Day 1 - It has begun

This vacation has begun like all good vacations should.

With a trip.
A voyage.
A heading away.

After landing in cloudy London we raced to pick up a car and see the sights. After a quick reminder of what it is to drive on the wrong side of the road, though technically the right side of the car, Amanda and I zipped off.

First stop on our tour: The British Museum.

If you have never before been, it comes your way highly recommended (two thumbs and an elbow WAY up). The things that the empire has stolen and pillaged and, in some cases, even rescued are on display in this house of wonders.

Little things you may never have heard of.A Chinese dragon head
Est. many moons ago

Really Big Atlases
Est. Really Old

And then there's the big ones that you can't believe you are gawking at like a freshly opened jar of Nutella.
Winged Lion from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II
Est . 8th century BC

The Rosetta Stone
Est. 1st century BC

We got lost driving to Newbold College, our first 'home away from home' on this trip.
How can roads be so consternating?
Thank heavens for a local gym that had a map and an excited attendant only to willing to give long winded directions to exhausted and frazzled foreigners.

Spicy

You Are Cayenne Pepper

You are very over the top and a bit overwhelming. You have a fiery personality, and you can give anyone a good jolt. You can easily take things up a couple notches, no matter what crowd you're running with.

What Spice Are You?

Thin Ice

It seems when you get a group of people together for an evening of ice skating strange things are bound to happen.

Strange stances.

Strange faces.














Strange chains of people being tugged across the ice.

Strangeness.

Heavy Metals

Nothing gets my heart pumping as quickly as a sharp, crisp whine coming from a rapidly firing engine. The sharp punch of gasoline, the scream of rubber on road, the coaxing call of a new interior, the shine of fresh-from-the-factory windows all make the car world a haven.

Recently Chicago hosted the 100th year Auto Show (not annual mind you, as they took a break during WWII) and i had the joy, yea the honor, of attending the event.

How one building can hold such joys and delights is beyond imagination! The gleam of new aluminum, the groovy new spins on age old concepts, the age old concepts lurking in the undercarriage of every piece.

It's love.

True love.One of the oldest cars ever made. I think my bike has bigger tires...

The Viper. A classy slice of ShaZAAM!


The Camero. Ready to run the roads again. They call this one the Bumblebee. Whatever.

The HOT Challenger! In stunning hemi orange. Sigh...

Just around the rivers bend

I went for a hike in the lovely midst of the Michigan Winter. And sure enough, truth was reinforced. Yes... it is cold.

After traipsing down vacant beaches and through some of my favorite summer hiking trails, I eventually wound up at the pier in St. Joseph and found this rail all covered in ice.
The bright blue rails were frosted in sheets of ice. And i was amazed by the pattern of the dripping water, frozen into solid streams of ice. The sheer beauty of it was enough to drop me to my knees to snap this shot.

And I kept walking.
Slipping.
Sliding.

And further on down the pier i found this rail.


And it hit me. The first rails were awesome, but nothing compared to what was waiting around the bend of the pier.

The rails are much like life. Today, the first rail you see, is fantastic, but it is nothing like what is in store around the bend. God has given each of us so much to see and do! We get a full life, brimming with friends, mercy, love, snow, salt and joy! He has given us grace for today and bright hope for tomorrow!

Here's me hoping to see more ice-covered rails (metaphorically speaking!), being in awe of them every time and living in anticipation of the more fully covered rails of tomorrow!

Amazing Grace - Comments on comments

Amazing Grace. A song that has wrung hearts and been sung as praise for years.

Amazing Grace. A truth of humans experiencing God.

Amazing Grace. A hollywood movie?Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce

Yep. And a dern good one at that! If you have yet to see this film, i vote 2.5 thumbs up. It was strongly recommended to me and it truly deserves to be seen and reviewed and then promptly seen again.

If, however, you have not yet seen this movie STOP here! Don't ruin it for yourself! Don't let my ideas and responses affect your evaluation of the movie!

When this movie was recommended i was in a room full of men who were extremely thrilled with their experience of watching Romola Garai play a wonderful Barbara Spooner, wife to the famous and revered William Wilberforce. Wilberforce is known for having been the impetus behind the eradication of slavery from the British Empire in 1833. Barbara Spooner became wife to William after a two week acquaintance, bore him six children and was by his side when he died.

Romola Garai as Spooner

A comment i heard the night i was told to see the film was this... " Wow. It would be great to have such an amazingly supportive wife". Rapidly following this was a chorus of "Yep's" and "Uh-huh's". And i thought, 'Hot Dog! She must have rocked it!" And she is stunningly gorgeous and endearing in the film.

However, the entire idea behind support, a supportive spouse, and the wonder of Barbara Spooner is not that she was a solid rock of support but rather that she had a solid rock to support. Wilberforce was a determined and driven man, losing much to the cause for which he gave his life (though not being killed for it, he worked so much that he did lose his health) to see his dream fulfilled. Spooner threw herself on course with Wilberforce, not because she had no other outlet for her genius, but because genius was being expressed and she followed the call of justice.

To hear a man today claim he wants a supportive spouse is fine. I believe wives should support their husbands. And vice versa. I believe in respect and love. I believe in living with purpose. But to hear that comment coming from men who have yet to decide what they want from life, what their life will amount to and have very little leaning to accomplish anything more than being average, is tragic.

So in many ways this movie was a wake-up call to me. A call to find and live my path, the one that changes the world as i know it, that liberates people, that gives hope and shows compassion and makes me live with the drive that will cause me to lose my health for the sake of the mission. And it challenges me to find people who are doing that same thing. No mamby-pamby hooga booga thank you!

You want support? Do something worthy of being supported!

Well Come 2008!

i no longer make New Year's Resolutions. There was a time when i had a wee list that i'd studiously compose and attempt to adhere to as long as my young mind could stand. But inevitably after a month or so, the list was long forgotten, stuck in some book or drawer, only to be found 3 years later, laughed at and tossed out.

i began a different tradition years ago that i still hold to, however, and find much more endearing. i make a list of fun and interesting things to do for the next year. The list does not have to be finished, or held to it exactly. It is rather a guide, a page of possibility. A page of serious hilarity and wholehearted earnestness. Every year should begin with some sort of fervor.

2008 is no different. And so here is the list. i do enjoy a good list...Here's 8 for 2008.

1) Discover the joy of dancing before the Lord
2) Learn to make balloon animals
3) Feed a monkey, by hand, in Asia
4) Live the 1st Commandment
5) Take tap dancing lessons
6) Serenade someone (perhaps they should be deaf...)
7) Create a world class chili recipe
8) Introduce the joy of bubbles to someone