I Confess!

"But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God."- Elizabeth Gilbert


I confess I am currently reading Eat, Pray, Love. Go ahead and laugh, but since I started the book, it has been inspiring. It is an honest book about the difficulties we all face in life. At one point in time we all have questioned the American life. It is easy to become unsatisfied with the American life, that we almost feel forced into. We go off to college, get married, start a career, buy a house, have kids, raise your children until they move out, retire, travel, move to an old people community, and then die. The American life is laid out perfectly for us in this nice neat little box.

Eat, Pray, Love is about an individual who became unsatisfied with the mundane planned out life, and she wanted out. She wanted to travel and experience more than the American dream. She wanted to experience cultures, foods, and spirituality beyond what her current life could offer. This is one of those books that makes you dream, and seek new life changing experiences.

I love being married, and I love the life I have lived so far, but I want to always remember that I do not have to live like the average American. I do not need to settle on a career and work there for 30 years and then retire. I do not need to have kids 1-3 years into marriage. There should be no pressure to do these things, or expectations to live up to them. The quote above reminds me to use my heart to view life. See life as an opportunity to love and enjoy the world. If I allow myself to enjoy the different cultures, places, and people around the world I know I will see God in new ways that I have never experienced before. God is not an American. God is all over this earth, and in the small cracks and remote places of this earth, and Eat, Pray, Love is a fresh reminder of that.

So for those of you who have read the book, what are your takeaways from the book? For those of you who have not read the book, first I encourage you to read it, and second, what are your thoughts on the quote above? What are your reactions to this post?

- Matt

Days off

On days off all I want to do is enjoy the simple things in life. Work days are filled with rushing around... Driving in traffic.. And very few hours to relax. On days off I try to read, walk, ride bikes, and take each day as slowly as possible. Just finished cannery row by John Steinbeck and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of those books that makes you get caught up in the small joys in life like great food, friendship, fires by the river, beer, and great adventures. I highly recommend it. I hope to fill my days off with more good reads, so any suggestions out there for good books, good albums, good foods?

Check Out Punch Debt in the Face

My guest post is up today at Punch Debt in the Face's website. Kinda of a fitting reflection on my one year anniversary. All newly weds deal with this issue of personal finance in Marriage. Go check it out and let me know what you think. I would love to hear your comments.

We have Moved!

Ashley and I just moved into a new place last weekend. Thanks to my dad's help we were able to get everything moved in one day. 5 trips from the old apartment to the new one was all it took (4 trips, two full cars each trip, all day thursday). You could say we have upgraded in the world. We still live in a one bedroom, but the square footage is a bit bigger, and the place is newly remodeled.

Moving can be expensive. Especially when they charge you a two full months rent to start off with. For big city people or California that can be one full months income. It definitely makes you rearrange your money around in order to meet those demands.

Has anyone ever done direct deposit for their rent before? It starts taking the money out a week in advance before it finally drops the money into another account. The money has to be available a full week prior to when it is due. This can be tricky as well, because sometimes paychecks do not come in until the friday before. Lessons learned in this new place. We love it and how to spend a few years here...

Here is first look....







I am sure there will be many more to come. We are off to Seattle Saturday Morning to watch Debt Ninja get married. Have a good weekend everyone.

-Matt

Guest Appearance

In the next week I will be doing a guest appearrance on Debt Ninja's blog Punch Debt in the Face. Newlywed Finances is the topic. Be looking out for it.

Ashley and I recently moved into a new place and we are very excited about it. I will post pictures in the next few days....

Lost Touch

Sometimes we lose touch with the things we once held dear to our hearts. This post will not consist of some sappy story, but I believe that I have lost touch with aspects of life. Let me explain...

I was at a friend's house today and I picked up an old book that I had not read in awhile. The book consists of some deep and insightful truths about life, spirituality, and love. Holding the book in my hand reminded me of how inspired I felt about life when I use to read those chapters. I wanted to live differently because of these stories and truths. The book was My Utmost for His Highest. Sometimes the book can be over your head, but other times the truths are simple and relevant. I love contemplating God and life and how they interact. These thoughts cause me to dream, wonder, and change.

I love to read, because it is like you are listening to another persons thoughts and imagination. I've always wished that I could be better at putting my thoughts into words. I always feel like I fail to truly articulate exactly what I am feeling. I read a book by the pool this weekend by Hemingway, and it was so nice to get caught up in a story, forget about my own reality, but at the same time compare that story with my life.

My point is that I feel like I have let some of those passions die for a bit in order to focus on other priorities. My passion for life is the people that I interact with from day to day. I love sharing life with others, and I want to continue to connect my life with people. I have lost touch with the reality of God, life, and people and how beautifully they interact with each other, but I am sensing a bond beginning to grow again.

Thanks for listening. Please share.

Im a Kid Again

One of my many things that I put on my list to do this year was fix my bike. It has been rotting away on my front porch since we got married. Spiders made it their home with cob webs throughout the spokes. Birds frequently use the handle bars to perch and poop. Ashley got a new bike last week, and named it Ruby, so that inspired me to fix up mine. It makes so much more sense to take your bike to the beach than your car. You never have to worry about parking, and you are more mobile around town. After work yesterday I started calling around to price out how much it would be to fix. Got some $60 and $50 offers for new tires, new tube, an inner lining, and they said it could be fixed by next week. I decided to wait until this morning to check out a local shop and I am glad I did. I walked my crusty bike into the shop and was out of there in 20 minutes with new tires and tubes. Tires were $12 and tubes were $4.50. Ashley and I road our bikes to the beach, to lunch at Pizza Port, to a friends house, and then back home. Bikes give you this weird sense of freedom, and make you feel like a kid again. :) I decided that I want to ride more often, and now I can. There are so many benefits to riding bikes. Save money on gas, no pollution for the air, and it is good exercise.

I know you all probably have a bike somewhere in the garage or in your backyard. I encourage you to pull it out and take it for a spin. Ride it to the grocery store, or around the block. I need some help coming up with a name for my bike. Like I mentioned before Ashley's bike is the Schwinn pictured above named Ruby. Mine is an old Shogun road bike with a lot of history connected to it. Anyways, thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to completing many more items on my list for 2010.