Stanton Lanier / Sky Whisper Sound, LLC

Scripture inspired piano to refresh your spirit

Adventures Unlimited – Part 2

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Over the years I have grown in embracing life as an adventure. I grew up loving basketball and piano, but was also good at math, science and numbers, so my approach to life was overly practical for a long time. Yesterday’s blog, “Adventures Unlimited – Part 1,” spoke to adventure sometimes being embarrassing, noisy or crowded.

Working at Adventures Unlimited also included moments of silence and solitude (by the way http://www.adventuresunlimited.com is still operating today in the Florida panhandle. It is a fantastic escape from life’s hectic pace). My favorite job at Adventures was called “the top.” Whoever worked “the top” would get dropped off around 7am on a weekend morning. A sunrise caravan of vehicles would leave at least 100 canoes to be unloaded by one guy for the most popular “day trip.”

I began to learn the importance of including times of solitude in my life as I would work to unload all the canoes, then rest in the river listening to the breeze, the birds and the flowing water. Solitude plays a vital role in pausing to listen for God’s voice in my life and in the creative process. Remembering Adventures Unlimited reminds me that life’s adventures can involve hard work and activity, as well as times of rest and solitude.

How about you? Are you nurturing the “adventure” part of your heart? Are you overly “practical” when you have opportunities to embrace adventure?

Adventures Unlimited – Part 1

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My first real job in high school was at a canoe rental called Adventures Unlimited.  It was the summer of 1981 after my junior year.  Somehow I didn’t end up bagging groceries, waiting tables, or flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant.  I had my new driver’s license and I was going to drive old trucks and vans full of people going canoeing or tubing on the Coldwater River near Milton, Florida.

Canoeing down the Coldwater River with my son’s Boy Scout troop brought back wonderful summer job memories.

One of the first things I learned was that there are a lot of vehicles in the world that do not have an automatic transmission.  My boss was assigning vehicles for one Saturday and asked, “Who wants to drive the bread truck?”  Picture a UPS truck, make it about forty years old, retrieve it out of a river with a crane, beat dents into it with a baseball bat, spray paint it sky blue, and feel the tremor of an old engine with a three foot long stick shift and you will have some idea of the bread truck.  As you may have guessed, I volunteered to drive it for that day.  So, I went over, put the keys in and cranked it up.  It started rocking like a giant amusement park ride.  I didn’t know I was supposed to hold down that third pedal (the clutch) with my left foot and at the same time turn the key and give it gas with my right foot.  You should have seen the guys laughing.  I thought I was going to show them I could do anything.  I ended up discovering I had a lot to learn.

After driving every van and truck that summer, including the bread truck, the next summer I graduated to the old school buses.  Driving a 1960 five-speed school bus is good training for life.  Especially when it has forty people on it with paddles, life jackets, coolers, beer, cigarettes, and occasionally some kind of cigarette that didn’t smell like a regular cigarette.  I was growing in responsibility, confidence, and the realization that the world is made up of all kinds of people, including some that really like to party. To be continued…

What was your favorite summer job growing up? Did you have an embarrassing moment? Did these experiences influence your spiritual journey?

Solitude Refreshes

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You will often see themes of simplicity, silence, solitude and surrender interwoven in my music and life stories. Solitude makes me think of the saying about how the quality of our private life produces the quality of our public life. Solitude refreshes, renews and revives. A few memories of solitude and current practices of solitude for me are:

  • Sitting all alone at the top of my favorite tree when I was ten years old
  • Going on a childhood bicycle ride to a friend’s house
  • Working at a canoe rental and being outdoors in the river all alone
  • Driving or camping all alone in open spaces, like northern Minnesota in grad school
  • Going for a run and listening to peaceful music
  • Waking up early for quiet time while most of the world is still sleeping

What are your favorite memories of solitude? What are your favorite practices of solitude?