Be still, and KNOW...

To love is to act on a feeling.  How do you love a principle?  How are you loyal to a thought?  All of these require some sort of action.   

I love my family, immediate and extended.  I am loyal to their well-being and want every best thing for them.  I love my friends.  I am loyal to their health, relationships and our boundaries.  I love my nation.  I am loyal to it's safety, community, culture and capital exchange.  

All of these are material principles I have etched in stone.  It's a give and take and involves a multitude of apologies and forgiveness.

However... How can we be loyal to God who we see as an ideal, another name for beauty, goodness or truth? He is spoken of in the Bible as a living, breathing, feeling human being.  How can we keep him at arms length as just a set of rules and moral guidelines after reading his many counts of forgiveness, love, healing, guiding, protection, mercy and grace?

We need to come to the Bible as you would a counselor, a therapist, a Father who knows your every lie, distrust, pain, and achievement with open arms.  How can you have a private conversation to a being with these qualities believing there is a great chasm you have to shout across to be understood?  

Picture yourself entering a room and He is sitting, waiting for you... he gives you a hug, says "I love you," then counsels you.  

His voice is inside you. 

We all have the capacity to come close to God, to feel what the disciples felt when they walked and talked with Jesus.  We fall short on our immediate faculties, seeing and hearing, and forget about feeling and our intuitions.  It's hard to push past the constant noise of the visible world, fighting itself, climbing the ever rising mountain of self-proclamation.  We doubt the spiritual world as real in the accepted meaning of the word.  It's hard to push past the noise of the visible world demanding its reality and finality. 

Shut your eyes, shut out the world that demands your attention like a 3 year old spoiled child.   God has no favorites. (Acts 10:34-36)

We are like Peter who loved the idea of Christ, but when he started walking on the water and trusted the physics of water more than the Creator of the elements,  he fell and started drowning.



God is real.  He is all around us.  As we come to Him, he will reveal his wonders, His Presence.  There is no place where God is not.  

 Psalm 139:7-10

Where can I go from your Spirit?    Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn,    if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 

Take me back to the paradise city....

I'm still riding on two weekends of seeing 4 of my favoritest people in the world.  We talked, laughed, worked, talked again, laughed until we peed our pants, shared, talked some more, cried and laughed.  We were reminded of our faults growing up, how we have learned and reveled in our continuing love for each other in spite of what the world has done with us.  

I am still awed at the character and personality of each of my friends, how different and spectacular each of them are and how in God's name they are friends with me.  I believe it is all one sided, but then again... most of the best friendships/relationships should seem that way.

We are 7 strong...

Even when they are unique...
uniqueness finds a common ground....IMAGINATION!!

Girls talking and enjoying their company.

...and the littlest one said, "I want to fly!!!"

Yep....Friends Forever...
even after months of little communication and 12 hours time difference.

The thinker of the great idea of canoeing on the upper St. Croix....another wonderful friend
who lives 2 days away, but still... yep.... Friends Forever

We were standing on a huge sand bar in the middle of the river created by this little island.
We had a wonderful idea of taking a break from the laborious job of floating to sun ourselves.  However, the clouds you see in the background chased us off.  We got caught down river... but not as bad as if we would have stayed.

This fresh stream was coming from way back behind the woods, but we couldn't explore as it was
posted private property.  The miniature falls sounded pretty though.

Dalles Motel...where a lady from "The View" visits and cannot get enough.
Where you can get lost in the 70s in the Dalles Lounge next door.
Where you can forget about time if only for 24 hours.
And don't forget about Erik's canoe and kayak rental...cheaper than most, friendly to the pretty ladies and famous for Bill Murray using their services.

Pardon me.. Excuse me...Coming through...

I've literally had to convince myself that being a stay at home mom is a job.  

Wow... that sounds horrible.  

But here's the reason...  I have been part of the household income since my first job transplanting on Schneider's Farm at age 13.   

Now with 3 kids, my husband and I believe growing a child with two parents as the primary caregiver is the best.  

But that means my job is 24/7.  I'm not going into the whole rant of how a mother's job is wonderful, that she takes on many roles... blah, blah, blah.  I realize that.. it's a wonderful blessing to called to be a Mom.  I love it.  But when you have grown up living a contributing lifestyle otherwise the roof would crash down, it's hard to break that thought pattern.  I felt obliging.  So... the only thing I could do was throw myself in the deep end.  I was all in.  I didn't realize at the beginning I could call in sick if only for an hour or declare my own spa vacations for a night or with a list of directions, take the day off!!  

Now that the kids are older, I am able to get away longer.. for A WHOLE WEEKEND!!  We've all survived my trip to Florida and Georgia to see a best friend and an uncle. 

However, that doesn't compare to an accomplishment.  I've been taking  bits of time out of my day to keep myself somewhat healthy by weight lifting and doing something along the lines of cardio.   When my church came up with a squishy version of the mudder, wounded warrior, etc., and after completing the Michael Murphy I knew I could do it.  

Part of this whole accomplishment thing is a 4 part series...
1. JUMPING at the chance to do something purely selfish for myself.
2. USING EXPENSES when I do not contribute to the family income.
3. PASSING on my job to someone else.
4. ENCOURAGING another Mom to walk down the same dark path with me.

But my wonderful husband looked at all this, gave me the roll eyes, giving me the look of, "You are delusional, you need this, do NOT even bring this up again."

So I did it...

The more children you have.. the stronger you are.....

Forced bravado

I'm smiling because I have a good pace... 10 step from the starting line.
 It all went downhill after that first demon of a hill.

"Monkey bars like Kya... Monkey bars like Kya......"

ACCOMPLISHED!!!