Ale for the Soul

Last Friday morning I was able to leave town for four days of camping and site-seeing.  The main purpose of the trip was to visit a friend who is incarcerated on the Ellis Unit in Huntsville and then to swing by Palestine for a time of fellowship with a friend who pastors a church in the area.  As a result, camping was simply a form of inexpensive lodging to help accomplish what I wanted to do.  The cost for three nights at Huntsville State Park were still cheaper than one night at any motel/hotel.  Unbelievable, isn't it?!  Of course I still need to factor in the price of gas in travelling and the cost of food and drinks.  I still came out ahead by camping at the park.  In addition to visiting both friends, I was able to take in the historical sites the area had to offer.  First on the list was the Texas Prison Museum.  Utterly fascinating, considering I'm about to visit a local unit where my friend is currently assigned.  Then I visited H.E.A.R.T.S. Veteran's Complex, the

Several more items on my bucket list were marked off last Friday and Saturday.  On September 9th, I travelled to Fort Richardson State Park in order to participate in the ten o'clock tour of what was left of the original outpost.  A few of the buildings were reconstructed represenations of what they would have looked like while a greater majority were original to the time it was an active installation.  Park Ranger Conner performed an excellent job guiding another camper and me throughout the area.  Once we were finished, we chatted inside the incredible Interpretive Center at the forefront of the historic grounds.  At the conclusion of our time together, I immediately set out to discover what the park had to offer.  Two of the hiking trails piqued my interest as I wanted to explore nature at its finest.  To cap off my excurion, I smoked a cigar in the pavillion/playground area.  Discovering a communal firepit, I'm already planning my next trip to include a fire.  Of course I t

Moving here in February of 2010, I had to radically reinvent myself from the former person I was to something totally brand new.  It wasn't a repackaging of the same old stuff, something that a cosmetic new pair of glasses and fake mustache would cover.  A disguise of sorts similar to scenes from corny movies of a bygone era.  For decades I would try to manage the external behavior when what was needed was a drastic change of the heart and soul.  Finally I realized that I had to clean up the inside of who I was and watch the transformation unfold.  Surely the example of a caterpiller to a butterfly is not too overused to cite here.  Still a great analogy!  Once the wreckage of the past had been dealt with, I could move toward total health and wellness in mind, body, heart, and soul.  (Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.)  Only then could the changed insides induce moral and honorable external behaviors.  The Gospel of Matthew clearly states that out of the wellspring of the