Hind's Feet

I moved to SLC at the end of December, 2006. In the short time that I have been here, though it has seemed like much longer for I am by now a bit settled in, I have been sick for a week, failed to achieve anything with two different auditions, gotten a lowly job with not enough shifts and newly discovered the need for a root canal on one of my teeth. The first month and a half in this little town is less than one might expect. The only thing that goes very well is my relationship with Cassie, but I do not plan to talk about that on here, and it will not have much of anything to do with the things I do say, except to mention that she is a great encouragement to me through this time.

But honestly, and I know this may seem trite or not entirely sincere, but I believe it is best for a man to face failure and hardship, setbacks and difficulties. I did not come here to be handed my dreams on a silver platter. I came here to run the race, or fight the good fight, or whatever metaphor you like. I didn't come here for an easy coast through life or a one-shot ticket to the high road. I came to follow a path I believed was right for me. I remember Hind's Feet on High Places with great fondness, for I think of the impossible heights climbed, the lowest valleys braved, the beautiful sights seen all because of hardships and difficulties. If anyone has an easy life, in which all of life's treats are provided for them, I do not imagine they will truly be going anywhere. I am learning to breathe, learning to crawl, learning to walk, learning to run, and soon I will learn to fly. And I do not let go of my hope. That, my friends, is a powerful thing. That is a gift worth getting.

My story continues on the slow editing process. Not nearly so slow as the two years of actually writing the story, but it continues nonetheless. And that is a thing that I have recently found myself driven for. I am on to the fourth section. Just this and the last one to go, and I hope it is going alright. It gets easy to gloss over weaker points in the narrative for lack of invention and a desire for speed, but I believe I adding and subracting what it needs. I still hope to finish the second draft midmonth and then send it to some friends for a lookthrough.

Please, pray for me. I know I ask that more an more recently, but what can I say? I am trying to live life right and it is such a daunting dream to follow. Pray that I could keep my positive mindset, my firm resolve, and pray that events would work out in my favor. Thanks.


At first Frodo felt as if he had indeed been turned to stone by the incantation. Then a wild thought of escape came to him. He wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him, and he might find some way out. He thought of himself running free over the grass, grieving for Merry, and Sam, and Pippin, but free and alive himself. Gandalf would admit that there had been nothing else he could do.
But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily. He wavered, groping in his pocket, and then fought with himself again; and as he did so the arm crept nearer. Suddenly resolve hardened in him, and he seized a short sword that lay beside him, and kneeling he stooped low over the bodies of his companions. With what strength he had he hewed at the crawling arm near the wrist and the hand broke off;