a picture being worth a thousand words, here…
this is the approved plot plan for our new house on the east side! after months of learning how to build, how to work with watershed review, arborists, architect, zoning requirements & the details of urban development, we can now build a house.
red ink never looked so good.
this would qualify as putting our money where our mouth is regarding eating with people.
or qualify us as nuts. you pick.
i’m imagining long dinners with no one relegated to the couch, and a very long fort for our kids…i don’t even think the picture does it justice – the dimensions are 18′ x 4′. you are cordially invited for dinner.
a veces voy a esribir en espanol, para que algunos tienen la oportunidad a corregirme. bueno, el mes pasado en latinoamerica fue increible, y aqui estoy en mexico con mis companeros. es interesante a mi que ninguna persona puede ver de la foto que no estoy asistiendo a la prepa en este momento. si me ves con las lineas alrededor de mis ojos, es claro que tengo ninos y treinta anos, pero a mi es un privilegio estar con estudiantes y no tiene que ser una gran valle entre ellos y yo.
no he escrito mucho de mi viaje alla mas que la foto del futbol, pero fue increible. tuve tantas conversaciones de que quiere dios, como lo sabemos, y que papel en nuestra vida tiene las emociones en contra a la sabiduria o las ideas que sabemos de la palabra de dios si mismo. tantas veces estamos corriendo a tener una vida llena de sentimientos buenos de dios cuando un realidad tenemos la seguridad que dios nos prometa y no tiene nada que ver con los sentimientos. eso nosotros discutimos, y muchas otras cosas, mientras pintamos una iglesia pequena en salamanca.
que vida. y mis amigos estaban alla, nuevos y viejos, estadounidenses y mexicanos juntos.
‘on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
and he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken. ‘
– isaiah 25
every meal with people i love, enjoyed slowly, is in anticipation of this.
have you ever read a book, and a few chapters into it, you realize that you have begun to think like the character, but you didn’t know it all at once?
good writing. our older son recommended a book to me from the newberry list once he finished it, so it was my reading on our trip just completed. things it made me reflect on:
the fleeting nature of our lives and the people in them.
the concerns of young people and how akin they are to the concerns of adults, if anyone cares to look in.
how helpful it is to our own perspective to step into someone else’s shoes for a few hours and pretend to be them.
don’t let your pretender stay broken. read a good book. the one i’m suggesting is M.C. Higgins the Great. i’m sure it’s at your local library. and it isn’t a feel-good-everything-resolves-in-the-end book. more of the [slice of life that has many tensions and many unresolved issues we could be quick to condemn if we weren’t just listening] variety.
i didn’t exactly have my life planned out upon graduating from high school. or college. or after having kids.
but one thing i’m seeing as a trend is that what i imagine will come along next in my life is not usually as good as what ends up happening. i’m not living a seeking-the-next-thrill life, and i’ve got goals that are very long-term – good relationships, not wasting my time acquiring crap that i’ll eventually give to goodwill, enjoying the people who live in my house and the other people who come over. but sometimes i just have to smile that even with all the choices taylor and i have made to eschew money, suprises come along.
march was the month of latin america – second week (austin’s spring break) in mexico & last week in costa rica. i am in love with speaking spanish, and i am very content to be translating, especially when the conversation is about a worthwhile topic. so this past month, a little reprieve from the paperwork/meetings of adopting and building a new house, was full of crazily good conversations (in both spanish and english) and lots of time to enjoy people. and watch little people run around like wild men on the campus we were visiting in CR, inventing a new pastime they call snarking.
take advantage of the days and people you have. both are fleeting.
theepic 