Back on a plane heading east, I once again find myself with one of life's pages in hand, turning it with excitement towards what appears to be a new chapter... how in this coming chapter will the one holding the pen make sense of my past (the ups & the downs... He always does), while bringing new questions, new hopes, new possibilities for the unwritten future.
The new job. So ya, i'm on this plane heading to chicago with plans to dive in headfirst for round two with Warm Blankets Orphan Care. Starting with a completely random (riiiight..) phone call while in the middle of our road trip, Craig (boss @ wb) presented me with the possibility of coming back on the team with a newly defined objective... analyze the water quality of our over 200 orphan homes, become more educated on the many different water solutions available in the third world, go after donors to get the program underwritten & the wheels rollin, find solutions for homes in need of better quality water, then forming teams to take across & do the installations (if necessary). The water guy.. So much more to come here...
My month on the road I've explained was in many ways a month of healing, as well as a month of epiphany... a month spent shedding my own foggy self interests to see clearly His desires for my life. I've always found unique peace in being on the road, and always will. The epiphany was this... I'm ready.
In no way would I take back the last four years of misadventures, in fact I can't imagine where I'd be without them... they've proven vital to my developing into.. well, me.. the today me. I encourage everyone... if there's an itch, itch it.. if there's a curiosity, explore it... but throughout keep your ears open and your spirit raw to the touch and guidance of His voice... and "whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'this is the way, walk in it.'" Is 30:21 The spirit which confirmed my place while on the river, on the road, and wherever, is the same spirit that when I listen now, is calling me to a new direction... and in shedding my selfish desires (the tree farm, maui in the spring, another summer on the river etc...), I was brought through into a field of vision for the next three to five years of my life that I hadn't even imagined before I let the other things go... healing.. epiphany... I'm learning to trust Him more and more each day..
So...
To the right, or to the left... it don't matter. Do you get it? It's not important which direction we go, just so long as we follow the voice of God's spirit... we are in the right way. The voice? "great.. luke's a wacko" Ya, voices (sort of)... a spiritual realm exists amongst us, don't fool yourself. Spirits feeding us lies about ourselves, about others impressions of ourselves, about our capabilities, our past, our appearance, our future... everything. Then there're spirits of truth... & asking of the Holy Spirit - the one which resides above them all, the spirit of our Lord - to come in and fight on the side of good, for you, for me.. for all who seek to know, and believe in Him and his promises.. this is 'the way'. Promises of freedom, of life, of joy, of community, of abundance, of generational blessing.. not free however from suffering, persecution & the likes.. they exist together.. joy in suffering.. it's real.
I'm still learning this.. I would hope to never stop learning this i guess...
I got this visual about a month or so back, it was on the river & I was having a discussion with someone where the physics of the river and the movement of water came up... I learned in this conversation that the fastest place on the river is... where? The eddy-line. The eddy-line is where the current meets the eddy (eddies are usually created by rocks in the water, causing water to go back up stream behind the rock, creating a nice break from the current), creating swirls of water accelerating along the convergence of the two... the eddy-line. The fastest place isn't where I'd've imagined... no, it's not the thick of the current.
While my left brain is learning these new things, my right brain seemed to be simultaneously painting a beautiful image of my life made sense by this new understanding... It's not in the current of society where I've found life, but near the eddies. In the current we're fooled into believing everything is okay... The failing economy, our tortured ecosystem, the manipulated media, poverty & riches.. lied to (opening that box soon). Nearing the eddies we're exposed to all sorts of people. Whether it's Haiti, Peru, the river, the tree farm,... anywhere on the road and in-between I've sought to be near those who challenge me, those outside the current. I don't want to imply that allll i've met along the way have been 'lost' in the eddy.. not even close. In fact it's in these places where I've found myself, it's in the people, the ones I've met and grown close to along the way... But it's where I've been called to shine my light.. and it's in these places i've been met by many different forms of 'light' - as well as new n different forms of darkness - but mostly light.. I'll spend my whole life learning the uniqueness of people's light and still not fill the whole of the spectrum which i'm convinced can only be found in the face of God ..
Anyway, the eddy...
With this new understanding of water, and the painting still working itself out in my right brain, my left made immediate sense of it's interpretation... living in the eddy-line is good, it's where you meet those in need - those going back up stream - with your light, your hope... the risk here (i've learned) is getting swept into the eddy, and then yourself being pulled back upstream. I've found myself in-n-out of eddies.. and more and more I find myself pushing away from the main current. the eddy-line, this is where I aim to be... Forgive me for speaking in such general terms... it's just that each journey is unique, and to each it's own eddy, eddy-line & current. Imagine for yourself where the eddyline might be in your life... just a touch outside your comfort zone.. aware of the risks.. risks of the eddy as well as the current.. and then finding life swirling between the two, touching both, moving faster and with the kinda purpose that keeps ya on your toes... and remember, "where there are two." This is important..
We begin work tomorrow on defining this new position... please send me your prayers/good thoughts as I go forward... The plane has been circling over O'Hare for about half an hour now.. apparently Air Force one and el presidente are making a quick pit stop on their way back to the White House... so obama can cast his vote... for himself... no kiddin... but now we're landing, so i've gotta run.. more soon
be well friends,
luke
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Ending a month on the road... a glimpse
So I'm home... well, back in the NW at least. After over a month on the road, it feels good to be in a place where 'being still' is really the only thing on the short term agenda. I'm in Lake Oswego currently, living with my parents in their new home... it's beautiful.
So real quick, for those of you who might be interested in the train of events i'm currently riding.. skip to next paragraph for more 'meat'. Anyway, the river season finished up well despite the low water... our season ended with the passing of Labor Day weekend and then the fun began (like working ON a river isn't fun enough??). Our company treated those who stayed to the end of the season with a four day float down the colorado river, the section is called Westwater and begins in CO, ending a short ways into Utah... it was beautiful. Three days of no bigger than class I, then a day of rowdy class IV, the river getting narrower as we carved deeper into the canyon... my first overnight trip, it was unreal. We finished that trip up, got our lives together, and it wasn't more than a day or two before my good buddy Mark (fellow river rat) and I hit the road to begin what we had planned would be two months through Tennessee and the east, hitting all sorts of rivers along the way, eventually finding work in East Tennessee on the Pigeon river working the late season on into November. Fate, as it turned out, had a different plan... the trip was condensed to almost exactly a month, and with the condensing of duration, the experiences of the trip it seems were reduced down to incredibly rich nuggets at each corner. Nashville, Knoxville, Hartford, Summersville, Roanoke, Asheville, Brevard... everywhere we went we were met with nothing but love, warmth, and kindness.. southern hospitality defining itself through our experience. I want to share each and every experience... but how? over blog? It just doesn't seem right... over coffee maybe:) but every day was perfect, every day I felt the Spirits hand in our moving 'blindly', the people we met, oh the many people, and the life-long friendships we made... Kt, hannah, willis, bob, barb, coco, michelle, gabe, caleb, salmon, clint, TENNESSEE LIZ, paul, and others.. people with spirits that stuck to ours like velcro, and within seconds of meeting these new people at these new places, we were home, with family... raft guides, UT hippies, Older couples, younger ones too.. providence was our guide, and lives were changed in the process.
My reasons initially for going to tennessee were very different than what I eventually got out of the experience... in fact the collapse of my original intentions, and the pain which followed, were quickly restored and a new vision for the trip was formed, one we lived out in color. It was a month of healing in many ways for both Mark and I. And as my cousin Amy put it, on my last day in knoxville, "fate" would gift me the closure I needed from the previous collapse, the perfect cap to the whole experience.. so obviously I'm alluding to a whole lot, and I hope to share more later on this.. it's just better that I wait.. the story's still being written i guess...
I've had about 20hrs of solo road time this past week, lots of time to think... and our experience i realized can be summed up into one day. Towards the end of our time in Tennessee, Mark and i took some time on the AT (app trail), and on day one of our trip we at one point found ourselves seriously lost in awe of all the beauty surrounding us... just staring at everything from the forest floor to the canopy mosaic above,, each leaf a different color contributing to the whole of the picture... we were overcome with feelings of contentment, feelings of being in a good 'way', of - during this month - finding our place among created, and for me at least, more and more faith in the Spirit as guide... see, to some we appeared lost, but to others we were anything but, and our trusting that at each corner we would be met with a purposed environment, led our open hearts & minds to people who - as it would turn out - were in need of the light we offered, as we were too in need of theirs... in faith that our journeys path was one paved with providence, lives were changed, lives were enriched...
My old roommate mimi and I are obsessed with the golden ratio.. ever heard of it? Other names for it are the golden mean, the Fibonacci numbers... Anyway, if not, watch this short clip and let your mind be blown (http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=U2bAlIK4KkE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DU2bAlIK4KkE).. but basically the golden ratio is in everything, all creation it seems, from the way a flower blossoms to the way galaxies are formed, all exist according to this ratio... on the AT I felt the weight of this as I saw this perfect pattern everywhere, in nature and in myself... with much time on the road to think and give thanks, to sink deep into my experience, I saw life - life as I've grown to understand it - as one large picture, one that with the dimension of time extracted (so hard for us to do in flatland, but a very real thing.. eternity), our lives as a whole will offer beauty, color, and light to others, according to how we walk within each experience, within time. Living each day in love, each experience when looked at individually (like each new place we found ourselves) may not make a great deal of sense, but it just felt, it just feels right... and so zooming out, our experiences - if guided by love - create a whole picture which only makes sense to the one painting it, but shines its beauty to the world. Confused yet? me too... but back to the golden ratio, god's perfect number found throughout... I suppose I believe that in the spiritual world, if we allow ourselves to be led by love we are allowing God (God is love... thats it... if it's love, it's God) to design in and through us something more beautiful than is in our control, the golden ratio in existing in our lives... and because he who engineers this beauty is extracted from that dimension which binds us in the moment... time... only He can make sense of it and it's purpose. The past four years of my life, the past eight really, are fun to look at as a whole because of the evolution of my spirit as I've learned more and more to lean on these good things.. it's spiraled me into, well, this place.. a place of new understanding, of peace, each day a new journey, one that only He, only love can make sense of, a place that in the moment may seem confusing or difficult (i've negative $$$ to my name, and am back at my parents for the time being.. haha), but are filled with hope because of this understanding that our stories exist outside of time, and He, Love, wants to create something curiously beautiful in us for the world to experience and glean from, then in observing, learn to live in a way which makes sense of their lives outside of the day to day confusion, outside of time... the golden ratio, it's perfect.
Anyway, I go in thursday to the Doc to have my shoulder checked... may or may not need surgery... pray for this. Soon, depending on what my pt needs are, I'll be starting what seems to be a dream job, again working for Warm Blankets, but with water... Another beautiful story I plan on sharing more of as it unfolds in the coming weeks... More to come on this, but know it's good, all is good, life is beautiful, and love it seems is truly the only answer...
I plan on writing more into the fall... so many stories to tell... the past month has left me with pockets full of nuggets, and I feel led to share. Thanks for reading (supposing you made it this far.. haha)...
Be well, friends...
luke
So real quick, for those of you who might be interested in the train of events i'm currently riding.. skip to next paragraph for more 'meat'. Anyway, the river season finished up well despite the low water... our season ended with the passing of Labor Day weekend and then the fun began (like working ON a river isn't fun enough??). Our company treated those who stayed to the end of the season with a four day float down the colorado river, the section is called Westwater and begins in CO, ending a short ways into Utah... it was beautiful. Three days of no bigger than class I, then a day of rowdy class IV, the river getting narrower as we carved deeper into the canyon... my first overnight trip, it was unreal. We finished that trip up, got our lives together, and it wasn't more than a day or two before my good buddy Mark (fellow river rat) and I hit the road to begin what we had planned would be two months through Tennessee and the east, hitting all sorts of rivers along the way, eventually finding work in East Tennessee on the Pigeon river working the late season on into November. Fate, as it turned out, had a different plan... the trip was condensed to almost exactly a month, and with the condensing of duration, the experiences of the trip it seems were reduced down to incredibly rich nuggets at each corner. Nashville, Knoxville, Hartford, Summersville, Roanoke, Asheville, Brevard... everywhere we went we were met with nothing but love, warmth, and kindness.. southern hospitality defining itself through our experience. I want to share each and every experience... but how? over blog? It just doesn't seem right... over coffee maybe:) but every day was perfect, every day I felt the Spirits hand in our moving 'blindly', the people we met, oh the many people, and the life-long friendships we made... Kt, hannah, willis, bob, barb, coco, michelle, gabe, caleb, salmon, clint, TENNESSEE LIZ, paul, and others.. people with spirits that stuck to ours like velcro, and within seconds of meeting these new people at these new places, we were home, with family... raft guides, UT hippies, Older couples, younger ones too.. providence was our guide, and lives were changed in the process.
My reasons initially for going to tennessee were very different than what I eventually got out of the experience... in fact the collapse of my original intentions, and the pain which followed, were quickly restored and a new vision for the trip was formed, one we lived out in color. It was a month of healing in many ways for both Mark and I. And as my cousin Amy put it, on my last day in knoxville, "fate" would gift me the closure I needed from the previous collapse, the perfect cap to the whole experience.. so obviously I'm alluding to a whole lot, and I hope to share more later on this.. it's just better that I wait.. the story's still being written i guess...
I've had about 20hrs of solo road time this past week, lots of time to think... and our experience i realized can be summed up into one day. Towards the end of our time in Tennessee, Mark and i took some time on the AT (app trail), and on day one of our trip we at one point found ourselves seriously lost in awe of all the beauty surrounding us... just staring at everything from the forest floor to the canopy mosaic above,, each leaf a different color contributing to the whole of the picture... we were overcome with feelings of contentment, feelings of being in a good 'way', of - during this month - finding our place among created, and for me at least, more and more faith in the Spirit as guide... see, to some we appeared lost, but to others we were anything but, and our trusting that at each corner we would be met with a purposed environment, led our open hearts & minds to people who - as it would turn out - were in need of the light we offered, as we were too in need of theirs... in faith that our journeys path was one paved with providence, lives were changed, lives were enriched...
My old roommate mimi and I are obsessed with the golden ratio.. ever heard of it? Other names for it are the golden mean, the Fibonacci numbers... Anyway, if not, watch this short clip and let your mind be blown (http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=U2bAlIK4KkE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DU2bAlIK4KkE).. but basically the golden ratio is in everything, all creation it seems, from the way a flower blossoms to the way galaxies are formed, all exist according to this ratio... on the AT I felt the weight of this as I saw this perfect pattern everywhere, in nature and in myself... with much time on the road to think and give thanks, to sink deep into my experience, I saw life - life as I've grown to understand it - as one large picture, one that with the dimension of time extracted (so hard for us to do in flatland, but a very real thing.. eternity), our lives as a whole will offer beauty, color, and light to others, according to how we walk within each experience, within time. Living each day in love, each experience when looked at individually (like each new place we found ourselves) may not make a great deal of sense, but it just felt, it just feels right... and so zooming out, our experiences - if guided by love - create a whole picture which only makes sense to the one painting it, but shines its beauty to the world. Confused yet? me too... but back to the golden ratio, god's perfect number found throughout... I suppose I believe that in the spiritual world, if we allow ourselves to be led by love we are allowing God (God is love... thats it... if it's love, it's God) to design in and through us something more beautiful than is in our control, the golden ratio in existing in our lives... and because he who engineers this beauty is extracted from that dimension which binds us in the moment... time... only He can make sense of it and it's purpose. The past four years of my life, the past eight really, are fun to look at as a whole because of the evolution of my spirit as I've learned more and more to lean on these good things.. it's spiraled me into, well, this place.. a place of new understanding, of peace, each day a new journey, one that only He, only love can make sense of, a place that in the moment may seem confusing or difficult (i've negative $$$ to my name, and am back at my parents for the time being.. haha), but are filled with hope because of this understanding that our stories exist outside of time, and He, Love, wants to create something curiously beautiful in us for the world to experience and glean from, then in observing, learn to live in a way which makes sense of their lives outside of the day to day confusion, outside of time... the golden ratio, it's perfect.
Anyway, I go in thursday to the Doc to have my shoulder checked... may or may not need surgery... pray for this. Soon, depending on what my pt needs are, I'll be starting what seems to be a dream job, again working for Warm Blankets, but with water... Another beautiful story I plan on sharing more of as it unfolds in the coming weeks... More to come on this, but know it's good, all is good, life is beautiful, and love it seems is truly the only answer...
I plan on writing more into the fall... so many stories to tell... the past month has left me with pockets full of nuggets, and I feel led to share. Thanks for reading (supposing you made it this far.. haha)...
Be well, friends...
luke
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