The Upside of Down

So I've been counting down the days until the album "The Upside of Down" by Chris August came out.  Today was the day!  By 11am I was downloading it from iTunes.  I listened through it once while I was working, then replayed a few favorites.  An hour or so later, I was getting ready to mow the lawn.  I hit play on my iPod and started mowing.  A little over halfway through the yard the title song came on.  I had already heard it twice, so I just continued on without paying it much attention.  Then the acoustic version came on.  Usually, I'm upset when my iPod's shuffle messes up like that, but as it was a new song, I just let it go.  Then I started listening to the lyrics.

"Funny how we figure out where happiness is found,

In the midst of this sadness I’m closer to You now

And that’s the upside of down,"

He's talking about that when you're up, life's going great, you kinda put God to the side.  The downside of up.  But when life takes a sharp turn downwards, you suddenly turn and cling to Him.  The upside of down.

Boom.  Story of my life.  I stopped for a second in the middle of the lawn; thinking.  That was exactly the wake-up call I needed.  

"You are more in my less, 
You are strength in my weakness,
I’ll never go back again,

And then Your sunshine ends the rain,

and I return to my old ways,

Why am I a fair weather friend?"

I went from laughing at the breach of grammatical rules, to doing some serious thinking.

-Autumn Mott

Life in the middle of no-where...

What does living in the middle of no-where mean to me?

-It means looking around and all you can see are trees,
-Watching the stars with no street lights to spoil the night,
-Waking up to the birds singing at dawn,
-All the vehicles have 4x4 and it's used 75% of the year,
-Knowing that it's officially spring when you hear the peepers calling from the pond,
-The nearest Walmart is 20 minutes away,
-When you walk down the dirt road you know almost everyone who drives past,
-Watching your neighbor's huge bonfire at night, knowing full well they don't have a permit for it,
-Breaking through the snowbank to get onto the road; cause, while the main road is plowed, your road won't be done till second-to-last,
-Walking to the old town library that's only open 2 days a week,
-Sitting down for breakfast and realizing that the milk came from up the road, the eggs from your chickens, the strawberries from another neighbor, and you made the granola yourself.

That's my life - and I love it.


-Autumn Mott