Heading North

I'll be in Shady Grove (Greencastle), PA for a few days working, then a quick visit to New York to see my family there.

Over the weekend, I was working in our back yard, and having fun in the stream with Sam. We've had a lot of rain, so the stream is running strongly. The bed changes every day, bringing in new things to explore. And, of course, there is always broken glass to extract and throw away.

Occasionally I would feel a prick in my right foot's big toe. It would always be in the same spot, seeming like a small stone stuck there. After the fourth or fifth annoyance of this feeling, I examined my shoe (a grey croc). Nothing inside. Underneath I saw a small speck on the sole. I rubbed at it, but it wouldn't come off. I pulled at it - I had a thorn stuck through the shoe and poking out just a little into my toe.

President Emeritus

If Hillary gets elected, Bill can be President Emeritus. We've never had one of those. I think it sounds better than "roving Ambassador for America".

And, speaking of politics, why don't the Democrats just get on with it and announce that Obama will be Hillary's Veep. Or, maybe the other way around. And then appoint Al Gore as Administrator of the EPA.

On a completely different note, Linda and the kids are in Florida this week on vacation: Amelia Island. Linda found a fishing charter service specializing in serving the disabled community: http://anchorsaweighcharters.com.

Since the kids' bathroom is not being used for a couple of days, I took the opportunity to reset some floor tiles and grout in all the cracks and holes.

Screwtape says "Think"!

I'm reading C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. Well, listening to the CDs in my car. If you don't know it, the gimmick is these are letters written by a senior demon, Screwtape, to his junior nephew, Wormwood, giving advice about how to corrupt the soul of one man in 1940's England.

At one point, Screwtape acknowledges the risks they face now that their man has become a Christian. So Screwtape advises his nephew to keep the man thinking about God, but don't let him turn it into action. As long as he's just thinking about it, then there's no real harm done.

So that's my take-away: often I get caught up in the thinking (or in the iterative search for perfection of the thinking), and not in the doing. As James says, faith without works is dead. Don't wait until I'm worthy or 'good enough', just step out in faith and be useable by God. My job is to act, and leave the results to Him.

Bumper Sticker I'd Like to Have...

(especially in Atlanta):

Warning: this vehicle slows for yellow lights, stops for red.


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De Soto Falls hike

On Friday, I took a vacation day and brought Sam and Genevieve up to DeSoto Falls, GA. We hiked to the lower falls, then back toward the upper falls. We didn't go all the way up, but the kids did a great job of hiking - over a mile each. We splashed in the water and found flowers, trees and critters.

Although we didn't go there on this hike, I love going above the upper falls to the upper-upper falls, where water cascades over a rounded rock face. I like to sit up there and have lunch. There's also a small, 15 foot or so, fall of water that makes a natural shower. That's a nice refreshment on a hot day. Last summer I was on the ridge above the falls and stumbled into a field of wild blueberries.

Hartsville, SC

Claire, Alex & I left Duluth this morning after a breakfast of Einstein Bagels and coffee. Well, coffee for me, anyway. Claire tried some and made quite a face :)

They are in Powertime Camp now at Summerton, SC. We had hugs and a few pictures, then I let them be brave kids in front of their friends and bunkmates.

I drove on to Hartsville to start a few days of on-site consulting for my client here. I'm listening to Holly Black's "Valiant" on CD. I'm almost done now - on disk 6 of 6. I'm pretty much caught up in the story now. Next on tap is an CD lecture series on C.S. Lewis' writings.

state of the back yard

Sunday night we had a big rainstorm come through Duluth. I was home with Sam and Gen. We watched the wind whip trees back and forth while the rain came down in sheets. Yesterday, Linda and Sam walked the yard to survey what damage was done. Our neighbors lost a large tree limb. We suffered nothing as such. Last night I got to walk about as well. Again, Sam accompanied.



I saw where the water had rushed now the hillside, leaving small contour lines of debris as it slowed in its descent of the back yard. In the 'way back', in the stream, the water levels had returned to pre-drought levels. This restored the 'gurgle' to our gurgle waterfall. The stream bed had been scoured here, and filled with deposits of mud, sand and gravel there. Some of our civil construction projects had been washed out or damaged - some paving stones simply floated away.



Sam uncovered a small snake - turned out to be a juvenile red bellied water snake. It was very aggressive. He handled the situation well - was appropriately cautious. I made the snake go away (euphemism).



We walked up and down the stream bed in our crocs, Sam throwing pebbles and me collecting all the new shards of broken glass brought by the water.

This rain was much needed by the trees and plants. We've had a nice mix of frequent soaking rains, as well as this latest deluge. The heavy rains should help with reservoir levels. Now we wait for a break in the rain dry enough to allow us to mow the lawn.

The stream bed in March, 2007:

Questions

What has captured your attention lately?
What's the best gift you've received lately?

Just some thoughts. No coherence.

//
Today I went to North Point church for the 9:00am service.
Here's Andy Stanley's main point, but I leave off the application:

Attention influences Direction, and Direction determines Destination.

Notice (going backwards) that it's not our intention that determines our Destination. It's our actual Direction. And then, the Direction we take is influenced by our Attention. Our attention can be accidental (something grabbed my attention / someone captured my attention) or it can be intentional: I'm paying attention now, I'm giving my attention to this topic.

Makes me think of Wayne Dyer's concept of Intentional Living.

posting de premiere

Hello - first blog posting. I'll need to figure out where this fits in my webography.