Life at 3 miles an Hour

I’ve chosen a different view this morning. I have surrendered the beach for the magical world of Christmas that has unfolded in my living room this past weekend. It really is quite a transformation. You’d really have to see it to appreciate it though. I’ve chosen an amazingly comfortable spot on my couch with a prime view of the fireplace, and a tree shining like a jewel. I’m guarded this morning by a large assortment of snowmen, angels, my Santa collection, the holy family, and our loyal and lazy cat who has shared this view for the past 15 years. She loves this season almost as much as we do and demonstrates it by curling up under the tree even before its decorated. She’ll hibernate there until we can lure her out with her annual bag of kitty narcotics. Eventually she’ll end up back there, quite stoned from the experience. I choose this spot today partly because I have two other appointments with Starbucks today and I wouldn’t want to be a candidate for intervention. I have ...

The change of seasons has finally hit me. I’m slower than most. I don’t know what exactly brought that stunning revelation to me this morning. It might have been the mental pre-Thanksgiving to do list that I woke up with. Thanksgiving? Did I miss Halloween. It may have been the rain soaked, “gore tex” clad bicycle commuter that I passed along the water. It might be the nearly naked beachside trees against the gray backdrop in view through my window. It was probably all of those including the very obvious tribute that Starbucks has paid to the impending Christmas season. Although here in the land of denial, we call it “the holiday” season. Wouldn’t want to offend. Anyway, I’m not lamenting, I do after all love living where the seasons change. I know many of you living elsewhere have heard that Seattle only has two seasons; rainy season and the fourth of July. That’s a load of crap. It doesn’t really rain here as much as rumored and it almost always does on the fourth. I lo...

I’ve been thinking a great deal about depth lately. It might be that sitting here every week staring out at the cold waters of Puget Sound have inspired me toward this. My mind wanders to what lies beneath. A pod of Orcas has been hanging just off shore this past week. I’ve recently enjoyed video views from local divers of the giant octopus and the six gill sharks that lurk in the darkness. We’ve been blessed with the adorable baby seals lounging on the beaches and all of this draws my mind towards one question. What’s it really like down below the surface? It’s carried over into real time for me and peeks out in many different venues. I’ve been reading more lately, possibly inspired from a pilgrimage to Powells City of Books in Portland last week. My studies for my teaching in my community o’ faith have taken a different path. Relationships are slowing, more time is invested. I want to know what lies beneath. I admire the divers I see who confidently stroll from the safety o...

It’s taken me awhile I’ll admit, but I’m really beginning to get the idea that things are not nearly what they’ve been made out to be. For the most part anyway. I really have resisted complete surrender to this concept. Those who really know me will have a hard time believing that I would hold on to an optimistic view of anything. Really, it doesn’t matter to me whether the glass is half full or half empty, it still seems that I’m drowning in the bottom of it most days. Still I hold on to hope. I recently installed some software on my traveling friend here in hopes that I would encourage it to longer life and strong performance. The program in question came with all of these promises, most of which I downplayed when wrestling with the possibility of purchase. I have been down this road before. Things are rarely what they are promoted to be and many claims fall miserably short of expectation. The one that I did hold out hope for was the promise of cleaning up enough clutter tha...