epiphany

Two Months Old

Alas, I never posted these photos from the first weekend in August. The height and finale of Seattle's SeaFair is an acrobatics show by the Blue Angels.

Family Photos

Living

There is a bad reason not to write. That is because your life is empty, and nothing is going on. But there is also a good reason not to write, and that is what I'm here to talk about.

After months of sequestering, some of it self-imposed, some of it the sad results of life, I have been wonderfully busy as of late. My evenings are filling up, along with my weekends.

My Tuesdays and Thursday evenings are devoted to community groups. I'm at a point where I'm transitioning out of my original community group (the Tuesday night one). Due to various circumstances (changes in my regular group and the strong recommendation of an acquaintence), the time is right for me to join another group. This is an all men's group, and it too is transitioning, which makes this a good time to step in and meet people. While I'm a bit torn about leaving the old one, my visit to the new one this week was very positive. Thursdays go to a training session for community group leadership. That evening is significantly more challenging for me, though I hope to adjust better in the coming weeks.

Some, if not all, of my Wednesdays will be filled with band practice over the next few months. A friend of mine who is the music pastor at another good church in the area has asked me for a hand with music at a church plant he's helping over in Redmond. For the first time ever, this past Wednesday night I attended--and participated in--a band practice. I'm playing (trying to play) the keyboard for the group. You would not believe how difficult it is to keep up with a chord sheet. (For you classical folks out there, think figured bass, but with the chord letters and bass spelled alphabetically rather than numerically. It takes getting used to.) Lack of experience combined with a severe lack of practice makes for a huge challenge. But it's a wonderful challenge. The rest of the people I played with are terrific. Musically, they favor a folk/traditional sound, which I really enjoy. I haven't had that much fun or felt that much creative energy in a very long time. The frequency of my involvement will depend on how much time projects at Mars Hill are going to take. Those projects get my other evenings and a good chunk of Saturday.

The activity has increased my own musical output, for which I'm very thankful.

On top of all that, Mom, Suz (my sister), and Anna (my niece) all came out for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We packed a lot into their days here, days that spread from the sunset bathed beaches of Puget Sound to the fresh snows of Mount Rainier, from Markets to zoos, from plunging the depths of Pioneer Square to flying to the top of the Space Needle, from church to an evening with friends to an Indian dance.

Photos to follow.

Labor Day '05

I spent a good chunk of the day working on videos at church, but later in the afternoon I went to Discovery Park with some friends. Some are from my community group. All are from church. The baby doesn't actually belong to anyone in the pictures, but he was part of the party and absolutely enthralled with the dog. I can't claim the first two photos, but all are from my camera.

(Byron, the dog, was terrified of the baby.)