Life at 3 miles an Hour

I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I was reminded of that this morning as I crested the hill on my way down to my “home by the beach” also known as Tully’s. Everyone who comes here on the days that the sun makes an appearance is in agreement. The beauty on those days is what keeps us here the rest of the year. As I crested the hill with the sun rising, the city to my right, the mountains to my left and the water all around my place on the peninsula, there was a great peace and contentment filtering into my soul. I feel that way every time I near the water and since I’m surrounded by water here, this is a daily occurrence. I’ve been around water for much of my life. I’ve had this peace before, but the feeling is different here. On my winding down to beach level I pondered this difference. I’ve come to believe that there are two profound environmental aspects surrounding the life in and around Seattle. One is certainly the water and I’ve come to believe that the...

Well the wedding is over, but the marriage has just begun…day 2. It’s gotten off to a good start anyway. I mean, how hard could it be? They’re spending a week in Disneyworld. I guess that you might be able to argue about which monorail car to sit in or how many times to ride Space Mountain. I don’t think that they will. My prayer for the newlyweds is that they’ll get to spend this week on nothing but imagination and fun, before coming back to the sobering reality of jobs, rent, school, groceries and all that they rest of us wrestle with. It was a beautiful ceremony. I mean really….how many times have you heard about bad ones? Especially if you are intimately connected to it. I would guess that it would be about as many times as you’ve heard a new parent admit that their child is rather alien like, or about as many times as you’ve heard some real honesty at the funeral of someone who had lived a rather abrasive existence. I’ll tell you that it was a beautiful ceremony and a ...

I have a wedding to be at this coming Saturday. It’s not any old wedding. I don’t really like “any old” weddings to be honest. In my pastoral arts calling I participate in plenty of “any old” weddings”. This one is different. It’s special. It’s for my son and his fiancé. I’m old. I may not look it, but trust me I am. People tell me all the time how I don’t look old enough to have a son who is planning a wedding that was actually planned for, if you know what I mean. “Trust me, I’m plenty old enough” I assure them. Not only am I old enough, my own wedding was actually a planned for affair, so you do the math. It works out. I guess that I’m like a decent used car find. I look good in the right lighting and from 10 feet away. Get close enough and I have plenty of stone chips and door dings. My wife, on the other hand, is the real find. It doesn’t matter the light or the distance, she’s the real steal. So he’s getting married and I’m left to wonder whether or not I readied...

I’ve missed this place. Today I have followed a friend back down to the beach in support of his quest to reinvigorate another caffeine establishment. I have to admit, the motives are fairly selfish. I left the beach quite a while back to support his previous post as café restorationist in a different part of town. The change was good, I’ll admit, and the atmosphere that he was able to create is what kept me there and kept the creativity alive. Besides, like I said, the change was good. Change is good. I just wish more people would realize that. I say would because all could, but most won’t. I wish they would. In my “pastoral arts” calling, I don’t get to see and experience nearly enough change. After all, let’s be honest here, church change is quite the oxymoron. It’s right alongside government intelligence. I’ve come to believe that church change doesn’t happen quickly because “church people” change doesn’t happen quickly. Yesterday, I was honored to watch a real professio...

I’m breaking the pattern. I’m going for two posts this week. I’m back in my house of caffeine, relaxing to the sounds and smells of another morning in Tully’s, and chasing this cursor across the screen. It relaxes me. I’ve earned it. At least I tell myself that. I worked a long hard day yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked longer. I’ve had harder. For some reason last night, as I drug myself up the stairs and into the house, I declared to anyone who cared….that would be my wife….that I was “going in late tomorrow”. I had earned it. I still don’t know why really. It just felt right. So I began to wonder, as I drove here this morning, what constitutes earning? I mean really, in the whole scope of labor efforts, what did I do yesterday that was monumentally above the other wanderers that I can sit here watching while they run for their busses? Some of them look longingly into the window as they pass by. I have my donut and my grande drip with a shot in the dark, my ...

Yesterday I was privileged to spend some time honoring the passing of a special friend, along with hundreds of others who considered her the same. In my “calling” this is a fairly common occurrence. I usually don’t know the one who’s passed as well as my “yesterday” friend. I rarely contemplate as deeply as those who are remembering. I rarely have the memories or stories that the others have. Yesterday was a bit different. I was engaged, I was contemplative. This was a friend who I loved, admired and respected. I was connected to her life and she was connected in mine. This was one of those rare occasions that my family was joined in remembrance of someone who influenced and loved all of us. We are who we are and where we are, in part, because of her involvement in our lives. So yesterday, we sat, and we contemplated, and cried a bit in the company of others who could claim the same. Today is not yesterday though, and my life has, all too obviously to me, gone on. I’m bac...