10/28/06 Jeff Melvin passed away yesterday. Jeff was only 45 years old and I had only known him for a little over three years, but I counted him as a friend. Jeff passed away at the Intensive Care Unit of the Cullman Regional Medical Center in the early afternoon around 2 PM of kidney and liver failure. Gerri, Julie and I were there with his mother Edna, her sister and husband and Marsha Glover. It was very unexpected and very sad.

I first met Jeff when we opened the coffee house in January, three years ago, he was one of our first customers and spent a lot of his off time in the store. He had just moved back from Birmingham to live with his mother. He was working in a job where he was gone several days to a week or so at a time, often out of state, so we would see him a lot between jobs, often more than once a day, and then he would be gone for long periods. But back then our store wasn't busy and Jeff and I were able to talk sometimes for hours almost uninterrupted. He always ordered a double espresso and when he finished that, a large coffee.

Jeff was a big guy and could appear somewhat intimidating with his tattoos, his left arm was tattood from elbow to wrist, but he was in reality a gentle giant very soft spoken and respectful. When I met him, Jeff was trying to get his life back together. He had worked as a club manager, bartender, bouncer in Birmingham nightclubs for years and had also been a hard core drug addict and a drug dealer, with a habit that ran hundreds of dollars a day at times. His passion was music and he was extremely knowledgeable about many genres of music, knew most of the local performers on the Birmingham and larger Southeast music scene, and was an avid concert goer. He also played guitar, but didn't own one when I first met him and had bought one fairly recently and was trying to get back into it.

Last year Jeff entered the Wallace State College machinist program and his hope was to become a machinist. Unfortunately it was only after a little more than one semester, as I recall, when his health began to deteriorate and he had to quit the program, but he always intended to go back. From that point his health just got worse and worse and he was fighting one health problem after another, mostly legecies from his past life style. I didn't see him much over the past six months or so, he was too sick to get around, but every now and then he would stop by for a short visit and we would talk. Over the past few years he had taken back control over his mental and spiritual life and by the time his body failed him was well along in his goal to remake his life. It was during this time that he was able to reconnect with family and friends and restablish and strengthen bonds that had stretched thin over the years.

Jeff Melvin's legacy is bittersweet. Bitter in that his life was ended too soon, a victim of the circumstances he got caught up in years ago, with many unrealized hopes, dreams and talents that would have enriched us all. Sweet in the sense that had reconciled with God, family and friends, and was able to share himself again in their lives, even if it was for a fairly short time, which made his passing somewhat easier. It was a blessing for me to have known Jeff and I will always miss him.

10/27 We had a really interesting discussion at the Organic Church last night. We talked about Christian environmentalism. The basic premise was that the salvation mentioned in John 3:16, the foundation scripture that everyone quotes, really applies to all of the creation and not just to humankind. In fact in the quote "God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son..." the term "world" in the Greek is kosmos and can be translated "the universe". Therefore Jesus came not only to provide personal salvation for believers, but also to restore the creation from the abuses of mankind. We talked alot about the spiritual aspects of the creation, that was interesting, and how much God loves all aspects of the creation. All of this was tied to scripture. The bottom line was that if we, as Christians, truly want to be disciples of Jesus and reflect the love of God, then our attitude toward the creation should incorporate these views as well. But, as we all know, the Christian church does not support these views and certainly does not teach true creation stewardship as outlined in the bible. Their focus is on a personal relationship with God, a reconciling with mankind, but neglect reconciliation with nature as not being particularily important. Also many in the church are fearful of being labled pagan or new age. I think that this is a serious failing of the church, a gross misreading of scripture and the will of God, and deprives it of a powerful potential witness in the world.

10/26/06 I'm getting kind of lax on this blog, just too much going on I guess. I'll try to do better. There are some updates I need to make.

We had a good open mike on the 18th. I want to specifically mention a young man from Fairview, Baily Easterwood, whom I had not heard before. He performed and I really liked his stuff. We agreed that he would come back and do a concert which will be held January 6th. I would encourage everyone to come, we need to support young talent and he is very good.

The Organic Church has been meeting regularly every Thursday night and we have had some great discussions. What is good about this is that there are people present from several denominations from Baptist to Church of Christ and everything in between. The format starts with singing usually Csilla Elam leads that, but Josh Brooks, Andy Stephens when he still lived here and David Speegle have led it when Csilla couldn't come. Then it involves into a bible discussion on a wide range of topics. Jason Elam normally leads the discussion, but others have as well. The discussions are always good, we air our differences and share our similarities, all in a pleasant atmosphere. The last thing we do is pray for each other. We all go away spiritually uplifted.

i wanted to say something about the election retoric that is covering the airwaves. It is attrocious and you do not know who to believe. I guess you can't believe any of them. None have our interests at heart unfortunately. I have thought about putting up a sign on the store window that reads "Join the Voter Revolution, Vote Them All Out" But that wouldn't work unless we voted all the new guys out next time, then maybe somebody would get the message. I'm tired about hearing that marriage is only for a man and a women. Duh!!! Lets talk about how to handle immigration or health care or some other issues just as critical. The main problem is we continue to vote for people who seem like nice guys who bring home some of the pork to our local communities and don't care about how they vote on issues that matter or how they spend our money. If you are registered please vote this time, if you are not registered I think you can still until Friday of this week.

10/16/06 The coffee house was filled with good old folk music last Saturday night as Three Forks of the Flint performed. Sue Charles on autoharp, Danny Charles on fiddle and Jack Ellis on 6 and 12 string guitar make up the band. I sat in and played some background banjo and did a couple of tunes also. Their play set included old standards like Gold Watch and Chain, Greenland Fisheries, Going Down the Road Feeling Bad, Greenback Dollar and Beautiful Garden of Prayer as well as more contemporary folk songs such as Angelina Baker, Going to the West and Red Clay Halo. They did a nice rendition of Flower From the Fields of Alabama and the Ske Boate Song from Scotland. Danny did a couple of fiddle tunes to start each set, Red Wing and Whiskey Before Breakfast. We all had a good time and it was great hearing from Sue and Danny agian.

10/8/06 Larry Woellhart performed last night in "one of the best concerts we have ever had" according to one of my customers. That is saying a lot because we have had some great ones. Unfortunately he performed to a very sparse crowd which was very disapointing to me personally and I'm sure to him as well. Larry has a unique style, he focuses mostly on 60's and 70's music that most of us know regardless of our ages. He sings and plays folk, pop and country in his own style, but very faithful to the originals. I was really impressed by the breadth of his selections, everybody from Donavon to Marty Robbins, including John Prine, Kris Kristoferson, James Taylor and on and on. He played straight through for over two hours and we never tired of listening to him. He did something I had never seen done before, he left two sets of playlists on a table with post it notes and anyone could go through his list of songs and write them down and the stick the notes to his music stand. Almost everyone took advantage of this opportunity and thus Larry performed requested songs most of the night. A good touch. We all hope Larry will come back soon.

10/5/06 Tonight is the full moon, in this case the Harvest Moon, which in the past before electricity. was a night, or series of nights, when farmers could harvest their fields by the light of the moon just before the first frost. It was arguably the most important full moon of the year, since it was often a critical time for harvesting activites. Also, at this time of year two of the most recognizable constellations, probably my two favorites, frame the night sky; the summer constellation Scorpio setting in the west and winter's Orion rising in the east. Both have a remarkable red star in their makeup, Anteres, the heart of Scorpio and Betelguise, one of the four corners of Orion. On a clear night the Milky Way is overhead and the Dipper points to the north star from the northwestern horizon. Usually the weather is good and the humidity is down and one can sit out in the yard, or back 40, and take it all in. A very inspiring and spiritually uplifting atmosphere.

As the days get shorter and a little cooler, leaves begin to fall, birds start to flock and fly south, and autumn arrives too suddenly it seems, especially to those of us who are so busy, we don't keep up with the rhythm of nature. As the earth begins to prepare for winter, the pulse of nature begins to slow and I think we are effected by it, and thus this can be a time of year when many of us begin to reflect on things that are beyond ourselves. Nature kind of forces us to do that, autumn seems to focus us to face our own mortality. Autumn intrudes and the hopes of spring and the realities of summer begin to fade and we look back and wonder what we really did that mattered in this particular cycle of seasons and what we will do with the next cycle. It can be kind of overwhelming to sit outside on a clear autumn night, see the universe displayed above and smell the smells decay and the sounds of insects making their last stand before the onslaught of winter and consider the meaning of our lives.

The bible says that we can discover the divine attributes of God through meditation on Nature. And at this time of year we can see that He has kept His promises: Nature has been renewed for another year through photosynthesis and the food chain. The trees and plants, which provide the basic building blocks for life, have stored up enough energy in their root systems to survive the winter season. Those which are annuals have produced seed to regenerate while their bodies decay through the winter, restoring the soil which nourishes all life. Animals have cached food supplies and grown thicker fur or have begun preparations for hibernation. Insects have also insured their survival as species and many cast their bodies to the soil also. You can almost hear the gears shift as Nature slows and the hustle and bustle of the spring and summer begin to fade.

I love fall, but in the back of my mind is this nagging thought: "winter is coming", and the older I get the less I enjoy winter's cold and dreary personality. But even winter, when Nature seems to stand still, with its short, blustery days, often devoid of animate life, can be a time to reflect on the triumphs and failures which occurred during the last cycle, and plan to make a better future during the next cycle. A time to prepare for what is coming soon enough when the sun finally migrates as far south as it will go and begins to restore light and warmth to the land.

I think we are happiest in our lives when our thoughts and actions are attuned to the cycle of Nature: when we allow what God has put into motion to inspire and activate our lives. He not only fulfills His promises to Nature, but will fulfill them to us in the same way. It's when we take our eyes off of this marvelous happening all around us and become focused on the concrete and asphalt world we create, that our soul atrophies and our spirit dries up. This is a good time to put our minds back on things that reall matter. Enjoy and celebrate the fall, let it encourage and inspire you to be ready for the renewal of spring.