The Word Becomes Flesh

John is my favorite gospel, by far, and for good reason. I think now, looking back, when I was instructed to read it during my high school years about a decade ago, that it very well may have had a forming effect on my faith.

The more I read John, the more positively earth shattering it becomes. Tonight I realized something others have probably seen countless times before me - that the mysteries of the universe, and the reality of our God, are held within the beautiful first chapter of the gospel of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I believe with all my heart and soul that the entire course of history is written in this verse.

There is a beginning to history, in which God speaks into us as created beings through the insertion of his Word as our authority and father, his spirit through the animation of the universe, and his light, as our hope in Christ. More important than the beginning is the end, which is never ending, because the darkness has not overcome the light.

Most importantly, though, is the middle. Because this is where we are. Let me be redundant for emphasis - we're in the middle. We didn't start it, and we can't chose when to finish it. We're in the middle trying to stake our claim somewhere. And our lives, middlers, are not in our flesh. They never were and never will be. Our lives are therefore not where we would place them. They are not in our bodies, the temples where our lives might seem to reside. They are not in our brains, where we feel pain, pleasure, and seek to form our assumed identity.

Our lives are safe within him, in his word and his light, which, into perpetuity, the darkness has not overcome.

Happy Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween from the S, O and D crew. I think we make a pretty snappy (okay, motley) bunch of dressed-up funny boneses. S is a "nameless warrior," according to him, I am a party rocker, according to me, and O the cat is my little flower. 

Since Monday is a work day for these sometimes grown ups, we had our Halloween party on Sunday. It included a "scary supper," apple bobbing, card decorating, and of course a costume contest (our cat won, right?).

We also pursued the joint venture of pumpkin carving, whereby I carved and S served as the "aesthetic engineer," drafting the design for our "Batman - the masked avenger" pumpkin on paper.

We topped off the night with lots of Halloween candy and the movie Perfume, which we've been looking forward to seeing for a long time, and which was...weird. I think I'd recommend it, but don't say I didn't warn you.

I hope you're enjoying the festivities of this silliest of holidays too!

Before Halloween...

...Let there be snow!

I'm back. I'm here. I've alive. It only took me a week and a half.

Training went, well - it has yet to be evaluated by a jury of its peers - but I'd say we kicked some butt.

Since training, I have yet to go back to the gym, get into work early, or blow dry my hair. I've been slow and have eaten lots of popcorn. I'll give myself until Saturday, and then its "Go" time again. Time to get back into a routine.

But until the hyper-organization resumes, here's a medley of the past few weeks, for your viewing pleasure:

The day before training - fall frolicking with friends.

S picks his first New England apple!

Us at the pumpkin patch.

Picking the perfect pumpkin.

Training time!

After training - maximum relaxation.

And...back to normal!

Hiatus (again)

It makes me sad to have to go on a blog hiatus again.

I know it is only for a week, but I'll miss the opportunity to muse. I know my posts have been lean on written content recently, and when I pick back up the blogging baton, I'm committed to taking a break from all the pictures and really sitting down and thinking about how I feel. And then writing it. Because I wouldn't be a very good blogger otherwise.

I am off to training for a week. Remember this post? I am always training. I see my life through the lens of training, if not only to live the next day a bit better than the last.

I hope the next week is a fruitful one for you. I hope you laugh lots, eat lots, and inspire others to grow. That's my goal for the week, at least, and one way to inspire is to share, so look at me - being generous already.

Talk with you soon!

Where are you occupied?

We vote everyday. When we buy groceries. When we smile (or frown) at a stranger. When we actually go to the polls, and vote.

 How are you occupying your time and your efforts in this world?

Channelling The Reason for the Season

Thanks Lizzy for helping me keep it real!

Obscenities

Change your mind about what really matters in your life. Perhaps it's not your life at all, but the lives of others, which you have the power to give voice to and sustain. Sign the petition here.

DMV in Bostonland

Don't get the reference? That's okay. I was thinking of Alice in Wonderland, and especially about these quotes:

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,' says the White Queen to Alice.”

“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”

Well, now that we have seen each other," said the unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.”

“Everything is funny, if you can laugh at it.”

“Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.' 'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'"

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”

Right now, I feel like I'm living in a fairytale. It's not perfect. Far from it. But it is surreal in it's blessing, it's beauty, and the odd sense that everything is as it should be, for now, for me.

 

Last weekend I did something practically impossible, easily. This holiday weekend (tomorrow), I get to do it pretty much again.

Except not. There will be fewer Disney characters, and a far greater number of exquisite flowers to gaze at in Boston's Public Garden and water to adore across the Charles River in Cambridge.

I get to run with a healthy body past those landmarks I dreamed about running by as a child. All with this sense of deja vu which calls it all practical.

It's really not practical. It's extraordinary. That I would find myself here, and be, after all, doing fine.

Amazing Race in Pictures