Friday, April 5, 2013

Roost Yourselves: Musings of a Restless Sleeper

Come, friends,
Roost yourselves upon My branches,
And you will find relief
From your nightmarish fancies.

Unable to find rest in this tumultuous sea
Of blankets tossing from restless sleep,
Swim a lap with Me to find your peace.

For though it is yet night,
The birds outside sing to My delight
And remind you of the coming dawn.

It will not always be this dark,
And then you’ll find that you’re not alone.

But in the mean time,
Trust that I’m still with you
As I promised that I would always be.

Follow My whispers,
And you will always find Me.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Some Thoughts on Shaving from Someone Who's Not a Fan of It


I'll be honest: the only reason I'm clean-shaven on my face is because I hate having facial hair more.

I hate shaving -- or, at least having to shave -- but I hate having facial hair more.

I suppose that it doesn't help that I don't have a lot of facial hair (it's not really thick). Apparently it's so sparse that, according to a good friend who has used make-up techniques to help other guys' beards seem more full, I "don't even have enough to work with," even if I wanted to grow it out.

One day, while expressing my frustration about shaving and looking for a long-term solution for my loathing of this grooming chore, a buddy of mine  -- who was completely oblivious to my dilemma -- sent me the website Dollar Shave Club:



I had previously been using my electric razor every 2 days or so (I can get away without shaving for a day and no one really notices, so of course I don't shave every day).

But I was looking for something different -- not really sure what -- and here's this Whisper (Sacred Romance reference) calling me in the direction to transition to a razor and shaving cream.

Pffff.

Dismissal of the idea with a casual wave of the hand.

No way I'm going in that direction; it's more inconvenient than using my electric razor, and what I'm looking for -- now that I think about it -- is something easier.

Never mind the fact that "easy doesn't enter into adult life" (The Weatherman).

So I cut my hair last week and you would never guess what happened.

No really; go ahead and see if you can guess what happened.

I'll give you a hint: I always make sure to shave when I cut my hair.

Can't figure it out? Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed, either.

My electric razor broke.

Oh, no.

What actually happened is that the "on" button you're supposed to push in to make it slide up and turn on got "stuck" in the "3" position (the furthest spot up that activates the secondary trimmer) so that I couldn't turn it off.

I finished using it the best I could, but then I had to let it sit on the sink -- as if it were in time-out because it had done something wrong (as opposed to user-error for not following the Wild Goose) -- and let the battery run down.

It was like a kid crying because they were bad and had to sit in the corner or go to their room: it was an untenable situation and I was helpless to intervene and make things right.

My electric shaver is out of commission; he threw a pitch and pulled his shoulder.

"Give me the righty!" The coach calls to the bullpen for his relief pitcher..

Enter the good ol' low-tech Gillette shaving cream and Mach 3 sampler that I happened to have and kept stored in a box with my excess toiletries.

I've had to use it for the last week or so, and of course, as with any change, there's a sense of loss for what used to be the status quo because -- let's face it -- we get used to things how they are and we're averse to change (for the most part).

But today I realized something.

First, I wasn't ever taught how to shave. I imagine that many men today aren't. My dad kept a trimmed beard and used an electric on his neck, so I never learned how to shave from him.

Then you get to factor in the reality of me not having a lot of facial hair (I was a late bloomer and didn't really have to shave until college), and it's no surprise that I never learned how to shave.

I've had an electric razor pretty much all my life. I bought a really nice Braun during college, and it lasted for almost a decade (until it broke last week).

You ever have one of those times where you feel God prompting you on something, and then you're like, "No way"?

This was one of those times.

And then I was kicked out of the proverbial eagle's nest and forced to (learn how to) fly.

And with any change that one is forced (against their will) to accept, I pouted.

At first.

But then I realized that it's not as bad as I figured.

I'm (sort-of voluntarily) shaving (what I would now call "shaving" as opposed to just "cutting facial hair") for the first time in my life. And I'm 30.

And then I had some questions.

Why are you supposed to shave with the grain and not against it? Wouldn't that make more sense?

So I did what pretty much anyone does when they have a question: I went to the most all-knowing source I knew of.

That's right. I Googled it lol.

And I came across something that dealt with wet shaving.

I saw this term, wet shaving, on an info graphic on one of my favorite websites, I Waste So Much Time, last week as well (it's #6, although a lot of the info on there is good stuff):


So I started looking into that. And I stumbled upon this post from Today.com about shaving.

I learned more in 10 minutes than I had in 30 years.

Because Someone was fathering me through an area of my life where I had previously been a (very unhappy) orphan -- prompting me to go in a direction that would bring me more life.

Yes, I was pushed into this, "kicking and screaming" (to quote Tyler Durden), but I'm realizing that the grass on this side of the fence is a lot greener than I thought. (Of course it is, when your Father goes before you to prepare it for you, Deuteronomy 31:8.)

Just today, I ended up cutting my hair and shaving after my shower (usually it's hair, shave, then shower).

For part of the wet shave, your facial hair has to soak up the water, which causes the hair to soften and makes it easier to cut instead of practically ripping it out of your face when it's dry.

I had to rinse my face afterward since I had already showered (the shower would normally rinse the excess shaving cream off for me).

Yes, it was inconvenient.

Yes, it took up more of my time.

But I felt so much better after a haircut and a good shave (my "whiskers" had grown out for several days).

And this came to mind:



I would add "grooming" to the list of eating and exercising; you feel better about yourself when you take care of yourself and show yourself some love. You end up taking more pride about who you are (which explains why I always feel better about myself after I cut my hair).

And that's what really hit me today: the "inconvenience" of having to slow down and pay attention to what I was doing -- instead of just running an electric razor all over my face -- forced me to be more present (Peaceful Warrior reference) to, and take more care in, what I was doing.

Living on autopilot is somewhat of a habit of mine, and so anything that breaks this up is a "welcome inconvenience," if you will.

That, and I realized that wet shaving is the men's grooming equivalent of operating a straight-drive: it's just more masculine, and it's more unplugged from the Matrix of this world's artificially created realities (more on that another time).

Will I sign up for Dollar Shave Club? I don't know. In the short term, probably.

In the long term, getting a badger-hair brush and a real double-edged safety razor -- or even a straight razor -- may be somewhere down the road, but I have yet to come upon that part of the path with the One who is leading and fathering me in these unfinished places in my life...