June 2008

posted on June 30, 2008

So, I’m sitting up on the hillside behind our house early this morning, praying. I love to pray outside when I can, and this morning was beautiful. Anyhow, you might remember from Walking with God the story of Scout’s death (our family’s beloved golden retriever). That took place in December of ’06, and we buried Scout up on the hill in the scrub oak, near where I was praying this morning. You might also recall that we got a new puppy last summer. He’s a golden, and his name is Oban. He’s a year old now, but still very much a puppy at heart (and in the brain) and he sort of runs around while I pray and chases rocks (!?) and finds sticks and brings them back to me.

Anyhow, as I was praying I saw Oban out of the corner of my eye...

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Finding Real Vacation

posted on June 26, 2008

I was chatting with a few friends the other day about our trip to Kauai, and the car theft, and all that, and we got to talking about how important summer vacation is for all of us, and it led to some thoughts I wanted to share with you.

First, we really need vacations, just as we really need Sabbath rest each week. There’s a rhythm to life. The heart beats, then it rests. It beats, then rests. We wake each morning, then we sleep every night. We wake, then we sleep. We spend energy, then we take in food to replenish what we spent. Vacation is like that. We’ve got to have periods of rest and joy and beauty in our year.

So here is...

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Stress

posted on June 20, 2008

So, we got back Tuesday morning from two wonderful weeks away on vacation. And already I can feel the old stress wanting to creep back in. There’s a ton of stuff to get done now. I can feel the sort of gripping pain in my gut that is an old, old mark of stress. Dangit. I don’t want to just throw it all back into “high gear.”

Is it inevitable?

Do we just get a taste of a different pace of life, but it doesn’t ever have a lasting effect?

I’m wondering – how can we make meaningful changes?

I mean, I have these sorts of experiences several times a year. I get away and get some perspective. I see my life from a different point of view, see some things I’d like to change. But over time the revelation fades, and...

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The Thief

posted on June 12, 2008

Sunday night about 11pm, just after we’d fallen
asleep, somebody broke into the little house we are staying in on
Kauai. They grabbed some cash from my wallet and Stasi’s purse, took
the keys and stole the rental car.

Pretty crazy.

I mean, this is a small island. Where are they going to take a stolen car??

We didn’t realize the theft had occurred until about 6:30 the next
morning. We’d gotten up early to head out to the Napali Coast, and
couldn’t find the car keys. I thought, “Maybe I left them in the car,”
went out to have a look, and there is no car! Then we find the window
broken into, and the missing cash. At first, we were kinda shook. Not
big time, but geez –...

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On Vacation

posted on June 05, 2008

We are resting on the north shore of Kauai,
drinking in beauty and quiet. Sun and rain and ocean. It’s a pastel
world, soft clouds, soft sea, soft sky.

It feels like a sort of de-tox. From the matrix we all take for
granted. But don’t really notice its effect. Until we get away, and
suddenly realize how overdue some rest is.

Our family reads a ton when we are on vacation. Stasi, the boys, all of
us. We read most of the day, lingering in the shade. Last year I made
the mistake of bringing the wrong books. War books, mostly, military
history, including An Army at Dawn, about the early days of the United
States Army in north Africa during WWII. It was a mistake because the...

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