Stanton Lanier

Scripture inspired piano to refresh your spirit

Day 16 for “31 Days of December Peace” ~ The Top

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Click above to listen to Silence as you read, from December Peace (Best Holiday Album, ZMR Awards). If you enjoy, consider sampling and ordering the CD, MP3 Album or sheet music. You can also listen on Spotify, Pandora Holiday Channel, Apple Music and all other digital streaming services.

This story is from 31 Days of December Peace (soft cover or PDF eBook). Also available from Amazon Kindle, iTunes, and other e-Readers.

Where could you use some “December Peace” today?

The Top ~ by Stanton Lanier (Copyright 2012, not to be re-published without permission)

My first job in high school was at a canoe rental called Adventures Unlimited. It was the summer after my junior year. 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.

AU Canoeing Photo

One of the first things I learned was a lot of vehicles in the world do not have an automatic transmission. My boss was assigning vehicles one Saturday and asked, “Who wants to drive the bread truck?” I eagerly volunteered and stepped up to start the engine. It started bucking like a giant horse. I didn’t know I was supposed to hold down the clutch pedal with my left foot and at the same time give it gas with my right foot! Everyone’s laughter invited me to smile.

The next summer I graduated to the old five-speed school buses. I was responsible for forty passengers with paddles, life jackets, coolers, beer, cigarettes, and occasionally some kind of cigarette that didn’t smell like a regular cigarette. I discovered the world is made up of all kinds of people, including some that really like to party.

Something I didn’t expect from this canoe rental job was a growing appreciation for solitude. I would often volunteer to take a job called “the top.” It was twelve miles up river where trailers full of canoes were unloaded for the day trip. At 7 a.m. there I would be, just me and one hundred canoes to be carried on my shoulders down to the sandbar. I relished the physical workout. The reward of solitude came when all the canoes were on the beach. I could take a swim in the river or just lay back on a cushion in a canoe. The only sounds were the gentle flow of the river, the breeze in the tops of tall pine trees and birds singing. This was a treasured time to relax, rest and be refreshed. It wasn’t too long before the school buses would start arriving filled with people. This experience taught me the value of slowing down and being still along the way.

What was your favorite summer job growing up? What did you learn? Where is your haven for solitude?

December 16th ~ The Top

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Click above to listen to Silence as you read. This piano solo is from 2009 Best Holiday Album December Peace (ZMR Awards, winning over Enya and Yo-Yo Ma). If you enjoy, please consider sampling and ordering the CD, MP3 Album or sheet music. You can also listen and download on iTunes and all other digital outlets.

This story is from 31 Days of December Peace (soft cover or eBook). Also available from Amazon Kindle, iTunes, and other e-Readers.

Where could you use some “December Peace” today?

The Top ~ by Stanton Lanier (Copyright 2012, not to be re-published without permission)

My first job in high school was at a canoe rental called Adventures Unlimited. It was the summer after my junior year. 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.

AU Canoeing Photo

One of the first things I learned was a lot of vehicles in the world do not have an automatic transmission. My boss was assigning vehicles one Saturday and asked, “Who wants to drive the bread truck?” I eagerly volunteered and stepped up to start the engine. It started bucking like a giant horse. I didn’t know I was supposed to hold down the clutch pedal with my left foot and at the same time give it gas with my right foot! Everyone’s laughter invited me to smile.

The next summer I graduated to the old five-speed school buses. I was responsible for forty passengers with paddles, life jackets, coolers, beer, cigarettes, and occasionally some kind of cigarette that didn’t smell like a regular cigarette. I discovered the world is made up of all kinds of people, including some that really like to party.

Something I didn’t expect from this canoe rental job was a growing appreciation for solitude. I would often volunteer to take a job called “the top.” It was twelve miles up river where trailers full of canoes were unloaded for the day trip. At 7 a.m. there I would be, just me and one hundred canoes to be carried on my shoulders down to the sandbar. I relished the physical workout. The reward of solitude came when all the canoes were on the beach. I could take a swim in the river or just lay back on a cushion in a canoe. The only sounds were the gentle flow of the river, the breeze in the tops of tall pine trees and birds singing. This was a treasured time to relax, rest and be refreshed. It wasn’t too long before the school buses would start arriving filled with people. This experience taught me the value of slowing down and being still along the way.

What was your favorite summer job growing up? What did you learn? Where is your haven for solitude?

Four Essential Tools to Stay Inspired

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Click above to listen to Streams from the album Draw Near. If you enjoy, consider ordering the CD or MP3 Album, or Sheet Music (the song is also on iTunes, Amazon , Spotify, Pandora, and more).

How do you navigate life’s ups and downs?

If you feel like you are more in a valley or desert right now, instead of a mountain top or sanctuary, this happens to me too. When we are feeling down, there is a way to climb upward.

It wasn’t obvious then, but in the early 1980s four practices were planted in my heart. They happened working summers at Adventures Unlimited canoe rental in the Florida panhandle. Each one is an essential tool I can remember and apply to rise up from life’s “downs,” or when celebrating life’s “ups.”

Canoes 1

Maybe all four, or at least one, can inspire your journey. Here is how each seed took root at the canoe rental, and then blossomed into fruit when I learned verses to apply (thanks to Charles Swindoll and his powerful little book Intimacy with the Almighty). All four of them became song titles in my early years of composing Scripture inspired piano.

1. SIMPLICITY. Take time to do simple things, to see life and the world through a child’s eyes. Unload the canoes in the morning, drive customers to the starting point, show them how to canoe, load up the canoes in the afternoon. The work day was simple. Give the customer a great experience, and stir their child-like simplicity. This song on the album Draw Near was inspired by Ecclesiastes 7:29 — “God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.”

2. SILENCE. Take time to unplug, be silent, pray, and listen for God’s voice. I loved the job of unloading one hundred canoes on the sandbar to be ready for customers (see the photo above). I worked in silence and it was silent when the work was done. So silent I could only hear the water, the wind, and the birds. This song on the album Still Waters and re-recorded on December Peace was inspired by Habakkuk 2:20 — “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

3. SOLITUDE. Take time to be alone. Working outdoors along a river provided lots of alone time. Many special moments come from solitude…working hard, resting well, creating calmly, listening closely. This song on the album Walk in the Light was inspired by Mark 1:35 — “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

4. SURRENDER. Take a position of surrendering control with relationships, work and play. This took the longest and is the hardest for me. Sometimes life’s worst moments offer the best possibility for responding with surrender. This song on the album Draw Near was inspired by Proverbs 3:5-6 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

What can you do to practice more simplicity, silence, solitude and surrender?

The song Streams also reminds me of the Coldwater River (in the photo) and was inspired by Psalm 42:1-2 — “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

Day 16, 31 Days of December Peace ~ The Top

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Click above to listen to Silence as you read. This piano solo is from 2009 Best Holiday Album December Peace (ZMR Awards, winning over Enya and Yo-Yo Ma). If you enjoy, please consider sampling and ordering the CD, MP3 Album or sheet music. You can also listen and download on iTunes and all other digital outlets.

This story is from 31 Days of December Peace (soft cover or eBook). Also available from Amazon Kindle, iTunes, and other e-Readers.

Where could you use some “December Peace” today?

The Top ~ by Stanton Lanier (Copyright 2012, not to be re-published without permission)

My first job in high school was at a canoe rental called Adventures Unlimited. It was the summer after my junior year. 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.

AU Canoeing Photo

One of the first things I learned was a lot of vehicles in the world do not have an automatic transmission. My boss was assigning vehicles one Saturday and asked, “Who wants to drive the bread truck?” I eagerly volunteered and stepped up to start the engine. It started bucking like a giant horse. I didn’t know I was supposed to hold down the clutch pedal with my left foot and at the same time give it gas with my right foot! Everyone’s laughter invited me to smile.

The next summer I graduated to the old five-speed school buses. I was responsible for forty passengers with paddles, life jackets, coolers, beer, cigarettes, and occasionally some kind of cigarette that didn’t smell like a regular cigarette. I discovered the world is made up of all kinds of people, including some that really like to party.

Something I didn’t expect from this canoe rental job was a growing appreciation for solitude. I would often volunteer to take a job called “the top.” It was twelve miles up river where trailers full of canoes were unloaded for the day trip. At 7 a.m. there I would be, just me and one hundred canoes to be carried on my shoulders down to the sandbar. I relished the physical workout. The reward of solitude came when all the canoes were on the beach. I could take a swim in the river or just lay back on a cushion in a canoe. The only sounds were the gentle flow of the river, the breeze in the tops of tall pine trees and birds singing. This was a treasured time to relax, rest and be refreshed. It wasn’t too long before the school buses would start arriving filled with people. This experience taught me the value of slowing down and being still along the way.

What was your favorite summer job growing up? What did you learn? Where is your haven for solitude?

Four Reasons to Practice Solitude

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Click above to listen to Solitude from my 2001 debut album Walk in the Light as you read. If you enjoy, consider purchasing the song, album download, or CD from iTunes, Amazon or stantonlanier.com (where sheet music is also available).

What is your favorite way to practice solitude?

When I was in high school and college I worked several summers at a canoe rental in the Florida panhandle (Adventures Unlimited is still going strong and has beautiful canoe trips and awesome zip line courses – today’s photo is from a return visit to the Coldwater River in 2012).

My favorite job was called “the top.” A co-worker would drop me off at 7 a.m. at the beginning of the twelve mile day trip. At the same time other co-workers would unhitch trailers full of canoes and drive back to home base. Within a few minutes it was just me and one hundred canoes to unload. For the next hour, one by one, I would carry them on my shoulders down to the sandbar beach. It was an awesome physical workout, but here is why I loved this job so much…

AU Canoeing Photo
If I could finish by 8 a.m. or maybe a little sooner if I hustled, I knew I would have twenty to thirty minutes to soak in the cool, clear, shallow river (before the busloads of canners would start arriving). Or, I could lie back on a cushion in a canoe and just listen to the breeze blowing through the tops of pine trees, or the birds singing to start a new morning. I wasn’t thinking about it a lot then, but looking back, I was learning to practice solitude. It was refreshing and energizing. It made my attitude more positive and my work more productive.

To this day, I can draw on those memories, and I know what a difference it can make to be alone, to be still, and to take in the moment. Whether taking a morning jog or swim, or sitting in my den before the world awakes, I like to listen for God’s gentle whisper in these moments. I am alone, but I am not lonely. The more I practice solitude, the more enriching it becomes. Four motivating reasons for me are: 1. Refreshment, 2. Energy, 3. Positive Attitude, and 4. Productive Work.

How could some moments of solitude shed light on a life decision you are facing?

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” – Mark 1:35

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?