The Return

Alright, so I am officially done with my holiday break from blogging. I’ve been thinking a lot about what to write about and haven’t landed on anything yet.

Adam and I went tent camping with two other couples for New Years. It was so much fun. It was very cold, but as long as the fire was going everything was alright. The campground was all covered with snow, but we managed so find a dry campsite to call home for two days. we intended to just be gone for one but had so much fun that we stayed another night.

I never really went camping growing up so I am enjoying this new found outdoor activity. I like not really knowing what time it is. I like going to sleep because it’s dark and I am tired. I like waking up because it’s light and the birds are singing. It’s nice to be off a “I have to get these things done at these times” schedule. Waking up with the sun and enjoying God’s creation first thing in the morning is so refreshing. I tend to get more and more rigid the busier I get. I don’t stop to breath and enjo, I just power through to make it. I think we started the new year off right.

I am very excited for 2009. Adam and I have talked a lot about what God has been doing in our hearts and what we see/want to happen for this year. We’ve made some decisions that might be tough, but they are good. God has given us such a love and passion for our community. We intend on focusing much of our time in 2009 on the people in the community and doing things we are passionate about. We have decided to shy away from being a part of every little program and event to really focus quality time on this area, the people in our lives/around us and our marriage. Focusing quality time on our marriage is something we have always been very careful about protecting and continue to make decisions to do so.

Adam is going to be playing with Red Pony Clock again till July. He also plans on working on more of his music. I plan on working on music,crafts, cooking with friends/teaching others how to cook and going through books with others who enjoy good reads as much as me.

Speaking of good reads… I’ve got a pile of wonderful books to start reading. I haven’t decided where to start yet…so I haven’t started yet. I think I will this week though.

Here are a couple photos from our trip

Another rainy day in…

San Diego? Yes, I guess that is right. It just feels so odd to say. I love the rain though. It feels special to get it here. It is such a nice change. I understand we have beautiful weather but you can’t really appreciate it without some “bad” or “stormy” weather. My favorite is the day after it’s rained. Everything feels so fresh, new and clean.  Those are the days when I can so easily understand - The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.”The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,”therefore I will hope in him.” – Lamentations 3:22-24

All this thinking about how we perceive “good” and “bad” weather got me thinking about it on all levels.

Do we really understand God’s perfect goodness and love without the experience of ugliness? I think that is why when we embrace the unlovely (like Christ did) or even bad weather we find beauty in it. C.S. Lewis puts it like this “God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love of goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata – of creatures that worked like machines – would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designed for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ectasy of love and delight compared with which the most raptuours love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free. 

…If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will – that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings – then we may take it it is worth paying.”

I embrace the rain because I know that it is the lens that reveals the true beauty of new life. I know it’s needed.