Being Physically Restrained is more annoying than I first thought:

hey guys!This is a short post to friends far away to let you know that Dan finally hurt himself... Big surprise...I never get hurt. I actually have the nickname invincible lol...but yeah

turns out I'm not so invincible as we all once thought. So yeah...basically I was playing racquetball this Friday and was doing really well...I love that sport! in fact I dominated my two singles rounds with scores like: 15-8 and 15-7. we were playing a doubles round where I had a partner and it was a bit crowded in there with 4 people...near the end of the game, when I was serving up front...a ball was hit that bounced high up against a wall up front...I ran forward and jumped along the wall because if I could reach it, it would be a perfect front slam and I could have scored an easy point because I had a side shot at the front. Unfortunately...my plan of running into the wall while hitting the ball failed this time...the ball barely got away...not because I didn't get to it, but, well...I'm still not sure why...my attention was occupied at that time with this unique feeling in my ankle of it being squashed sideways underneath the weight of me landing...it bent sideways and I felt the ligaments crackle and snap, and then it was over. For a few seconds I was like: "No biggie...I just rolled my ankle, but then it started burning" and I got down clutching my foot. Two of the players were senior pre-med students and they quickly felt it over and diagnosed me, and told me that I needed to put it up outside and so they helped me stagger out. Eventually the pain faded to a throb and I found myself incredibly annoyed that I was watching a cutthroat game and couldn't play. However, my ankle continued to hurt. I hobbled around campus for a while waiting on anna to leave and then hobbled to the car...I was happy however impaired and I figured like all minor injuries I would wake up with my ankle fine and it would just be a something minor. that didn't happen. I still maintain that it will be fine and I think it's doing better...but I still can't run...or even walk without it hurting every step. worse yet I'm definately not going to be able to carry my backpack around campus monday...and so I'm still trying to figure that out. It's also swelling around the spot that continues to hurt and that side of my foot looks like I'm fat...I've been icing it all day but so far it hasn't helped and it still continues to make weird cracking sounds when I stand up to fast or try to put too much weight on it. I look hilarious when I walk. Anyway...prayers would be appreciated...I'm really hoping that this is nothing serious...and just a sprain that will go away...I've been told bad injuries with ankles and knees can affect their performance for life...or at least make it way more likely that it will happen again. Again...pray for me...I am beginning to get a little worried about it because it's not improving like I expected...it's not one of those things that I can walk off like I'm used too. All in all, it's rather an odd experience for me...I can't ever remember having an injury that kept me from being able to walk and play sports if I wanted too...I've never broken a bone...never torn anything...and rarely even pulled a muscle...in fact I don't think I ever have. It's ironic that I spent my life doing dumb things like jumping from rock to rock on slippery boulders in my bare feet and sprinting down trails covered in large rocks in my crocs and never had a problem until I injured myself in a perfectly normal way playing a perfectly normal sport. I'm not joking when I say my footing is very good...I've spent my life backpacking and sprinting down trails covered in rocks and roots...I can go faster than anyone I've ever met on those terrains and my feet rarely slip...if they do it is easy for me to catch myself with my hands or in a roll...so yeah...odd...as I said again pray that this will be healed okay... for those of you that have had injuries you're prob. laughing at this, but it is new to me...I really don't get hurt or sick all that often. in fact, we've had about 3 or 4 sicknesses come through in the past month and I stayed well through all of them... ~anyway...farewell...have a good weekend! I just wanted to let you know the interesting things that are going on in the life of Dan! I know God is good no matter what happens. ~Dan midgett

The world is singing!

I'm ecstatically happy this morning!

Lately I've been having trouble sleeping, but I gave it to God and had the best night of the week...I feel so well rested! I'm also just really happy, it might have something to do with the fact that I have Ëarwen's blog up on another tab and am listening to her awesome list of beautiful tracks. But it's more than that...God is just so good! And I'm happy to be alive and serving my creator. I have every reason to be stressing...in fact I have a heavy Calc-based Physics II exam in an hour, but I'm not...in fact I'm not even studying...I'm doing this instead. ;)

I feel at peace about the test and life in general because I've spent ample time preparing, and because the world is singing right now...just open your windows and listen!!
Ah! The ecstasy...I'm an optimist by nature, but life never smelled so sweet before I began my personal relationship with my creator. I long to do nothing more than glorify the son...and as it says in John...

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "

so I can have faith that if I am about Jesus' work, he will always be beside me...and his joy will never fade. He even promises to work miracles through us if we are truly willing to believe in him! Which I've seen happen...but that's another story. What I'm talking about is God's love, and the ever-present joy that comes with that. Jesus didn't promise us eternal happiness...happiness is the shallow emotion of feeling pleased in the moment...the absence of dissapointment. But, Jesus promised us something much better. Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we do not have to fear. Wherever we go...wherever we turn...Jesus is beside us, congratulating us on our faithfulness...and it turns the harshest torture and bleakest prison into an ecstasy of the heart...a time for us to be caught up in the beauty of our creator. The one and only God, who endured far more that we might commune with him as we are now...and if that is the case...then who cares what happens to me...I want to be faithful to that God! You see...God doesn't promise that we won't feel fear, anger, despair, or any of the other negative emotions that are so common to man...he promises that their power has been taken away...he promises joy and hope in the midst of them. We wouldn't be human if we didn't feel fear at times, we wouldn't be human if we weren't sad when a good friend dies or is hurt, yet there is a difference between joy and happiness. America and the world seeks happiness...something that is as shallow as it is elusive...but joy...that is something difference. Joy is much deeper, it is a fruit of the spirit...promised to come from that spirit residing in us...if we are living in God we are guaranteed his joy...a comfort when we are sad...temperance for our anger...and something that never fades. Obviously we are imperfect and you may not always feel like God's promise of joy is true...but they may be because you think joy is something it isn't. You see...I can be peaceful inside and communing with my God anywhere...and if I'm right in the middle of the road...walking out his plan for my life joy is there...it is when I hop off that road and take detours that I begin to wonder where my confidence has gone...it's from God...it was never in me. And knowing I am with God is stronger than any circumstance...he's proved to me I will always feel his joy if I reach out my hand to accept it...and I feel it now...I feel it in the wind, and in the trees, I see it in my fellow Christians here at college...and if I am willing to sing the song that the whole world is already lifting up to God I can join the chorus of joy that daily streams to my creator...it's way better than worrying about a physics test that I've already prepared for!

A Sonnet Sung From Sand and Time:

The Music of life drifts over me
The gifts of heaven--sung in heart
The talents given from my God
A living love--a holy spark

The music of life--I feel inside
The pulsing beauty of my world
Emotions shift upon a wind
Of paradise within the swirl

The gift of music in the ear
A love that lurks in mind
A sonnet that is sung for me
Within the sands of time

A precious gift--from God it streams
This "inner ear" of mine
My heart it echoes with the words
Reverberating lines

Simplistic forms of nature--
They dance and twist with me
lines contort in lovely shapes
Existing just to be

The world is moving in a swirl
No form is still--but sings in night
The music echoes with the rhyme
As song and form take flight

Music twists with mellow notes
And draws a laugh from me
The chimes in the window tinkle
A sound that comes from thee

And still the dance--contorts in me
A flowing picture of our ties
When humans try to break our world
It only gives it life

And seeing this--I realize that
In truth--we pose no threat
The world will sing despite us
Yet sing even more in our debt

We give its voices life and breath
Yet crush them in our minds
We sing and dance--and pulse with it
Yet with our hearts we bind

But think what we--using our gifts
Could do within this sea
You have but to open your mind
And then you'll dance me

And where there was one--now there is two
Both channeling the breeze
Together we can ride the swirl
Of an undulating sea

Come sing and dance within my world
Come three and then come four
Together--we can do even more
For nature, and for God

~Dan Midgett 9/6/08 1:20 PM

...I hope the joy of God rests on you all today! Join the chorus of Christianity today...it would make me very happy! ;)

Poetry's Square (Entry 2):

For poetry fans and readers: I break several conventions when I write poetry. The most confusing one for English teachers is that I habitually eliminate punctuation from the end of each line. It is my "style" if you will. In poetic convention, if you do not have punctuation at the end of each line; however, you are supposed to read through it and act like there is no break. For me, though, you can just assume that as each line ends...there is a hidden comma, period, colon, or semicolon there. most people pause at the end of each line anyway...but you aren't supposed to...I will try to insert the appropriate symbols for posts ...but if I miss a few that's why. They aren't there in my poetry folder. I think, for those who rigidly follow grammar, that if you will pause appropriately at the end of each line, esp. on the last post that you will more easily discover the underlying rhythym. But most of you didn't seem to have a problem...I suppose it's easier to find the pattern then I expected anyway...and I just realized that explanation was pointless since I will be inserting the punctuation from now on. Actually, just forget all of that...not every line pauses, and I didn't realize the problem, because I know in my mind how it is supposed to sound...here I'll fix it. ;)

That aside...
For the surreal-minded here is an interesting poem for you:
Ask yourself this question: What would the world look like without God?
Here is my answer to that question...

Where the Banshee Calls:

Shout a song of violence,
And see our hearts ignite.
Volcanoes deep within ourselves
Spew forth a hellish light.

Deep within a warlike psyche
Lays death, a latent strife.
Takes but a key to open up
Before Pandora bites.

Mirrors gleam upon the walls
And hearts stare back at us.
The mocking faces always call
And echo back our lusts.

Red and black--still we lack--
Our burning banish us;
To ever wander by ourselves
Amidst the curs’ed dust.

Wail and moan--death and groan--
The Banshee calls upon its own.
Upon our moonless nights of gray,
That turn to fire with the day.

There morning glistens with surprise,
On blades of blood, with red sunrise,
For all the world is burning.
There is no cure for what's inside.

Terror gleams and favor rides,
Upon the wings of death’s arise.
To endless sleep--we hear the call--
And rush to kill--and then we fall...

The shutter halts its onward thrust,
Our work--again--returns to dust.
For human is as human does;
We all are products of our lust.

Dissipation--haunting calls.
It echoes softly in our dreams,
As dreams to dust again return,
And silence reigns on flick'ring scenes...

~Dan Midgett 12/12/08 9:00 PM

musings...

I hope to have a longer entry soon. Until now, I'll post this small snippet of encouragement. Enjoy and stay tuned!

To Muse:

Look what stirs...music
Lilting waves of pure sonnet that drift with the fragrance born of soul-song.
The haunting songs of footsteps speak upon the doorsteps of a world asleep.
The being whispers through sky and city...lilting like a lark as it drifts
From door to door...hour by hour the song echoes through all we live in and all we breathe.
It is the life-song the God-song...and it longs to be united with our soul-song.
Diaphanous whispers of purple vapor drift like lace across the edges of our minds,
The spring echoes, then moves on--who hears?
Music--the soft sound of a world rejoicing in what it once was--a cry of restoration;
Referendum of creatures--life-song.
The voice calling like a ghost of our past--haunting in the light of a bitter moon:
For us to be more than we are...
What lives we live oh sleepers,
What breaths we breathe, encased in minds of lead.
There is a hope that has whispered for generations...
When will your soul speak soul-song again?
~Dan Midgett 12/25/08 10:00 PM

A comment that became a blog:

So, I was thinking about the comment Bethany left on her last blog entry, and I started to reply to it...but after typing forever I found that I basically had a blog entry in that little box lol...so here are my funny musings for everyone who wants to hear. this is an odd topic so stop reading if love makes you uneasy...lol

To Bethany and other girls in general who are curious about how I view girls and relationships:
And to guys who feel the call to love as God would have them love...here is a message for you:

I think you misunderstood my comment. I wasn't saying you won't be "boy-crazy" if your father was a loving one...I was saying that many girls feel the lack of their father's love and it is one of the things that makes them hungry for the love they find in relationships...being interested in boys is a natural thing. I certainly wasn't saying that it wasn't. You could call me "girl-crazy" too if your requirements were that I was interested in them and seek out attention from them. The difference is I don't feel like I "need" a relationship other than friendship with them. Sometimes I find myself thinking fondly of being in love...or, if I am in love...of letting the one I love know. but I certainly don't "need" a relationship because God is my love and he has done such beautiful things with me as a single. In many ways I'm like your friends I suppose. I've never dated and had very few crushes. But that is also primarily because God has been an amazing friend, and because when I do like someone I tend to like them for a long time. And because when I like them...I still don't feel like I need to date them. Because I know that if I truly loved them I would wait for God. Don't get me wrong...I'm extremely interested in a girl if I like her, and find myself thinking of things like marriage and spending time together all the time, however, I know that without God's timing...all my fond plans could very seriously hurt the girl that I love. It would be a false love indeed that took for itself and disregarded the plans that God might have for someone. That would be a selfish love...not something I want. That's why God's a paradox, because I find I can't love girls like they deserve unless I love in a way that the world often sees as weak. What guy in love would wait and never do anything...even to the point of losing the one he loved? The one that cares more about them then he does about himself is who. If that sounds weird think of it this way: I've found in my life that there is nothing more wonderful then being exactly in the middle of God's plan for you. I don't ever want to date someone unless I'm seriously thinking of marrying them, because otherwise there would be no point. And if my intention is not marriage then I don't see how what I would be doing would be any different from being a good, close friend. I'd just be playing with people for my own pleasure. something I can't abide to do...it may seem attractive, but it's just not something I'm very interested in. So, if I don't want to date someone unless I'm thinking of marrying them (that's called courting), and if I know that the most blissful, healthy, and wonderful thing in the world is being right in the middle of God's plan...then obviously, at least in my mind, the last thing I would want to do to someone I sincerely loved would be to get in the way of God's plans for them by pursuing my own ideas of passion. God must lead me there, otherwise I am not walking the path that he has shown me. Anyway...I'll shut up before I start rambling about love...I'm entirely too much of a romantic even though I've never been in a relationship...and I've been very happy that way. It's a paradox really. I love girls to death, but I just don't feel like being a boyfriend...I guess I'm afraid, but I also know that you girls would distract me entirely too much! ;) ...and GOD has laid claim to my attention during this part of my life...

I'm waiting for God's time...be that never or sometime in the future. I know if I wait for him I won't have to worry about messing up my love life...and as it is I get to know tons of awesome girls anyway...I've met quite a few just this week, and it's wonderful to see God in the lives of each and every one of them. And I can't mess that up...if I am to be a man of God I must stand firm in his way, and be a blessing, not a burden, to the christian girls I meet. I don't want them to be worrying about me...I want to give you all the assurance that I love you so completely that if you ever get romantic attention from me then I'm pretty sure God has given me the go-ahead. I admire you all so much...and thank you for respecting me. May God give you men that love you with his own agape love. However exciting love is in the moment, remember this. If the man you find yourself with does not love God more than you...and is not willing to sacrifice being with you for God...then that man will never be able to love you as completely and as wonderfully as you deserve. It's another paradox, but a true one. If we do not learn to love God above everything...then God, the father of our true love, cannot teach us how to love like he does. And what do you want...our incomplete love? However wonderful that may seem in the moment... Or the love of God, the omnipotent creator who has loved you before you even began to dream that you would be yearning for love now.

Let's give it up for a God who loves!
I hope every one of you gets a man who loves you like you deserve...

~Dan Midgett

A world of spirit--within each of us cries:

Lately, I've been thinking and remembering. Remembering the songs God has sung with me in my past...and the goodness that he has extended to me. There are many things I can look back on with fondness...such as the first night I abandoned myself to him and began to run and spin around in an open field under the stars. The first day that my happiness turned into song and I learned to express my bliss in words never spoken before, be they English or some other language. These things have now become such an intimate part of my relationship with my creator that I can't imagine knowing him apart from the gifts of song, joy, and esp. poetry.

poetry is a part of me, a facet of my life and an outlet for my joy and emotions...each time I write I can feel the creative energies creating something else unique...something is caught up within me and I am with God. In fact some of my poems have been written when i was so drunk in the holy spirit that I can still remember my mood. Ecstatic exuberance...frenetic typing. Sometimes I would be so excited and full of God that I would close my eyes and just type, following every thought, and wave of joy and love that drifted me from place to place. Because of this, I frequently list poetry as something, that at least for me, is very closely akin to an expression of the Holy Spirit. The first week when I really learned that I had this gift inside of me, was one of the best weeks of my life. I had taken a single semester of poetry class maybe 2 years earlier...and being me...I got bored with all the analysis. I felt like I was dissecting people's lives, and as a result being in poetry class did little to start me writing. It wasn't until God exploded in my life that I began writing for myself. Not to fit a format or try something I had seen...but...to just...write. You know...for the heck of writing...because I felt such wonderful feelings that they needed to be put on paper. Never have I written like I did that first week, in such sheer volume. In the space of a single week...I spent almost every night up until 2:00 in the morning walking, singing, talking to God, and writing poetry. I produced about 15 pages of poetry that week...and then left for college. It was a special time. Then, one month later, about this time actually, at the beginning of september I had another week where I composed poetry every day...each time it produced poems that still catch me up when i read them. And I can remember, and feel again, the emotions that I felt when i wrote them. When I read Bracie's invitation to join poetry square, I thought about it and realized that I really, really wanted to join. There are maybe, only 2 or 3 peoply in the world right now that know over 5-10% of my poetry, and every time I have thought I might share it with teachers or with groups that publish such things, God has stopped me. I have no idea why, but I feel in my heart that this may be my first chance to really share anything with a larger group. I thought picking the poem to post was going to be excruciatingly hard, because I have written about 70 pages of it...but I had forgotten something about my poetry folder. In the midst of all those pages and pages of myself lies a picture of my life. Every time I start to read it again, I realize how beautiful God is, and it inspires me again and again. I opened the folder...scrolled through a little ditty I wrote about a vocabulary contest...and came to the first real poem I ever wrote...and realized that it was the one I wanted to post. It may not be my best. Really, I dont' even care, but it gives a picture of me...my struggles to love and handle my gifts of empathy...which can be quite excruciating at times. The best way to show myself is to show where I came from and what God has done...and this first poem that I wrote embodies that, maybe better than all 65 pages that follow it. To anyone who is interested:
give it up for "Song of Empathy," which rightly could be called the poem of my spiritual birth...it embodies something I discovered about myself and the answer God gave...it almost reminds me of a Church of Christ hymn:

Song of Empathy:

Spring from my heart O love of God
Never stem the flowing stream
You love it races--'gainst the fog
and in my heart it gently gleams

You call my heart--O lovely Lord
And draw me to your grace
But wand'ring hearts and fickle souls
--they leave me in disgrace

My heart and soul feel fire Lord
And empathy brings pain
What once was gift--now it is rift
as spirit--Lord--takes blame

Smold'ring in my heart Lord
The world's disgrace sinks in
My heart once open with your love
Now it is steeped in sin

A sin so vast--a seamless mass
A void so dark and grim
That light of day--turns into gray
And fills me to the brim

Your gift O Lord--YOUR precious gift
Has given me with this pain
My heart it groans within my soul
And who can take the blame?

But then in desperation rise
A light within the sky
Of red and blue and violet hue
A rainbow up on high

The colors sparkle--shifting lights
Upon a sea of gold
A swirl and burst of brightness leaves
A joy within my soul

The brightness swirls--my body twirls
Aloft within the air
And laughter echoes in my mind
And leaves me void of care

Your love O Lord--salubrious
a sea of molten gold
And floating in that blissful place
I finally found home

And in a night of glittering lights
My soul was bound to thee
Not through my faith--but by your grace
A chain of love between

And as the lights--they fade away
a gently whisp'ring hum
An afterimage rests within
a picture of your son

What once was green--what once was home
What once was colored--gay and warm
What once was life and breath yet smoke
That now is gone--'tis only hope

My heart--it longed to cleave to you
And love it gently spoke
My fears awash in holy love
My heart has found its hope

What once was mind it now is heart
I solemnly intone
Upon my honor, hope, and soul
I'll find your holy throne

You write your laughter on my lips
My God YOU are my muse
My eyes they glow with your eclipse
My mind is but a ruse

I will no longer run and hide
From feeling others' pain
my God you've shown me how dear Lord
My heart is not to blame

I once was lost upon a sea
Of vastness great--and darkness keen
But now I've found the key dear Lord
Your love a chain to urge me forward

My optimism--once a joy
then fell to empathy
But heart and soul once bound by pain
Has swallowed your reprieve

The only way to find your heart
Was through your holy love
I could not find the answer true
'til joy fell from above

My heart that grieves for world and sin
Has found its blissful rest
The answer is: to channel love
And leave it on God's breast...

Dan Midgett, composed: 7/31/08