Abdilla Abnormalities

new blog

2009-11-23T20:06:00.001-08:00

We are no longer using this blog.

Keep visiting us at our new blog:

www.abdillas.wordpress.com

Breakfast

2009-11-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Vegan pumpkin pancakes

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 T packed brown sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 1/4 ts. pumpkin pie spice
1 ts. salt
1 3/4 c. soy milk
1/2 c. organic pumpkin
1 T. cornstarch mixed with a little water
2 T. unsweetened applesauce

Autumn treats

2009-10-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of my favorite treats I love to make in the fall...

Vegan pumpkin spice muffins

I love these because there is no oil or butter in them--just pumpkin, spices, and flour!

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 c. vegan cane sugar (has great taste)

1 T. baking powder

1/2 ts. baking soda

1/2 ts. salt

1/2 ts. cinnamon (I throw in a little more)

1/4 ts. nutmeg (again a little more)

1 15 oz can of organic pumpkin

unsweetened coconut*

Mix all together and put in muffin tin and bake for 25-30 min. at 375 degrees.

*I wondered how coconut would taste added to the muffins, so I tried it for the first time...I sprinkled coconut on top of each muffin before I put them in the oven. It added a little bit of yummy sweetness. It turned out awesome!

Vegan banana bread

1/2 c. vegan butter

1 c. vegan cane sugar

1/3 c. + 1 T egg replacer

3 bananas

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix all wet ingredients together. Sift dry ingredients separately and then add to wet mix and pour in loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

Autumn bliss

2009-10-28T16:21:00.001-07:00

Second Snow

2009-10-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I wont keep this up. But since we are only three weeks into October I thought it would be worth mentioning again.

About half an inch of crusty, heavy snow flattens the grass and arcs weak branches under its weight. On certain trees who have managed to retain their leaves, when the snow piles up on one of the dangling ornaments of past life, it falls with an icy thud. The roads, however, are only wet and glossy from the snow. Im surprised it is sticking at all. Two days ago we had the windows open and people walked the streets in shorts and t-shirts, enjoying a daytime high that reached 89. The last snow was reduced to a fuzzy memory and the future was bright. Over the last week we had a couple days of dense fog that was reminiscent of Walt Whitman's opening lines to his poem, "To Autumn," reading, "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness/close bosom friend of the maturing sun/conspiring with him how to load and bless/with fruit the vines that round the thatch eves run." And yesterday as I rode my bike home from school, a northern wind blew and raked leaves across streets, knocked the weakest links from trees and chilled my fingers to the bone. By the time I had arrives home, a blanket of fog and whirling mist shrouded the city, walling off one city block from the other.

The sunny days and frequent wet weather of autumn make Whitman's lines reality. It does feel like the sun and the mists become bosom buddies during this time of the year, taking shifts to delight to those who enjoy their handiwork.

So, until we actually have a real "snow" that causes horns to honk and tires to slip, closes schools and frustrates every living being in Denver, I will keep it to myself, enjoying the flurries in the confines of a small nook just off our kitchen.

First Snow

2009-10-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Many in Denver believe Fall is over. Three days ago the sun was out and daytime highs were in the sixties or seventies. The trees still had their leaves, some of which were green and others tinged bright colors by the waning light and chilly nights. That ended, one might say, this morning. The temperature is 17 F and a dusting of snow clings to grass and rooftops. It is snowing as I write and is supposed to keep up until noon. The high wont get warmer than 32 forcing people to either stay inside and enjoy it, put themselves to some domestic pleasures or grit and bear the wind and snow outside. Those brave people are martyrs and the most bitter souls in the city. They are the Winter naysayers and think not of Nature as whimsical and fun, but as a god whose sole objective is to make their lives better. They say Fall is dead.

Denver is one of Americas "skinniest" cities and they boast of their "320 days of sunshine" a year. Though the former is not an exaggeration, the latter surely is. Nonetheless, people live here because being outside is cherished and utilized to its fullest. They don't live here to be forced to endure inclement weather. So when Nature ushers in an "early" snowfall, or a random cloud in June that sprinkles the barren desert floor with needed rain, the people send up a wail of mourning and strident complaints. "I was going to go jogging today. But I can't do that in the rain!" As the person says this the sun is actually shining through many fractures in over head clouds and a few drops splat on the ground around you. But what I can't seem to get over is how people interact with things beyond their control. And, if say Nature did take requests, the world would be a parched dirt clod with a myriad of nicely paved jogging trails -at least for the majority of suburban America.

Thankfully, Nature doesn't give a damn about what people want or think -including me. If it were up to me there would be a global freezing and everyone would need to dig tunnels from their front doors through snow, get on their sleigh and go where they needed. I'd be a lonely man. Instead I try to take this all worth a grain of salt. Roll with it. Endure heat waves and no rain, which only make a rainy day and snow flurries that much more enjoyable.

Fall is not over. The naysayers lack foresight. If they had it they would understand that tomorrow is forecasting clear skies and "above average" temperatures. All next week is in the seventies again. The trees will bask in the remaining days of Autumn and the snow will most likely not return until sometime in November. But, like C.S. Lewis commented on humanities need to bitch and moan, "we'd rather have the itch than not be able to scratch." Let them itch. I'm going to enjoy my coffee and stare into a dynamic sheet of white.

2009-09-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

I love that my husband rocks at cooking.

Opah! The Pleasure and Plight of Catering a Greek Wedding

2009-09-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ten plates of salad vied for space on an oval tray. Anticipation beaded on our foreheads and the musty smell like pencil lead emanated from our armpits. A hand waved, then servers and runners funneled through three narrow doorways and around four corners into a dinning hall of hungry Greeks. They clanked forks on wine glasses invoking the newlyweds to press their prominent features together, forming a single mass of sweaty, olive colored flesh. Though I never saw the bride, I heard she was beautiful. And though I never met any of them, I heard these were our city’s richest. These thoughts suspended my anxiety like a gurney. This made each step a crucial responsibility to succeed. I felt plates shift and water pool up in the space between my palm and the bottom of the tray as I navigated through a maze of tables. I imagined an entire tray tipping and an avalanche of garden salad, dressing, salmon, filet mignon and potatoes nailing one of these cultural elites. I focused and stepped confidently, back arched and chin high. But it was foolish to think that of all the runners there that night that I would evade starring in another one of Fates tragicomedies.

Three men with glistening, chiseled features stood in the place where I turned to head out to the dinning area. One tapped away on an iPhone, the others swirled Pinot Gris in crystal glasses and spoke loudly with violent gestures. I should have worried about the amount of space afforded to get through, yet I drank deeply of intoxicating confidence and continued toward them, silently. I lifted the tray over one of their shoulders and, with exact precision, knocked the far plate off the tray onto the stone tiled floor. I wish I knew more about physiology and what happens in fight-or-flight scenarios because I felt every extremity of my body tingle, turn ice cold then burn with the unrelenting heat of Hades. “Opah!” One of the men said, then did a graceful two-step, with the glass of wine raised over his head. The other said excitedly, “there’s the first one! At least we got it out of the way early!” They all left the intersection and walked down the hall dancing as they spoke.

My boss for the night, who is also our landlord, saw the entire thing happen. She’s Greek and has the feminine fire of such a woman. But her voice was poised and quick and assertive, “That’s ok. That’s tradition. Just keep going.” What I imagined to be a faux pas turned out to commence a night of absurd custom and clashing of my rigid, mechanical Americanism with the fluid, flawless Greek world.

Naomi served their food and I ran tray after tray of gourmet entrees out. So I cannot speak to the experience of interacting with them. And of the two of us, it was better that she, and not I, had that “opportunity”. As was mentioned earlier, this was no typical wedding. There was a three time Super Bowl winning running back in their midst (Terrell Davis?), club owners, Pete and his family from the myriad of Pete’s Greek Cafes, Diners, Bistros etc. that dominated the downtown Denver real-estate; “a few millionaires” one of the servers said casually, with a sardonic grin. Once the flow of work became a ritual, I relaxed my mind and drifted into a seat at one of the tables.

Faces were aglow from the floating votives that bumped against Orchids in a crystal vase. I wore an Armani pinstriped jacket and a navy blue button up Gucci with the top button undone to reveal a frayed tuft of hair just beneath my prominent Adam’s apple and tendon rippled neck. I wasn’t wearing glasses either because last Spring I’d just taken new eyes from one of my unfortunate clients who couldn’t pay back “The Loan” in time. Yes, I carried a gun: a chrome .9 mil with my wife and mistress’ names engraved around the barrel. One of the bullets in the chamber had “Lucky Bitch” engraved on it. I was happy and took copious, full-mouthed gulps from the Woodridge Cabernet, slouched a bit, yet still maintained aplomb. “Polli kala!” I’d say randomly, raising my glass. (Unfortunately my Greek in real life is far less than it would be if I were this imagined man.)

Yet the pressure of the class and pomp would weigh, I assume, too much, making a night like this unbearable with out the aid of alcohol. But that is me speaking; not Loukas or Salaki, Bernaki or Jimmy. My character faded into the richly textured faces around the table and I receded into madiocredom.

I paid as much attention as possible to their disposition and manner with each other. Warmth -light hearted and flamboyant warmth- hung over each table like a fog. But like fog in a valley, it was trapped and immediate to those at the table. It was family and friends; the atomic structure of the bonds between individuals was exclusive and beckoned envy. There was a sense of infallible filialty. “Mamaaa” an older gentleman said at one point. He stood up from his seat and gripped the jowls of a woman across the table, shook them, shot Greek into the air then pressed his lips against both hers and the corner of an eye. I watched the expressions of the other guests at that table, expecting the sophisticated wince at an uncouth action. Instead, a younger man with a face that resembled Pliny’s ivory bust, hoorayed, clapped his hands then raised his glass and cheered to Mamaaa. A part of me wanted to throw a plate against the wall and cheer too, saying, “Opah! Polli kala! Mamaaa!” But there was a clear division: Family. Friends. The table runner: Foreigner.

One has to remember that it is the Greeks who invented sophistication. Sophia: their word for wisdom, social intuitiveness, the finger on the pulse of custom and tradition. Had I been Greek I might not have been horrified at breaking a plate. I might have dropped the whole tray and broke into dance and song. But probably not. I’d be the crazy Greek they sequester into the dance hall. Nonetheless, there was something elusive and mysterious about the event, something antiquated and incredibly taunting.

After our shift was over we were invited by our landlord (no longer boss) to join her for drinks in the Champagne Corner. Naomi grabbed some sticky baklava and a glass of Champagne. The glasses were set up in pairs of two and lined the perimeter of a round table. One of the fellow servers was in the Corner and had a bottle of Miller in one hand and a glass of golden bubbly in the other. Her once pale, northern European face was flushed pink and stretched into a permanent grin. We joined her and turned to face the dance floor.

Bills of money, from ones to hundreds, lay scattered everywhere. I saw rent, a skateboard, new shoes, and a debtless life get danced on. The women in silk and high riding dresses, and the men, as symmetrical as Ken dolls, contrasted the elderly who walked slow, bent over by the gravity of time. Stumpy thick legs carried the women and the men’s faces were submersed in the growing flesh of bulbous noses, cauliflowered ears and jowls that crowded the dark dots of eyes. Many of their faces looked like lumps of tawny dough that had coal pushed into the surface for eyes and slits cut out for mouths. How do they get from this, looking at a handsome man link arms with an astounding woman, to that? looking at an older man prop himself against a brass cane, striving to maintain life.

The girl we met up with in the Corner talked viciously about the women; their figures, skin tones and hair. “Those bitches can’t afford to look normal” she said. She followed the statement with a toss of Champagne down her throat. “Their husbands would ditch them so fast! I’d love to just cram baklava down their throats and hold their hands back so they couldn’t make themselves vomit!” her glassy eyes glaring at the hourglass shapes gyrating before her.

It was odd to see how “perfect” everyone looked. I grew self-conscious, too. A round pudge pushed out over my waistline. “Does more money actually buy the time to work this off?” I thought. We observed the mass of people interact. Jovial and free to the eye. I thought about private lives of Greek-American society. Like our new friend said, many of the men carried around wads of hundred dollar bills that were dispensable, being thrown in the air, floating gently to the ground for the groom and bride to scoop up later. Were they happy beneath this sheen? Was affluence really working out to their favor? My simple observation of the activity on the dance floor said “Yes, absolutely.”

A new song began and the crowd joined in a circle, their arms linked over each others shoulders as their legs matched the rhythm and pulse of the song; kicking once, stepping twice, kicking with the other, stepping twice. They bounced with each move not merely gliding and keeping sync or precision like an American square dance would. There was a carelessness and frivolity with it. A young boy stood in the center and clapped his hands imitating the adults that surrounded him. I said to our friend, “I wish I was able to do that with out thinking.” She said, “they’re not thinking about it. Its just centuries of tradition passed along by blood.” What a concept. Maybe it really does boil down to biology. I have the coordination and moves of a rusty John Deer tractor despite being from a Maltese background. Yet somehow apart from my consciousness and self-absorbed eyes, my knees bent and swayed, my toes tapped and my shoulders twitched with the music. How is it that I am restricted from enjoying myself?

We left after the show ended and as we walked to our car, Naomi reflected on the beauty of other cultures and asked naively why imported Greeks managed to make so much money. “They entertain and offer a lot of goods and services Americans covet” I said. We got in our Toyota, rolled down the windows that still work, and clunked off to a Greek owned home, licking the residue of free baklava from our fingers.

vegan dark chocolate chip cookies

2009-09-13T12:44:00.001-07:00

These turned out superlicious with great flavor!

1/2 c. vegan butter (I love Earth Balance brand)

3/4 c + 1T egg replacer

3/4 c. sugar

1 ts. vanilla

1 1/4 c. flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour, and it works great...more fiber for ya! ;-) )

1/2 ts. baking soda

1/2 c. coconut

1/2 ts. salt

3/4 c. dark chocolate chunks (I use dark chocolate wherever I can!)

Beat first 4 ingredients together in large bowl. Then mix remaining ingredients in separate bowl. Then combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. Enjoy! And you'll never know they are vegan! =)

First days of school

2009-08-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I have survived the first 3 days of 1st grade! W00hoooo!!! And I am utterly EXHAUSTED!! I am so thankful to God that I have so far only 20 kiddos. I was told I could have up to 35! I can't even begin to imagine. I am also grateful to have a Para in my classroom helping me for an hour a day. Unfortunately it is is the last hour of the day when the kids are antsy and ready to go home after a long day (they go till 3:45pm!).

My first impressions are that 20 6-year olds for 7 hours a day is a TON of work. I have been working a lot with them on my routines and behavior expectations. It is a lot for them, but I know they can do it with time.

Lesson planning has been the biggest challenge for me, aside from getting their attention throughout the day. I'm constantly saying "eyes on me please" and "mouths shut" and "criss-cross applesauce." :-) Lesson planning for 6 subjects a day seems to be way too much right now. I'm trying to figure out a system as to how to best manage my time so that I'm not lesson planning before school, after school and in the evenings every day and thus getting little sleep.

My kiddos are precious. There really do make it all worth it. There is Brian whose gorgeous brown eyes and sweet smile melt my heart every time. He has a precious voice and is so obedient. Then there is Emily who is an amazing writer and artist. Irving is enraptured by animals. Karla talks a lot and is constantly telling me what everyone else in the class is doing (We're working on worrying about herself, and not the other children). Daniel is really smart and speaks almost perfect English. Anthony is my biggest behavior challenge. He has to constantly be moving and has a hard time focusing. Each one is precious and I can't wait to know them better as the year progresses. And the best part is they understand my Castilian accent (whew!). =)

Here are some pics of my classroom. Thanks to my mom and aunt who were AMAZING at helping me set it up.

Large group instruction area - "the carpet". Some day I'll have a big carpet to put here.

The classroom library (we will soon have the shelves filled with books!)

Supplies area

Guided reading table (once it's cleared off) and some literacy stations

My desk behind those white cubbies.

first fruits

2009-07-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Can't wait to dig into this garden goodness.

I'm think'in zucchini bread.

reality check

2009-07-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Love this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twQED8zOBDo

a little miracle

2009-07-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago, I had been praying to the Lord that somehow someway I would meet a Spanish gal as a friend here in Denver. This seemed pretty farfetched to me ('cuz Spaniards just don't come to live in the western US), but I thought I'd just let God know the desire of my heart. After awhile, I had stopped praying about it and then eventually came to forget it.

Until today. At my Math training class today I was walking past a gal and immediately recognized the Spanish accent and thought "She can't be from Spain." It turns out we were in the same class today so at our morning break I approached her, and the two gals seated with her, and started speaking in Spanish and it turns out all three of them are from Spain!! One is from Barcelona, one from Pamplona, and the other from Zaragoza. We talked for about 10 minutes about Spain and what they're doing here. They will be teaching for DPS too! We exchanged numbers and hope to hang out soon for tapas. =)

All the while we were talking, my heart was bursting with happiness. I can't explain it. Whenever I speak Castillian, or hear it, or meet Spaniards, or am in Spain, or anything to do with Spain, my heart is complete. God gave me not 1 Spanish friend, but 3!!

A better pack this time...

2009-07-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Mt. Evans Wilderness

2009-07-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

Check out where Naomi will be teaching for the next few years!...

http://beachcourt.dpsk12.org/

Naomi's First Backpacking Trip

2009-07-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

Buffalo Creek Campground where we spent our first night.

Portion of the Colorado Trail before we began our assent up Rolling Creek trail. Naomi's bag was ultra-light, but awkward.

The Castle in hazy dawn light. It's been an unusually wet summer for Colorado providing foggy mornings in the mountains and vibrant forest undergrowth.

Second night along Rolling Creek. It is such a comfort to hike all day and walk into a temporary home in the wilderness.

The blue is our tent as seen from the trail.

The back-side of The Castle at sunset.

Desert Paintbrush.

Moonrise over the castle.

Columbine and Shooting Rockets.

Buffalo herd and Wigwam Creek waterfall.

After a two hour deluge we emerged from our tent, started a fire and ate a needed dinner. The clouds dissipated just enough to let the rosy hues of sunset light the tree-tops and drifting fog above us. It was frigid and wet but well worth it.

Extracting water from Wigwam creek.

This is our third night at Wigwam Creek. The creek darted in and out of elbows and tight hairpin turns, under giant boulders and over fallen trees. It is one of the most fun creeks I've seen. There were decently sized Brook Trout just off the shore, too.

On our way out we had to stop and capture the vast fields of wildflowers. The fields surface seemed to shimmer with color as breezes passed over. We were fortunate to have seen such an abundance of flora. One person we talked to said that due to Colorado's drought over the last 10 years, this kind of foliage has been non-existent. I'm glad we were able to enjoy it while it lasts.

precious moments

2009-06-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm at the halfway mark of the Summer Institute in the Denver Teaching Fellows program! I'm learning so much and loving my classes! Though the days are long and rigorous. In the mornings I am doing Student Teaching at a summer school that focuses on English Language Acquisition where I have 18 beautiful Hispanic 2nd graders, each with a unique set of talents and story.

This morning was a special day for my students. We took them on a field trip to the nearby nursing home about 10 blocks from the school. They have been there before and occasionally make cards for the ancianos there. Today they had practiced really hard and had prepared to sing a handful of songs that they have been learning during summer school. We walked the 10 blocks to the nursing home and were ushered into "the grand hall" where about 10 residents awaited us. They were of mixed ages and varying levels of mental stability. After the kids found their places and were getting reading to start, a resident in a wheel chair (who obviously had some serious issues) out of nowhere breaks the silence by shouting "F**k!" We were stunned and it was all I and my teaching partner could do to not burst out laughing. We controlled ourselves, but I looked at my kids and they were looking around and I know exactly what was probably running through their heads - Did he just say what I think he said??!! Then immediately another resident from across the room shouts back "Shut up!" by which the disturbed gentleman replies "A**hole!" What an awkward moment!!! And really hilarious. The poor kids responded so well by not saying anything and immediately starting singing their songs. =)

After their presentation, they went around and introduced themselves to the residents and even a few of the girls taught some of them the hand games that we did as kids (Hannah and I could do "Miss Sue" really well). =) They were shy and a bit scared to talk to the residents but they did it. It warmed my heart to see my 2nd graders talking to the residents who looked (to them) a bit scary and different. I was so proud of them. I have one more week left with them until my Student Teaching is over. I'm really going to miss estos niños míos.

A Word of Wisdom on Spending Time

2009-06-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

“If we could waste time with out injuring eternity” – Henry David Thoreau

Last week I camped in Colorado’s wilderness to clear my head from a cluttered and chaotic life. Accompanied by a good friend, we began the hike at 6 am intending to summit a 12,000 ft pass early enough to evade deadly electrical storms in the afternoon. We reached the summit quicker than expected and were greeted with warm sapphire skies, the still rising sun low on a craggy horizon. We were making good time and trudged on into a vale of Aspen and Doug Fir that led down to our destination. When we reached camp I turned my cell phone on, hoping to get the time. The vertical bars that normally indicate coverage were gone: No Service. After I drove a stake into a sunny patch of dirt to try calculating the hour and staring at its shadow, I realized the soil was not going to produce numbers to help out. No ticking of a clock, no outside contact with the world through a television, I sat back and dazed at swaying treetops, acclimating to the pace of a new environment. It then dawned on me that time -as far as a number game goes- is a social ordinance, not a natural tempo. My friend, who observed my brief moment of panic, said casually “If we could only waste time with out injuring eternity.” Introspecting for a minute I faced a question that I often don’t take time to ask: What is the best use of time?

This humorous circumstance is reminiscent Lewis Mumford’s claim that when the clock was invented it turned us from time-keepers to time-savers and finally, into time-servers. Consider how minutes and hours, days and weeks, affect our interactions with other people. Meetings with loved ones or friends immediately get slotted into a block of time and as that time evaporates, anxiety rises and pressure to be at the next place presses in. Because our lives are counted up numerically, we should be conscious and proactive in prioritizing the events that compose life. This is not to say that the invention of the clock is a detriment to society, but that its place on our wrists and walls has become a deified symbol that -as I experienced- gives too much meaning to the day.

Neil Postman said in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death that “the clock introduced a new form of conversation between man and God,” and that “Perhaps Moses should have included another commandment: Thou shalt not make mechanical representations of time.” If there is no system of prioritization in life, then the clock, although providing structure, cheapens our interactions with each other and God.

For those who have spiritual lives, the object of attention tends to be something invisible. As Christians, our spiritual focus is on Christ; unseen but internally dwelling. This truth about spirituality makes fostering such a life incredibly difficult with out a disciplined organization of time. Because the minute tallying clock confines our lives, there is a need to weed out the things that encroach on the Holy; the quiet moments where His Word is heard. With out proper time to heed His still, small voice, our ears will deafen in the Divine conversation.

This morning I browsed some blogs and read a post where the author describes how much time is spent in front of the TV which, after introspecting and evaluating unmet inner needs, they cut the television’s cord and chose to abstain for 31 days from its talking heads and constant output of information. With the post was a cartoon of a man genuflect in front of a television set. I was reminded of another cartoon from Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin, in his pajamas holding a bowl of mush, walks up to the television and says:

“Oh greatest of the mass media, thank you for elevating emotion, reducing thought and stifling imagination. Thank you for the artificiality of quick solutions and for the insidious manipulation of human desires for commercial purposes. This bowl of lukewarm tapioca represents my brain. I offer it in humble sacrifice. Bestow thy flickering light forever.”

As he speaks he is also prostrate before the TV. The scene that follows depicts a dark room where a mother stares with a groggy and confused expression at the bowl of tapioca in front of a glaring television with no one around. We laugh at the author’s social critique for its poignancy and truth, admitting with a sense of guilt that we waste copious amounts of time in front of the tube, and that the images of a man and a boy bowing as to a god is entirely accurate of the place we’ve given the TV.

In 1985 Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death as the television was gaining momentum in society. He addresses the potentially dangerous impact that television will have epistemologically, cognitively and spiritually on the contour of societies landscape. He draws a line of evolution, from reading to watching, by pointing out that since the Israelites days, the Judeo-Christian God “…was to exist in the Word and through the Word, an unprecedented conception requiring the highest order of abstract thinking.” He concludes that, “Iconography thus became blasphemy so that a new kind of God could enter a culture.” Have the Clock and TV become such deified icons?

While the definition of who or what God is differs culturally, we agree that whatever shape or form God has in an individual’s life, it competes for full attention; the center of existence; the thing around which we order our time. And it appears to me that God knew humanity was prone to be preoccupied with instant gratification: The immediate image to touch and worship, instead of devoting time to quiet mind and spirit; the personal passion of Christ.

Postman correlates televisions ability to grab our attention through images as informative entertainment to the opening of a cultural chasm void of literacy, introspection, critical thinking and time management. It appeals to a culture whose schedule is out of control. When you have a society bogged down with over-loaded schedules full of vain activity due to an inability to prioritize, you have a people whose minds and souls are too willing to accept easy information and cheap entertainment. When one can turn the TV on and simultaneously do chores or converse with family while not missing a beat of the universes drum, it further devalues time as an asset worth managing.

It is no surprise then, when put into nature, whose daily habits are still dictated by seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, that I wander about kicking stones and scratching imaginary itches. It is the outward scratch of an Eternal itch within. That consciousness is only tapped into when my senses cease to be tantalized by constant stimulation. It therefore becomes easy to blame society, as if I were merely a Pavlovian dog and not a sovereign creature of God.

It is this point of difference that makes any outward blaming totally null. In his book Guilt and Grace, Paul Tournier says:

“We see many people who are perpetually lamenting the lack of time, with out ever seriously considering what sacrifices they could make to remedy the situation. They accuse civilization, modern life, the motorcar, machines, all the things which have been invented to save time, as if they were the victims and not the culprits…we allow ourselves to be swept along by the current of life instead of resisting it by the reform of our own lives, and that the problem is a personal rather than a social one”

Of 168 hours a week, perhaps 40-50 is tied up in making a living. Now examine that phrase: making a living. We are bound to finality; we have a beginning and an end; and through out this journey we have an opportunity to determine what is worth living for. Moses, in the 91^st Psalm, reflects on our span under the sun in “seventy years – eighty for those who are strong” and ask God to “Teach us to count up the days that are ours, and we shall come to the heart of wisdom.” Wisdom, the apogee of existence to the Hebrew, the ability to determine daily what is worthy of ones life, so that by its end they can know that they lived life, not as Thoreau saw, as men living lives of quiet desperation, but living it to its fullest.

What is it about numbering our days that leads to Wisdom? When Moses uses that word, the common meaning is to obtain the skill and understanding to prioritize ones life. But Wisdom is deeper than the calculus that goes into planning a day. In Psalm 8, Wisdom (memra) speaks and says “From everlasting I was set, from the beginning, before the earth came into being. The deep was not, when I was born.” It doesn’t take a theologian to understand that it is Christ speaking. He is the Wisdom of God. Now consider John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.” There is a parallel between Wisdom and Word here. The Greek word John uses is Logos, which during that time implied “world-reason,” the spiritual substance that sustained the Cosmos; Divine logic; Wisdom. The implication, from Hebrew practicality to Greek philosophy, is that in order for things to be sustained and endure (literally Cosmos) there needs to be organization and prioritization. John incarnates that concept and gives the world an axis to revolve around.

The informative and religious culture during Johns time can be seen in the Aeropagus of Acts 17, where Athenian intellectuals and neighboring cities gathered to discuss the latest trends, philosophies and social news; a sort of ancient CNN and Fox news network. It was here that one could see almost any deity as palpable image. Paul the Apostle was invited to speak, seeing he came with an odd and bold philosophy. Paul points out that, as he browsed the gods and observed their religious sophistication, he came across an image with the inscription: To An Unknown God. These sophists of the Aeropagus were sensible enough to erect an image to a deity that they had not heard been acquainted with in order to not offend it. “In fact, the unknown god you revere is the one I proclaim to you” said Paul. Then, in his precise manner divulges the Logos; incarnate Wisdom; Jesus Christ.

Our culture today is no different. Postman warned that the rise of images would eradicate the need for words and that the velocity of information that flies through the tube would condense time into a vapor void of worth. Men and women cease to value time and critically filter the information that is so readily available, sugar coated as entertainment, they will inevitably create a pantheistic society with gods so subtle, the most devout Christian would worship it.

How can time be spent -not wasted- so as to not injure Eternity? With that in mind, remember that Christ said he came to give life abundantly. If this is so, consider what images and voices we plug in daily that imposes on the Eternal Word? How valuable Wisdom is today as our senses are bombarded on every front offering quicker and easier ways to be satisfied. Time is our limited gift, to pursue the Wisdom of the Word.

The time I spent watching finches flutter icy winds, the lake lapping at a verdant shore, and the sun, keeping its course like a champion finishing a race, giving the world another day, I wondered if God is still most visible in the small print of those Holy pages as in the whisper Elijah heard out side the cave in the wilderness, within the simple wisdom of Nature, where maybe time –if taken- leads to Christ.

Perched on a log as the sun sank behind a massive peak, I resolved that time will have to tell.

Hem of Eden

2009-06-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

This morning I stood in our doorway, coffee in hand, and waved good-bye to Naomi as she drove off to work. As my eyes followed the car down the street they were stopped abruptly when she passed under an aspen quaking in the morning sun. A gentle wind rustled its leaves that carried an aroma of budding flowers and wetted lawns into our home. For a moment I mused over how sweet the smell was, how nice it was to be able to enjoy a fragment of Nature in the already bustling metropolis. Then the notion that childish sensory experience is too ephemeral and weak, giving way to a growing "dark hour of reason"* became clear the way the tree stood isolated in its tiny plot of concrete, amidst telephone wires, presiding over traffic and under territory claiming dogs. As if the entirety of Nature could be encapsulated in this one tree, I perceived the clear division of Wilderness and Domesticity; two worlds dramatically divided yet useless with out each other.

Every day I pass beneath these trees I savor their sights and smells, but not yet have the two worlds been so clearly juxtaposed as they were this morning. I think it’s due to how I have spent the last four mornings in the Mt. Evans Wilderness. At 6:30 am yesterday, as my companion and I made our way up through a swath of Ponderosa Pine, stopping to vainly fill our lungs with oxygen at 11,000 ft, the sun dripped from the verdant spires onto our faces. I remember telling him that that early morning hour and dusk were my favorite times of day. Then I clarified, "in the forest, that is" and joked that the sun really does shine on both evil and good. We took a moment to absorb the place.

Silent is not how I would describe it. The suns warmth generated a myriad of creatures to life: Gold Finches flirted with each other, a Robin hopped from branch to branch, an alpine chipmunk scurried along the path ahead of us. These were back dropped, however, by a more deafening noise: A brook tumbling over boulders and fallen trees that seemed to carry a conversation with itself from one drop to another. It was so loud, in fact, that in order for my friend and I to talk, we had to raise our voices as if in a mob of people. Then there was the wind overhead. The only way for me to describe this sound is to liken it to breakers on the coast, or, in a more relatable sense, 8 am along side a major highway. For one who basks in silence and despises raucous, this vibration of life soothed my senses and could lull me to sleep and sustain my need for peace.

It goes against how I commonly understand Nature as a refuge of silence away from the perpetual noise of the city. All three nights a mélange of wind, Coyotes, thunder or sleet awakened me. They might have kept my exhausted body from rest had they themselves not ushered me right back to sleep. The noise that awoke me, in a sense, allowed me to witness an activity that often goes by unnoticed. I felt privileged instead of burdened to have woken up. The nature of that anti-silence is so organic to existence that as naturopathic medicines cure our bodily ailments better than a chemical imitations, this slight disturbance worked as a salve on frayed nerves from an unnatural metropolitan life.

It’s fascinating how ones mind begins to adapt to the course and habits of a new place. My accustomed senses expect city noise. In the wilderness, however, what was once a cars audio system, booming and pulsing in deep base tones was replaced by thunder reverberating against monolithic mountains; the hissing of tires on asphalt with breezes and creeks. Upon entering the city, such sounds as sirens, horns, Jake-brakes, engines, exhaust systems etc. seem out of place before one realizes where they have returned. Sounds birthed from our invention to facilitate our pace and habit of life scrape with violent friction against Nature just beyond our borders.

Thinking about that aspen as an example that humanity desires Nature in its backyard, subdued and contained, shows that we need Natures resources. The resurgence of natural medicines, organic foods and natural therapy is the outflow of this realization. For my birthday a couple years ago, Naomi bought me a massage at Aveda. When I entered the corridor that led to a small chamber to “get comfortable”, my skin crawled with an eerie sensation from an attempt to contain the essence of nature in a narrow, dimly lit hallway. All sorts of plants were hung from the ceiling and placed on tables or the floor. An audio track played the chirping of birds, the soft texture of a stream while new-age music flowed in long breaths as if to harmonize with Nature. For some who never leave their urban gardens, this might do the trick; a supplement of Nature with out actually having to exert the energy to leave the safety of the city. Despite its cheap representation, it clearly shows what Nature offers our souls and bodies and how it reveals a deep inner need for beauty and tranquility.

Yet, even as I make the time to leave the city for some moments of solace, I cant help but feel isolated in the wilderness, surrounded by its course of life that goes on with or with out my noticing. I feel out of place, estranged and restless, neither there nor here. Its economy demands a different industry and ingenuity for survival, a keen eye and understanding to live. Small and vulnerable I feel a need to return to a place where the resources for surviving are immediate. At once the tension between needing the products of humanity for simple survival and the dread of returning to it mix with the society of Nature, its dour demand for survival-of-the-fittest and its wide open door for anyone who desires to succeed. It bewilders and beckons. One conversation that my friend and I often have is about the inner pull we feel to move out into the wild, live simply and drink from Natures storehouse of resources. As we talk though, its tone changes from passion and dreaming to that of impracticality. As much as we despise the pace and ideals of our culture we realize that we are truly dependent on its resources as well. To live in the city and escape to Natures embrace? or live in Natures bosom and visit the city when needed?

Herman Melville put this tension in perspective when he said,

“...to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in its self. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.”

Perhaps this is attributed to being simple sojourners on this planet that within our souls there is longing for a paradise. Could it be that there is an actual unmet need and no amount of invention and science will satisfy it? It seems that a technological revolution has brought us full circle, back to primitive basics with rediscovering that a simple life yields a better quality of living, that quantity and quality are more opposed than not, that Natural medicines and diets truly aide our bodies and that containing nature in our neighborhoods allows us to experience a subdued wilderness convenient for hectic schedules. It has allowed us to come even closer to uncovering what lies deep inside the soul of humanity: a need for Eden. But I wonder if Eden were attained here on earth, chained to grim finality, would it truly quench the yearning? Knowing the ephemera of things, I am temporarily satisfied to see the hem of Eden in the quaking of urban Aspens.

* John Bjetman - “Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows”

2 Years, Baby!

2009-06-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary

to the man who has my heart and total devotion.

2009-06-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Being married to you is so much fun.

Highlights from the outback

2009-05-21T02:58:00.000-07:00

A few of the many adventures we had on our 9 day trip through the Aussie outback...

1. Camping - Is one of our favorite things to do. We enjoyed camping "rough" (hiking everything in and taking it back out and no toilets, showers, or running water). I've learned to love camping this way since I've been married to Jason.

2. Landscapes - We saw amazing sunsets, deserts, mountain ranges, old bridges, caves with Aboriginal paintings, ruins of pioneer homesteads and cattle stations, and cemeteries from the 1800s!!

3. Wildlife - We saw kangaroos, emus, dingos (wild dogs), sheep, wallabies, cattle, horses, birds (magpies and galahs) and eagles.

4. Hahndorf - a quaint little German town near the coast with fun German shops and restaurants.

5. The "Old Ghan" - This is the old railroad that was built in the late 1800s by the Afghans (hence the name) in Australia. The railroad extended 900 miles.

6. Oodnadatta track - the 900 mile dirt and rocky road that follows the Old Ghan.

7. Oodnatta Pink Road House - a quirky pink roadhouse in the Oodnadatta town of 130 people. We found Magnum bars (my favorite ice cream that I've only been able to find in Europe!) and I painfully bought chapstick for $6!!

8. Jason had the time of his life driving portions of the outback (on the other side of the car and opposite lane!) =) He's gotten the hang of it and may be hard to switch when we get back!

9. Myreen - We stopped to see a family friend of Steve's named Myreen in a little town called Quorn for tea and "bickies" (cookies) at her house. What a dear woman. We fell in love with her instantly. She told us fascinating stories. We could've listened to her for hours!

10. Johnny cakes - while camping we enjoyed an Aussie outback staple food called "johnny cakes" that Steve would make us for breakfast. It is flour, salt, and water cooked over the fire.

11. Honey ice cream - We ate honey ice cream for the first time. Honey is huge here. It is everywhere and you can find anything honey flavored here (cookies, ice cream, candies, etc.). We also ate honeycomb for the first time.

12. Stars - the night sky is filled with brilliant stars. We can see the Milky Way so clear here. We loved sleeping under the stars.

13. Wine tasting in the Barassa Valley - we enjoyed amazing wine at Hentley farms.

14. Lots of laughs.

15. Lake Eyre - This is a lake that has been dry for the last 10 years because of the severe drought. Every 10 years or so, it is filled and the wildlife and vegetation that appears for this short time is magnificent. We got to see it when it was filled with water!

15. Naomi fainted for the first time - Here's the story...I was trying this electrical massage machine on my shoulders and was laughing so hard that I started to get short of breath and so stopped, and then I said to Jason, "I think I'm going to faint." And it was the strangest feeling... Everything started to slowly go black and then Jason caught my head, but I don't remember that, I just remember having a dream (which I'm sure was only seconds long) and hearing in the background that my pulse was slowing down really fast, and then I remember my head in Jason's hands and his head over me saying "Naomi come back to me, Naomi can you hear me?...) As I slowly come out of it, Jason asks me what my name is and where I was born (I answered correctly =)) and then when I was fully conscious I wanted to vomit and I was soaked in sweat. Really weird. I apparently gave everyone quite a scare. They said I turned ashen green. Now I know what it's like to faint!

16. Lee - On our way back from the trip we met Lee at a "servo" (gas station). He was sitting at the table next to us (We had stopped for breakfast). We started chatting and then he eventually pulled up a chair to our table. He's a typical Aussie - warm and friendly. He had us laughing the whole time. He is a motorcyclist and is going to travel the States in a year. He has our phone numbers and will be staying with us in Denver when he's passing through. We look forward to his visit.

17. Mom and Steve - We are so blessed to be here with Mom and Steve and seeing and experiencing their world and lives here. We love you.

Aussie lingo

2009-05-07T01:53:00.000-07:00

We've been here a week now and it hasn't taken long for us to pick up on the language differences. Here's what we've learned so far...

G'day, mate! = common greeting

Hullo = hello

See yas! = good bye!

Ta = Thank you

It's okay or It's alright = You're welcome

Pretty good = delicious (referring to food)

Bloke = a man

Lolly = candy

Boot = trunk (of a car)

Bonnet = hood (of a car)

Mum = mom

Have a yarn = have a chat

Lovely = great

Yank = an American

Footy = a sport resembling Football

Sauce = ketchup

Chips = french fries

Mate = friend

Play bowls = bowling

Indicator = turn signal or blinker (in a car)

Toot = horn

And any word that ends in "ter" is pronounced "duh" (ex. water = waduh) :-)

Oh, and can't forget the craziness of driving on the left side of the road and the driver's seat on the right side of the car and the traffic going the other direction when you cross the street.

It's beautiful here. It reminds us a lot of northern Spain, in the Asturias region. It also looks a lot like the Northwest...green and trees. We've seen kangaroos, wallabies, strange beautiful birds, and magpies. It is Fall here, which we are loving as it is our favorite season. We get two Falls this year!

On Saturday we are leaving for a 9 day road trip through the "outback." It will be mostly desert, mountainous, and beautiful sunsets. The outback is what I imagine Australia to be. We'll post pics soon.

See yas!

new do

2009-05-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

career change

2009-04-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

It is official, I have been accepted into Denver Teaching Fellows as a Bilingual Elementary Ed teacher in the Denver Public Schools. I am soooo excited! This has been something that I have been passionate about pursuing over this past year. Denver Teaching Fellows is a program specifically designed to train teachers to be effective at closing the achievement gap in high-needs schools in the Denver Public Schools, and the relentless pursuit of academic achievement for all students. It begins with a summer Training Institute of six weeks starting June 5 - July 14. Then I am placed into a high-needs school and start teaching full-time on my own this fall! I will be teaching a Bilingual elementary class which means that all my students will be native Spanish-speaking kiddos. I feel incredibly blessed by God to have been selected 1 of 50 for this program. I am astounded at His love to grant me such a gift. I can't wait to teach these little minds. I want to make a difference in their lives and hearts and give them the tools to be successful in whatever they pursue.

To learn more of what Denver Teaching Fellows is all about and what I will be doing, you can go to their website at www.denverteachingfellows.org.

A little bit o' Rockieness

2009-04-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

A perfect date: A Rockie's game on a spring night with my hunk of a hubby and a picnic dinner of sushi and dried mangos.

2009-04-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

4 lbs of strawberries + 24 oz of blackberries for $4.88 = springtime sweetness

2009-04-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

HE HAS RISEN!

And I'm eternally grateful.

Cry, The Beloved Country

2009-04-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

An impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law and the racial injustice suffered by both in the beloved country of South Africa in the 1940s. This is it's tragic history.

veganism

2009-04-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

After much research and reading, I've (Naomi) decided to adopt the vegan diet (as much that is in my control, which means that when invited to people's homes, I will eat whatever they serve and Mom Heidi, I will GLADLY eat whatever you make while in Australia!). I read a book many months back that really influenced this decision. It's called Skinny Bitch (not so great name, but great book!). It goes into depth the sources of animal products and dairy products and what exactly is in them (added hormones, etc.). I'm becoming much more passionate about what I put into my body and what exactly is in the foods I consume. Being vegan means eating no animal products (dairy-eggs,butter,cheese,milk; meat and fish) and eating a plant based diet which is eating all fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. We eat very little meat and dairy as is, so I don't think this will be too bad (although, one thing I will do that is against the vegan diet, is continue to eat fish. I love tuna and salmon and believe the benefits of fish are great). As is, we drink soy milk (but I'm thinking of trying almond milk as there are some controversy over the benefits of soy), and eat lots of tofu (protein and calcium) and veggies. Whole grains are the number 1 staple in our house. My mom and twin sis being nurses, I know their first question (rightfully so) will be what about the nutrients in meat and dairy? I get all the nutrients found in dairy and meat already in vegetables and in the daily supplements we take (fish oil and flax seed oil = omega-3), and as for calcium, it is in a lot of vegetables and we take a calcium supplement that has 100%DV. Also, brocolli, brussel sprouts, and kale are huge sources of calcium. I love yogurt, so soy yogurt also provides calcium. Another concern about the vegan diet is the lack of iron, vitamin B-12 and riboflavin. The multi-vitamin we take has 100% of each. Some of the benefits to a vegan diet are lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and lower risk of many forms of cancer. Jason is super supportive of this (since he is the family cook, whatever he makes will be vegan for me), and he will eat anything I make or experiment with (bless him!). I get a lot of my recipes from http://www.fatfreevegan.com/ and the book mentioned above comes with a great simple recipe book too. If any of you have any suggestions or tips on vegan foods, etc. I'm all ears! I'll periodically post great recipes I find and try out too. :-)

2009-04-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

Sweetly broken

To the cross I look,
to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing
For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified
You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

~Jeremy Riddle

The Good Earth

2009-03-30T21:21:00.001-07:00

This is a fascinating look into the culture of pre-revolutionary China. It's a novel about a Chinese farmer's quest to overcome his destiny as a poor farmer and instead, seek one of wealth. Yet the land he owns, loses, and gains again, by the sweat of his brow, is forever who is he is and lives for. I learned a lot about the Chinese culture from this book, a culture of complexity and beauty.

The Treasure Principle

2009-03-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

This is a book by Randy Alcorn that I have been wanting to read for about 2 years now, and have finally read it! A powerful book on the eternal perspective of money. It suggests these 6 Treasure Principle Keys:

#1 God owns everything. I'm His Money Manager.

#2 My heart always goes where I put God's money.

#3 Heaven, not Earth, is my home.

#4 I should live not for the dot but for the line (the "dot" being our life here on Earth, and the never ending "line" thereafter representing our eternal life in heaven).

#5 Giving is the only antidote to materialism.

#6 God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.

I still have a lot to think about on this. But one thing I know for sure is that Jason and I want to be more generous. We want to give more, and not care about the "things" we have (I've been really wanting to buy a sofa online that we don't "need" and am struggling with the fact that we don't have money for it.) We want to see God provide in incredible ways only so that we can give more again and bless others as God continues to bless us. I love what Randy Alcorn says, "God distributes wealth unevenly not because He loves some of His children more than others, but so His children can distribute it to their brothers and sisters on His behalf...Abundance isn't God's provision for me to live in luxury. It's His provision for me to help others live" (pg. 75).

Malachi 3:10 has always been a favorite of mine, "Test me in this...and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it." I'm excited for us to test the LORD with our finances and watch and be amazed at how He will prove Himself faithful. Stay tuned.

A Real Snowstorm

2009-03-26T19:35:00.001-07:00

They called for it and it came; a very rare occurrence here in Denver. When I woke up this morning at 7:30 there was a very light dusting on the ground and the overcast sky spit small droplets of snow occasionally, but nothing promising the 8-16 inches expected. I made my coffee, grabbed my book (The Spaniard and the Seven Deadly Sins) and went into my temporary workspace (guilty grin). When I emerged from my chamber The Snow had begun to fall heavily. The flakes were large and lumbering often distracted by a slight breeze. I took the first photo at just after 8am.

Naomi, still under the covers of our bed, continued to sleep; she has an atrocious flu. When she woke up The Snow had kept up and had begun to accumulate on the grass and rooftops, creating the appearance of a gingerbread village. I left at around 11 am

to do some errands. The snow had become thicker and the wind picked up. Two or so inches had mounded up on everything but streets and walkways.

I entered a store and shopped for maybe 15 minutes, then came out to a wall of white.

Almost an inch of snow had piled up on the

black asphalt parking lot. The snow moved in long ivory pillars across the landscape. "This is my very first real blizzard!" I said, unfortunately not quiet enough for one grumpy customer to say, "I have enough in my life-time, bwah!" as she shook her crooked arm and withered wrist into the air. I sang a psalm to the Snow gods o

n her behalf. These next photos were taken

when I got home around 1:30 pm.

As you can see from these photos, the visability was cut down to about 50 or so feet. the temperature dropped from 31 to 25 in only a few hours.

Anyone reading this posting already knows I am enamored by snow, Its ferocity and tranquility, how it animates lifeless things and creates an occasion for som

e wintry diversion right out side our front yards. People who tell me "you can just drive an hour and have all the snow you want!" obviously don't see the futility of what they are saying. Yes its true, but you know what? I snowshoed down

17th Ave PKY!! I also made snow angels on 17th Ave!

It was a fun day. I was able to enjoy a beer with our new landlords next to a fire and spend a day with my wife, snuggled up and watching billows of s

now roll down the empty street. One last hurrah for the Snow

gods!

It is still coming down and last time I checked we had 13 inches. Feels good.

We're moving!!!

2009-03-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that we've been in Denver now for 1 year! Our lease ends at the end of April, so we've been looking at different places to move in to. Since Jason will be going to school this fall, we've been looking for a place that we like enough to stay in for the next 3-4 years. We also need something bigger than our little 600 sq ft place. We love to have people over to hang out and eat (and sleepovers, of course!). So, a bigger place was a must, also for the reason that Jason has a separate room to study in. The things we were really wanting were: ideally a duplex or townhome (as it is much more of a "house" feel); hardwood floors, fire place, painted accent walls, character, quiet location, back yard for planting and to relax in, and 2 bedrooms.

We found it!!!! It is a cute all brick duplex. We have the right side of the two. The landlord lives in the left unit. It has 3 bedrooms, a huge living room and dining room that both have painted accent walls, a basement (we are so stoked about this) that has the 3rd bedroom and two other small rooms for storage/wine cooler (Jason plans to brew his own beer too) and whatever else we want to do with them, and the laundry room is down there too. It's super spacious. It is all hardwood floors. And it has a ton of character like arched entry ways, quirky closets, sky light in bathroom, and a funky fun kitchen that has an extended breakfast room for our little table. And then we have a shared yard with the owner who is thrilled about us wanting to plant. We are both into organic gardening and thus super excited to grow our vegetables and herbs.

We are set to move-in the third weekend in April. Funny thing is the duplex is exactly 7 blocks west of where we are at and off the same street. Moving won't be so bad this time! :-) We'll post photos as soon as we are settled in. We will now have a ton of room. Can't wait for you to come visit and stay with us!!

Mother Teresa

2009-03-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

A long time hero of mine, Mother Teresa was a woman who breathed and lived Jesus. She dedicated her life to loving and caring for the poorest of the poor - the untouchables, because in each one she saw the human face of God. I just finished reading the only biography that Mother Teresa authorized to be written on her. What an incredible selfless woman after the heart of God. As I write this, I can only imagine Mother Teresa's opposition to me even speaking of the life she lived, for she didn't want anyone to applaud her, but that everything she did and say be only to the glory of God. Here are a few of Mother Teresa's words, and words about her, that have profoundly affected me...

Give me the strength to be ever the light of their lives, so that I may lead them ever to you!

We do not want to do what other religious orders have done throughout history; and begin by serving the poor only to end up unconsciously serving the rich. In order to understand and help those who have nothing, we must live like them...The only difference is that these people are poor by birth, and we are poor by choice.

Learn, my children, to be holy, for true holiness consists in doing God's will with a smile.

What made death of the streets of Calcutta so terrible was the fact that it was frequently the consequence of a lack of concern on the part of others; there was in the world today a disease more awful than leprosy or cancer - namely that of being unwanted.

The Sisters were not allowed to accept anything but a glass of water by way of hospitality, for often that was all that the poor could offer and they must not be made to feel outdone by others who had more luxurious provisions at their disposal.

Our works of love reveal to the suffering poor the love of God for them.

You can do what I can't do. I can do what you can't do. Together we can do something beautiful for God.

In those days she would visit Shishu Bhavan, the children's home in Calcutta, every morning. She would go from one tiny baby to the next, and if she spotted one which was so frail or sick that it seemed likely to die that day, she would wrap it in a blanket and give it to one of the helpers to hold, with the instruction simply to love that child till it died. What mattered was that no child in her care should die without having experienced love.

Mother Teresa called upon those who lived in a world caught up in the race to be rich, powerful and effective, to be aware of their own poverty, to make themselves weak with the weak and no to seek to do big things but only small things with great love.

She urged her Co-Workers not to give from their abundance, but rather to give "until it hurt."

Especially we must take care of our big girls (prostitutes) - in their hunger for love and in their rejection they are inclined to give trouble sometimes. The work with them is more difficult than with the lepers, but they are Christ in his distressing disguise. Help them to pray, pray with them, go among them as one to serve and not be served. Never use the words, "You have been picked up" or "You are a bad girl," etc. She like you and me has been created by the same loving hand of God, for greater things, to love and to be loved.

God has shown his greatness by using nothingness - so let us always remain in our nothingness - so as to give God free hand to use us without consulting us. Let us accept whatever he gives and give whatever he gives and give whatever he takes with a big smile.

I did not know that our work would grow so fast or go so far. I never doubted that it would live, but I did not think that it would be like this. Doubt I never had, because I had this conviction that if God blesses it, it will prosper.

How often had she told those who worked with her that they must be empty in order that God might fill them with himself and his love. To be empty, to be poor in spirit had its price.

Total surrender to her meant not seeking to be put out on the street but accepting the loss of all possessions and being put out on the street if that was the will of God. "Total surrender is to accept whatever he gives and give whatever it takes with a big smile. It is to accept to be cut to pieces and yet every piece to belong only to him. We must accept emptiness, accept being broken to pieces, accept success and failure. To give whatever it takes - if it takes your good name or your health - that is surrender and then you are free."

God has not called me to be successful. God has called me to be faithful.

From the very beginning she had made a deliberate choice to serve the poorest of the poor, not simply the poor but the very poorest among them.

She saw the Christ in every man...the same logic that induced her to go where others feared to tread, to tend the nauseating wounds of the leper or work at great personal risk in places of violence and pain.

Jesus, it is for you and for souls!

Be only all for God.

What a stud

2009-03-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

Teaching Spanish

2009-03-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day teaching Spanish for the school year (sad). It has been a blast! We celebrated with Mexican pastries and goodie bags. Here's a pic of my 10 3rd graders (adorable, aren't they?) I knew I loved teaching Spanish, but alwasy envisioned myself teaching in a high school. In the 6 months of teaching Spanish to elementary kiddos I've discovered that I love elementary aged children. They are such fast learners and are so fun to teach because they love to learn. I forgot what it was like to worship the ground my teachers walked on. :-) Because of this experience, I'm in the process of pursuing the opportunity to teach full-time...either Secondary Spanish in a middle school or high school, or teaching in a bilingual elementary classroom. Some of the highlights of my teaching experience have been: creating the lessons, planning fun activities, teaching them Spanish culture, building relationships with my students, seeing their faces light up when they "get it", and loving on them. I can't wait to have my own classroom some day!

Our future in Spain

2009-03-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a letter that we wrote to our dear friends in Basque Country updating them on our current plans/thoughts of returning to Spain some day. Thought you'd like to read it too as you know how much Spain is our hearts...

Kaixo!

The whole topic of Spain for us is very difficult to decipher -much more- explain it to other people. The hesitancy that I have is not with the question of Spain, specifically Basque; that for us is clear. The question is more the nature of any desire I have for us to be there mixed with the -I believe- God instilled passions and skill sets that we have as individuals as well as a couple. In some ways it’s like an exam. The obvious questions you finish first, get them out of the way and move on to the harder ones. The ones that I am stuck on, that don't seem to have obvious answers are:

-We're missionaries, but are we traditional ones? And does that even mean over seas?

-I'm a teacher, but of biblical truths in ministry or of academics in a school/college setting that’s not Christian while still being a part of the churches mission/community?

-I'm intrigued by the Basque culture and people, but is that merely an interest like I'm interested in other cultures, or is it a God given drive to see this specific people know Him; something that I will work tirelessly for until my death? Or is it more general, in that there's no specific geological and cultural call as much as it is a drive for humanity as a whole to know Him, which can be done anywhere with out a specific "calling"?

There are more, but these are the ones for me that I have no real answer to, and, maybe, I need to be o.k. with having no answers right now.

But I am really torn. Since I began to follow Christ, I have fallen in love with the study and teaching of scripture, and I believed that if anyone has any passion for the word and teaching it, that they by necessity need to be in ministry. It was inseparable to me and inconceivable that such a person would not be in "ministry". That being said, the thought of not being a traditional missionary contradicts a pattern of thought that I have had for many years, and to imagine something other than that immediately flags a warning sign of heresy (humor intended).

How this is affecting our course to Spain is in a few ways. The heaviest issue on my heart is education. But in what? As weird as it feels to say, it’s not in biblical studies that I feel a pull to. Its Secular Literature and History. This is an important fact about me. I think that through these two areas of study, we can learn more about us and the world and God than through just a Biblical education. The Humane Sciences have been secular, but what if a Christ impassioned professor teaches these areas of study? I happened to have had such a prof. in junior college and it was in her class that my world was turned up side down. That being said, do I study with the intent and purpose of getting a job in Spain, or the US? Well, if I plan on missions, such as working with BIDAIA or planting a church and mentoring leaders etc. then does it really matter? Couldn't I just go to school anywhere and take as long as I want? Practically, yes. But I don't have peace with just any education, just anywhere and eternally. The prospect of Spain has begun to loom, not inspire and to weigh on me, not enthuse. These words are very difficult to write in that I have not said them to anyone besides Naomi, and that was this week. I can’t imagine life without Spain in it, but it’s the nature of being in and a part of Spain that is changing, not the interest with the country and culture.

With all that said, one question has been answered: I am a teacher, and believe in a need for God fearing Christians to be more a part of secular education both here in the US and in Spain.

So, as to the question of studying in the Basque country part-time; I don't feel that this is a good move for us right now. Initially, I was thrilled at the possibility, but what this possibility arose were the really hard questions I had not yet begun to wrestle with as a person in Christ. A B.A. in Humanities from the Basque Country does not give me any avenues here in the US and limits me in any post-grad work here also. This is important because we are not sure anymore that Spain is a place of permanence for us as missionaries. That’s an entirely different email, and I already feel bad for taking as long as I have in this one.

The plan for now is to keep course to finish school here in the next 3-4 years, and then after that, I want to consider post-grad work in Basqueland because I am really intrigued by Basque literature and history and would in fact love to be a part of a church there. But I am no longer certain that that means being a paid missionary at that church, but rather an integral part of the community through being a post-grad student and possibly a teacher.

One last piece I need to get through is to be transparent about my fears and frustrations. I have just reread the letter and I hear familiar voices in my head asking me sincere questions about the pursuits I mentioned:

"Jason, you seem really bent on your education and less focused on the Great Commission, more focused on your personal agenda and not Gods eternal plan. Your degree will not be eternal, but your work for Gods kingdom is. Aren't you getting the cart and the horse flipped? Spain has been a big part of your and your wife's dream, why are you willing to forfeit that?"

These questions loom heavily over me and I am honestly scared of making a decision that disappoints my Father and that hinders His plan for us. Yet, here’s where I have peace: I believe that His plan is revealed within His people individually; and as a married couple, these come together with mutual sacrifice and understanding to be best used in a unity of diversity. I realize that I’m very Existential in saying this: God’s plan is a personal revelation and not a corporate one; not algebraic in cut and dry pieces, but very subjective and personal; that the Great Commission is designed to fit the unique makeup, skills and passions of individuals in Christ –It’s a mission statement, not a missional model. This perspective, which I believe to be true, allows me to study freely in a secular school and work a secular job in any nation because I live under the guidance of Christ and the Mission of sharing Him wherever I am in whatever I do. This eliminates the looming aspect of being destined for a specific place despite my heart’s pull towards another direction with out the fear of disobeying God and reaping the harvest of a bad decision the rest of my life. In a nutshell: God guides through an individual’s heart with inherent skills and desires he gives them.

I do fear that the Christian environment that I have been a part of for so long will believe that to put such an emphasis on secular schooling and profession is not Godly or eternal. But I cannot refuse my heart’s cry and that is for Christ but in a different context than what I originally thought. I really don't believe that this is ungodly or making a wrong choice anymore.

I apologize for the lengthy email, but it just couldn't be done more succinctly. I would really appreciate your honest thoughts and criticisms. You are our dear friends and your advice & correction etc are cherished.

Con cariño,

Jason and Naomi

Frauds on Craigslist

2009-03-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

The following is of a dialogue via email I had with yet another fraudulent craigslist landlord. Out of the 30 or so emails i have sent off to adds for housing on craigslist, about 10 have not been frauds like this. I am not joking, i get the same recycled emails with different names each time i inquire about a property. So, I finally have had enough and responded to one of these vermin with the same candor and dubiousness that they schlep out! It begins with my inquiry then his response, then my concluding response. Enjoy!

Good morning,

My wife just emailed me the posting to look at -which we both really like- but I wanted to know where it was located generally (if you're uncomfortable giving specifics). We are looking for a place that has all the amenities mentioned in the add and would possibly like to see it this evening.

Thank you,

Jason

Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:20:58 -0700
From: wiegersabine@rocketmail.com
Subject: Re: Post on Craigslist
To: peetscafe@live.com

Thank you again for your email. Let me ad some other details.
There is also one parking space available. I accept pets (cats and dogs) in the apartment.
You will have in the apartment 2 br and one livingroom. It is furnished and also with all appliances in kitcen and bathroom.
If you have furniture or if you do not want to use my furniture I will remove mine and you will bring your own.
Right now i am in London United Kingdom, i will be here for the next 3 years with business, i am looking for a serious person to move in the apartment right now and for long term and that is why i am rentig for this great price. I cannot come to the US to show you the apartment so the transaction will be done via an neutral company : PayPal.
It is located at : 1512 Larimer Denver CO 80202
2 Bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, 2 closets, over 1660 sqft, all bills included in the monthly rent of 750$ .First month's advance, $800 deposit. The monthly rent includes all utilities and amenities fees.
I will need your details where to send the apartment keys and rental agreement: Name, Address, City, Zip. I have nobody in the US that can show you the apartment, i am now in London for the next 3 years, i can only rent the apartment using a third party neutral company: PayPal Transaction, they are the leader in payment transactions,offer Purchase Protection, recommended by eBay, accredited by the Better Business Bureau. They will hold the deposit from you until you have inspected the apartment, so you can take a look before committing to a lease. The keys and paperwork can be delivered at your address .
The transaction will be done via one of the most trusted names on the internet: PayPal.
PayPal is the nr1 option when paying on ebay, they are the lead merchant for credit card payments over the internet, the are accredited by the Better Business Bureau, and offer Purchase Protection .All this can be verified and is 100% legitimate.
They will be the guarantor for our transaction, so when you will send the deposit, they will hold the payment details until you have inspected the apartment. You do not have to commit to a lease if you do not want the apartment and in that case the deposit will be returned back to you the same day.
The apartment is very close, in walking distance to local transport, bus etc. has just been renovated, totally finished, flexible lease, is nice, clean, quiet, has all the facilities and the utilities anyone would need including electric Utility, Cable TV, 2 PARKING SPACES, Air conditioning, high speed Internet, workout facility, well behaved pets are allowed. Maintenance problems will be resolved by a specialised company and i will be billed for any maintenance work that is done. You can also rent the apartment with your furniture, i have a spacious room in the building's basement where the furniture from my apartment can be stored, in case you want to bring your own.
The rent is for the whole apartment NOT just a shared room. This is not a sublease, etc, i am the OWNER. You can rent the apartment furnished and unfurnished.
Please tell me a bit more about you, i am looking for someone quiet, serious and responsible.
Thank you,
Sabine.
See pictures of the apartment bellow :

My response:

Hello Sabine!

How enchanting was indeed your email! Why, you use such great english, indeed! Well yes, my wife and I are very trusting people and put all of ourselves into everything we do! So, to see that you are looking for people such as us who are willing to risk everything on just a persons word, we were delighted! Now, considering that we are exceptional tenants and every landlord would want us to stay in their properties because we are so trusting, hard-working, reliable and honest, we expect the same from a landlord. You sound so honest and very likable, much like a landlord we want. You see, the whole relationship has been wrong since the feudal era of this wonderful world. The landlord should be the one chosen by the tenant and not the other way around. Why would I say such a preposterous thing? Because we are the ones living under your lordships care! And, since we have a choice, too, not being desperate individuals, we want to choose carefully who we pay our hard earned money to. That being said, in order for us to use the reliable and neutral third party of Pay Pal, and that, without any actual person here to show us into the property before we send our hard earned and pure money into your lordships hands, we would like a few things from you, too, to ensure that we want you over the property. And considering you comply with our requests as well, we will gladly entrust ourselves to you, including Prima Nocta with our fair maiden cow.

Things we want from you:

Full Name:

Age:

Aprox. weight:

Height:

Home address:

DOB:

Passport number:

Social Security Number:

License number:

Major credit card numbers (only one or two with the highest limits):

Parents names:

Parents SSN(s):

Parents DOB(s):

All employers in last 10 years:

Supervisors names, addresses, SSN, DOB:

Your Car Make/Year:

License plate number:

VIN:

Now Sabine, this may seem a bit presumptuous of us, to ask all these personal details of your life which you guard and preserve as best as possible, no?

Well, perhaps you might consider that other people beside you feel the same way and don't necessarily like to willingly give away all that is dear and close to them with out first being reassured that the one their giving thus information to is them-self a worthy person. So, since we see eye to eye now, or vis-a-vis as your close neighbors would say, we can proceed and benefit from mutual stupidity!

Have a fine and splendid day, Lord Sabine!

Philosophical Deduction On Why Autumn and Winter Are Best

2009-03-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

"Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm." - Blaise Pascal

"...to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in its self. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more." Herman Melville "Moby-Dick"

On love

2009-02-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

Gen. 2:20 For Adam no suitable helper was found...The LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of man...

Gen. 8:21 Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.

Gen. 12:2 I will make you into a great nation...and all peoples will be blessed through you.

Ex. 14:14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Ex. 34:6 The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness...

Deut. 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations.

Josh. 1:5 I will never leave you nor forsake you.

1 Kings 8:23 O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth below - you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.

2 Cron. 9:8 Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you...

Neh. 1:5 O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love...

Psa. 42:8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me.

Psa. 66.20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Psa. 93:3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel..

Psa. 136:2 Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever.

Jer. 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Jer. 31:3 I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

Hos. 1:7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them.

Hos. 2:23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called "Not my loved one."

Jonah 4:2 I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

Zeph. 3:17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him, shall have everlasting life.

John 14:2 I am going to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be with me.

Rom. 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Rom. 8:39 Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Cor. 2:9 No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

Eph. 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved.

1 Jn. 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!

1 Jn. 4:8 God is love.

1 Jn. 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Rev. 20 Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Blessed is the Match, by Marie Syrkin

2009-02-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

This is an incredible book on the countless stories of Jewish Resistance that took place all over the world during World War II. Nancy Syrkin tells the story of 20 year-old Hanna Senesch who left her country to join the small group of Palestinian parachutists who would illegally drop themselves into German occupied countries in attempts to save as many Jews as possible. She was captured shortly after she successfully entered Hungary and eventually shot to death. Her bravery is known throughout Palestine. The author then tells the stories of other parachutists and of many unknown individuals in many different countries who would risk their lives to fight the injustice of the Jews, their fellow humanity. These are people and stories that you don't learn about in high school. There was profound Jewish resistance to the Nazis. Underground communication was established with incredible coded phrases and words to communicate the danger of Jews in different countries.

The author describes in detail the insanity of the Nazis and the literally unimaginable acts they would commit to the Jews...things we can't even begin to comprehend. She describes the tactics the Nazis would use on the Jews so they would voluntarily surrender themselves (unbeknownst to the Jews themselves) like requiring all Jews in the ghettos to come forward for a census to ensure their safety from death...yet really they were the first ones to be put onto the trains to the concentration camps.

I wonder if I would have been so brave, had I lived during that time, to risk my life to save just one Jew.

Blessed is the match that is consumed

in kindling flame.

Blessed is the flame that burns

in the secret fastness of the heart.

Blessed is the heart with strength to stop

its beating for honor's sake.

Blessed is the match that is consumed

in kindling flame.

~Hanna Senesch

Roman Numerals to Twenty-Five on Why I love My Wife

2009-02-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

The first one is the most difficult because we all expect it to be the most important. In this case, I ask you abandon all expectations for this post. Lose them. This is in no specific order of what i love most from first to last...its just a list. Enjoy!

I. Empathy. I have not met anyone who displays this quality more than my wife. No matter who it is or whether or not she's been through a similar thing, she can get beside that person and share their grief, joy, worry, pain or bliss.

II. The last leads into this one, perhaps. Imagination. She might think in bullet points most the time, but she has an incredible ability to create out of nothing something wild and new.

III. Accepting. From marrying a man like me to loving all nations and people, she demonstrates a desire to know souls not pretense.

IV. She's power-drives through the grocery store like a Steelers linebacker.

V. She'll sit and watch her father-in-law, husband and his best friend drink too much and get emotional over the ONE football game they watch all year...and get emotional, too, when their team loses.

VI. Her love of change yet devotion to people and principles.

VII. She's devoted to Christ in a way that I know will never move.

VIII. She's bad at math like me. Even though she was the poster child for nerdom in her scholastic years.

IX. She's willing to challenge the norm when pushed.

X. Adventurous and a moderate risk-taker.

XI. Wants to see me grow as a person and willing to make sacrifices to see me develop.

XII. Watches The Office, I think, because i laugh to the point of tears every time and that in turn makes her laugh.

XIII. Her laugh! Snorts and gurgles like she's having a seizure of some kind. I tickle her just to see her stiffen up like a board and spew mucous from her mouth and nose.

XVI. Unwilling to think bad thoughts about anyone, no matter how hard i try to convince her that McCain was really one of the flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz and that he was going to remove his jointless arms and reveal his wings as soon as he was elected.

XV. Pure in thought and action; she has a fear like we all need of what is not pure.

XVII. Voted how her conscious moved her not how her peers expected...not even I could persuade her one way or the other.

XVIII. She's the right kind of feminist and the right kind of traditional; actually, she just loves the Lord and understands His will is that she become fully alive by seeking Him- He never stifles the personality or desires he gives to anyone.

XIX. She loves to read.

XX. She's is such a good writer and demonstrates her thoughts in clear words and phrases.

XXI. She'll tell me no and stick to it.

XXII. The way she has loved me, unabashed and forgiving, ardently and reasonably; she is a living example of a love I had only read about and pretend to know: Christ.

XXIII. She loves to mingle with people and give them what they need. She's far more chivalrous than me. Like last night, a lady we'd just met, after the meeting she insisted we walk her to her car. The lady was so blessed that we would go out of our way fro a stranger...I learn how to treat people better from Naomi.

XXIV. Weather can and never will phase Naomi

XXV. Despite being a Zimmerman, she's not perfect and has some serious issues to get over. This may sound like an insult...but for the longest time, until we had time together, it was difficult believe she had any issues at all. Her humility in recognizing them not only to me but to others, has helped me come to grip with myself as well.

I love my wife for so ma y more reasons, and these reasons are such a poor reflection of what i am honored to be with every day. Her imprint on my life is so profound already after just a year and some months that I will never be the same. Lord willing he allows her to continue in my life as a constant reminder of His grace, unconditional love, justice, joy, humor and freedom.

I love you Naomi!

2009-01-30T19:55:00.001-08:00

I got this idea from a friend...

25 things I love about my husband Jason...

1. He cracks me up all the time...he does the most crazy and hilarious things when greeting me at the door.

2. His laugh...I LOVE it!

3. He is so patient with me when I am crabby in the mornings or late at night...he likes to grab me and hug me

4. His transparency before God

5. He loves to eat salads for lunch and dinner like me

6. He's crazy about organic foods and products

7. He writes me love notes

8. He's adventurous...he takes me on drives to different places to explore

9. He is a self-learner...if there is something he doesn't know much about, he studies it....seriously, he knows a little bit about everything

10. He speaks Spain Spanish (a specific request of the Lord)

11. He is a fabulous cook (I'm sooo thankful he does the cooking!)

12. He makes a Spanish tortilla that is out of this world

13. He leaves me HILARIOUS voice messages when I'm at work pretending to be different characters that he makes up...I seriously laugh till there's tears rolling down my face

14. He gently corrects me when I am out of line

15. He enjoys trying exotic and/or ethnic foods

16. Is passionate about many things...politics, literature, truth, global issues, culture...

17. He challenges me to be generous with our money and possessions

18. He challenges my thinking

19. He can't leave the bed unmade

20. He enjoys wine

21. He takes amazing pictures...I can't wait to see the pics he will take of our kiddos some day

22. He can beat me at arm wrestling...without a fight!

23. He can relate to many diverse types of people

24. He loves to make me happy

25. He married ME! ;-)

25 random things about us

2009-01-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

I got tagged to do this in Facebook, so I thought I'd post it here for those that don't have Facebook...

25 random things about Naomi:

1. I'm bilingual - fluent in Spanish

2. I want to learn to speak Basque (Euskerra)

3. I'm fascinated by cultures and people

4. I wish I could spend my life traveling the world

5. My dream is to live and raise a family overseas (Spain is #1 choice for now)
6. I love to try new ethnic foods

7. I'm a control freak

8. I'm wickedly crabby in the morning...poor Jason :-)

9. I'm becoming an organic and natural freak

10. I have ran 2 half marathons and want to train for a full marathon this year

11. I'm addicted to exercise

12. I've lived in Spain for a year

13. Jason fulfills all my dreams and desires in a husband...God is faithful

14. I can't wait to have children some day (We already have our children's names picked out :-)

15. I want to live more simple...live on less, and give more

16. I am an identical twin

17. I hate to shop...But I love to buy shoes...all sorts of styles and colors

18. God's grace compels me

19. I bike to work

20. I enjoy a good glass of red wine at dinner

21. My greatest desire is to know God

22. I want to get a tatoo someday but not sure of what yet

23. I love to laugh really hard

24. I've become a fan of "The Office" (I thought it was the most stupidest thing I'd ever seen, then I watched it from the very beginning and now am addicted)

25. Diversity intrigues me

25 random things about Jason:

1. I really love my wifes creativity and personality: I would never do this on my own!

2. I dont like writing useless information about myself

3. I feign to write useful things about life

4. I love new approaches to old things

5. I struggle to keep faith everyday

6. I like to be proven wrong

7. Hubris is my nickname

8. The longest book I have actually finished was 350ish pages

9. Ive talked ski patrol out of taking my pass away forever and got them to buy me lunch later

10. Im scared to death of living over seas

11. But I really want to: Euskal Herria!

12. I spend copious amounts of my wifes money on books and beer

13. I'll never have enough books

14. I'll never get through a quarter of them

15. Im better at math than most people believe

16. Im homophobic but find them genuinely nicer than most hetero people

17. I have random dreams that Emily Dickenson is chasing me through an apple orchard in a top-hat

18. I have a love hate relationship with John Stewart

19. Im a new found Capital-altruistic-collectivist (i love irony,too!)

20. I know enough of everything to get into trouble

21. My ideas are never original but come across that way because i yell them

22. Im supposedly bilingual

23. I blog totally naked...

24. Im probably schizophrenic...shut up Xavier!

25. I couldnt be with anyone else...shes my sunrise and comfort (after 11am and before 10pm on weekdays).

The dance

2009-01-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

This is one of our favorite video clips. This guy Matt travels the world and does his dance in each place he visits... and the locals join him in his dance. (Unfortunately, I couldn't get rid of the ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen. You'll have to look behind it to get the names of the places).

Watch and be inspired.

Faith

2009-01-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

Jason and I have just started reading together John Piper's book Future Grace. The first chapter was on faith - something I've been lacking and wrestling with lately. I feel like I'm roaming the wilderness wondering if I'll really see the Promised Land. Piper discusses the misconception that faith is the response (obedience) of our gratitude to God for what He's done for us. If true, this would then make faith a work on our part. Instead, faith is God's past grace moving us to trust in His future grace. It reminds me of the Old Testament when God instructs Abraham and the Israelites to build altars of stones whenever God shows himself faithful. This is so they will REMEMBER God's faithfulness to them in the past so to move them to continue to trust in His future faithfulness. The Lord knew that they would feel abandoned, that they would moan and complain, and want to go back - to Egypt (of all places!), to slavery - when times got tough. The altars served as symbols of Yahweh's goodness and grace to His covenant people. He was good, he was faithful, and he will be. I have failed to look back at the Lord's past grace in my life and thus lack faith in his grace to me today and in the future. I'm struggling to trust him with my future, with my heart...Does he really have my best in mind? Does he know the desires of my heart? If he does, does he even care? Will my dreams ever come true? Will he provide the finances for Jason to go to school? What does it look like to be his child and follower in every day life, when push comes to shove? To some of these, I know the answers, and to others I have yet to learn.

So here is my altar to Yahweh.

He has shown his faithfulness and grace to me in these...

- He is steadfast love

- He is long suffering (never giving up on me)

- He is forgiveness

- His salvation

- Jason, my beloved

- 1.5 years of marriage

- full-time jobs in Denver

- my Spanish teaching job

- our car (low gas mileage)

- my bike (to get to work)

- our apartment

- my friends here (Juli, Janice, Erin, Seana, Kendra, Stacy, Rebecca)

- my family

- Denver Community Church

- good health

- restful sleep

- 4 free trips to Portland

- Skype (to talk and see Noemi in Spain)

- upcoming trip to Australia (to spend time w/Jason's mom)

and so much more.

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

2009-01-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

The CD that I find myself listening to a lot lately is from a group called Over the Rhine. They are awesome!

This song is for you, my love...

Drunkard's Prayer
(Bergquist/Detweiler)

You're my water
You're my wine
You're my whiskey
From time to time

You're the hunger
On my bones
All the nights
I sleep alone

Sweet intoxication
When your words
Wash over me

Whether or not
Your lips move
You speak to me

Like an ocean
Without waves
You're the movement
That I crave

And in that motion
I long to drown
And be lost not to be found
You're my water
You're my wine
You're my whiskey
From time to time

A child's journey through hell and back

2008-12-31T11:59:00.001-08:00

Ishmael Beah tells his story…It’s 1993 in his country of Sierra Leone. He’s a happy go lucky normal 12 year-old boy with a fixation for American rap and hip-hop. One day, he, along with his older brother and good friend, travel to a nearby village to participate in a rap contest. To save money, they decide to walk the 16 miles. Since it is only to be a day trip, they wear only the clothes on their back. They decide to stay the night in Kabati with Ishmael’s grandmother before continuing on their journey. The next day they arrive to their destination, the town of Mattru Jong only to hear that school has been canceled because word has spread that the rebels were on their way to attack the village. They learn that the war has already swept through Ishmael’s village, leaving nothing and nobody alive. Thus begins the longest nightmare of Ishmael’s life. He and his brother decide to turn back in hopes to find their parents, only to find their home in rubbles, and no sign of their parents. They never saw them again. Ishmael is eventually separated from his brother by the rebel army and for a year he runs and walks alone throughout the country desperately trying to escape the rebels. He witnesses unimaginable acts and bloodshed that will forever taunt his mind and heart. A year later, he is captured by the government army of Sierra Leone and forced to be a boy soldier to fight the rebels. He is trained to kill anyone who is not a government soldier and to commit horrible acts himself. Little had he know that on that day to the rap contest a year ago his childhood would be lost forever. After three years in the government army, at age 16, he is rescued by UNICEF and taken to a recovery center where he suffers severe withdrawals, anger, and self hate, and psychological torture from memories and images of the last 4 years. He eventually travels to the United States and gets a degree in Political Science and becomes a member of the Humans Right Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and speaks on behalf of the suffering and war of his people in Sierra Leone and throughout Africa. A powerful moving story that causes me to ask the question, What now? How can I help? How can we help fellow humanity in war-torn nations? What does it look like for Jason and I to fight injustice as we live here? May we never let ourselves become ignorant of the world beyond us.

our christmas prayer

2008-12-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Enlarge my heart

to love You more,

when I am stumbling

on the way;

only the heart

enlarged by You

runs to obey.

-Ruth Bell Graham

Feliz Navidad!

2008-12-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

promoting peace

2008-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson…AMAZING!! It’s an incredible story of the author Greg’s determination and passion for the people and children of Central Asia (Pakistan and Afghanistan). He devotes his life to building schools in remote villages where there, the children sit on the grass and draw their arithmetic with sticks in the dirt because they have no school, no supplies, and no teacher.

I loved this book for so many reasons. I am passionate about cultures and I love to experience foreign places, culture, food, people, and ideas and values. It was fascinating to me to live overseas and experience a foreign way of life and culture, but what impacted me the most, was the people….to know the people.

The author and main character, Greg Mortenson is astounded at what he finds when he stumbles upon the Pakistani people….he is profoundly changed by their hospitality, their dreams, and their values. After he asks to visit the village school and finds children seated on the ground doing their arithmetic with sticks, he promises to build them a school. And that he does. He toils, struggles, suffers huge obstacles, and ends up raising money to build a school in the village that he has come to love so deeply. He forms profound life-long friendships with the people of this village. Years, and many new schools later, he creates the Central Asia Institute and builds 77 more schools in small villages throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, all the while gaining the respect of village elders and national leaders. His driving force is his belief that to change a nation, is to educate its children, especially its girls. This is how a nation becomes empowered to sustain itself. It is educating its children that will eventually fight and end terrorism (not war). He gets to the root of the issue of terrorism instead of just fighting it. “In America’s case, that’s not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever” (page 310). If only more Americans would understand this!

Throughout the book, I got to thinking…I don’t know whether Greg knows Jesus, but his story is that of the incarnate Christ and how we as Christians are to imitate Christ to others, and to cultures and nations that we encounter. Greg spent time with the people, he taught himself the language of the people, he dressed liked them, and learned their customs and what they valued, and why they did the things they did. He took the time to learn them and understand them. I love that. That is what “ministry” and missions is to be. We enter in to a culture as guests, to learn everything we can and most of all to serve them. This requires humility.

Another thing that is crucial to missions and ministry is that it be locally owned and run. Greg sought out the elders of the village for advice, wisdom, and direction. He used the nation’s tools, materials, supplies, and built schools in the context of their culture…not “American” schools, but Pakistani and Afghani schools that reflected their culture and arts. He raised up teachers from within to teach their schools. He didn’t bring in Americans to teach their people. This is so that they can sustain themselves and continue on and teach their own people…passing on peace from generation to generation.

Likewise, missions or ministries in other cultures and nations must be started with the goal that it be led by natives. From the start, we are to be raising up locals to carry it on. So it is with the gospel. Christ must be shared in the context of one’s culture (by the way, you've got to read Peace Child, if you haven’t already). We do not bring an “American gospel.” A question to ask is, How will this people understand the sacrifice of Christ from their cultural understanding?

These are just some of my thoughts that I am super passionate about. Man, if I could live a couple of years in every country of the world, I would, for Christ is revealed in different and unique ways in each culture.

All that to say, Three Cups of Tea is a must read!

To read more about Greg Mortenson's work visit: http://www.threecupsoftea.com/

2 years ago today...

2008-12-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Two Hour Battle of the Recalcitrant Druid Sacrifice and the Sedulous Festooners

2008-12-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Ah yes. It is once again time for us to do something that we have no idea the meaning of: cut down a symbol of pagan fear, the biproduct of over active Irish/Jute imaginations. Well, as a tribute, Naomi and I took this very seriously. We drank Glog to represent the crimson blood spilled of those whose bodies remain forever hidden beneath layers of heavy peat and the blood that we our selves have been spared of losing. Thus, the documentation of a fierce and irrational battle between tradition and senility. (The title is more a need to use words I never can in normal conversations).

You should all be glad there was no audio to this sequence of photos.
Oh, and my crimson hat...very necesary to show how serious i am about sacrifices...not my head!

Naomis reaction to the tree flipping me off behind my back...dont worry, i gave it a solid "what-for" when I turned around.

See, this is the "what-for"...a fierce festooning! That'll teach'em.

What i saw as a result of too much Glog and festooning.

OH NOOOO! GREAT GOD OF THOR! The tree is spitting giant florescent neon colored Druid gametes! Ruuun!...

Glad you could share in the pure nonsense of our holiday. Cheers!

Third Snow

2008-12-05T11:11:00.001-08:00

We have received another snow! A week after our post thanksgiving snow, we have a new four inches (which, is slowly fading) but lasted an entire day with temperatures, that as a high, was 25 F and a low of 14 F. Heres a few pics.

The morning after, at 7 am looking down our street. When I took this photo it was 8 F, the overnight low was 4F. Far far faaaar colder than the balmy NW. Thank you Jesus!
Yes...its cold inside, too.

My plan is to document every snow we get...as over-done as it is.

christmas is here!

2008-11-30T17:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I put up Christmas decorations (the other half is still in Portland) while listening to Christmas music and munching on peppermint bark, one of my favorite Christmas treats.

Jason hung up Christmas lights around both windows and lined the entire living room ceiling (cozy!).

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Inside of the front door...

Our table...

A little train that will go below our tree (it's actually an Advent Calendar which will be fun to do with our kiddos someday)...

Coffee table...

Our Feliz Navidad stockings...

Above the stove (it says "Feliz Navidad")...

Snowman cookie jar waiting to be filled w/ Gingerbread cookies...

First Abdilla Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

We cooked and hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner!! Boy, was it an experience! I loved every minute of it. I now have so much more appreciation for my mom and abuelita who would rise at the crack of dawn to cook the turkey and then spend hours in the kitchen preparing each dish. The biggest challenges for me were our tiny kitchen (and thus almost nonexistent counter space) and then preparing each dish to all be done at the same time. I had so much fun! We invited our friend Juli to join us.

Here's what we enjoyed...

Abdilla Thanksgiving Dinner 2008

organic free-range herb roasted turkey (it turned out awesome!!!)

organic stuffing (I'm not usually a fan of stuffing, but this had amazing flavor)

yams

brussel sprouts w/prosciutto ham and toasted walnuts (delish!!!)

spiced orange cranberry sauce

waldorf salad (made w/plain yogurt vs. mayo and had way better flavor)

pepita farm bread (w/pumpkin seeds throughout!)

white wine

dessert:

pumpkin crisp w/organic vanilla bean ice cream

hot apple cider

2008-11-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

Mid Nights Wintry Stroll

2008-11-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

Its only 20 minutes until the day is over. The awaited Thanksgiving snow never showed up; weathermen shrugged and explained away their false prophesies with a science machine. When I got off work today, the clear crisp skies i expected were low and heavy, and a soft icy mist was drug in their wake. Within a few hours it turned into the snow we all (naomi and i) had wished for. Its been comming down steadily, now two inches...and I am watching it fall heavily through a shaft of street lamp. We're going to take a quick stroll through this late autumn snow, then slip into a nice warm bed. Happy Holidays!

Poignant!

2008-11-24T18:10:00.000-08:00

If you dont know me well, then this wont seem that funny to you at all. But for those that do, doesnt this sum it all up? Well, this comming week we're supposed to get some "flurries"...I can only hope.

I apologize for the bad scan job.

2008-11-20T11:05:00.000-08:00

It's Naomi here. I've been thinking a lot about the issues that were passed and weren’t passed recently and those that were made important and not so important by each candidate in the election. The more I read about Jesus and seek to understand who He is as God made flesh, I am more convinced that the issues are not what should be the focus or what we should spend our efforts and energy fighting for or against. I really believe that it goes way beyond that…that the real issue is to seek and strive to understand the person behind the issue or the person making a decision…whether it be morally right or wrong, or whether the decision is God honoring or not…that I truly believe is more transforming than fighting for pro-life or fighting against gay marriages or any other issues that one should feel strongly about. Instead, we should seek to love. This can be manifested in different ways…one way is to sit down with the person and allow space and freedom for dialogue to talk about their struggles, why they are making the decision or why they believe or do what they do, and love them because they bear God’s image and they are fellow humanity. We can share ourselves and who God is and believe it or not, learn from their life. Is this not what Jesus taught and demonstrated over and over again to his disciples and the Pharisees? He didn’t fight for the punishment of the adulteress woman, or condemn the woman at the well who had been married 5 times (thus divorced) and currently living with a man who was not her husband. And the life of Mary Magdalene, and countless others. Instead, Jesus looked upon all with love in his eyes…that is what transformed them and compelled them to run and tell others about Him…because they had encountered Jesus, the living God. Do gays and abortionists encounter Jesus when they are met with opposition from Christians? Do they see and hear Jesus when we speak to them? This is not to minimize their sin or condone their choices. It is simply loving them and seeking to show them Jesus, not fight them in Jesus’ name. I just don’t see that anywhere in Scripture. In some ways it can become pharisaical to fight for or against these issues and force those who do not know Jesus to believe the same and in so doing, actually turn them even farther away from God. How can they even understand, if they don’t know Jesus? Is it not the heart that is more important than the action, and will not the action be the outpouring of the heart? Jesus spent time with sinners, he knew them. Do we take time to know others (not just those who are like us), to understand their heart, and share mine with them, and in turn be Jesus to them, by my words, life, and my love for them and not get hung up on differences (whether it be doctrinal, theological, or things not black and white in Scripture, etc)? I’m more convinced that that is Jesus. This is what will turn their hearts (non-christians AND christians) towards Jesus and make him attractive and a sweet aroma. Yes, these issues matter, but I believe that we often miss the point. It’s all about living Jesus to the world and by that they will see Jesus and maybe understand, not by our fighting for or against, but by our love for mankind. The Jews expected a political Messiah, one that would overrule the Roman Empire and destroy the existing government. Yet Jesus did the exact opposite….he came at the mercy of the government. And instead offered (as well as taught) grace and love, and forgiveness…As children of God we are to seek justice, but not fight for it as I see we are doing today. Instead, be a people of justice always bridled by grace as Jesus modeled, and seek to understand and love the heart of fellow man as we seek to understand the heart of God.

First Snowfall In Denver

2008-11-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

Over the last month the weather in Denver has been abnormal according to weathermen and natives. One man said to me the other day, with a twinkle in his heartless eye, "it's the first Halloween in sixteen years there's been no snow! Ha! Maybe we'll get summer until January!" Walking off, his wheezy laugh turned more and more into an eerie winter-hating-cackle. I cursed the Tropic gods and beseeched Father winter to freeze the gasoline in his car.

It's true however, that it has been considerably warm and dry for this area this time of the year. The latest recorded snowfall is Nov 21 in 1939, which a local weatherman said gleefully "we're getting awfully close to another record!" There has been a handful of "systems" that have "just missed Denver" letting snow descend in areas just north, south, east and west of here. People find it a blessing from God...I...a personal insult. It is one of the bigger reasons I chose Denver: the fact I was almost guaranteed snow.

So, when the other night they forecasted again another chance of snow, I was obviously skeptical. The day was a record breaking high of 71 with no clouds. Around 7 pm, though, the temperature dropped 15 degrees and later around 8 pm, it had gone from 71 at 3 pm to 38. I made many trips outside to gaze skyward, hoping to see clouds. Nothing. Finally at 11pm when we all went to bed, I checked the temp one last time and it was hovering around 35, yet the barometric preassure had skyrocketed, which is usually an indication that any weather systems are being fended off. Still no clouds. I lost heart and went to bed rather discouraged and remembered one meteorologist's comment about how this could be Denver's record breaking year of high "summer-like temps and no precipitation whatsoever".

It was nearly 4 am when I got up to go to the bathroom. Passing the entryway to the kitchen, I glanced at our backdoor which has a small window covered by a curtain, I took a small detour just to see if maybe Denver's notoriously erratic weather has taken a turn for the good. I pulled back the curtain and saw...nothing. No snow. it was the dusty driveway with some stale leaf corpses tumbling about by a soft wind. I noticed, however, a couple small wet patches and on the hood of our car there were large droplets of water. "Great" I mumbled, "it flurried while I was asleep and now its..." just then like a wandering angel finding its way to bear good tidings, I saw a small white disk float through the wood rafters above and land ever so gracefully on the desolate floor. Its godly little body dissolved...but I didn't let this bother me, I began glancing rapidly about to see if any others were coming also. A gust of wind turned the corner of our building and WHOAHAHOA! a legion of baby angel flakes came blasting their wintery trumpets -my little saviors- stomping beneath their feet the dusty head of Satan (Summer). I felt my knees getting weak, so I ran to the bathroom, did my business, and ran back, rubbing my eyes to ensure I wasn't halucinating. More were drifting lazily down. They were small little flakes that seemed to not want to land, but eddied and waltzed with the wind and eachother's gentle motion. I ran back to bed and immediately woke Naomi. She forced a smile and fell right back to sleep. I too, fell asleep, but only for half an hour. At 4:45 I woke up and put on some clothes, made a cup of tea and went outside. It was DUMPING! And the winds had picked up significantly. I walked around our block, and listened to the muffled sound of flakes landing on roofs, tree branches and grass. One of my favorite things to do is stand beneath the tungsten color of a stree lamp and watch the flakes fly through the small shaft of light, from darkness to darkness. I did this until I was frozen. The temperature had dropped to 25 and the wind was howling through the neighborhood.

I spent an hour at the Starbucks accross the street "reading", looking up every two minutes at the snow whitening cars and roof-tops. It never stuck to roads or parking lots, but all else had a total of maybe an inch or two. Not much, I know, but it didn't matter. It was snow; a fresh reminder of Hope. It was all melted by 11 am, but the temp never got higher than 38 that day, with the sun and all. Unfortunately, we are back to record breaking temps, tomorrow is 65 and the next few days making up to the eighties. Damn La Nina! I took a few pics once every one else was awake (my camera was in the room where our guests were sleeping). So here it is, our first snow...

sweet reunion

2008-11-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

Hannah and Timmy stopped in Denver on their way back to Oregon. Three precious days together...

We love you so much and miss you terribly!

celebrating my man...

2008-11-10T19:17:00.000-08:00

with his favorite...cheesecake!!!!

I meant to take a picture at the Cheesecake Factory, but when the cheesecake came, we were so enraptured by its size and beauty, that I completely forgot.

Birthday boy with his fatty Latin Dictionary from Mom Heidi.

Nov. 4...

2008-10-30T19:27:00.001-07:00

2008-10-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

autumn traditions

2008-10-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to the Pumpkin Patch at May Farms in Byers, CO about 37 miles away. Along the way, we enjoyed a mug of hot apple cider and vegan pumpkin spice muffins that I made...delicious!
I wasn't prepared for it to be colder there than in Denver, so I'm wearing Jason's warm vest while he froze his poor tushy. It didn't stop us from scouting out the perfect pumpkins, taking a hay ride, and then we ended the fun at home watching Charlie Brown's Great Big Pumpkin with a chai latte. Oh how I wish autumn would stay longer!

afternoon stroll

2008-10-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

Durango

2008-10-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, friends and family, nor I or Naomi had taken any photos of the campus or town. Which is unfortunate because it was one of the most pristine areas I have ever been to. Its situated in the farthest reaches of the state. About 30 miles from the Four Corners area at 6,680ft in the southern Rockies. The campus has a 360 deg vista of mountain peaks sitting above the valley where lush fields of wheat and hay and some prized cattle are spread out for miles. The town was...quaint. Its geared for the fart smelling hippies from Boulder and San Francisco (Ca in general) to come and not go with out thier Starbucks, Cold Stone and of course, the yuppie outlets like Banana Rep, Eddie Bouer (sp?) etc. I was thrilled to see two small breweries though on the same block: Potential employment?

The school did an atrocious job at selling itself. If I hadnt already researched it extensively to know it was a good fit and not had the perspicacity to dialogue with Deans, Id walk away scoffing, kicking intelectual dust in its face. But, it has more than the eye sees. The program I want to go into has an incredible variety and a Dean whos heart you cant but admire and want to emulate. Another thing was that I was amidst 18-19 year olds whose bodies are redolent with hormones and whos livers are dying to have thier limits tested.

All said and done, if id had more sleep I might be a bit more enthused. I was running on less than 4 hours of sleep in two days and driving for hours! We did sleep in the back of a friends truck: Cold, cold, cold and really creepy. Oh...and Naomi removed my coffee cup before the trip so I had to drink scalding hot tea out of the kettle; searing all nerve endings in my lips to nil. a very nerve racking tunnel.

Thats it!

Thanks!

my hand at confectionary baking

2008-10-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

2008-10-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

thought for the day

2008-10-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

We mostly spend our lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have, to do...forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in the fundamental verb, to be.
-Evelyn Underhill, "The Spiritual Life"

New Presidential Candidate... It's someone we know!

2008-10-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

There's an effort to elect an unknown random person as President... and it's someone we know! Click on the link below and watch this online video about the surprising new nominee (make sure your sound is on):

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=370617&altf=Kbtpo&altl=Bcejmmb

Ageing with the Sage Clodpolish

2008-09-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

A very dear friend of mine came to town last week and spent a week with me. It was such a fresh wave of familiarity and old time fun. I knew id laugh a lot and have great conversation. I was not dissapointed in the least. Heres some pics from our time.

The bloated bags testify to the elevation difference we experience here. We bought the chips and they were normal, then we drove to the cabin which was at about 9000 ft and they were incredibly bloated.

Chapel Catherine of Sienna which sits in an odd mound of rock and built in such a way that it appears to be growing out from it. Absolutely beautiful. It sits at the foot of Longs Peak.

Day one of fishing the insatiable ST. Vrain. We lost so many luers and tempers in this forlorn dribble of a river.

Randy, a good friend of mine here in Denver, joined us late the first day. The second day, in the am, we headed out to find some good spots for fishing. It was painful. i didnt really plan on anything. i sort of pulled off the road near the St. Vrain and we walked down a trodden path that we supposed lead to fishing holes. it lead us into the fishing worlds version of Sheol. we lost luers, i fell in the icy river and cut my leg up and also fell off a 9 ft rock into a beaver dam. just as we were about to leave, Caleb had some luck, he caught a minnow! neither Randy or i were able to see it, but we went on his word a rejoiced with him. The next day Randy took off. I wish i had taken more photos of our evening. we played National Geographic Monopoly. What an emotional game! We laughed (i cried) Caleb swindled and betrayed, Randy won. Quite the fun night. The next day we cleaned up, Randy went home and Cleb and i decided to find a trail to hike.

We ended up at an alpine lake called Left Hand Res. The air was thin at the 11,340 elevation and very crisp and cold. As we started our way around the lake, the deep cerulean sky turned pallid and then a morose dark which, as we saw ahead of us on the trail brought a wall of white. it was first snow, then turned into ice pellets. Theres a phot where Cleb is saying "its september!?". this continued on and off for the remainder of our time there. we trudged through icy mud puddles and left over snow from the week before where we ended up on a log just off the marsh shores and smoked a pipe. we soon returned and drove home.

This is the last photo of our time. eating dinner the night before he left. we had a great time and i am looking forward to the next visit.

Thought on Freedom

2008-09-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

"In the autumn stillness, when the chill, sullen mist that hangs over the earth weighs upon the heart, when it looms like a prison wall before the eyes, and bears witness to the limited scope of mans will, it is sweet to think of broad, swift rivers, with steep banks open to the sky, of impenetrable forests, of boundless plains. Slowly and tranquilly imagination conjures up the picture of a man, early in the morning, before the flush of dawn has left the sky, making his way along the steep, lonely bank, looking like a tiny speck: age old pines, fit for ships masts, rise up in terraces on both sides of the torrent, gaze sternly at the free man and murmuer manacingly; roots, huge boulders, and throrny bushes bar his way, but he is strong in body and bold in spirit, and fears neaither the pine trees nor the boulders, nor his solitude, nor the reverberant echo that repeats the sound if his every footstep.

[They] picture to themselves a free life such as they have never lived; whether they vaguely remember scenes from from stories heard long ago or whether they have inherited notions of a free life from remote free ancestors with their flesh and blood, God alone knows!"

Anton Chekhov Daydreams

Paganity of Christendom and my Confession

2008-09-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

Is Christianity really Pagan?.

This might prove too long for the casual blogger, so, if you want to simply know what we ate for breakfast, where we went yesterday or what wine we like, youre going to be really disapointed and maybe angered. My plan is to talk about where I am as a person. If thats of no interest, keep going.

A bit about this five-lettered word: Pagan. It comes from the latin word pagus from where we get the word pasture.Take a moment to imagine what sort of people hung out in pastures. Mangy, low-class shepherds who wandered beneath the expanse of an open unmerciful sky, through abject fields of nothing, left alone for days on end with bleating sheep and, perhaps, a young assistant they most likely kidnapped from a village (St. Patrick for example). They were roudy, incoherrant, uneducated, ruthless people with wild, obtuse imaginations that went berserk beneath the glittering cosmos at night. Granted, Homer was not a mangy shepherd boy, but those in Germany and Ireland were. So when we speak of paganism were talking about the ideology and theology these people devised: Wild gods like themselves.

A bit more history is necesary to understand why there is the sentiment that paganism is heresy and anti-christian. Emperor Theodisius 1 in 391 AD made an edict against the "paganism" of Rome (pantheon of gods) which durring that time Christianity was developing a following and gaining political/social strength. When Rome was sacked twenty years later, the city questioned whether or not this Christian god -which one from that time might sa: now that we think of it, is just as pagan as ours, how do we know its any more credible?- is powerful enough to defend the city. It is at this point Augustine writes in a polemic fever The City of God in defense of Christianity hoping to preserve its strength and validity. It was durring this time when the word pagan took on the gravity that it has today. Christians were the first to really develope this word to mean what it does today, and it was all in the name of orthodoxy.

Now we ask ourselves:what does spurious dogma have to do with the safe, clean realm of Christianity? Isnt there a fine and hard line between them? The word Pagan always held a negative connotation for me as a child and even until recently i used the word to describe nonchristian ethics and thought. I was recently asked if I believe that Christianity is cognate with other "pagan religions" and not uniquely divine as God has established. No, I dont believe that. But I do believe that it is Pagan at heart and i hope to explain why and show more of who this God is that we're really being beckoned and loved by.

When we come to this God, we might ask ourselves about such figures as David. What he saw in Psalm 19 was a vibrant connect between the Word of God and the word of God and it causes him to dance and write and perhaps, mythologize a bit. He, in elegant prose, links the God of creation (not pantheistic in any sense) to the God of the Bible he savored daily. He saw and knew a God who was wild, whose depths were unfathomable and sweetly creative. Now, before David was king, where was he spending the majority of his time? We could, technically, call David a pagan. Or, who were the first to know of the Messiahs birth...pagan doesnt seem to be as bad as our past paints it if God approves of them, does it?

This paganism doesnt sound like the bullet pointed theology of Calvin or Wesley. I in no way want to discredit their amazing advances for Christian thought and formation. God gifted them with incredible insights and, no doubt about it, an energetic zeal for His word and Truth. There has been created, though, a chasm between the lively and verdant pagan psalms of David and what i grew up with, recently lived in and currently see in many others in the evangelical community. I ssert that the enormous disconnect has come (at least I am theorizing so) from leaving out the Paganity of Christendoms past.

The movie Dead Poets Society tied for my favorite film (Good Will Hunting is the other)because it goes to show what staunchy "tradition" does to such an originally pure intention. I feel that Yeats in his poem called The Scholars clearly depicts the majority of Fundamentalist thinkers as well as myself for a very long time:

"Bald heads forgetful of their sins,
old, learned, respectable bald heads,
edit and annotate the lines
that young men, tossing on their beds,
rhymed out in loves despair
to flatter Beauties ignorant ear"

In Scripture, most would consent, that those who we would assume be called to greatness are not those God joyously reveals Himself to. Its to those who are in the lower rung of society...those who spend countless hours in fields or the open sea. Perhaps He finds a bit of Himself in those raw and crazed individuals who link their imaginative minds to the vibrant cosmos.

It tends to be these passionate and wild men like St. Patrick who found a way into peoples lives with Gospel orthodoxy through the use of native-pagan myth and lore.

In reading Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization and Mysteries of the Middle Ages. I have come to see what the use of Art/Humanities can do for ones faith. Patrick being the first missionary to the Irish, came into contact with a rowdy brood of people(I wont go into detail here because I wish you all to read this book). The book explains in playful prose how Patrick connected their "pagan" theology to orthodox Christianity by revealing how Christianity is truly, in its essence Pagan. The three sided uniqueness of the Godhead was relateable to the three sided faces of Druid gods. Three was a magical number in Celtic mythology and was how divinity revealed itself. Their blood hungry gods who demanded a sufficient sacrifice -with human blood- for error or victory in war seemed so similar to Patricks God...yet, as Patrick would elegantly explain, His God has made Himself human and sacrificed Himself to Himself, appeasing that wrath...and now what God wanted was their lives, not their death, as a gift. He did this through prose, poetry, and his own variation of Christian myth in his Breastplate:

I see his blood upon the rose
and in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see His face in every flower;
the thunder and the singing of the birds
are but his voice - and carven by His power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by His feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

How this resonates whith the God of David! its like honey, oil and wine that please the face and heart of mankind!

Now, for a bit of a digress why i write this:

Why i take the time to write a posting most people dont have the time or patience to sit through (after all this is only a blog...people dont really want to know how your doing; just want funny anecdotes from your life) is because as an individual I am experiencing heart ache and strife over what it means to be a Christian. Those who know me at all know that I am sickened by mindless following and passionless devotion (in myself first). Its all or nothing in your heart, and when its all its as fierce as a lion and as humble as a lamb. Neither of those are something i would consider myself. I'm ravenous with my words like a baboon and his feces and have the hubris of a chihuahua convinced it could actually take a car down. But deep down within me I really want to taste and see what He is truly; not what we've made him out to be from theological thinkers who write books of their own unique experience. This is also perhaps a credal confession that I dont read the Bible anymore...at least like I used to. The Bible for a long time became a tool that I used to condemn other "unorthodox" thinking, to find my way into the groups at church who I thought had it together spiritually (yes, like rubbing elbows with my own pastor and his hip followers). It was a specimen, like those frozen pigs we cut into in high school biology. It was lifeless, cold, full of sinews and organs that I tried desperately to figure out so I could say with confidence: behold I am wise and know God.Yet i never savored it. That all faded because it was lifeless...or, perhaps better said, i was. a bitterness towards christianese began to fester in me and the Bible's words were once again the bumble of liturgical rote. I was dismayed and fell into darkness.

Has any one read The Dark Night of the Soul? I havent, but know enough about it to know thats sort of where I am (its the next book I am going to read). That darkness I mentioned is not the darkness of death, but the darkness that comes just before dawn. Its that time when God takes everything you presumed to know about Him and throws it into a churning sea. He turns the light off and sucks dry what passions you had. Then, in those moments that seem like forever, He shows you a twinlking light of something that you were always told wasnt Him. Its this time when He takes you, the person He distinctly and wonderfully made, and relates His truth to you in a way that brings you to life like you've never known was possible. For me it was in a literature class at Clark College. The profesor (whom I believe was Catholic) showed me Jesus Christ like I have never known before. It was incredibly frightening, angering, "unorthodox!" I would shout from within the cell of my mind. it was in this "corrupt" thinking that this small light began and grown to almost blinding. it set within me a fire i am afraid will consume me. I havent sat down to read the bible in nearly a year (i have sporadically, though for no longer than 30 minutes). Contrast that with the time preceding the darkness, where at least an hour was spent in meditation and prayer over scripture daily, leading bible studies and attending small groups; a time my best friends called the most vigorous spiritually theyve ever seen me. I look back and see a corpse. What i am really trying to say is that God has shown me that He speaks in many diverse ways and that we can know more of Him than soley through the Bible. Whoooaaaa! wait a second, do we smell heresy????

Probably. however, i hope i am credited with a bit more integrity than to assume i am now a pluralist or pantheist. the Bible is errorless and divinely inspired and the unique way we can know the gospel of Christ and Gods plan and a portion of His heart; but no, i dont believe it is the only way to encounter Him, or see a glimpse of Him. But I do believe it is vital, sustaining your spiritual life and without it theres not life, for He is the Word, but He can sustain you with out it if thats the way He's leading you. Id say in the last year I have learned more of Christ through other literature than through the Bible...is that wrong or false? What I am trying to say is that He is greater and more mighty and creative than we (or i) attribute to Him, and can come to us in ways we'd never expect. Emergent? Post-post-modern? Who the hell cares anyway! Im trying to shake that off and discover life to the fullest, and if that means im emergent then so be it...i just want Christ.

Getting on with the whole thing. Has anyone ventured to read Paul's rigid epistles like intoxicating prose?

Though he possesed divine estate
He was not jealous to retain
Equality with God.

He cast off his inheritance,
he took the nature of a slave
and walked as man among men.

He emptied himself to the last
and was obedient to death-
to death upon a cross.

And therefore, God has raised him up
and God has given him the Name-
Which-is-above-all-names,

That at the name of Jesus all
in heaven high shall bow the knee
and all the earth and depths

and every tongue of men proclaim
that Jesus Christ is Lord-
to the glory of the Father.

Yes, Philipians 2.6-11 taken from Thomas Cahill.

I have been warned not to read the Bible as just literature out of fear that its value might be reduced. what that thought process to me reveals is possibly what that person actually views the Bible or God as. If the bible is an active word, sharper than any two-edged sword, and we approach it like we should approach a great book (willing to be impacted and moved by it because of its literary authority) wont the Almighty God speak to us? Or do we have to spiritually fix ourselves up first in order to find vaulable nuggets within? You'll never understand what Voltairs Candide or the Aeneid if youre just looking for some clever insight or "deeper" meaning. You need to make yourself vulnerable to really enjoy any good writing. Let it speak to you before you man up on it with an educational scalpel.

Ill conclude with this poem by
William Blake:

"Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
in the forest of the night,
what immortal hand or eye
could frame thy fearful symetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
burnt the fire of thine eyes?
on what wings dare he aspire?
what the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what the shoulder, & what art,
could twist the sinews of thy heart?
and when thy heart began to beat,
what dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
in what furnace was thy brain?
what the anvil? what dread grasp
dare its deadly terror clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
and water'd heaven with their tears,
did he smile his work to see?
did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
in the forest of the night,
what immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symetry?"

and another little something about mythological paganism and God:

"'The boy with the wild face is Bacchus [Roman god of wine] and the old one on the donkey is Silenus [Foster-father to Bacchus, a greek forest deiety]. Dont you remember Mr. Tumnus telling us about them long ago?'

'Yes of course. But I say, Lu-'
'What?'
'I wouldnt have felt safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we'd met them with out Aslan,'
'I should think not.' said Lucy." -Prince Caspian.

"Safe? who said anything about safe? of course hes not safe; But he's good." Mr. Beaver warned joyfully about Aslan, Narnia. Its in this sense that i am comming to know God, like St. John of the Cross's vision of Him as the Ocean, the one we need to jump into and submit to...that fearful unknown...yet so alive and wild i cant stand to be away from it.

How this relates to Paganism (in my warped little mind at least) is that i really feel that the pasture wandering heathens who wrote of a beast with fearful symetry and would at any moment bow to it, had it right and better than i have in the past. To me, God has become a domesticated house cat -like myself- not a fearful tiger who consumes me with a power i cant resist.

{I dont think for a moment that all of a sudden because one guy finds a little link from Paganism to Christianity, things will change. Thats not why this is written. Its more of adapting a new view on our faith and perhaps, what we might miss out on with out its presence}

C-285

2008-08-31T21:29:00.000-07:00

what the others didnt see...

2008-08-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

Recentralize My Self

2008-08-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

We and They

Father, Mother, and Me
Sister, and Auntie say
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.
And They live over the sea
While We live over the way,
But-would you believe it?- They look upon We
As only a sort of They!

We eat pork and beef
With cow-horn-handled knives.
They who gobble Their rice off a leaf,
Are horrified out of their lives;
While They who live up a tree,
And feast on grubs and clay,
9isnt it scandalous?) look upon We
As a simply disgusting They!

We shoot birds with a gun.
They stick lions with spears.
Their full-dress is un-
We dress up to our ears.
They like Their friends for tea,
We like our friends to stay;
And, after all that, They look upon We
As an utterly ignorant They!

We eat our kitcheny food.
We have doors that latch.
They drink milk or blood,
Under an open thatch.
We have Doctors to fee.
They have Wizards to pay.
And (impudent heathen!) They look upon We
As a quite impossible They!

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people like Us, are We
And every one else is They:

But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (Think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!
-Rudyard Kipling

hip new frames!

2008-08-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Le Duche Magnifique

2008-08-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Since childhood the shower has been a sanctuary. Set apart from the pandemonium of household affairs soothed by the steady, rythmic pelting of water. No cares for the pretenses of society (clothes and hair styles) i could sit and bask in true humanity. With the exception of trips to orphanages in Mexico, I have never had to pay a modicum of attention to water pressure. Even in the Bohemian days with a group of guys in a home with archaic plumbing, I still had some water that spurt through the moldy shower head.

So, when I first jumped into our shower here in Denver and was met with an icy trickle, my heart sank and found myself submerging into a sort of exiled depression. Missery surrounded and defined my showering experience. No more could I lay down or sit, but i had to stand, tip-toed up to the dribble and lather myself rotisserie style, one side at a time. The water side usually was being scalded by the erratci and slow changing temperature, while the other froze; quite the lunar experience.

There came a point where i lobbied the shower. these were my more ripe days. Biking to work everyday durring the initial summer months caused some drama on the aroma front. i finally conceded to baths. quite to my suprise, i found i thoroughly enjoyed the immersion. I picked up books i needed to finish, read articles, or even sunk my ears beneath the water where i could hear as clear as day, our neighbors music. I enjoyed the likes Pete Yorn and Broken Social Scene on many occasions. The delimma with this was that the use of soap was prohibitted. Once soap was used, i sat in silty, scummy water worse off than before. I either had to turn on the godforsaken shower, or empty the tub, then stand freezing and soapy, until it filled back up; rinse, then drain again. Even then i was not able to remove all the residue of soap, not to mention a huge waste of assets and time. The advent of an aggressive beast crawled from under arm pits, ears, and worse, my dwindling scalp. Bathing, for the first time in my life, became a laborious endeavor, dreaded from days break to days end.

It didnt bother either of us much. we got used to the smells eachother had and, in a wierd way, began to find solace in them. Yet there remained in me a void that subconciously was causing me to lapse into depression from time to time. There was never an escape. its not the stench of a showeless life that burdens me, its the claustrophobic tension that cripples my faculties.

When I came home from work today our landlord had done some long needed work on our unit. I ran to the shower and threw the water on and found a charge of water so strong i could pressure wash with it. Immediately stripping into my most beautiful state, i jumped in and laid down, absorbing the solace and comfort of a well functioning shower.

Amen. Gracias Dios por nuestra ducha. Cuanto la amo! no es que sea muy importante, no obstante, es una gracia de que me disfruto muchisimo en esta vida. De nuevo, senor mio, gracias. Amen.

forever friends

2008-08-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

My dear friend from Portland, Lauree came to visit while on her US tour with Josiah Venture. She is a missionary in Czeck Republic. We had a blast catching up. Thank you, Lauree for your love, friendship, and encouragement. I love you tons.

Showertime

2008-08-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Why is white trash such an insult? I honestly cant think of a more hummusy brood of people. They dont shower or feel the need to; they feel great in cheap suits and dont know a good one from a bad one -or, even care-; they eat liberally at fancy hors doeuvres parties while others nibble at miniscule amounts of unsatisfying pate in a Stoical manner; they drink beer and eat potato chips in the shower. Now...this might sound repulsive, but have you ever tried drinking a beer in the shower??? Its amazing.

Good night. Im off to enjoy Anchors new Liberty Ale...heres to enjoying life liberally, GO LIBERTY!

Medivita for Dad

2008-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Turned fifty today-
Gulped down a grolwer
like you were twenty-one
today-
we talked of many things-
and half attentive
while we went on,
i remembered:
im half as old as you.
so much of you
i see right here
in these shabby clothes
and unkempt face-

im no fool
no sir!

your saggy skin
might look good in
that suit, parked
professionally
at a computer all day-
but i know better:

your twice the child
today
than ever.

sunday morning breakfast

2008-07-27T16:58:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things to make for breakfast is yogurt, granola, berry parfaits. I thought this one was worthy of a picture. :-)

Big Elk Meadows

2008-07-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from our hike yesterday to Big Elk Meadows. We got up at 6:20am and were out the door by 7am and at the mountains hiking by 8:30am! We wanted an early start so as to beat the heat of the day by the time we were done hiking. When we were finished we ate our picnic lunch of Spanish bocadillos...baguette with manchego cheese and proshuito ham (the closest thing to jamon serrano). It was yummy! Then we ended the day with gelato!

2008-07-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Happy 38th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!!
We LOVE you!

child of the King

2008-07-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Today 22 years ago Jesus grabbed hold of my child heart and became my king, changing my life for eternity. He is good, he is faithful. He never fails me. He is forgiving, my redeemer, lover of my soul. Thank you Jesus for your precious sacrifice to save a sinner like me. I will never understand.

As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.
Since my youth, O God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your might to all who are to come.
Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God,
you who have done great things.
Who, O God, is like you?
Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter,
you will restore my life again,
from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up
You will increase my honor
and comfort me once again.
I will praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praise you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you-
I, whom you have redeemed.
~ from Psalm 71

our precious niece

2008-07-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

sweet baby girl...

auntie naomi and uncle jason miss you and love you so much!

Xavier and Iuno

2008-07-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

Oh! Hello there! Or should I say, good bye? for this is the last you shall see of me. This account begins at the end and truly ends as it begins. Now, to avoid cracking the stiff joints of social norms, I must introduce my self: I am, indeed (other than a sock), Count (Or Dux) Secretious the Bemoaner. I am the Vox Dei through out this entire pictoral account of one of mans most humiliating and nonsensical events: The Wedding. Now now you sentimental bafoons! Calm your fragile nerves at once! I am The Bemoaner it is entirely my prerogative to take such a sullen view of the ordeal. My Master, Earl Xavier of Terrageurra, has decided to wage a bloody war against Iuno, the fair haired siren who beckons all men unto her stony breasts. His greatest weapon is that of sheer dissapointment: the art of irregular and accurate photography. For those whose eyes and minds are fed on the fodder of the rote of modern Wedding photography, this will indeed prove you are her allies and our fiend! No really, I shall allow you now to continue. It is true, however, that these photos, however uninforming (to you) they are, show the affinity the Master has for those he loves; and those who love him and know eachother will no doubt benefit from the format and style of such perspectives. Go in peace...

Chagrined