Life at 3 miles an Hour

I'm sure that you couldn't tell by my youthful appearance and slim, disciplined physique ...whatever... that I once upon a time held a job with high holiday esteem.  Two weeks ago I was reminded of this when observing a friends Christmas display and about a dozen photos of her children in their growing years sitting on the lap of a jolly fat man with a white beard.  No it wasn't someone's uncle Earl, it was Santa himself.  Some photos contained the real Santa I'm pretty sure, but some were obviously the "fill ins".  That's right, I was Santa.... Or at least a good fill in.  It occurred to me, for literally the first time, that in numerous homes somewhere, probably on the East coast, there are moms, grandma's etc with photos of me in their living rooms at this time of year.  Let me clarify ... They are photos of me in a red suit with their children on my lap.  Anyway, it was a fairly distant memory and only a fleeting thought, until quite by chanc...

I'm having a "never saw this coming" moment...actually several of them seemingly coming in waves.  There are moments in everyone's life that, if you could have stepped outside of your stream and looked in on yourself, should have been quite obvious.  The reality is that few are able to step out of the flow that is rapidly ushering us through life, so every once in awhile we come face to face with those moments.  Our lives flowed fairly nicely through Thanksgiving only to land us on the doorstep of Advent where we encountered an obvious reality that had not yet clearly presented itself.  All of a sudden Joanne and I were struck with a reflection that this year, for the first time in 22 years of pastoral artistry, we are not leading others on a journey towards the birth of Christ.  Simply put, we have no church.  For me there is no wrestling with the birth narratives, praying and being led to extract new and timely hope to people clinging to it.  For J...

I'm sitting with a new view... This morning I have the Space Needle, a Tesla dealership, and 3 industrial cranes as a backdrop to the stream of amazonians filing by.  I'm not judging, as this morning I could be perceived as one of them...in fact I was by the barista crafting my drink.  I can quite easily blend in and join their ranks, set apart from the other groups who comprise a good deal of the neighborhood.  From my window seat I can watch throngs of "badge people" passing by throngs of "orange vests" passing by "cart pushers".  If one had the desire, these groups could easily be defined in these terms...this neighborhood perhaps more than any other that I've been part of.  It would be a tragic mistake though.   Much of life around here is more about perception than reality.  Again not judging, as it is most likely that way wherever you happen to be reading this. I was reminded of this even before leaving the house this morning as I sat ...

Although I have a few to choose from, it seems like my new home away from home has been found.  Café Torino, in the heart of my new neighborhood, has quickly become my "go to" spot for some strategic work moments, as well as those moments which have nothing to do with anything besides sitting in an Italian coffee shop contemplating their offering of classes in Italian.  I'm as grateful for the provision of this place as I am for their skill in caramel latte's.  From here I can literally look upon our new residence and, this afternoon, I can look upon the latest gift provided once again by God's grace and the generosity of amazing people who choose to follow his lead.  Parked outside the window is our exit strategy from the world of Zip Car.  In other words we, after more than 18 months spent in our mass transportation odyssey, are back to the world of car ownership.  Not only is it a wonderful vehicle, the best part of it is that we didn't have to...

A few weeks ago, my gorgeous wife and I spent a wonderful Northwest Summer day celebrating our 29th anniversary.  In a few days I will celebrate the day that my AARP card mailings have been seeking to validate...otherwise known as a half of a century of life on this planet.  If you are a friend or have read anything from me lately you also know that last month ended 13+ years of serving a wonderful community of faith because 3 days ago we began the journey of nurturing a new one into existence.  10 days from now we move from our home (75 years old,4 bedrooms and a yard) of 12 years to a townhouse (1 month old, 2 bedrooms and a sidewalk).  Whether you can keep up on all of the math or not, you must be able to sense a climate of change in our life.  As my wife and I have reflected on all of this during a number of happy hours recently, one thing continues to resonate with us.  The only thing predictable about our journey is that it tends to be very un...

Depending on the layout of the city, town, or rural roads that mark the place of your inhabitance, you may have experienced the system of what I have come to term "mirror numbering".  I'm sure there is probably a more technical term given to it by some traffic engineer...I've just never bothered to investigate .  As is the case in many other situations, I prefer to come up with my own metaphor that explains it.  Mirror numbering is simply the method of having street address numbers proceed in opposite directions from a specific point of origin.  In other words, 1st avenue north and 1st avenue south both originate in one point and there is a 100 block on either side of that point.  As you progress to the middle from either direction you are moving towards zero and at the meeting point you begin to again move away from zero without even changing the direction that you were originally heading.  I have discovered this phenomenon to be true even within some...

It seems that I have been blessed to live in a place that considers exercise clothing to be appropriate fashion for the rest of daily living.  I'm not sure when this became acceptable but I'm guessing that it was around the same time that underwear became a statement.  I want all to know that I would never claim to be any kind of authority in fashion, but I do recognize poor taste and bad choices when I see it.  For example, the guy grabbing his two extra hot americano's who is obviously not running, yet wearing his running shorts tight and high.  How do I know he's not in the running mood this morning?  It was probably the tight leather jacket over a tighter top, gold chains with sandals to finish off the ensemble... All in black I might add.  Can I just say that unless you might be Johnny Cash, it is very difficult to pull this off.  This was shortly after a visit from the woman who obviously is under the impression that tights also can double as jea...