One Lord, One Faith, One Birth, One Holy Name.

The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord; she is His new creation by water and the Word. From heaven He came and sought her to be his Holy bride; with His own Blood He bought her, and for her life He died.

Elect from every nation, yet one o'er all the earth; her charter of Salvation, one Lord, one Faith, one birth; one Holy Name she blesses, partakes on Holy food, and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder we see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, "How Long?!" And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

'Mid Toil of tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore; till, with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest, and the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One, and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won. Oh happy ones and Holy! Lord, give us grace that we like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.

Make it happen

"Wouldn't you be happier somewhere else?"

During a conversation about local art, music, and culinary culture, I was asked, "Do you want to stay in Bismarck?"
"Yes. Why?"

"I just feel like you'd be happier somewhere else; somewhere with a more vibrant art culture, and more of the things you really enjoy."

While discussing coffee, I was asked, "Where are you from?"
"Here. But I lived in North Carolina for three years."
"You seem like you're from a big city."

While these discussions are not new, and are as a matter of fact fairly frequent, these two were very close together, and forced me to put a part of my mission to words.

Why am I here? Why don't I go to a major metropolis, where there's a vibrant art community, great local music scene, and tight nit coffee community already in place? Why don't I move to Seattle, or Portland, or Minneapolis, or New York City, or Atlanta, or Charlotte, or Raleigh/Durham, Chicago, or even Fargo or Grand Forks and fulfill my dreams of being a coffee professional/writer/artist/photographer/designer or any combination of these?

Think about this: Why isn't the art community as vibrant in Bismarck? Because everyone who has the dreams I do has done exactly that – left. North Dakota, even Bismarck has so many people who love the things I do, and want the culture I want, but they give up and leave or resign themselves to the idea that there will never be any class, culture, or industry (besides farming) in Bismarck. Those who leave have come to the conclusion that there is no hope for this town and go somewhere the culture is already established (ironically, they then have to do less work).

Think of another thing: How did the culture you seek get established in the places we all expect it? People like you, people like me, founding it. They didn't leave when they didn't find what they wanted, they made it happen where they were.

Here's my mission (at least part of it): I want to be a part of the establishment of the art culture in Bismarck. I want to help the people who are actively pouring the foundation for the structure of our art community. I want to build the coffee community I seek. I choose to stay here because I'm not satisfied letting someone else put in the effort while I reap the benefits of their labour of love. I want to labour in the things I love. I want someone else to reap the fruits of my labour. I want to offer something to the people who love this city as much as I do. I've been told it's a pipe-dream, a utopian fantasy that can never be made real, but I've seen it elsewhere, because someone had a passion and made it real. Why leave when I can make it happen?

Think about that for a minute. Where are you now? Are you satisfied? Are you ready to leave at your first opportunity because your community doesn't offer what you desire? How about this: you offer your community something. You shape the community. You have the creativity and passion to do it, and I guarantee there are others; find them.

Make it happen.

Thermodynamic Miracles.

"Thermodynamic miracles... events with odds against so astronomical, they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet, each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter... until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged.
"To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air into gold... that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermodynamic miracle."

         "But... if me, my birth, if that's a thermodynamic miracle... I mean, you could say that about anybody in the world!"

"Yes. Anybody in the world. But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget... I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.

"Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."

Dr. Manhattan to Silk Spectre; Watchmen