A shakedown trip for the two-ish months of travel ahead

For the next two months or so I will be away more than I'm home.  I love to travel. I love meeting new people and engaging culture that is new to me or at least different from my own. 

Brian and I are in Bellingham, WA visiting blended family kid #6, AKA "the baby," for a long weekend. The culture surprises here come primarily from spending extended time with Gen Z 😆. We took the baby's roommates and their boyfriends out to dinner last night at The Black Cat 🐈‍⬛️  in Fairhaven and had lovely discussions over excellent food. 

We arranged to meet kid for breakfast but forgot to account for defrosting the windshield, something we don't do often at home in California, ❄️❄️❄️ but thanks to a misunderstanding about how far the restaurant was from the hotel and kid's need to defrost her windshield we made it on time 😆. 

We are having a down afternoon. We put together a jigsaw puzzle and now it's rest time before we go out to see some cool places. 

The view out the side window this morning at 26°. Sorry the pics are sideways; I'm traveling without a computer and the phone app won't rotate them.

Sabbatical Day 2

I started to really believe that I'm on sabbatical when I was eating a leisurely breakfast and wondering what I *should* do today.  The answer--nothing. Breaking the reign of the *shoulds* is what this fallow time is all about.

So I did a little of this and a little of that and didn't worry about productivity.

Tonight--Go Sharks!

Sabbatical!

The long-awaited day has arrived.  As of about 3:30 this afternoon, I am on sabbatical. It's still kind of surprising, and I'm not totally sure what to do next, but I think it will be an adventure. And as evidence, we found ourselves out for dinner eating our pre-adventure meal. 

I have a history with this soup.  I've eaten it the nights before going to camp, taking youth on a service trip (twice), and trips to far away places (several times).

Thank you, tom kha gha, for nourishing me for so many adventures.  May this one be just as awesome!  

Resurrection!

I believe in resurrection!  For example, I haven't touched this blog in <GASP> well over six years, and yet here it is, breathing once more.

What has happened in the last six years since my visit to Cinque Terra you might ask?  A lot!  I have a new (well not new but less than six year old job), a husband(!), and apparently a habit of using parentheses that I might need to examine.

But the really important thing is that I am less than 24 hours from embarking on a three-month sabbatical.  Tomorrow afternoon, my work will quite suddenly come to a stop and I will set off on a new adventure of not being driven by what is going to happen next Sunday.

 My plan, you ask?  Rest, pursue personal projects, and of course my favorite activity, travel.  Some of that travel will be to visit family in February, and then in March I am taking my hubby, five of our six adult kids, and two of their partners to New Zealand!  

As part of the "pursuing personal projects" thing, I plan to keep breathing life into this blog.  Will I? Your guess is as good as mine!

Welcome to my next adventure. 

Cinque Terre

Well it seems that I am running two cities behind, which tells me that if I am going to blog my travels I need to travel with a keyboard. Blogger doesn't work well on a phone but I wanted to travel very light, so here I am blogging on my phone. That is a first world problem if there ever was one, but I digress...

Cinque Terre is more beautiful than advertised. I spent my time there wandering through the towns. Each has a slightly different character and a different story to tell.  The towns are built into steep hillsides which plunge into the Ligurian Sea.  It has access to the rest of Italy by railroad cut through the cliffs, and there must be a road because there are a few cars. Life is very vertical there. Here are the stairs to our apartment:

As with all the places we have been, the people have been friendly and the food had been amazing. Hint: eat local. The local food is fresh and tasty.  Food from far away is less tasty. So in Cinque Terre order anchovies, not tuna, and it might be a good idea to ask if vegetables are fresh or frozen.

Speaking of taste, here is a taste of the visual splendor that is Cinque Terre.

 

Venice

Time flies when you're having fun. It's been a whirlwind of exploring and activities and food, sooooo much food in Venice and Cinque Terre.

We began our time in Venice with a newbie mistake. After sitting on a plane and then a bus, I was itching to walk, so instead of following the apartment manager's very clear instructions to take the Vaporetto to the apartment, I suggested we walk and Google maps said it would take 20 minutes. Google did not seem to realize that we couldn't walk on water.  Oops. For future reference, the Vaporetto works as advertised...

We had a glorious, if rainy, couple of days wandering around on foot and by boat. Murano and Burano were amazing.

 

Lido was fun too, and we saw many of the main sites in Venice, especially around San Marco.

 

Venice was challenging in one unexpected way. My sense of direction, usually fairly good when outside, was not up to the task of efficient navigation. One evening after hours of wandering, Laurie and I decided we should find a place to eat close to our apartment. For the sake of expediency, we used Google Maps...I know, I know, we checked for mysterious water crossings...and it turned out we were only three minutes away.

Next post will be all about Cinque Terre.

The swing

There's something about a swing that I love. The motion is soothing but a little bit exciting at the same time. You are in control of how high you go but you have to go with the flow on speed and direction. So you can imagine my excitement when 2/3 of the way up a hill Laurie made me climb I found a swing just hanging from a tree begging to be ridden.

And so I got to swing for a few minutes and feel inspired by the motion while looking over Barcelona from high above the city.

Then we got back on the trail to the top of the hill, which was totally worth the climb. We could see all of Barcelona from the hills to the Mediterranean Sea. What a beautiful day.

         

Barcelona wandering

We made it! We are in Barcelona with three days of sightseeing in front of us. After checking into our hostel (Casa Gracía, in case you are heading this way) Laurie and I decided to take a walk to shake off the long cramped plane ride and try to stay awake until nighttime. That little walk became about five miles as we walked up and down alleys and through Plaça de Catalunya.

 

We wrapped up our walk with a lovely late (for us, not for Barcelona) dinner around 9:30 and fell into bed. Wednesday we will explore some of Gaudi's works, but here is a taste.

Vacation!

Wow, I have not written anything here for eight years!  I mean I have half-written a handful of drafts, but nothing worth publishing.  In some of them I apparently drifted off midsentence.  I would like to pretend that this isn't like me, but...

So after debating cutting ties with this blog and starting a new one, I decided to stick with this one.  My path still takes strange and interesting twists, so it seems worthwhile to stick with the twisting path.  So here we go.

I am heading off on vacation tomorrow, the longest vacation of my adult life.  Three whole weeks!  My friend Laurie and I have loaded up our backpacks with less than the 10 kg we are allowed, and tomorrow we fly to Barcelona.  When we have had our fill we head to Italy to go all the places.  Okay not *all* the places, but as many as we can reasonably see in 15 days.

In other news, I handled my shopping at Chavez Market completely in Spanish this week, so clearly I'm ready for Spain.  Italy on the other hand...the only words I know in Italian are "pizza" and "gelato."  Of course maybe that's all I need :-)

I will try to post pictures and travel stories as we come across connection to the internet.

Here we go!

Two out of three ain't bad...

Hold on to your seats. We are about to plunge into the depths of my personal theology. Or heresy. Maybe both.

During a class break today, my professor asked me about a tragic event in the life of one of my close friends. It raised the classic question, "Why do bad things happen to good people (or really any people)?" She (the professor) expressed this rhetorically, but I was compelled to answer. Well, I didn't answer the posed question. I don't know why bad things happen. My answer was to the question of where God is and how we relate to God when bad things happen.

Are you ready?

I do not believe that we can have all three omnis. I do not believe that God is omniscient AND omnipotent AND omnibenevolent. In other words, I don't believe that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, AND all good. I believe that any two of the three is possible. I know which two attributes I believe God has, but I will reserve my opinion in the hopes of opening space for conversation.

This generated an intense, but necessarily short, discussion which lasted until the lecture resumed and even a few moments into the lecture. I hope the discussion continues.

I understand that this theological view comes very close to putting God in a box of my making or making God in my image, but isn't that what we all do? Can any of us conceive of a God completely outside who we need God to be? Can we relate to a God whose attributes we cannot accept?

This is my heresy. So what are your thoughts?

The Most Meaningful Gift of the Year

Last night I dreamed that my friend decided that she and another friend and I were going to experience homelessness. For a defined period of time we would live on the streets. We each had a backpack with some personal items. I had a small amount of money because I had work responsibilities that overlapped the first few days of our time and I needed to be able to meet with people over coffee or lunch. (This is not part of my real-life job, but somehow it was in my dream.)

So on our appointed day, we left our homes and went out into the streets. A couple days later I had two meetings for work, one in an outdoor cafe and one in a fancy restaurant nearby. The people I was meeting knew and respected that I was engaging in this homeless experience, so I knew that my condition would not affect their impression of me. I felt grimy and exhausted. I was hungry and thirsty and most of all lonely. I looked awful.

As I sat in the cafe, eating food that I had paid for, waiting for my companions, a man started loudly asking those around him what I was doing there. Why was I allowed to sit there while others around me were trying to enjoy their repast? Was anyone going to eject me from the area and send me where I belong?

That is when I realized what the hardest part of being homeless was for me. It wasn't hunger or cold. It wasn't being filthy. It wasn't even having this loud man look down on me and wish me gone. The most difficult aspect for me was invisibility. No one looked me in the eyes. No one engaged me in conversation. No one, except those offended by my presence, even acknowledged my existence. I was subhuman.

I never made it to the fancy restaurant. It wasn't worth another humiliation.

I don't need Joseph to interpret this dream. For many, this most wonderful time of the year is the loneliest time of the year. As we are out running our errands and greeting our friends in this busy holiday season, let's acknowledge the humanity of those we see. It might be the most meaningful gift we give.

Transformation: Am I seeking you or are you stalking me?

I have not blogged for almost two months because life has been intense, mostly in wonderful ways but still intense. I have journaled volumes, but haven't written publicly. Thanks, Helen, for reminding me to post.

I am traveling for the Thanksgiving weekend. It's nearing the end of the semester, so I have brought a lot of material to read and an intention to write. On the airplane, squeezed between window and surrounding passengers, I extracted a sheaf of articles and book excerpts and began to read, highlighter and pen in one hand. This week we are reading reconciling reconstructions in soteriology (theology of redemption and reconciliation).

One of the many blessings of seminary is copious opportunity for transformational experiences. Whether we ask for them or not, desire them or avoid them, pray for them or beg for a peaceful interlude without them, these opportunities arise and insist that we pay attention.

When I dove into my stack of reading while packed into an airplane on Wednesday, I really expected to get some homework done. I expected to check off another couple boxes on my Google task list. I really did not expect enter a book excerpt with one understanding of the world and how I fit into it and turn the last page with a radically different understanding.

Ahh...transformation. Once I sought you. Now I believe you are stalking me.

One little book chapter, forty-two pages, of Parker and Nakashima Brock's book, Proverbs of Ashes : Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us, and how I think about how I fit in the world is totally changed.

I see transformation as a blessing. I am growing into my full authentic self as I accept and even sometimes nurture personal transformation. But it isn't easy. As joyous and wonderful as it is, change is hard. I don't recommend it at 37,000 feet in a crowded plane full of holiday travelers.

Or maybe that's the perfect place for that experience.

Questions

Questions... It seems to me that I am always wrestling with questions, trying to squeeze finite answers out of infinite questions. What should I be when I grow up? Does God exist? Why are Brussels sprouts good for me and ice cream is not?

As I have spent time in seminary engaging questions and finding more questions, I am beginning to wonder. Am I asking the wrong questions? This of course leads to the obvious - What are the *right* questions? Which of course if it has any answer at all will have answers in the form of questions.

So I go on, finding new questions. Who will I be when I grow up? What does it mean to have a relationship with God? How can I expand my understanding of the world? What other questions do I need to ask?

Boredom

You've heard those words, "I'm bored!" You have said them yourself. I've said them myself. Now I don't know about you, but there is no reason on earth for me to be bored. I am a mom, so my work is never done. I am also a student, so there is virtually always something to read or something to write. (I have a 12-15 page paper to write right now, and school doesn't even start until September...) And because that isn't enough, I also have a job, so there is probably an event to plan or a volunteer to support or a lesson to review. So how can I be bored?

When I am bored, it signifies one of two things. I'm avoiding doing something that "needs" doing or I am struggling with solitude. The first thing has been covered in other blog entries and will be covered in future blog entries because it is closely related to my worst habit that I am willing to publish on the World Wide Web - procrastination. No need to cover it here. So that leaves the second reason I am bored, my ongoing struggle with solitude.

According to Dr. Seuss, "Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot." This assurance does nothing to help me gain understanding that solitude does not have to be lonely. Time alone could be used to get to know myself and my Creator, something I have neglected over the past several decades. As I'm beginning to do this, I find that God and I are both good company. As I have found those quiet places in my life, those "boring" places, I have begun to develop a bit more faith and a fragile self-respect. I know that this will carry me far as I walk, skip, and sometimes stumble along this twisting path.

For Those of Us Who Believe in That Kind of Thing

This morning we read in church, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is a topic about which I have experienced some doubt recently. Okay, honestly, a lot of doubt. Mountains of doubt. In fact, I spent some time in my pastor's office just this week with my head in my hands, unwilling to look him in the eyes, asking, "What if there is no God? What if I am working my tail off (actually I think I used an earthier term) to serve someone or something who doesn't exist?" By odd coincidence or the work of the Holy Spirit, for those of us who believe in that kind of thing, or the work of whatever committee devised the Revised Common Lectionary, faith was present in all of this week's readings, the worship service, and the sermon. Which means that faith was probably already on the pastor's mind when I expressed my doubts. Which explains why his response then and the worship service today are meaningful to me.

So does this mean my questions are answered? My doubts vanquished? Pardon the loud guffaws. Doubt and questioning seem to be indelibly inscribed in my character. If you wish to say a prayer, for those of us who believe in that kind of thing, for my doubting, questioning ways, feel free. Perhaps say one for my pastor too, that he may persevere in the torrent of my continuing doubts. And maybe one for my theology professor in the fall too, who may perhaps relieve my pastor of some of these questions.

I value the presence of people in my life whose faith seems unshakable. At the same time I thank God, for those of us who believe in that kind of thing, that I belong to a church that allows, even embraces, questions and doubts and differing beliefs. And, if you are reading this, thanks, Pastor Kevin, for having faith in me when I lack faith and questioning my questions and challenging me to grow.

Life-Changing Experiences

I'm in Israel participating in an archaeological excavation and cultural immersion. We spend the weekdays doing archaeological workand attending lectures and the weekends traveling (see akkoarchaeology.blogspot.com for more details). I signed on to this adventure knowing that it would be life-changing experience, but I could not have imagined how life-changing it would be. I am standing at one of those forks in the path, wondering which way to go. I realize now that recent life-changing decisions were absolutely, positively, the most positive decisions I could make. Now I have confidence to make the next set of life-changing decisions. The conditions in which I am living, hard labor, dirt, spare (but comfortable) accommodations, are causing me to change my expectations of myself, others and my environment. Big changes are happening, and all I can do is play along and be joyful.

The right path

Do you ever wonder if you are on the "right" path? This is where I seem to spend a lot of my life. Wondering. Am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing? Am I making the right decision? Am I buying the right car/washing machine/dining room table/brand of pasta? I wonder, is this a good use of my time? Am I even asking the right questions? Perhaps new questions are in order. Questions that have answers... Am I acting with integrity? Am I having a positive impact on the world around me? What is my constant doubt-filled questioning keeping me from doing?

There is a place in life for wondering and doubting, but raising it to an art form fuels my other worst habit (or at least the other worst habit I'm going to share with the world wide web), procrastination.

One week from tomorrow, just eight days from now, I am heading for Israel for a cultural immersion course. I will be participating in an archaeological dig at Tel Akko on the northern coast and attending lectures and sightseeing. In order to perfect my procrastination techniques, I am spending my time writing about going instead of preparing to go.

The Twisting Path

Let's go back a year. No, two years is better. Two years ago I was in the midst of figuring out what to do with my time as my children begin to leave the nest. I was thinking a little ahead, but after not working outside the home for 15 years, I knew I would need some education before I could reenter my former career or begin a new vocation. This little voice, still and small, kept invading my thoughts. "Go into ministry," it said. "Go to seminary." My inner engineer (my BC career) had a good laugh. The logical reasons for going to seminary were lacking. The reasoning part of my brain could not wrap herself around going to an expensive private school fairly far from home to study material far outside her education. The still, small voice and the reasoning voice debated for a long time. Last September I began my seminary education.

My life's path has been characterized by twists and turns, switchbacks and dead ends, obstacles and forks in the road.

This blog is about my experience on the twisting path.