Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

the chronicle of Brooks first year

hanging out this morning with our friends at http://www.hatcherandfell.com . we are getting Brooks' one year pictures to add to the shrine wall of Brooks in the home.

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my dad the oil fighter

Many of you know my dad, many do not. Many don't know that he's been down in the Louisiana gulf coast area battling an oil spill as part of his "retirement." Dad's reputation got him a job offer from some company that was subcontracting for BP in the oil spill clean up & containment. Needless to say retirement was a bit boring for dad so he jumped at a chance to do some work. He's been coordinator for some 300+ workers (I'm sure that's a smaller # with the spill capped). Anyways, he sent a picture of him in his glory. I like it.

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@stickysheep : new venture from the brilliant mind of @johnwellis & myself

john ellis and i started hanging out about two years ago and chatting on all things business, church, marketing, web, technology, family and more. eventually some of our thoughts and conversations about the business church marketing technology stuff had us thinking, "we need to write this stuff down. there might be two or three people who want to hear this." so we started writing a book (scary i know). as we are developing the book we have gone and launched "sticky sheep" our concepts home portal. so if you are interested in some of the new ventures of me and/or want to get a glimpse of this collision of business and church then subscribe. i plan on doing a weekly wrap up, such as this, of what have been my musings over there as well.

this week in sticky sheep

• sticky paper is great, but it's getting seen that is the stickiest
• giving up control to the freshman team sticks
• what is the best ever social media campaign

you can also check us out on facebook & twitter of course.

my first baseball game

Brooks loves his "ba" = ball so he's enjoying his first baseball game. The Nashville Sounds vs the Colorado Sky Sox.

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here comes the flood (do-do-do-do) here comes the flood

It seems that all the flash flooding and heavy rains up on the plateau are flowing down into Nashville (much like te Nashville flood waters flowed up into Clarksville a few days later) and we are prepping for some more flood stage level river waters. This is the set of baseball fields across from the All American Pest Contol offices. They ate already under water but during the floods inay there was about 25 more feet of water. Check the news Nashville folks for updates.

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have you gotten your official united methodist calendar? i think i have

one of those tools in ministry i've used year in and out is the methodist calendar. i've used the classic spiral bound calendar many of those years. my fav details is the lectionary listings not to mention the special days listed in the classic calendar. it also fits nicely in my briefcase.

the last two years i've used the wall sized dry erase calendar which was helpful, but i never spent a large majority of my time in the office so it wasn't as helpful.

this year i'm kinda stoked to try out the digital version that is google cal compatible. i'll probably also order a classic one as well, you should get a version as well.

i love Jesus, but i'm keeping my stripping job

i threw out there via twitter last week about a group of strippers who were protesting the church that had been protesting their strip club.

it caught some decent media from accross the country. so much so that other churches came to the aid of the protesting church & apparently some christians who work with strippers as part of their mission.

the cool part is that somewhere in the mix of this chaos the two sides actually did some reconciling. two of the strippers actually accepted Jesus in this which is great! but the quotable regarding the strippers acceptance of Christ is telling.

"Two girls accepted Jesus in their hearts," Brown told the congregation, eliciting affirmations and applause.

The two strippers confirmed that, but they said they won't be leaving their jobs anytime soon.

"Our hearts are with Jesus, but our bodies are at the Foxhole," Gina Hughes said.

what i feel is notable, a learning moment, for the church is that even if someone does accept Jesus the work of transformation doesn't stop there. these girls will also need before you begin to break into the self-actualization of the soul they need help with all the safety & physical aspects of life (yes that is very much maslow's hierarchy of needs). as Jesus did, feed the folks and cure they ills before they can be the transformation for the Kingdom that we want them to be.

a different argument for the bunker'gate : my take on pga championship

if you are like me, and there are probably two of you, then you watched the pga championship. if you didn't watch the championship & you watch some sports highlight show then you had to have heard that dustin johnson incurred a two stroke penalty on the last hole to miss out on the playoff for the championship title. problem was that he didn't realize he was in a bunker & treated it like any other shot.

being a seasoned golfer for some 20 years now i am okay with the end result. call it out dated, but as golfer there is some pride & honor in self governing. it is the self governing that has me baffled that no one has mentioned.

you had a number of people responsible for the scoring of the player in that group: the player, playing partner, caddie, rules official, and probably a couple of other odd folks associated with tournament pagentry. as i have heard this story unfold it seems none of these folks made a penalty call and it wasn't until the end when the rules official got word from "replay" officials that something was possibly wrong.

so, where does "replay" come into play in golf? in baseball they have some replay, but we've seen over this summer and summers past that regular game play is riddled with bad calls we see over replay, but stand as calls a result of some human error which is 'part of the game.'

could this have been considered a human error of the team of people walking down the 18th and let go because there is no official "replay" in golf?

piece of the cross of Jesus found in trailer park

i don't know what is more remarkable part to this story; the fact that the artifact was found in a trailer park or that the street value for a piece of the cross of Jesus is only a few grand.

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brooks big day of baptism & birthday

today is our little guys birthday. one year ago today he came six weeks early. life has not been the same since and that's a good thing. we celebrated his first year yesterday at a special baptism service where jay baptized our guy at old hickory united methodist church. we then partied it up downstairs with about 70 of brooks' closest friends. it was a good time for us having such a fabulous communion of friends to take baptism vows in support of us and our little guy then to catch up, eat some cake and ice cream, and open some presents.

happy b'day "pellet"

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Brooks & the Zoo

took brooks to the denver zoo today. i think he was less than thrilled with the animals but all about the kids and the people walking all around him. sad thing is this.. why do we have to go to denver to go to a zoo with our child? nashville has a great zoo..

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not a bad way to end the day.

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photo of the week : "coming home to the little boy"

tiffany posted some pictures of shawn's homecoming yesterday. think this one is one of my favs. 2nd would be the one of madalyn bossing shawn around while playing. that one is classic. proud to have shawn as my little bro and glad to have him home. i know that many families are not so fortunate.

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loosing a young person : grieving in the digital age

last night i read about the passing of a young man, soldier from our local area. this caught me more than other reports for two reasons. 1. he's a young man from our local area & i knew that some of the teenagers (now young adults) i know were more than likely friends with him 2. my little brother just returned to home from his second deployment to Iraq.

strange behavior that acted on.. i went to see if he had a facebook..

wired covered a beginning of this phenomenon a few years back & it continues to grow as our grieving many times goes from the physical presence act of leaving crosses on the streets, creating memorials & altars at doorsteps/fences/etc. to the digital profiles of the people we are loosing.

here become the places that we go to leave our last words and condelences. it is here that we find solice with others. here where we tell stories. here where we post old pictures and remember times past.

i have seen it a number of times as i am sure you have as well. a question to ask ourselves is this..

is a digital rememberance enough in caring for those who are grieving?

i worry if our digital nature will compromise our grieving by keeping the physical presence of people away or shortening it. it is no doubt encouraging to see the impact a person has had on a life shared in a time such as this, but it cannot make up for hugs, face to face conversation, and just sitting & being. i appreciate Jewish traditions in how they sit and wait for the initial impact to settle then they, as a community, spend months in supporting the family's need. my Christian traditions seem to whirlwind around the family in the immediate moment then wane quickly over the next two weeks. grieving however, goes on for much longer.

it isn't lost on me that this post is in some way reflective & ironic in the very acts that i'm referring.

Specialist Michael Stansbury Jr. thank you for your ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. may you find the peace of Christ surrounding you. prayers for family to find strength & comfort.

a prayer for your fellow servicemen & women

Almighty and eternal God,
those who take refuge in you will be glad
and forever will shout for joy.
Protect these soldiers as they discharge their duties.
Protect them with the shield of your strength
and keep them safe from all evil and harm.
May the power of your love enable them to return home
in safety, that with all who love them,
they may ever praise you for your loving care.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

taking the boat for a spin. finally! @johnwellis is brave for being on maiden voyage

John was a willing & brave friend to go out on the boat Erin & I bought earlier this summer but have yet to have time or a functioning boat to get out on the waters. It was nice to have a peaceful morning ride before the sun got crazy hot.

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humility in work

saying from Abba Pambo

"Your skill is not in what you do, but how you do it"

this reminds me of the teachings of Brother Lawrence & his book practicing the presence. as i seek to find out what i do next in my vocation life it isn't what i do that is imperative, it is how i do it that seems most compelling to God.

i'm pretty sure someone is using termites to spam folks

i might not be the foremost expert on spam practices and twitter, but as someone who has been observing the tendencies of chatter about termites (and other bugs) for a number of months now i cannot help but think that there has to be a better spam topic than this. not to mention, they could try this during the swarm season.

anyways, saw this on the hootsuite search topic & the same posting went on for quite some time scrolling. i find it funny

btw: if you actually have some termite need. you can give the wifey a call at (615) 883.8526 or visit our website at http://www.allamericanpestcontrol.com

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impulse buy...

Sent from my iPhone.. Fancy I know
www.gavoweb.com
www.twitter.com/gavoweb

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