Catching Up

Oh, oh, where to begin! And what to write! Soon August will stop "laughing across the sky" and the "still September fleetness" will begin. I think I'm ready for it, too. 

Our vacation was wonderful; we even came up with a motto for it: houseboats rock! Actually, for a few days after we returned to land, everything rocked. I have to say it's the oddest sensation to be sitting in a restaurant, but feeling like you're bobbing about on the water. Kind of creepy! 

Sailing Through My Mind

I've gone "Sailboats"-ing the past few nights. On some nights there are far too many interesting memories and perspectives to explore to waste any time in sleep. And so I let myself go drifting through my mind. Many memories and ideas bob to the surface of my thoughts like glowing orbs, and I float around, exploring them as I please. (It's kinda like Google Street View.) Some orbs are lonely, some are shockingly new, others are like old friends, and some are just... uniquely entertaining. Of course, some make me wish I had never ventured into this vast sea. However, a few memories that began poorly have become well-aged, and they plunge me into delightful laughter. These voyages leave me laden with many curios. I usually just leave them scattered around where I can trip over them during the day. Luckily, I've only stubbed my toe once or twice.

I think if someone told me I was weird, I'd be the first person to agree with them. Ok, now that was really weird. But no matter... Do you know what? God loves you and me, not in spite of who we are, but because of who we are. You see, we were His idea in the first place.

Big Little Orchestra

You don't have to pay a penny to hear it; just a bit of your time. Until this year, I had no idea that the big little orchestra didn't start until late summer. Since it's that season now, though, I hear it all the time: while sitting and reading, while driving in the evening, or while dozing off at night.

"A stream of tender gladness,
Of filmy sun, and opal tinted skies;
Of warm midsummer air that lightly lies
In mystic rings,
Where softly swings 
The music of a thousand wings 
That almost tones to sadness."

     E. Pauline Johnson

The verse above is from the poem "Shadow River: Muskoka." The italicized lines mention the big little orchestra: big in the area it covers, little in the size of its members. This verse scatters delicious chills all over my skin... The second verse, not shown here, points to the future, to a time when I will "float upon a sapphire floor." I can hardly wait.

Encounter with Water

Water. Lots of it. More excess than you can imagine. Enough to submerge yourself until its cool watery-ness flows over you. It stretches on and on, farther than you can see and glows deep blue: a reflection of the sky. It constantly moves; flows, ebbs, swoops, drops, and splashes. What a unique substance! Thicker than the sky, thinner than the land. Playful and menacing at the same time.

We went to the lake in the middle of the day yesterday, which we don't do very often. The wind created some waves for once, and I could have spent all day bobbing up and down on them. But I didn't. Thank goodness I didn't have to swim for eighteen hours like a pilot did recently after his small aircraft ran out of fuel! 

Did you know that if the water from Lake Superior was spread out evenly over North and South America, these two continents would be covered in 30cm (1 foot) of water?