the canal from my two wheels

the union canal cuts through edinburgh and makes up most of my commuter route in the morning...it's a busy route -- it's a menagerie of cyclists, runners, walkers, businessmen, mums with babies, dogs, cats, rats, swans, and rabbits...
the canal can be really still... on quiet mornings, the water simply reflects the remainder of the dawn that lingers in the morning, only disturbed by the dedicated rowers and the ducks that take advantage of the early light... other mornings, the canal moves really swiftly, and often i find myself fighting the scottish wind which is so determined to knock me into the water... raindrops often break the surface of the water, another reminder that i am definitely in Scotland...
quite a few swans live along the canal, including the group that have adopted a Canada goose... mallards congregate, and moorhens duck in front of your bike tires, like being squashed by cyclists is a fun idea... gulls and terns swoop over head, and magpies and blackbirds sing in the bushes along the other side of the path...
nighttime comes earlier nowadays, and everything looks different... i don't have one of those effective bike lights -- it's main purpose is so others can see me, not so i can see... all senses are heightened and although some parts are lit by street lights, most of the way i have to rely on a mental map of the canal... can't predict the bumps or puddles anymore, its just blinding moving along and trusting that the path hasn't taken a sudden detour and sends you flying into the canal itself to join the sleeping ducks...
not to mention the rats, maybe they are water voles, but they only come out to play after the sun goes down... there's been times where they have ducked my tires as well...
there is also the saxophone player... at lunch time he stands under one of the bridges with a tenor saxophone, bike lying at his side, and plays... just plays and plays and plays...
it's not a bad commute, really :)

a long-lost love returns

it's october -- not quite sure how that happened, but it did.. with it, was the arrival of autumn!!
i've always loved the autumn season; as a kid, it was because my birthday is in november, and that scores big points (still does, i guess!) and now i think the admiration is increased because last year i never saw autumn... we went from scottish spring to american summer to south american winter to new zealand spring to australian summer to japan winter to thailand... well, it's always hot in thailand, isn't it?
so the turning of the leaves, the smell of fireplaces in the air, the bite of the wind in the morning, the excuse to bake things with apple and cinnamon, the coziness of blankets, and the promise of colder weather and longer nights... it's all very very exciting...
and my birthday is coming... yay!

a new path to golden arches

i had a revelation today... maybe that's over-dramatic, but it was definitely a light-bulb moment worthy of any Saturday morning cartoon...
i have always struggled with the exclusivity of christianity... the idea being summed up in John 14:6 -- "Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
i always viewed this as a threat, a condemnation, a blatant segregation...
how very wrong was i...
it is an invitation... an invitation to all... Jesus does not want believers to memorize scripture and regurgitate it so that we are guaranteed a spot past the pearly gates for his health...He is not about speaking words that aren't meant, being in the front row of church on sunday morning, or believing that wearing a cross necklace is a golden ticket to heaven... He wants people to believe so that they may be loved... loved by the father, known by the father, and to know the father, and love the father... so that this love be so intimate that it pours out -- rushes out -- and sweeps others off of their feet, gasping for air, dazed in its golden light, and wanting more...
and yes, to do that for eternity...
we were all made in the image of God... to know God closely will reveal purer versions of ourselves, helping to decrease the taintedness (not a word, i don't care) of this polluted world... this is what Jesus was for, so we could reach God, see him, know him, better realize his presence... God is beyond anything and everything... Jesus was human... that is something we can all relate to... which means we actually have a way to relate to God. Wow.
everyone is invited to the party... can we, as a church, reflect that? can i, as an individual, live like that? live out, reach out, act out as one who believes that Jesus is inviting everyone i meet and i'm one of the messengers?
make sure that i'm not the one that is making christianity exclusive?

bella

i realize there are many, many things to love about the world in which i live...
it's very pretty: the sky is blue, the grass is green, the leaves are just starting to turn various autumnal colors, and wind is low, the birds will sing, and we are part of everything...
i've got a roof over my head, food in the fridge, socks in my drawer, slippers under my bed, clean running water, a window in my bedroom, and oreos on my floor...
i have a quirky but fun, opinionated but loving, critical but forgiving family, who all run with a policy of keeping the door open, the wine flowing, the food on the table, the conversation and the laughter going...
and my friends are such bright lights in my life... there are so many moments where i am humbled and astounded that i am blessed with such loving, wonderful, fun, warm-hearted, and beautiful friends... i don't think i could tell them enough times how much i love them and how thankful i am for them...
life is beautiful.

sunspots

i am fully convinced that the world would be a different place if not so many people believed it revolved around them...
if the world revolves around so many individual people, no wonder its such a messed up place... it has no idea which direction it should go, which way to spin, who to follow next... too many priorities and too many desires to try to meet and please... people are pulling it this way and that, turning it on its head and kicking it about, just so it keeps up with them, and submits to their every whim and whisper...
the world actually revolves around the sun, the giver of life and light to the whole of the earth...
funny that...
if we all had that mindset -- the earth works and acts in order to provide life and light for all -- and we followed in its example, this would be a very different world indeed...

God doesn't shuffle his feet...

i've been meaning to write this rant for about a week now, so with a slightly more rational head and a bit less anger, here we go...
fyi. heads up all you christians...
do you really believe in the God that created the earth?
in the Jesus who walked on water? stilled storms with a sentence? healed the sick, rose the dead, fed over 5,000 people with 2 fish and some bread?
in the spirit that was granted to be in our presence, to guide us, to intervene for us when words failed us in prayer and only our hearts knew what to say?
DO YOU REALLY???
then why do you not act like you follow the ways He set out for us? why do you not love your neighbour? why do you think you can't do something? why do you cease loving?
we have no excuse for these things... re-think about all those things that we believe in...
re-think about the idea that you believe in ETERNAL life and what that means on a logical, worldly scale...
impossible?
that's what i thought...
we have no limits... we have God...
don't get me wrong, i fall into all of those faulty categories and more... i'm a failure...
but i'm going to try... really hard...
so don't tell me i can't...
me and God will prove you wrong...

parachute, anyone?

it all makes my head very dizzy...
for some reason, committing four years to a university, and one year to another, and a year on the road... wasn't a big deal...
signing 2-3 years to a job: terrifying...
maybe it's the commitment, maybe its the responsibility of having to actually contribute to a cause (in a financial sense, i guess all senses really... but its the financial that is scary), maybe its the idea of having a salary... the last salary i had was the summer contract at RWBC... $2500 for the summer i think, and when we broke it down, cuz we technically worked 24 hours for 5 1/2 days a week or something like that, it was under a dollar an hour... i'm so used to just barely making it in the black, being able to pay for rent, bills, and food (and actually, most of that money came from loans -- such a typical american!)... the idea of having more than that... somewhat scary...
lots of other details as well... insurance, immigration, travel arrangements, taxes, community involvement...
i've spent a lot of my recent life trusting on God... he's informed me that we've been through nothing yet, and get ready to redefine my idea of trust...