Road Trip Quote

I read Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts a few months ago and really enjoyed it. It's a road trip memoir about three months spent crossing the U.S. in a VW camping van. Something I'd really like to do someday. It actually reminded me a bit of my family travelling in our van back in the 80's on one of our many family trips. We actually ironically drove through the Painted Desert and explored the edge of the Grand Canyon. Miller's book brought me back in time and forced me to imagine future travel. Here's a random quote that caught my eye:

"Rarely do I question the mystery of it all. We are atoms connected to create big, awkward, intelligent animals, animals complex in construction, equipped with minds, hearts, and the like. Spinning secretly around us in an intricate system of interconnected physical laws, completely dependent upon one another for effectiveness. And we are in the middle of it; actor's on Shakespeare's stage, madmen in Nietzsche's streets, accidents in Sagan's universe, children in God's creation...On one of our trips to central Texas, I stood at the top of a desert hill and looked up into the endlessness of the heavens, deep into the inky blackness of the cosmos, those billion stars seeming to fall through the void from nowhere to nowhere. I stood there for twenty minutes, and as it had a few times that year, my mind fell across the question why?" - D. Miller

Here's to stepping into mystery and road-trips in a VW camper van!

The Winnipeg Arena Dies

Oh - here's a sad note - they blew up the 'old barn,' also known as the 'white house' - the Winnipeg Arena is no more. I have many fond memories of the Winnipeg Jets, the glory years of the NHL, and a few good rock shows at the arena as well. Here's an article about the arena's destruction (apparently took a bit - the arena just didn't want to die without a fight) , Manitoba Photos captured these pics that captures the before and after well, and below are some pics I borrowed from the web:

March Last Year in Review

I decided to check back in time and see my thoughts from March 2005. Turns out I was concerned about the concept of time, musing on the latest music, anticipating a trip to North Carolina & reviewed my time leading a trip to inner city Winnipeg.

Not much to say today - only busy week ahead. I will be teaching a weekend course entitled Experiential Youth Ministry and still plugging away with my Leadership Development class as well. 5 weeks of classes, grad, and then an escape out west with a number of students on a music/drama tour. Phew - busy times! Look at that consumed by time once again - it must be those killer modules; they mess with your mind breaking everything up into chunks.

Stepping Deeper Into Mystery

I spent sometime yesterday away from civilization after going through a stress-filled day. Yes, I escaped once again to my refuge Sandilands Provincial Park. It's a relatively short 20 minute drive from home and I'm in rolling hills treed with both poplars and pine. This time of year, it still unfortunately is covered in snow and so it makes walking through the woods somewhat difficult. However, the ski trials (although in serious disrepair with the recent warm weather) allow a person to hike alongside in only boot deep snow instead of knee deep or worse.

And so I walked until I found a bit of clearing between a poplar stand and a grove of pine. There I stamped out a bit of a rest area and allowed my thermarest to inflate. Then I sat down, brought out my journal and stared into the warm sun still just above the tree line. It was surprisingly warm despite the minus celcius temperatures. I took a number of pictures and just reflected on my life, direction, God, future, you know the deep stuff. And it was good. I suppose I've been a bit frustrated and restless as of late and I needed just to get away from it all. We forget to breathe sometimes in the chaos of life. We forget that we need to rest and be silent. While looking up I noticed that I was sitting next to a poplar tree that was surrounded by towering pines in the form of a circle - here's a purposely blurred & slightly over-exposed shot of that place.

A particular Psalm brought me some solace with the line, "Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of whitewater rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me." Funny how words like that bring comfort but they affirm that I'm not alone in the struggle. Others who have gone before me have faced challenges far worse than my own and survived. Psalm 42 is a powerful lament but still hopeful and looking to God for wisdom and strength. Below is my attempt at an abstract shot of trees. Trees for me represent strength despite hardship - strong roots keep a swaying tree centred.

Shalom

The Starbucks Journals - Final Episode 03.08.06

Life is too short to not pursue one's dreams. Sometimes we forget those aspirations in the midst of the busyness of our lives; our imagination goes flat and falls into atrophy. We need to keep being in wonder and in play. I can't say I have any legitimate regrets in response to things I've done over the years. I've accomplished a lot of my life goals and quite honestly am at a point where i need to create new ones as a result - that's pretty wild! In fact, I have done more and experienced life more fully than I ever thought I would as an adolescent. But just because I have led a full life means that I am satisfied and can hang up my Indiana Jones hat. There are som many more places left to explore and new dreams to dream. As my pen writes this garbled script of letters and words, I cannot help but thank my Creator for allowing me to be creative in all that I do!

Education - the pursuit of wisdom, understanding, & knowledge. They are the three peaks that as a guide I am encouraging my students to climb and pursue. The three are inexplicably linked together and to pursue only one is simply not enough. I know people who are masters of memorization and store incredible facts in there brains but that knowledge is of no value without understanding. Wisdom is knowing what to do with that knowledge and understanding, making right decisions at the right time. All three unique but incomplete with the other - sort of like love, hope, & faith.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder the poets say. The feeling of being apart from those you love clearly is not easy. I feel like getting in my rental van and driving how as I sit here missing home, my wife and daughters. We belong together. It's better when we are together in the words of Jack Johnson:

"Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. Why are we here and where do we go and how come it's so hard? It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving. I'll tell you one thing it's always better when we're together."

Tomorrow I'm no longer homeless and yes it will be better to be together!

Passion For Adventure Quote

While posting on my friend Dave's Squarefoot Blog in response to Seeking Adventure this interesting quote from Jon Krakauer's book Into The Wild came to me:

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances & yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

Aron Ralston author of Between A Rock & A Hard Place (the guy who had to amputate his own arm after a boulder shifted on it while canyoneering) uses this quote as a manifesto for his life and it is one that I continue to process. I think the second week of exploreplay I used this quote for a blogpost but I find it helpful to revisit ideas or posts. Any thoughts out there?

Life in the New World

Have you ever thought about what it would have been like to have been those first European explorers who found the so-called New World? To step foot on land that supposedly had never been seen before by your culture? What was life like in the New World? We know from history that it was not an easy life but it definitely was one of adventure, of discovery!

I'm at a place right now where I'd like to travel somewhere new, to experience something for the first time! I've had those moments of glory over the course of my existence. I have been to some places that few others have been and I value those times as ones that I will treasure always. It is those unique moments of self-discovery, of new ideas or concepts, a paradigm shift that excite me as a teacher. As a guide in the outdoors - it is the wonder of seeing nature untamed, the streaks of light seen in a meteor shower, the dance of aurora's lights in the northern sky, the awe of a lone wolf howling at the moon, the roar of a waterfall, the list continues...the question is am I ready for what's next or is it even necessary to be ready?

Maybe part of the adventure of life is not knowing what's around the next bend in the river.

The Starbucks Journals - Episode Two 03.07.06

Back at Starbucks once again - the Goddess of Athena has lured me this time to endulge in a tall Caramel Machiatto. I sit in a different spot, this time in a cozy lounge chair next to a natural gas fireplace which at the moment is warming up at least the right half of my body. To the left, a table of adolescent girls dressed in classic private school uniforms and yes murmuring away in gossip-mode about guys and stuff...

The Globe & Mail Tuesday edition declares an Oscar Winner, the director of Crash is indeed Canadian! Ironically, I haven't heard the film nevermind actually seen it. Sitting in this busy coffeeshop on Osborne Street is becoming a ritual for me. Interestingly, I don't recognize any of the coffee dispensing employees from the night before - apparently a lot of part-timers I guess. This place claims to be one of relaxing and lingering but it is becoming apparent that it may be advertising a false sense of community. Yes, the atmosphere is warm and friendly, the music is grooving and inviting, but unless you are with friends it actually is quite lonely. A person may ask if the seat next to you is taken but the conversation will end as quickly as it started. The exception being the classic, "Are you done with that paper?" Shallow. Paper-thin.

"I totally saw that!" "OMG!!!" Okay I'm becoming annoyed with this gaggle of teenage divas on the next table over - ironic considering I'm a youth ministry professor. "SO Creepy!" I can only assume they are talking about someone that doesn't fit in at their school or maybe a flirty high school gym teacher? I am glad the years of puberty are so far removed from me. And as I write this I fast foward ten years and realize my eldest daughter will a teenager as well.

This whole "being away" thing gets old fast. I need the community of family & friends to breathe and admittedly sleeping on a foamie mattress is much harder than the luxury of my bed at home.

Another hazy winter day. It would be nice to see that Manitoba sun again! It has been atleast a week since blue skies. The melt has begun once again and its a challenge to keep shoes or pantlegs dry. I peel away the wrapper of a Ricola throat lozenge and play with it in my mouth, allowing the sweet honey flavor to seep into my somewhat dry and irritated throat. I am tired of this cold virus that has ravaged my body this past week.

A young university student sits down in a seat nearby and plugs in an ancient IBM thinkpad from maybe 1995. It is amazing how archaic it looks, it must be almost 4 inches thick and I think it has a floppy drive? He nervously boots it up obviously prepared for a long wait as the CPU winds up. Another student cautiously waddles to the washroom but finds the door locked. He looks almost panicked by that fact. He is your typical asian preppy type wearing a yellow and grey striped sweater with a pink polo shirt beneath, strangely his shirt collar is unfurled like that of a bad Elvis impersonator. An interesting crowd today at Starbucks - is it really the coffee that brings them all here or the hope for community in a warm place?

And so here I sit, with my faded jeans and black jacket writing the musings of a wandering mind once again.

Exploring Some Recent Pictures

A recent March Snowstorm left the family cottage under some serious snow!

Aimee loves her Papa (Grandpa)

I came home to Chelsea's Birthday greeting to me on March 9th!

A Nuthatch resting on a snowladen branch at Star Lake

Daddy (yours truly) & Chelsea after an epic snowmobile tour to Falcon Lake!

Our Quinzhee that remains relatively unmelted in our backyard!

Aimee exploring her snowprints on our back deck.

Animals - as our daughter Aimee gets excited about at the cottage!

I tried to capture the backlighting of the sun on this lonely perched squirrel

I managed to capture the unique coloring of this yet unidentified golden bird. Any aspiring ornithologists want to take a guess at what this bird is?

The Starbucks Journals - Episode One 03.06.06

The city never sleeps. The traffic of busy cars & buses pulses with the changing of lights. Occasionally, the squeal of tires or the audacious yelp of a car horn can be heard. And here I sit sipping a tall dark roast in the comfort of an Osborne village Starbucks listening to the sounds of espressos and coffees being made with a salsa lounge soundtrack playing distinctly in the background.

The hot sips of bean-infused flavour sharpen my senses as my mind wanders on. Nearby, a lovestruck couple gazes into each others eyes, the male doing his best to impress "the girl" with a cheesy grin, telling stories not only with his lips but his elevator-active eyebrows. Beside me a young businessman sighs as he stares at a paperback novel killing time softly while straightening out his crumpled suit. He must be a slow reader as I haven't seen him actually thumb a page. He seems to be hoping his coffee will wake him up for a busy day ahead of him - perhaps a boring meeting awaits him?

Living in the city of Winnipeg this lonely week away from family and friends blesses me with time for some introspection. My momentary stop in this trendy coffee haunt certainly allows me to catch my breath, unwind and reflect. Questions continue to swirl in my mind... where am I going in this crazy world I am living in? It has been a restless year and I'm searching for direction.

I love teaching, seeing young minds develop and explore new ideas and thoughts build my passion. I move when I teach, almost dancing with the words I weave to bring across an idea, a concept, a paradigm that hopefully will bring change. So here I sit in reflection sipping my java. What's next? What new adventure awaits? I pray silently for my family and future explorations...

A tattooed, army fatigue wearing young mom wheels in her sleeping infant and takes the spot of the businessman that vacated his seat moments ago. Salt-polluted slush drips off the wheels of her baby carrier while the small boy seated inside sleeps on. His mother is doing her best to not fit the "mother-stereotype" wearing her dark hair in teen-girl ponytails and concealing her worn eyes with blue-tinted glasses much too big for her face. She hums a wandering tune out of sync with the tribal-inspired groove that dominates the atmosphere of this resting stop. Her cool life seems interrupted by motherhood but she is coping as best as she can.

I glance at the cover of a newly purchased outdoor adventure magazine and read, "Your Perfect Week In Costa Rica!" Sounds perfect to me as thumb over and see a picture of a lone kayaker surfing down a raging waterfall into a teal-colored pool framed with jungle vegetation and lava rock. Wendy and I will be celebrating our ten-year anniversary this June and have considered this place as a potential escape - we'll see what happens. Culture excites me as do new places to explore. New sounds, pictures, tastes, adventures...all simply enthrall my mind. I cannot be stuck in the moment for too long can I? The world needs more exploration, more moments of discovery and wonder for me to be remotely satisfied. So here I sit for now...sipping coffee grown in Costa Rica?