Around here

It is summer around here, and these are good times for exploring. For going to a lake

for walks in the lively green woods

for campfires

for cooking in cast iron, for veggies

It's a good time for photography with friends, and for staring at sky and earth

for finding patterns in things

for discovering new flower faces in the yard

There are so many things I haven't photographed. Granite Point on the Snake River. Maria sketching in the backyard. The yard after I mowed it diagonally. The eagle and owl and snake at the Reservoir. My brand new niece open her eyes straight into mine. The fireworks in my grandparents' yard.

There are so many times that are good and can't be captured in pictures, but need to be remembered.  Iced coffee with my sister and talking about our work like grownups. TV shows that are completely ridiculous, but fun because of who I'm watching with. Going to the nursing home in Pullman and having Dodie not want to let go ot my hand. Meeting new friends in a coffee shop and having them feel immediately like old friends. Conversation with Dr. Wilson about snakes and toads. Heaps of chunky sauce. Laughter with my student. Convicting sermons. Singing with all of the strength in me. The relief of cutting yourself off from something unhealthy and knowing what it's like to pluck an eye and throw it from you. The heat rising from the pavement under the thin soles of my sandals.

God is mighty. I am broken. Christ is grace. His world is gorgeous.

Annie Dillard: when she's optimistic in spite of it all

"I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not *in* its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down. Simone Weil says simply, 'Let us love the country of here below. It is real; it offers resistance to love.'

I am a sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the world's rock altar, waiting for worms. I take a deep breath, I open my eyes. Looking, I see there are worms in the horns of the altar like live maggots in amber, there are shells of worms in the rock and moths flapping at my eyes. A wind from noplace rises. A sense of the real exults me; the cords loose; I walk on my way."

-Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, p242

Rock that is Higher than I

Pastor Wilson gave an excellent sermon this morning on Psalm 61. Excellent. I told my roommates when I got home that I feel like it is cliched when someone asks you how the sermon was to say it was just what you needed... but sometimes that is 100% true. Much of the time it is, in fact.

I wish I could post a link to a video of this, but I don't think that it was filmed. There is probably audio available for it a couple days afterwards. I'll find out. Here is a link to the sermon notes. A couple things that I think weren't on there that stuck in my mind were, "Pray about your troubles. If it's big enough to trouble you, it's big enough to trouble God with," and at the end of the sermon, "Don't live like your troubles ARE'NT present; but live as though Christ IS present."

Leithart on the music of the spheres

"Earthly time is tuned to be a harmonization on the music of the spheres." (via twitter)

Read his blog post Tuned Cosmos.

brotherly love

Radical Face has some good songs. This song, from their album The Family Tree (a colection of stories about a fictional family), is especially beautiful. Brotherly love with pain, with forgiveness, with hope, with loyalty. There is something of the prodigal son here, something of the age-old competition between siblings, something of Christ, and something I always want to be. I absolutely love Always Gold.

Summer times

Sisters: Maria, Vicki and I at Ria's college graduation!

some more of the sisters: Abbi, Lydia, Emili, Becki and I

Roadtrip with a few friends: Becki, Jordan, Maria, me, Tali, an insanely late McDonald's ice cream stop during an insanely hilarious drive.

Jordan and I at my parents' place for Maria's grad party

Maria and her graduation present!

One of my little garden patches

Hiking on Moscow Mountain: Maria and the evening view

Hiking on Moscow Mountain: resting after some climbing and exploring

Hiking: me, Wilson, Maria, Tali

Sunday lunch with my sisters: roasted asparagus, mango, fried pork, iced tea