November Music & Book List

Being the music and book freak that I am, I thought I would start a blog highlighting a list of what I'm listening to and reading each month. So here is my list for the month of November...

Music:

Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot -

I listened to this whole cd in one sitting and fell in love. If you've read my review below of Switchfoot's 7th studio album "Hello Hurricane", then I suppose it's no secret that I am a bit head over heels with this beautiful collection of songs. I pre-ordered this cd and received it in the mail 4 days before its November 10th release date, and it didn't take long for it to cement itself into my cd collection and into my heart. "Hello Hurricane" was my musical highlight of November and possibly the year.

Beautiful History by Plumb -

Plumb, aka Tiffany Arbuckle Lee, has been one of my very favorite artists since I heard "Sobering" back 1998. Now, in 2009, she has released her official hits collection entitled "Beautiful History". Updated fan favorites and two new songs makes this a must have for any Plumb fan. Since I bought this cd I haven't stopped listening to "Here With Me (2010)" and new song "Beautiful History". Beautiful history indeed! This collection is the perfect way to rediscover the music of such a creative and wonderfully unique artist.

25th Birthday Mix Cd -

I celebrated my 25th birthday a few weeks ago on November 5th. I didn't set out to make "a birthday mix" per se, I was actually just making a mix cd to listen to in the car for a little birthday trip I was taking the next day, but it soon became a bit more than that. The songs I ended up choosing started to create a mix that seemed to sum up my birthday and my year. Some of the songs I included are:

Shadowfeet by Brooke Fraser

Motion by Plumb

Let's Dance by Hawk Nelson

Daylight by Remedy Drive

Amazing Because It Is by The Almost

Unbreakable by Fireflight

November by Tristan Prettyman

Less Like Scars by Sara Groves

Grace by Phil Whickham

Tme by Chantal Kreviazuk

Boston by Augustana

The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson

Blessed by Brett Dennen

Deciphering Me by Brooke Fraser

In Your Hands by Krystal Meyers

Pray For Me by Plumb

River God by Nichole Nordeman

Twenty Four by Switchfoot

Books:

The Organic God by Margaret Feinberg -

I found this book in the discount section of the Christian bookstore I frequent. My sister bought it but it's been in my hands for the last month or so. This book to me is such a gem. Margaret shares very honestly and articulately about the experiences that have made Jesus real in her life. The ways He has shown himself to be real, faithful, and true in her everyday life, and how we can experience that same power. I have truly learned so much from this book.

Pure by Rebecca St. James -

Christian artist/author Rebecca St. James has always been known for her bold and outspoken stance on purity. I grew up listening to Rebecca and being inspired by her message. Still to this day, I look up to her as a good example of what a Godly woman should strive to be in this day and age. Over the years I have learned a lot from the wisdom she has shared. I recently purchased her book "Pure - A 90 Day Devotional for the Mind, Body, and Spirit." I love how in this book Rebecca takes her message of sexual purity and expands it to encompass all areas our lives that need purification. It's a very easy read with each devotion being only a page or two long. Rebecca shares her personal stories as well as scripture and talks about how we can apply it to our lives. I'm only on day 43 right now, but I already feel like I'm learning so much more about what it means to live a pure life before God.

Relevant Magazine with Jon Foreman on the cover (Nov/Dec 09) -

I love Relevant magazine and used to subscribe, but since my subscription ran out I haven't been able to get it renewed again. Recently at Hastings I found the Nov/Dec. issue with Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) on the cover. I was really excited and somewhat surprised that they had it seeing as how I can never find it anywhere. If you're a Switchfoot or Jon Foreman fan you will love this issue. The interview they did with Jon is so good. He talks in depth about their new cd "Hello Hurricane", and what has been going on in their lives these past couple years. Definitely an issue that is not to be missed.

Morning...

It's 7am. Everyone in my house is asleep right now, everyone that is but me. It's a very pretty November morning. The sun is shining through my blinds and I can hear birds chirping. At this moment it is making my heart feel happy and inspired. There's something about a sunrise that feels hopeful and inspiring. I need that. I need more sunrises. It reminds me of a line in one of my favorite songs by Augustana called "Boston", the line says -"I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset." That's how I've been feeling for a while now. I need a sunrise, the sunset is just not as beautiful as it used to be. I need the new. And whenever I forget that, watching the sun rise seems to always remind me. It reminds me of what is worth living for. Hope. Hope for what is brand new. Hope for what is not yet but will be. I think 7am is a perfect time to write. I like being the only one awake in the morning, it's a good time to be alone with my thoughts, talk to God, write, read. I need to do that more often. I've always been quite a night owl but truth be told, I'm a night owl that actually longs to be an early bird. I would love to get up early in the morning and pray. Or go to a cute cafe and just read and write. I've always thought that sounded really nice. Grab my mp3 player, journal, and a good book and just hang out at a cafe all morning just sounds good. Or maybe I'm romanticizing it a bit... I can do that sometimes.

Lately I have really been feeling God doing a work in my heart. Changing me, making me new like the sunrise. Molding me and sculpting me more into the woman he wants me to be. I'm becoming more myself I think. I've always felt that we are the closest to who we truly are when we are our closest to God. I've been trying to pray more faithfully than I had been and it's amazing because I really feel it changing me. I have been challenged in a lot of ways lately to grow in so many different areas of my life. To let God have his perfect and pleasing will in me. I feel like more and more I'm seeing people just settle for whatever comes along in life, settle for so much less than God has for them. It hurts my heart to see people I care about letting go of the hope they had in God's plan for them. I understand it because it is hard to wait for what God has for you. But yet I don't understand it because He's the God of the Universe. He has so much for you...it's too much and too good for you to miss out on because you were tired of waiting. But I feel so inspired and challenged to wait and to never settle for anything but God's perfect and pleasing will for my life. It's all I want. I don't mean this in a self righteous way at all but lately all I can think is, even if everyone around me compromises, I will be the one who doesn't. Even if everyone around me settles for less than God's best, I will never settle. By the grace of God I will keep my head above water and wait for his perfect pleasing will in my life. He is my sunrise. He is my hope for brand new. He is the source of what is not yet, but what will be. Praise you Jesus!

Review of “Hello Hurricane” by Switchfoot

"I feel like with this record, the motto was, what are the songs you want to die singing?" That is what Switchfoot frontman, Jon Foreman said about the songs on their 7th studio album Hello Hurricane. My first thought about Hello Hurricane was that these truly are songs you would die singing. They're songs that are so meaningful and true that they are destined to walk through life with you. You can really tell that this is the guy's blood, sweat, and tears. Every song is a testament to how much they poured their heart and soul into this record. To me, Hello Hurricane begs to be listened to in order, from the first track, "Needle And Haystack Life", to the last track, "Red Eyes".

 

It's one of those rare albums where skipping any tracks would not give you the full experience. And in my opinion, it is an experience. Every single song has a very specific purpose and place. You can tell that they were very intentional about the placement of the songs because it really is the most cohesive record they've ever made. When you listen to the whole cd in order you feel like you've been taken on a journey. That's the best way I can describe Hello Hurricane, as a journey.

When you hear the cd opener "Needle And Haystack Life" you get the sense that this journey is just beginning, as you hear Jon sing the energetic rock chorus -"In this needle and haystack life I've found miracle's there in your eyes. It's no accident we're here tonight. We are once in a lifetime". I can imagine this song as the perfect way to open a live show. I loved the line "It's no accident we're here tonight", seeing as how that's how I always feel at their shows. Next track and lead single, "Mess Of Me" is a gritty rock song where Foreman and company loudly declare - "I've made a mess of me. I wanna spend the rest of my life alive." I love the bridge when you hear Jon wailing over the guitar "There ain't no drug, no drug to make me well". It really drives home the point that there is nothing this world can sell us that can cure our pain. "Free" is an emotional cry for freedom that's only found in Christ - "Free, come set me free. Down on my knees, I still believe you can save me from me. Come set me free. Inside this shell there's a prison cell".

 

"The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues)" opens with crunchy guitars and an almost eerie sounding build to a pounding rock chorus. Title track "Hello Hurricane" has sort of an indie/rock feel to me. It's a song about hope in the face of pain - "Hello Hurricane you can't silence my love." "Bullet Soul" is a rock anthem for the "dreamers" - "You can't stand by forever. You're a kid with a bullet soul. Are you ready to go?" I love how Jon screams that line at the end. But I have to say out of all the songs on this cd the two that most have my heart are "Always" and "Sing It Out". "Always" is a beautiful piano based ballad that probably has the simplest yet most profound chorus, as Jon repeats the line - "I am always yours". The song builds to a powerful bridge - "Hallelujah! I'm caving in. Hallelujah! I'm in love again. Hallelujah! I'm a wretched man. Hallelujah! Every breath is a second chance." The worshipful ballad "Sing It Out" gave me goose bumps and just about made me cry upon first listen. The song starts off with an eerie sound as the verse speaks of losing the song of your soul. It then moves into Jon's beautiful vocal loudly and powerfully singing a prayer of sorts - "Sing it out. Sing it out. Take what is left of me, make it a melody. Sing it out. Sing out loud. I can't find the words to sing you'd be my remedy. My song. I'll sing with what's left of me." It just totally broke me. That song is my life's prayer.

 

The cd closes with "Red Eyes" which asks the question - "With red eyes what are you looking for?". I love how at the very end of this song you hear it going back to lines from the first track "Needle And Haystack life" - "I've found miracle's there in your eyes. It's no accident we're here tonight. We are once in a lifetime". It really ties the whole record together and makes for an unforgettable ending.

It's really hard to put into words just how much these songs mean to me. I really feel like this album redefines who Switchfoot is as a band. It feels like a whole new level and a whole new season for them. In my opinion Hello Hurricane is their best effort to date. It is in every sense of the word what my sister would call "a life cd", in that these songs were made to stay with you throughout your life.

 

Pick “Hello Hurricane” up here

When Will We Rise?

I let my fears get the best of me. They rage and roar inside of me. I can't seem to be the person you made me to be locked in the prison of my frailty. I've once again come to the peace forsaken bed where failure rests and lays it's tired head. Now regret has blinded my eyes and planned my demise. But I can't help but ask, When we will rise? When will we rise?

{Chorus}
Rise above the flames, the pain that's calling our name. Rise above the fear that's kept us down, tied up and bound. Rise above regret, the things you just can't seem to forget. Rise in a new way. Rise to never be the same. When will we rise? When will we rise?


I can see so clearly the girl I'm supposed to be. It's like she's standing right in front of me. But I can't speak, when I move to become her, I'm too weak. So close yet oh so far. The things I've let slip, slip through my fingertips. How do I forgive myself? When will I rise? When will I rise?


{Repeat Chorus}

I will remember this day, as much as I may want to forget. I will rise from this valley of regret. Can't turn back the clock to try to stop this mistake pile up. But I can let you grow me into somebody who lives freely. No more being weighed down.

{Repeat Chorus 2x}

(C) Krystal Celeste

Le voyage passionné

You know that part in the Notebook where Allie, right before she goes back to Seabrook, walks into her fiance's office and with tears in her eyes says, "I don't paint anymore."?

I kinda feel like that lately. It may sound funny, but I could relate to Allie when she said this. Was Allie crying specifically about not painting anymore? No. But I think it had something to do with the fact that she felt far away from the freedom of who she truly was. Remembering who she no longer was. Realizing who she wanted to be. And sometimes that's a painful place to be. So, all this to say...

I don't play piano or guitar anymore.

This may seem like a small and insignificant fact to you. Or like disinterest, or just sheer laziness on my part. And it may be a little bit of those things. But mostly I think it's the fact that lately, I kinda feel far away from the freedom of who I truly am. A disconnect of sorts.

For whatever reason, I seem to have given up a lot of things that I love. I couldn't tell you exactly why. Things happen, life happens, and now I feel like passion and color have been drained from my life. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's laziness. Maybe it's apathy. Probably a little of all the above.

It's not just the things I love that I seem to have put on the back burner but also the purpose God has given me. God has called all of us to go on a journey with him. A journey to live the calling he's put on our lives. I have felt the nudge from the Lord many times. The call to go on this journey to becoming. A passionate journey to being all he's created me to be. But I've resisted. I've ran. It's more than time to hand over my running shoes to him and let him work in me. To let him take me on the journey to living with purpose and passion.

I want to play my piano again. I want to play for hours, coming up with my own melodies, getting all excited like I'm about to write the best song ever written. I want to strum for hours on my pink acoustic guitar, then switch to the old acoustic guitar my grandpa gave me when I was a teenager, getting tons of calluses on the fingertips of my "desperately in need of a manicure" hands, all frustrated because I still can't tune the darn thing to save my life. I want to put music on in the kitchen and bake and bake to my hearts content. I want to create. If for no other reason than just to sate the creativity that my Creator put inside of me.

And to do that, all these seemingly simple and mundane things, makes me feel more free somehow. It's important. It's the way I'm wired.

Creativity makes me tic. Whimsy makes me tic. Inspiration in unexpected places and times. The satisfaction of coming up with a great line for my song, making the perfect fudge brownie, my fingers on the piano keys, reading a book so good it provokes thoughts that turn into a song, pretty notebooks and journals, the perfect song at the perfect moment, a song so beautiful it's breathtaking and heartstopping, the rare moments that you remember to be still and know that He is God.

I want to live like that and for that. I want to start doing the things I love again. And become more of who I really am. I want to passionately, and purposefully take this journey to becoming all God's created me to be.

Maybe It's Time and Bitter And Angry...

Anger is a scary emotion. Anger, if you let it can turn into rage, and rage if you let it can ruin a lot of people's lives.

I'll be honest and say that I've struggled with some anger issues in my life. You probably won't know this unless your pretty close to me,{such a sad but true statement isn't it?} since I'm normally upbeat and easy to get along with. That's the problem with anger, it's a lot of times reserved for the people who are closest to you. I have had a lot of anger of my own to deal with and a lot of anger from other people to deal with as well. I hate it very much. Both sides of the spectrum are just plain ugly. Being angry yourself and being around an angry person, it's all the same, ugly. Anger and rage are extremely ugly emotions. They make you feel out of control... and just lost. I have known my share of angry and enraged people... I hate to admit it... but I kinda come from a long line of 'em.

Some of them are people I've never met and will never meet...but they are in my family tree none the less. Recently, I was looking at an old photo album I had found at my grandma's house, it was mostly full of black and white photos of people I'd never known. So I asked my dad if he knew who all these people were. He sat down next to me and for the next hour told me all about the people in the black and white photos who turned out to be my great aunts and uncles, 2nd and 3rd cousins, and my great grandparents. My dad told me stories about these people that I heard bits and pieces of throughout my life but never in depth. To put it bluntly, they were an angry and enraged bunch of folk. Not really the kind of family you want to sit down and have dinner with. And to be perfectly honest, not the kind you want to claim either lol. But they are a part of my family tree all the same, whether I ever knew them or not. It was very unsettling to know that that kind of cruelty and hatred is in my family tree. Not really the warm and fuzzy feelings you would think would come with looking at an old family photo album. No sir, no warm and fuzzy's there.

All those people in the black and white photos may be a part of my family but one thing that separates us from each other is that... they didn't know Jesus. They didn't know, or rather didn't believe, that they could surrender all the anger and all the rage to Jesus Christ, their creator. To a king who came off his throne to die on a cross for them so they wouldn't have to live in their anger and bitterness. So they could have life and have it more abundantly. And most importantly, so they didn't have to die in their anger and rage. I'm sooo beyond thankful that I know that. I wish they had known that too.

God has done such a work in my life over the years and delivered me from so much of that anger. Every now and again it starts to creep back in, as with any sin if you're not daily dying to self, daily dying to your flesh. Whatever it is your dealing with, it is a daily surrendering. It's waking up everyday and being reborn. Giving it all over to him because you will never be strong enough to do it on your own. So you give it to him. You put that burden on his shoulders and trust him to carry it, after all, you were never meant to.

I wrote these two lyrics like 3 or 4 years ago. They're about the angry people you love and pray for and hope for. The ones you hope will see they don't have to live this way. The ones you are hoping will drop their "fighting stance" long enough to give them a hug. Here's hoping....


Maybe It's Time

I hear your mouth speak but the words are muted. I hear your heart crying out but your lips won't admit it. Anger falls from your lips like water when your mouth is numb. So you succumb, cause you know as well as I do, it feels better to win.

You don't want to give in, because to you giving in means losing.

(Chorus)
Maybe it's time, maybe it's time to lose. Maybe it's time to stop the excuse. Saying you're sorry doesn't change your ways. The monster will still escape from it's cage. So maybe it's time, maybe it's time to lose the rage.

Chaos ensues in the war zone of your brain. You let the fear in. You let the debris rain. Rain, rain down, we're all soaked and bleeding on the ground. Oh this struggle is not for the faint of heart. This flesh is a losing battle from the start.


You are dying not to lose, but you are already lost.

(Repeat Chorus)

Oh how can I live if I've never died? How can I be resurrected when I've never been crucified? How can I be saved from Jekyll and Hyde? The only way to find what I've lost is to surrender this fight.

(Repeat Chorus 2x)



Bitter And Angry

Let go of the ghost, the ghost of the past. You live in bitterness and it's drowning you fast. Your rage may be justified but realize it must be crucified. You hold on to your anger with a tight grip and refuse to surrender it. Now you're chained in bitterness with no hope for deliverance. Oh I hear you say "God how could you? My will to live you've taken away." But remember, he is present in our pain. He is the author and finisher of our faith.

(Chorus)
He's walking toward you, don't you see him? He's saying please let me carry your burden. He holds out his hands and places them on your heart and heals every scar. Takes the chains off your wrists and makes you whole again. He's come to set your heart free. He suffered so you wouldn't have to die bitter and angry.


You don't just hold on to your past, you superglue it to your hands. But you don't control it, it controls you. Loss gives us an excuse to lose ourselves. Oh but it's a selfish path when anger and self pity fill up like water in your bath. We all have scars of our past that sometimes try to carry us back. But we can put them in a file called forgiveness and under a gift called the blood of Jesus.

(Repeat Chorus)


Oh what did he die for? What did he die for if not to save and to heal what this world tries to kill?


(Repeat Chorus 2x)



(C) Krystal Celeste

To Live And Not Hide

I actually wrote this one back in 2005 and just barely typed it up last night, go figure. :) I really wasn't sure if I was going to post it or not but my sister read it today and said it was her favorite. She's kind of my go to person, whenever I write something she's always the first one to read it. She told me if she could tattoo it on her she would...if you know my sis you know that's a high compliment lol. ;) So since she seemed to really like it I thought I would go ahead and put it up here. This is another one I wrote at like 4am, I tend to write better on little sleep. It holds a very special place in my heart. :)


To Live And Not Hide

I want to travel to places near and far. I want to fall deeply in love with my life and live it passionately, shining like the luminous stars. I want to smile and laugh and have that everlasting joy that is contagious enough to make you smile just as big as I. Yeah, I want to fly to a place where my heart and the heavens collide. Breathe in and breathe deep. Run like there are no boundaries. Sail away with new dreams dreamed and fulfilled each day. Say everything I have to say till my heart is understood in every way. I want to store up my treasures in Heaven and not on this temporary earth. Spend eternity basking in the sunlight of this rebirth. I want to express myself with a pen in my hand and a song in my confused yet hopeful heart. I want to dream of you intimately knowing every little part. I want to love like there's no tomorrow. Head for bluer skies and search for deeper water. I want to dance all night in Paris with the man God's chosen to love me forever. And even if it's only in our dreams we'll travel the world together. I want to submerge my fears in your healing tide, and finally be brave enough to live and not hide.


(C) Krystal Celeste