God is

Reflections from July 2026

Summer has been good. I’ve been relaxing lots as well as traveling. Two separate trips to California, one to Houston. It’s concluding though, and I’m preparing to dive back into my fifth year as a high school teacher.

God is the Music

A young man sits before pages of sheet music. Treble and bass clefs stretch their notes along the page. Dots stack and flow, rise and fall, race and space out, each taking their time. And this young man, even if he can name all the notes and identify the chords and cadences, will be robbed if he never sets his hands to the keys.

Sheet music is for playing.

Daniel Coleman wrote that, “God-as-communicator is like a specific kind of writer, like a composer of music, whose text is inaudible until someone actually picks up a violin or a guitar and brings the silent text to life” (In Bed with The Word, 80). This idea made me reconsider what scripture is for. The sheet music means nothing unless it brings about music. Reading the scriptures without living the way Christ teaches is like naming notes but never setting your hand to the piano. God is not revealed in the word alone, but in our living of it.

“The important thing is not to think much but to love much” (Teresa of Ávila).

You will only hear the music as you try to play it.

God is a Child Painter

I’ve had this poem in my notes for a while. I don’t know if it’s at its final form, but I’m happy enough with it to share it here.

Sunset persuades me
that God is a child painter
with an early bedtime,
and mother is walking
up the stairs to see
if he is, in fact, asleep.

Instead of resting his head,
he has left bed to put
his hands to paint.
The clouds love his colors,
and he loves to play.

A split-second before
his mother opens the door,
God leapfrogs back to bed
winks out the lights
and pretends to sleep. 

Of course mother knows. 
But she plays along and sends 
him a kiss from the palm 
of her hand then looks
toward the west and whispers
I think this is His best yet.

And our little painter, 
no matter how hard he tries,
can’t seem to fight the easy rise
of his mouth into its
lovely, sunbright smile.

Drawings

I’ve been drawing more. Mostly trees (some with colored pencils) and scenes from places I’m at. I also recently bought oil pastels to try out. I wasn’t thrilled with my first attempts, but I did four small scenes on the same page that I’m quite proud of.

Photography

Tahoe boats; 4th of July balloon; sky and lamp; sky

Field Recordings

Hidden Beach @ Lake Tahoe

Goodies

Blue Prince ☞ My girlfriend and I got this game at the beginning of July and have put in about 40 hours already. Escape room meets board game, but it’s actually a video game. It’s been fun to play together. We have pages of notes. Also, we’re pretty good at it, ngl.

Cycles by Bernardo Castro ☞ My favorite find of the month. Beautiful, soothing, and many subtle textures to find. Listening from top to bottom is the recommendation. If you only choose a few, try tracks 8 and 4 (Camino a casa; Abuelita).

LUXURY (live) Jon Bellion ☞ This put a grin on my face that I could not remove.

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2026 Book Log

FINISHED READING

January

• Why They Can’t Write — John Warner

• More Than Words — John Warner

February

• Death Comes for the Archbishop — Willa Cather

• Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson

April

• The Editors — Stephen Harrison

• March Book 1 — John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

• March Book 2 — John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

• Ghost Town — Eric Colossal

May

• Night — Elie Wiesel

• Make Sneaky Art — Nishant Jain

June

• The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness — Andy Puddicombe

• The Art of Living — Grant Snider

• First You Write a Sentence — Joe Moran

July

• In Bed with the Word — Daniel Coleman

• Summerland — Michael Chabon

• Mindfulness in Plain English — Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

• Attached — Amir Levine and Rachel Heller

August

• Skip — Molly Mendoza

• Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark — James K. A. Smith

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CURRENTLY READING

• Liturgies of the Wild — Martin Shaw

• The World-Ending Fire — Wendel Berry

• The Fellowship of the Ring — J.R.R. Tolkien