A Few Good Things...

Number One: This is an obvious one, the Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl!

Number Two: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have entered the race for the democratic presidential nomination. I know African Americans have run before, and I am sure that there have been women, but in the past they have not actually had a chance to win. I hope that people of all political persuasions can recognize this as a good thing. In our land of liberty racism and sexism continues to exist, but maybe Barack and Hillary are evidence that some things are changing. It can also be noted that the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, is also expected to announce his candidacy, he is Hispanic.

Number Three: Seattle opened up a new park today. It is a ten minute walk from our apartment, and only a couple of blocks from school. It is called the Olympic Sculpture Park. I walked down there this afternoon to check out the opening festivities. It provides downtown Seattle with access to the waterfront, and adds some much needed green space, as well as some cool sculpturific type artsy stuff. Coming from Chicago, a city that has done wonders with its waterfront, I am sometimes let down by Seattle, but this park is a beautiful addition. I took a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The red building is Mars Hill Graduate School.

Number Four: School starts for me tommorow and I will be walking there. No more commute to Bothell!

Number Five: I might be transfered to a Starbucks that is a block away from school. Thus meaning I can walk there as well.

And what about you, what are some good things that you know of?

Goodbye and Hello

Last week Kate and I were in Chicago for the holidays. It was an enjoyable week of catching up with family and friends. I am sure that to a certain extent Chicago will always feel like home. But as I boarded the plane to return to Seattle I felt like I was saying goodbye. Goodbye to my childhood home, goodbye to the family that raised me, goodbye to the friends who I enjoyed, and sadly goodbye to sweet glorious deep dish pizza (the pizza in Seattle is tragically sad). Most likely, Kate and I will not return again for another year. That will mark the longest time that we will have been away. The tone of my goodbye is not triumphant nor despondent. It is somber, meaningful. This is a significant goodbye.

I feel as though I am entering a new period of my life. I am struggling to put into words what I mean, this all sounds quite melodramatic, but for the past four years I have felt quite confused and dissilusioned about life, faith, God, ect... And for the most part I still do, but I am finding that a journey of faith is always marked with confusion and doubt. Faith unaccompanied by doubt is more likely an illusion or an ideaology.

Kate and I bought a large picture the other day to hang in our office. We were not looking for a picture, but as I was walking through the store I saw it and it immediately struck me. I am the last person to buy something impulsively, but I felt like this picture would be meaningful to me. It is a picture of a road, lined with trees. As you look at the picture the road grabs your eyes and leads you far off into the distance.

In my life I haven't felt like I have been on a path for some time now. It has more often felt like my experience of Mt. Mulunje in Malawi, Africa where I found myself lost and stranded hacking through brush and climbing up cliffs. But more and more I have begun to see a road rise up before me. I do not know where this road will take me, or how long it will last, but as an exhausted journeyman I am thankful for a path.

Not the actual picture hanging in our office