Let’s goooooo! It’s a great day for more Footprints and Photographs. Today’s podcast and the Exposure page that goes along with it are special for an odd reason - they are two-for-one specials. The content on the pod and page covers our most recent trip to Iola, as well as our monthly recap of April. We didn’t have as many photos for the compilation page as we’d hoped, but that’s okay. We chose to stick them on this one instead. Tune in to hear about our camping trip in Iola and our weekend highlights from this month. April went pretty well; there were no complaints on my end. With that said, we are looking forward to what May brings. Thanks for stopping by, folks! 

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Topic: Thoughts while mowing the lawn.

Gang, strap in for another round of Footprints and Photographs! Carmen, Tonkie, and I went to the Shalom Wildlife Zoo to celebrate Tonkie’s 40th birthday. Our original plan was to go to the Madison Zoo and find a place to hike afterward. That didn’t turn out. Tonkie ended up injuring her foot earlier that week, leaving us with limited options on how to celebrate. However, luckily for us, Shalom offers rentable golf carts to get around the grounds; it makes the experience feel more like Jurassic Park. We had an amazing time and cannot wait to return! Happy birthday, Tonkie. We love you very much! ❤️🎂

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Abraham’s topic - becoming a better/stronger person through family

This episode is dedicated to the 89 people who lost their jobs last night.

Hey, gang! It’s time for another round of Footprints and Photographs. The Exposure page that goes along with today’s segment was Tonkie’s first solo post. She was asked to shoot photos at a gender reveal party for Kayla and Colten VanHierden. Unfortunately, I was out of town with my father and couldn’t attend the event. However, they were in great hands with Tonkie! She did an amazing job; I couldn’t be more proud of her. I’m glad she could be there to document and capture their special day. Days like these don’t come around often; remembering them becomes that much more important. Red Velvet Photography would like to wish Kayla and Colten the very best! Good luck to you and your family.

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In today’s segment of Top of Mind, I examine how intrusive outside influences and opinions are while exercising your creative process. When you are left alone to indulge in your creative process—a process that makes you happy or fulfilled—it feels like you’re performing a beautiful dance. Every idea and action flows into the next with grace and harmony; every step brings you closer to a finished product. Mentally, it is a magical space to be in. It is so beautiful, in fact, that it feels like the world outside of your focus stops turning. However, when you break your focus by getting caught up in what someone said, what you can or can’t do, or what someone else thinks your show should be, it completely interrupts the dance. The way I describe it - focusing on anything else other than your process is like placing spikes one by one on your dance floor. With the added obstacles, it is impossible to lose yourself in the dance; you’re always focused on watching where your feet step instead of losing yourself in the motions. To let something else interrupt YOUR dance is a huge disservice to yourself and strips away the magical feeling out of the equation. Make sure your dance floor is an empty space where you are free to focus and create; keep the spikes off of it.

Hello, friends! Welcome to the March compilation of Footprints and Photographs. It has been an insane month for Tonkie and myself. So much has filled our plate that if I hadn’t taken notes on important events as they happened, I would have been lost trying to do today’s podcast. A significant number of positives and a few monumental negatives have occurred. However, things were pretty good across the board. There were some noteworthy highlights during March: Kristin and I getting back on the road for hikes, a few new pets were added to the family, unforeseen changes at work, the family returned to Ozzy’s farm, and I reached some huge milestones with the Mind of the Messiah podcast. Thank you for tuning in! Also, keep an eye on the Exposure website; Tonkie has her first solo page coming out from her most recent photoshoot.

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Welcome back for more Top of Mind. In today's episode, I examine the principle of taxes on the most fundamental level - one human financially imposes an artificial system of control on another human. Through the perception of a power dynamic between "us" and "them" we blindly allow so-called "elites" to exploit our dollars for their gain. But what are we really allowing to happen here? We are allowing one human to control another human through artificial means. That is a terrifying concept; taxes are just a byproduct of artificial control. To continuously enforce their artificial tax systems, they need two things - laws and obedience. Through those two means, we permit them to keep us down while unquestioningly handing over our wallets to people who, at the end of the day, are NO different than us. Our obedience to a perceived power will keep us down and let them impose THEIR systems on US.

Earlier this week—March 18th, to be exact—I celebrated my two-year podcasting anniversary and the creation of the Mind of the Messiah platform. As it turned out, my 200th episode was next to follow! This has been one hell of a week for me. I’m so happy that I’ve embarked on this creative endeavor, and I cannot believe what this platform has become over time. This road has been littered with immense challenges and humbling rewards; I’m lucky to have learned from both. I wanted to sit down today and reflect on the evolution of my platform, the evolution of individual segments, how each segment provides me with a unique benefit, and the process of using a schedule to reach episode 200. Thank you to all who have followed along on this journey! Your love and support mean the world to me. ❤️🎙