The Goose, and hummingbird, and robin, and bald eagle, and songbird, and whooping crane and monarch butterfly report

A few weeks ago I signed up with a special website to get a weekly monarch migration e-mail. It's a little geeky, but I'm truly fascinated by the Monarch butterfly. Apparently the people assumed that just because I'm fascinated by Monarch migration patterns, naturally I 'd be interested in the migration pattern of every migrating creature on planet earth. I've been receiving a plethora of migration reports. I get updates on the migration journey's of my buds the Canadian geese, (they're probably heading to Winona Lake right now and will stick around until the lake freezes over, I don't need a migration report to tell me that:) hummingbirds, American Robins, Bald Eagle's, songbirds and the whooping crane. I still haven't figured out what the heck a whooping crane is!! But if you have any desire to know how their migrating is going, I can tell you cause I am officially THEE migration expert:)

All We Have

One thing that I really really miss about Winona Lake is the musical worship at the church I was attending while living there. I was always so astounded by the amount of talented musicians that played on the wide variety of worship teams there. It was such a small town, yet there was an amazing abundance of truly gifted musicians. And the music was chosen with such a sensitivity and leading of the spirit. When worshipping there, I would usually experience such a depth and intimacy in the musical worship, nothing like I've experienced before. Compared to other worship experiences I've had, I felt as though there was a rare maturity about it all. A lot of the songs were written by the worship pastor, Kondo Simfukwe, who in my mind stands equivalent to the great hymn writers of the old days. A modern day psalmist for sure. His worship songs are clearly soaked in a tremendous understanding of God's word, the music has a beautiful way of highlighting the lyrics, and simply turns the heart toward the God of the universe. In his songs there is generally very little focus on self, and the focus is directed on the character of God. All of the songs chosen for Sunday carried the same characteristics. I purchased a CD from the church before I left and it has been a great reminder of how my understanding of deep meaningful worship changed during my season in Indiana.

A new CD called All We Have has just been released. It contains many of Kondo's songs and was recorded in Nashville. It's being distributed to local Christian radio in the US as we speak. The music is truly a unique gift to contemporary worship, I pray that it becomes well known throughout the world. It's the kind of music that definitely inspires growth and contemplation. It guides us into the awe and wonder that turns the focus from ourselves and points our hearts towards the God of the universe. http://www.hisfameministries.org/

Awkward Interactions

One thing I've been experiencing a lot lately are those strange reunion type interactions where nothing is spoken, but there's a lot said. I'll walk past an old school colleague or even teacher in the hall at work; people who I used to talk with or work with and I'll wait for the other person to say something. A panicked "I don't know what to say" look is given, but nothing is said. Perhaps my staring them down waiting for them to say something doesn't help:) Sometimes I think they are trying to remember where they know me from. Other times I know they know me, but we'll head off in opposite directions nonetheless. Or yesterday for example I was briefly in the same room with several people I used to label as "friends". Most of those people clearly saw me, they even looked me right in the eyes, but didn't bother making a point of acknowledging me with even a simple "Hi".
I suppose I'm realizing that in the past I've always been the one to automatically try to erase the awkwardness by saying something, but these days I find myself in no mood to have meaningless conversations especially with people who are clearly uncomfortable. I guess I'm realizing that I want nothing to do with organized superficial interactions, there's really no depth or truth to any of it. It's so easy to be fooled into believing that there is some meaning there. I used to think that my acknowledgment of others despite an awkwardness made a difference. I'm beginning to see that it never did.

Post Secret

This is my new favourite blog. It's called Post Secret, http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
It's an ongoing art project where people anonymously send in their deep dark secrets on a hand made post card. My Winona Lake roommate, Molly, got the original coffee table book for her birthday back in February and we sat and read through it. We were amazed by the secrets that people had. They were really eyeopening. There's something really sad about a lot of the post cards, but there's a beauty about them too. Those post cards give real insight into humanity. The pain, the joy, the confusion, the warped sense of what is truly important in this life. What really gets me is that any of those anonymous post card writers could very well be my best friend, co worker, acquaintance, mother, father, or sister and I wouldn't even know it.

Geico Cabbage Patch Kid

How adorable is this commercial!! Ahhh 1983, I'll never forget that Christmas when Santa brought Diana Rose McNeil into my life. It's hard to think of her as an adult like Ben Winkler, but I suppose she'd be 24 today. Wow how time flies, now I feel old. :)