P90X, Insanity, or go for a run around the old neighborhood.

I chose to workout and the last option as I did not feel like hanging with Tony Horton or Shuan T and I needed to be outside. Although my run was short due to the extreme August heat and a messed up stomach from my recent visit to Vietnam I was able to learn a few things from mych childhood neighborhood.

The hills that used to be so big I had to push my bike up them have mysteriously shrunk over the years.

As we look back on life I think we realize that the issues and obstacles that once seemed impossible to overcome or conquer at the time try to keep us from growing. Its only through challenge and pain that we grow and in hindsight we see how those challenges empowered us to face larger obstacles now. Run towards issues and not away from them.

People get older, outgrow their environments, and move on.

No one that I hung out with as a kid still lives in the neighborhood and I have not seen any of them in years. I valued their opinion and allowed those people to influence my life in a major way when I was younger. We become like the people we hang out with. Its easy to know where people will be in five years. Look at who they are hanging out with and what books they are reading.

Our environment shapes our perspective and size of our dreams.

We grow to the size of our environment and those who grow the most are those who have the most exposure. I cannot imagine coming back and living in this neighborhood as I have seen too much of the world and the needs of people globally. At the same time our heart for the world must be shaped through a heart for those locally.

The call of adventure is very real regardless of age.

I was remembering all the adventures I had. From chasing a squirrel around the neighborhood for hours until we finally killed it to catching the woods on fire and fire department scolding us for playing with lighters. I still have the same crazy sense of adventure that I had then but the kudzu covered forest is not as appealing as it was when I was ten.

Amazing what happens when you come back home after a long time away. I am so grateful for how far God has brought me and the opportunities that he has given me. Hope that I have learned even more in five years or the next time I run around my childhood neighborhood.

Eat Flat Tire, Pandora, & Toilet Views from Daniel Ross on Vimeo.

DK/Dan Ep 1 – Sleeper Bus from Daniel Ross on Vimeo.

In a world of social networks like Twitter and Facebook we tend to do our So often we put our best foot forward. We are not sure of what is real or just another Photoshop trick. But during the tough times our true colors come out. The Macedonians were under extreme persecution and they still gave themselves and their resources in a radical sacrificial way.

You can listen or download by Clicking Here – True Colors You can also follow along with the presentation below:

DK: 9:15 AM “Sometimes when I order food or drinks in Vietnam the people assume I do not speak Vietnamese so they just guess at what I am saying the first couple of words”

DK 9:21 AM
“Why is it that when you have a handful of crappy pens you never lose them and your good pens always dissapear? Are the good pens moving onto bigger and better things or something?”

DK 9:40 AM
Good Pen: I’m leaving you Dakota.
Me: Why are you leaving?
Good Pen: If you really love me you will let me go.
Me: I don’t understand.
Handful of Bad Pens: You still got us!
Me: Shut up down there crappy pens.

DK: 10:30 PM “I taught Phong a lesson about the sabbath using an illustration of taking a break from harvesting the land every seven years to give the land a break. Yesterday we were in the garden behind his house and he looked down at the cracked dry ground and said “OHHH!!! This land is tired.”

Swallowed By A Fish from Daniel Ross on Vimeo.