change afoot

Normalcy is sometimes my biggest teacher. When things are exciting and new and unexpected it's easy to be distracted from myself and life around me. When things are normal...get up, go to work, come home, repeat...I cannot get away. A large voice inside of me screams "there is more, there is new, the time is now." Perhaps allowing normalcy to reign for a little while will be all I need to move, to change, to step. Wait for it. It will happen.

This is a picture of my hiking boots that were on my feet for the majority of last weekend. They are beautiful and dirty. My feet were kept pristine while inside them. There was a lot of rain and a few creeks that were stepped in but they did their job exceedingly well. I should go back to MEC and thank the sales person who sold them to me.

fabulous folk fest and friends

This is a picture of my folk festival booklet. I love this booklet because it helped me decide which music I would spend all day Saturday and Sunday listening to. And really, is there any better way to spend aaaaaaaaallllllllllll weekend than listening to and watching amazing musicians who love what they do and are really good at it?!! I think not!! My heart was honestly warmed through listening to these amazing people who have dedicated their lives to that which moves them. My heart was even more warmed when my friend Karla turned to me and said, "I am so glad you came this weekend."

I was challenged this weekend to the depths of my soul. I have flitted around the edges of writing music and prose but sometimes I am afraid of what jumping in will do to me. What will it do to my life if I actually give in to this? What will it do to my life if I don't? How do I go about finding out?

Right now, today, I know that parts of my life are not what I want them to be. Other parts are better than I imagined they could be. I've written before about how I am so blessed to have the friends I do. Here are Dave and Karla and I at the Folk Festival on Sunday evening waiting for The Be Good Tanya's to start. Aren't they lovely? I think so.

healing presence

Have you ever started the day knowing that there is no way you are going to make it through the worship and the sermon without crying a few tears, if not sobbing? Have you ever been surprised by the number of tears your tear ducts can release in one 24 hour period? Have you ever had your heart hurt from morning until evening?

Have you ever been surprised by how being in the healing presence of marvelous people can make those tears an almost distant memory even though they never really knew?

I have...today and tonight. They are Jesus to me.

glorious day

Canada Day could not have been better. It was actually glorious!!! My friend Bobbi and I greet you with the great Canadian tradition of great Canadian beer. Made on Granville Island, which is also where it was enjoyed, while listening to jazz played by Bob Murphy and his cronies, who hail from the beautiful city of Vancouver. I loved every second of this experience!

The day started out even better though...if that could be possible!! Bobbi, me and our friends Scott, Cathy and Bryan walked across the Cambie Street Bridge to the Round House to see The Flat Earth Society. This was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The Big Band in a new and modern way. It was a musical delight and free to boot! The piece de resistance however was this lovely couple. They sat right in front of us in matching Canada Day outfits. Hint: the hat with the flower belongs to the wife. This picture doesn't show the fabulous stadium seating chairs complete with pockets. I was incredibly tempted to help myself to the pop they had in the back pocket. I loved this so much because I was in Yaletown, one of the swankiest neighbourhoods in my beloved city, and here were these people who really didn't care that they looked silly. It was fabulous!!

When my eyes weren't fixated on the beautiful red t shirts worn by the lovely couple, I was looking over their shoulders to the stage to behold the sexiest saxophone player I have ever espied. Not only could he play the dang thing he looked amazing doing it!! He's the one in the purple shirt. The pic is a little fuzzy. It's hard to take a clear picture when you're so taken with the subject. Fortunately the music was loud enough to cover up the frequent sighing.....siiiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhh!

Other highlights include my first ever ride on the Aqua Bus, a delicious chocolate muffin with butter cream icing, JJ Bean americano and unbelievable Indian food. Could anyone ever tire of Butter Chicken? Walking home just before the sky becomes completely dark in the succulent coolness of the evening was the culmination.

thank you Lord for letting me live in this glorious world with glorious people at this glorious time. It is splendour!

drink

A person can only survive for three days without something to drink. Water is necessary for our bodies to work. Everything slows down, becomes sluggish. The mouth becomes dry. The heart beats faster because there is less blood to pump. Blood pressure will drop because blood vessels aren't as full as they should be. Things just don't work like they're supposed to.

I think it's weird that I can't just drink once and get it over with. Why can't I have have one big glass of water and be done with it? That would mean I would have no dependence on anything. But aren't we supposed to depend? It keeps us humble and grateful.

The physical thirst we have serves to remind us of our emotional and spiritual thirst. It reminds us that our dependence extends beyond a glass of water. We need people to know us and quench us. There really is nothing more comforting than being in the presence of people who know us and receive us anyway. Knowing glances between people that can result in gales of laughter or tears welling up. No words, just knowledge. Sometimes it's scary. What if I get hurt or taken advantage of? What if my feelings become more vulnerable? Isn't it worth being scared sometimes? I think getting past that fear can open doors to places that can't be explained, just experienced.

We are also reminded that we need Jesus to quench that deep thirst that can't really be explained. It's just there and we all know we have it. The beautiful thing is that He can and will satisfy that deep thirst if we allow Him to. But it's scary isn't it? What if I get hurt or taken advantage of? What if my feelings become raw and vulnerable? What if I actually need to submerge myself in that water instead of just sipping at the surface?

Isn't it worth being scared sometimes? I think getting past that fear can open doors to places that can't be explained....they must be experienced.

quotes of various kinds

I really love quotes. Don't you? some are inspiring, some are annoying and some are downright funny. Often when I read a book, a phrase or a sentence or two will jump out at me and I think, "I have to write that down. It's fantastic." Or I'll be talking to someone and they'll say something that amuses me or touches me and I will make a mental note of it. This happens to me more often than most people...I think. Mainly it's because I am hypersensitive to my surroundings and I take a lot of things in quickly. The absurdity of situations catches me off guard and I laugh out loud before I can catch myself. Anyway, I digress.

These first quotes are from Blue Shoes and Happiness, the 7th book in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series:

"Happiness was an elusive thing. It had something to do with having beautiful shoes, sometimes; but it was about so much else. About a country. About a people. About having friends like this."

"When the rains came, of course, then everything would be different, and the brown which covered the land, the trees, the stunted grass, would be replaced by green, by growth, by tendrils stretching out, by leaves unfolding. It would happen so quickly that one might go to bed in a drought and wake up in a landscape of shimmering patches of water and cattle with skin washed sleek by the rain."

Stranger than Fiction:

"If a man knew he was going to die and still chose to do it, isn't that the kind of man you'd like to have around?"

Sarah Wright (sunday school teacher extraordinaire):

"who doesn't like stick on gems? I mean really..."

Me talking about the old Vancouver Canucks jersey:

"why the big 'V'? It's not even part of the name."

Norm:

"I'm so much like Jonah the book should be called Normah."

Rikk Watts talking about the Apostle Paul's use of the word we. Say it out loud, it'll make more sense:

"Now we're going to talk about the 'we'ness of Paul."

I honestly could go on and on because each day is filled with these glorious nuggets of poignancy and hilarity. May you all see each moment in a new light of beauty.

This picture is one I took while I walked through the city to meet some friends for a beer. another beautiful moment captured forever. Doesn't it make the ordinary extraordinary?

Monopoly Curse

A couple of months ago I wrote about playing Monopoly with my friends Dave and Karla. I wrote about how we had fun and how it was always fun although I lost all the time. I thought it was funny I never won. Those thoughts went through my head because I anticipated that that would change sooner rather than later. We started keeping a tally of wins and losses on the inside of the lid. Surely probability would dictate that I would win. Well.....i was wrong. Not even statistics can help the abysmal state of the world of Monopoly.

I have concluded that I have a curse when it comes to monopoly. Now for all of you who are hyperventilating because I've used the word curse (not a curse word!!) calm down. This is all in good fun. There are various curses in the gaming world. The Curse of the Bambino had kept the Boston Red Sox from winning the World Series since 1920 until 2004 when the curse was broken. The Billy Goat Curse has plagued the Chicago Cubs since 1945 when William "Billy Goat" Sianis was denied entrance to the stadium with his pet goat. He cast a goat curse on the Cubs and they haven't won a world series since then. The New York Rangers were under a 54 year curse until they beat our beloved Canucks in 1994. The list goes on and on. I want to name my curse but it's got to be good. Dave and Karla and I briefly discussed the idea of a mascot...what should it be?! Better yet, what should the prize be when the curse is finally broken?!! Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated and fun!!