: : BOOK EFFECT ON SONGWRITING

Before I start, this entry talks about two things: One, this talks about my journey in writing a song and how it was created not by pure talent but by inspiration through a book which leads me to talk about number 2 which is a review to the book. This sounds crazy but I will write this step by step. So here it goes.

I was asked to write a song a few months ago that talks about the Youth of today. I am young so I'm included. The song, as they said, should really reflects the breaking of apathy towards the youth and how a certain individual could empower their fellow youth to stand up and make a change. It was a challenging thing for me but reality seeps in leading us to a crazy brainstorming process knowing that I only have one night to write out the song in a piece of paper. My friend (the fellow writer of the song) and I were seated making funny tunes , discussing the verses, how the song sounds like but it ends out of nowhere  until I remembered a tagline that says  A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. The short pitched looms in my mind for a couple of minutes and then I decided to scan the book and have some idea.

Now we are close to the review. Hang on. In that instant I picked up one of my favorite book called "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations" written by two young twins named Alex and Brett Harris, younger brothers of Bestselling author Joshua Harris. Then, I realized that the elements and ingredients i was looking to model the song is found in the book. The message is in there.

The book, I would say is not just limited to the youth that are inspiring to impact a group of society but it is also applicable to an indiviual who is called to make a change and difference to someones life. The book has its own "fresher" perspective that would surely gave us an insightful conviction to the mighty ideas that we possesed and how can we use it for the glory of God and for the wellfare of others. I learned so much in this book and as I read it again and agan I was beggining to break the chains, the low expectations that was trying to disable our potential.

Now, let's go back to the songwriting (I hope you are not raising your eyebrows as you read this). After I read some chapters in the book, the process of constructing the song including the verses, chorus and bridge, came so swiftly. The driving force of making a song was according to the voice of inspiration---a learning I took from the book. The messages was straight from the heart and what really makes me happy was that, I was able to "lived" up the message in the book in my own little way---making a song so that others would hear a new sound of change, new sound of hope, new sound for the youth.

Here is an excerpt from the song:

A world of comfort instead of challenges
We run, we hide and left things unlearned
We are to face this world
With such greatness and dream

But where we are today
Have we tried to see what's within us
It's time to release the change
We join our hearts to make this voices roar

We are the generation
We rise to take our place
We take a stand and lift a shout
To somebody's heart
Give it up, Give it up
Break the chains
Tear the walls
This is love
This means love
We should love
We spread love
Rock it out and sing out loud
I am new


Now, I would say that in creating something, it is really good to find a source of inspiration that will motivate us to dig deeper. Like what i have done, I wrote a song out of the insights I extracted from a book. Writng the songs was hard for me but i know in that instant i was able to do hard things not for anyone else but for God.

Do Hard Things is really a good book. It's practical and livable. Our lives is on a change of two forces, the good and the bad. Would we let ourselves, our future and the generations beyond be in the darker atmosphere? I know our answers would be yes so let us fill our minds with the insights such as this book.

Lastly, I know this blog entry is a little bit "mixed" (but i would say it's not confusing), I will say that I am not advertising but I am encouraging that whoever stumble in this blog would be lured to have the book. It's amazing, fun and challenging.

It's time to end this now, I still have so many things to say but I dont want to make this thing longer. That's it, "Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations", a must have book for y'all.

Advance Happy Holidays (Ooh, the book would be a perfect present so if you can't find a copy of this book in your nearest bookstore buy it online by clicking the link below c: )

XX

J O S H

ORDER "DO HARD THINGS" ONLINE

: : PHOTO PERSPECTIVES; A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Over the past few years, even since I was in grade school, I really love to capture moments through photographs. And now, there are so many things, both learned and unlearned, shuffles in my mind over the hidden beauty of every photographs...of how its colors represents all elements of humanity, how its angles represents a condition or a personality and etc. (Well, I really didn't mean this to be a professional photography talk. This is just a tidbits of mine. So please don't take anything of this seriously.). I love to look all those frozen caricature in the paper whether it looks amateurish or professionalize. I can still remember the time that i was looking an old bunch of albums in our house and every piece of it, torn and new,  really finds me into a beautiful both changing and unchanging world.

This century had gone so many things and even photographs can be falsified through many manipulations like Photoshop and the like. Well, this kind of techniques, as i called "graphical evolution", is really a good additive in every photo. Though some didn't exactly look like the original, but with this, refinements can be done. It's like a photographer waiting to capture a perfect sunset but suddenly a heavy storm came out so he needs to fine a way...and yeah here's what we called photoshop (and oh, the like...)

Honestly, I never exactly know how photoshop really works but i can say, it's fun. Color curves was one of my favorite things to do making it more charismatic (hope you get the meaning), vintage-looking (oldishing the photo) and so on. So here are the few photos I took and refined. It's not really that good but it's-the-fun-thing that motivates me to play with this stuffs.

Lastly, I always think that photos are not taken to obtain a picturesque result. It is that, we capture because of the memories, both important and nonsense, possessed a great story for the future. Every piece of it tells a story, some generational and personal. It is like every flash freezes the time that you don't want to pass, but yeah, time goes on and on...

Thanks for reading. It is a pleasure to have your ears...or eyes.

Photo Courtesy (Some photos are actually taken from my great friends like;)
Mordz Jinno
Joyce Cabug
Icee Lanuza
and me ofcourse...

TRAVELS and INSPIRATION

TRAVELS and INSPIRATION

[THE ENCOUNTER]

www.crowsandlocusts.blogspot.com

Over a few months stay in my new environment, things are going beyond my plan, my expectations, and everything became absolutely randoms, that sometimes i have to bang my head, or fly in the thin air out of sheer astonishment. It is a process of wonder, dreams, hopes, inspirations, stories, tunes, coffees and a whole lot more. And at the end, it leads me to an infinite place where home and my heart meets.


Journey.


As I started college days, I never supposed that i was traveling as numerous as these. And as i walk, travel, ride for hours, the "within me" meets many inspirations whether it was sitting in a bus for hours with a piercing sun hovering above me, meeting strangers, or in a grocery stores, in discovering languages and old books, the concept of a new inspiration grows bigger. The new conviction gives me more happiness, peace, contentment and for the "most" element that i search for ages...hope.


Meeting with these kind of things in this world---which gave me an impact of the heart---is easy to find. It's like eating marshmalows. It is already given and we only have to accept it.


It's the LOVE...


, the love of the ONE.




I can still remember the time when i discover Him more in the travel that I wasn't expecting that it was going to be life changing. It was four years ago, when I attend a Summer Camp. Upon arriving at the place, I was very very dissapointed. First, It was a place that is very far....far from the vanities of the city. And what options do I have if the place has no electricity, shopping malls, internet and television? It was really really boring, but little did I know that my life is about to change.


Bang, three straight days I survived without those earthly things.


And there was it, the change. The inspiration in my travel. As I met many people and as I listen to their stories, I was changed that my heart bleeds and soars and at that moment, I said to mysef, "God, this is you..."


That's it. The simple, reluctant travel that truned out to be a "once-of-a-lifetime" encounter to a bigger inspiration that drives me throught the days...Isn't it amazing that as we venture in this life, there is someone that "finally" satisfies us. Inspiring us, that life has so much more to offer and it is GOD, who gives it all.


Today, my life is still at the process. Knowing, discovering, and listening like a songwriter that continues to crave for more music to discover more melodies and lyrics. This inspiration is getting wider, deeper, happier everyday when we long to let it be a "GOD-BASED" inspiration.


Travels, on the other hands is such a powerful tool for it. Now, my college days is full of travels which sometimes I did every weekends...and those inspirations can be found in every corner, in every tune, in everything. It is a fragment, that when you grab all the pieces, everything fits in a pefect harmony and balance.


Here is the song that I wrote, a piece that I grabbed in my travels:


THERE IS LOVE
Words and Music: Joshua Lamberte
Contemporary Worship


INTRO


C - D - G


You stood before me


When I'm lost


You gave me eyes to see


As I walk on this earth


I see your majesty


II


I could not contain


The blessings and help you stored for me


And when the troubles come


You set me high upon a rock


*PRE-CHORUS


Your love freely accepts me


Your grace surrounds my empty soul


I cried to you


You heard me Lord


*CHORUS


So I sing to you oh Lord


Together with my pain and brokenness


I'll raise my hands and worship you


All my days


I will hope and wait to you Lord


I will hope and wait to you Lord


BRIDGE:


THERE IS LOVE THAT MOVES US ALL
THERE IS LOVE THAT CONQUERS ALL
EVEN GRAVE AND MOUNTAINS CAN'T SOAR
IT'S YOUR LOVE FOREVERMORE




I wrote that song in a one boring night, my last night stay in our home---to prepare for another travel. I was broken that time that I didn't want to leave but it gave me no more options. I have to leave. Then I unintentionally grabbed my guitar and began strumming, uttering a prayer...an expression. Then there was it, another inspiration birthed from a travel.


I know that  travels where inspirations are sought, will not always be as easy...as sleek and shiny as we always expected. But at the end, we always learned---sometimes being confused, questioning things, and at the end, being inspired.




?

-JOSH