This house is not large, it’s comfortable.  Expansive windows invite sunlight which forms shadowed tapestries on the living room carpet. 

Anna and Sarah meticulously work on a pretend yard sale at the kitchen table.  Currency is cut from lined paper–$10 notes inked in black marker.  Everything must go!

Christa woke early to walk the neighborhood.  I slept off a late night–the All-Star game went into extra innings, it took 15 to decide the game and a millionaire ballplayer won a new car for his extra-effort.  I wonder how many families I could dramatically help in Tibet if I had a million dollars (or the equivalent value of that new car).  I daydream about ways the money could be used and fret over how it would be distributed.  I remind myself that throwing money at complex situations doesn’t always help.  But getting medical care for a sick friend, helping an abused wife/mother escape from the violence couldn’t make things worse, could it?  Partial solutions are better than no solutions.  I could use a million dollars.

Big dump trucks pull up outside.  The repaving efforts continue.  Jack hammers beat metallic, perforate the blacktop, and leave neat circles for manhole covers to fill. 

The sky is crystal blue–without a trace of clouds.  Something about this reminds me of a recovering alcoholic counting his days of sobriety.  “Hi, everyone.  I am the Northwest skyline.  It has been 32 days since my last cloud….”  We all applaud and shake our heads knowingly.

A dozen pink roses stretch their petals above the laptop as I type.  I am secretly proud of my spontaneity in buying them.  My wife deserves this bunch and many more yet to be bought.  They were long overdue.  I can’t help thinking about all our friends, dear friends, getting separated and divorced right now.  Roses (like dollars) are not THE SOLUTION I know, but the thought, the care, the communication behind the gift of roses must at least be a partial solution.  I am planting a rose garden in my mind for all the thorns that threaten to squeeze love out.


One of the things I miss most while living in central China, I’m noticing now in retrospect, is trees.  Gargantuan evergreen, coniferous, trees.  They grow in such abundance here, towering over us like friendly Ents.  I have to restrain myself from unabashedly hugging each one.  Tree-hugger that I am.  I keep looking over my shoulder out the window to make sure they haven’t uprooted and left.  Nope, still there.  Still staking the grass down–grounding us all to the terra firma.

One last thought…

There is an undercurrent that seems to flow through my spiritual thoughts lately.  It is like groundwater that bubbles up to the surface only to wash back down to its subterranean flow.  I don’t know if I can adequately describe it: it’s like water that way.  Basically, I have been thinking a lot about how Jesus always says, “If you have ears to hear, hear this…”  This flow is also tied to his parable of The Sower.  I have noticed that there is a theme in Scripture of being in a state of receptivity to the message.  I actually think that the parable of the Sower is all about making sure your “soil” is soft, grow-friendly, and open.  I used to think the Sower parable was just some kind of descriptive parable showing the heart-state of different types of people, but reading it a bit more carefully I think it is a warning (for all of us) against becoming jaded by life, trial, and tragedy.  Jesus is saying (I think) that we need to make sure our heart doesn’t become a place full of weeds, thorns, or rough soil.  We need our inner-life to be fertile ground for God to plant seeds that will grow.  We need to have ears that actually hear and eyes that actually see.

There is so much in the world to see and hear.  Plenty of trees to be hugged.  (These thoughts all came together in a random way.  If there is a consistent theme, moral, or sermon in any of this post it was not intentional at all.  As usual I am pretty much talking to myselfm out loud.  I am thankful that you allow me this bit of space to do so.  Not that you could even stop me! 🙂