Murder (noun):  A Flock of crows;    (idioms): Secrets or misdeeds will eventually be disclosed.

 ‘A Murder Of Crows’ is my attempt to exercise a part of me that has had 30 years to atrophy. The stonecutter who creates sculpture from a block of stone proclaims that they are merely releasing the form already contained within. I am attempting to do much the same here. I have been thinking a lot in the past year to end my self imposed exile, to chip away at the stone block in which I had encased my desire to write and see if anything remains or, if it has become indistinguishable from the lifeless cocoon around it.

 I probably would have continued to just think about getting started except that my brother decided quite independently of me to do much the same. His story is quite different than mine but our goal seems to be the same. His first step has convinced me that it was time to do the same for myself. While we are very different, our style in this area seems to run along the same lines although I tend to see things not a brightly lit. I hope you will take the time and visit his Blog. While there is only a year and a half difference between us, he is viewing life from the perspective of a relatively new father; while I now see my children begin to spread their wings to fly.

 His story can be found at:

 http://thedailyfloss.spaces.live.com

 We are also different in some ways on recollections of the past, but it is like when multiple people who view a single event give you different descriptions of what they saw. In this case it is not so much the actual details that matter, but what we learned from them. My brother paints our father in a different hue than I would, but in the end I believe we see the same portrait of a man that helped shape the people we are today. I will get to that at a later time.

 My intention is to tell you something about me and do it in an entertaining way (I do want you to come back). However I also tend to tell it the way I see it and while it is not my intention to insult, accuse or generally hurt anyone’s feelings, the chance of that happening is none the less there. I understand that many, including myself, have done things for reasons that cannot be seen by others, yet it made the doing necessary. It is all too easy to just judge by the Letter and to leave the Spirit out. You may be family, friends or an absolute stranger and if you find offense to what I have to say, I hope you will remember that it is not a personal attack. It is simply the way I see things.

 I’m still learning as I journey through the Valley of Shadow.