I was going to write sooner, but Saturday found me with terrible vertigo, resulting in spending the day in bed, which was a precursor to a terrible migraine Sunday-Tuesday resulting in spending those days in bed. Basically the loss of 4 entire days.
I'm on the mend today and want to share some of my insights from my week at the coast.
I don't know what it is, but the ocean definitely inspires me. I guess it's the realization that this world is so big and so powerful. I am just a visitor here, while the oceans have survived countless millennia. I guess it's the cliche sense of God when watching the waves crash and churn.
We had beautiful weather, which is nearly unheard of in June on the Oregon coast. The sun shone each day, no rain, and while the wind was still chilly, if you could get out of the wind it was warm and pleasant.
The kids swam in the outdoor pool and rode bikes and walked on the beach and played in the tidepools and collected rocks and shells, and we had a bonfire and made s'mores, and did all that beachy stuff. We let the kids bring a friend this time, he's a neighbor boy who is almost 13, and he was a great help with the boys, keeping them entertained and watching them on the playground and at the arcade.
I read two books on vacation: "Through Painted Deserts" by Don Miller, and "A Field Guide to Evangelicals & Their Habitat" by Joel Kilpatrick, creator of LarkNews.com, a good source for Christian news.
Both were excellent reads - the "Field Guide to Evangelicals" was hilarious ... I absolutely recommend it to any evangelical or former evangelical who isn't afraid to laugh at him/her self. I can't even describe how the author has managed to poke fun at nearly every aspect of evangelical Christianity, while not offending me in the least.
"Through Painted Deserts", of course, was a deeper and more thoughtful book, just what I needed for afternoons by the pool. It's about the road trip Don Miller took from Houston to Portland with a friend, the trip by which, I believe, he came to reside in the Rose City. But for me this book provoked me to call to mind my own big "road trip" - from Portland to Iowa and back with a girlfriend - and all the lessons I learned about myself in the process.
It was the summer after my sophomore year of high school, and my best friends family was going to drive from Portland back to Iowa for a family reunion. My friend's family invited me to come along for the ride, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to get away from my own family for a couple of weeks.
My motives of "getting away" quickly proved to be insignificant.
Our plan was to travel early in the day since the family car did not have air conditioning. So we would hit the road around 4 or 5 AM and retire to a motel with a pool by 2 PM or so. So at 4:30 AM on the first day out of town, we we driving east through the Columbia River Gorge, and had the beautiful view of a low-lying layer of fog along the Columbia's southern shore, glowing pink and orange in the dawn-light.
I know it sounds hopelessly romantic, but I suddenly realized that I would see and experience things on this trip that I had not imagined, and return home with a new sense of how small I am and how large the world is. I would gain a sense of the history of this nation, I would meet new people, I would have to endure challenges, deal with injury, and most of all see some of the most beautiful and incredible scenery I could have ever imagined.
Needless to say I grew alot that summer, probably the most significant season of growth in my life outside the months following becoming a mother for the first time.
I think over the next week or two I want to reflect some on my experiences that summer. I just feel like, for my own benefit, reliving my 8 state journey ... but more importantly and thinking about how and why the act of removing ourselves from our comfort zone and "seeing the world" can truly change us, causing us to feel closer to the Creator and more in touch with ourselves, and give us a greater appreciation for life in general.
Call me strange, but that's where I'm at.
I'm on the mend today and want to share some of my insights from my week at the coast.
I don't know what it is, but the ocean definitely inspires me. I guess it's the realization that this world is so big and so powerful. I am just a visitor here, while the oceans have survived countless millennia. I guess it's the cliche sense of God when watching the waves crash and churn.
We had beautiful weather, which is nearly unheard of in June on the Oregon coast. The sun shone each day, no rain, and while the wind was still chilly, if you could get out of the wind it was warm and pleasant.
The kids swam in the outdoor pool and rode bikes and walked on the beach and played in the tidepools and collected rocks and shells, and we had a bonfire and made s'mores, and did all that beachy stuff. We let the kids bring a friend this time, he's a neighbor boy who is almost 13, and he was a great help with the boys, keeping them entertained and watching them on the playground and at the arcade.
I read two books on vacation: "Through Painted Deserts" by Don Miller, and "A Field Guide to Evangelicals & Their Habitat" by Joel Kilpatrick, creator of LarkNews.com, a good source for Christian news.
Both were excellent reads - the "Field Guide to Evangelicals" was hilarious ... I absolutely recommend it to any evangelical or former evangelical who isn't afraid to laugh at him/her self. I can't even describe how the author has managed to poke fun at nearly every aspect of evangelical Christianity, while not offending me in the least.
"Through Painted Deserts", of course, was a deeper and more thoughtful book, just what I needed for afternoons by the pool. It's about the road trip Don Miller took from Houston to Portland with a friend, the trip by which, I believe, he came to reside in the Rose City. But for me this book provoked me to call to mind my own big "road trip" - from Portland to Iowa and back with a girlfriend - and all the lessons I learned about myself in the process.
It was the summer after my sophomore year of high school, and my best friends family was going to drive from Portland back to Iowa for a family reunion. My friend's family invited me to come along for the ride, and I was thrilled at the opportunity to get away from my own family for a couple of weeks.
My motives of "getting away" quickly proved to be insignificant.
Our plan was to travel early in the day since the family car did not have air conditioning. So we would hit the road around 4 or 5 AM and retire to a motel with a pool by 2 PM or so. So at 4:30 AM on the first day out of town, we we driving east through the Columbia River Gorge, and had the beautiful view of a low-lying layer of fog along the Columbia's southern shore, glowing pink and orange in the dawn-light.
I know it sounds hopelessly romantic, but I suddenly realized that I would see and experience things on this trip that I had not imagined, and return home with a new sense of how small I am and how large the world is. I would gain a sense of the history of this nation, I would meet new people, I would have to endure challenges, deal with injury, and most of all see some of the most beautiful and incredible scenery I could have ever imagined.
Needless to say I grew alot that summer, probably the most significant season of growth in my life outside the months following becoming a mother for the first time.
I think over the next week or two I want to reflect some on my experiences that summer. I just feel like, for my own benefit, reliving my 8 state journey ... but more importantly and thinking about how and why the act of removing ourselves from our comfort zone and "seeing the world" can truly change us, causing us to feel closer to the Creator and more in touch with ourselves, and give us a greater appreciation for life in general.
Call me strange, but that's where I'm at.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteSeeing as you live in Oregon, you may have already heard of Rick McKinley, but i would encourage you to check out his book, Jesus in the Margins if you haven't already. Sounds like something you may be in to in light of your post. Have a blessed day. :)
Actually I just bought it the other day and am well into it. It's very good! I have a good friend who attends his church and she recommended it to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up tho, and thanks for visiting.