Walk Through Hell

Perhaps one of the my favorite songs in recent years is "Walk Through Hell" by Say Anything.  We were lucky enough to see Max Bemis perform it live at the North Star Bar in Philadelphia this spring.  It was a highlight of the show.  Thanks to my iPhone, you can enjoy it too.

Remember to Breathe

I had originally planned to name my blog "Remember to Breathe" after the song by Dashboard Confessional of the same name.  The gist of the song is to "remember to breathe, and everything will be ok."  I have invoked that mantra a lot over the past year and probably will for the remainder of my years.  So, in honor of that, this is a live version of the song from a concert at the House of Blues last December. It was a special night with a special person.  At that concert, we got an autograph from Chris Carraba with that quote.  Here's the video; maybe later I'll post a picture of the tattoo that later got based on Chris' inscription:

Thoughtful Thursday

If I was a writer and had the skill and patience to write a memoir, this would be the first chapter.  I think.


     I cannot say with any definitiveness when human life begins.  This is a question best left to theologians, scientists and philosophers.  What I do know for certain is that I was born on February 5, 1972 but that was not when life began for me.  For the first twenty or so years of my life, I merely existed; occupying space on this planet and little more.  It wasn’t until March 7, 1992 that life began for me.

Finding My Voice

For the better part of my life, I have tried to blend into the background; to do nothing to attract unnecessary attention to myself.  I became very good at it.  I excelled in school yet few teachers knew my name or face.  I kept jobs others could not because I knew how to stay out of the range of our bosses’ fire. 

For the most part, this has usually served me fine.  I cannot honestly say it has served me great, but I got by.  What I did not realize is that the very trait that helped me survive for almost 39 years, one that I thought was a strength, was also the trait that was going to bring me to the lowest point of my life, where I stood to lose everything that held any meaning to me.

I have spent more than a year working to climb out of my personal abyss to find my voice, and in many ways, my identity.  My voice may only be a whisper today, but someday it will be loud and strong.