What is better than flying helicopters?

I have recently discovered that I love to swing. I remember that I used to go down to the playground in the summer evenings when I was a kid and swing. I never went to public grade school, so swinging was more of a novelty for me.

I would swing for hours by myself and look out at the Round Valley that stretched before me. At the far side of the valley, the ground shot up to form some of the many peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Beautiful. Idaho.

I have been going out in the evening on my bike to find good swing sets (riding bikes is a whole other story about feeling young again. I love the feeling of rushing along the road on my bike). Newberg has wonderful sunsets and swing sets.

I love to sit on the swing and look at the sunset. One of the things that we will never be able to recreate, and we will never be able to take credit for.

So beautiful.

Then I get to swinging. I like to go high and fast. It is a rush just being on the swing for me. A familiar felling. Then I swing as high as I can go, and when I am all the way forward I look up at the sky and for that half a second I am weightless and can see nothing but the sky.

I can't really describe the feeling.

I swing with Him too.

That is the kind of thing that I need more of in my life.

Prayer
Swinging
Sunsets
Weightlessness

So what is better than flying helicopters?

Swinging with the Lord!

I just spilled some red wine

So I was siting with my dear friend Susan today and has some good thoughts and conversation (Thanks Susan, and I am so glad that you are back home). I told here about my hunting trip with my dad, and it got me thinking.

The trip was great. We went for ten days out in the Frank Church Wilderness. This particular wilderness is in Idaho near the Montana border. We went out with horses during that day and would ride for a few hours, then tie them up and walk for most of the day. we didn't talk much because we wanted to be as quiet as possible. This was good to just be with someone all day but never say a word to them for the most part. Needless to say I had a lot of time to think.

I had never done anything like that with my father. When I was a kid his alcoholism got in the way of us ever spending time with each other. So it was great to spend "Sunrise... Sunset..." with him. Sleeping, waking and eating with him. There was something so redemptive in just spending time together. There may have been things that we needed to say to each other, but there were things that didn't need any words at all. We may never have conversations about the past, but I am not sure that we need to. This is drastically abridged, but the story is as simple as this: Father and son hunting trip, all things will be redeemed in Christ.



Listening to ~
Maylene & the Sons of Disaster - Just Wanted to Make Mother Proud
Tim Fite - Away from the Snakes
The Dear Hunter - Red Hands
Forgive Durden - Life is Looking Up

Oh, wake up, sleepers, and rise from the dead!

Reasons why people get up early:
1. To go to work
2. To watch Good Morning America
3. Because they are old
4. Getting over jet lag
5. To go do some extreme sport*
6. To go to the airport
7. Children
8. To do homework before your 8am class
9. To read the Bible and pray

Reasons Why I didn't get up at 6am like I wanted to:
1. I don't have a job
2. I don't have a TV
3. I am not old
4. I am not getting over jet lag
5. I don't know if Shawn White could convince me to wake up at this stage in my life.
6. I go to the airport almost everyday, so no, I will not wake up for it.
7. My children with with their mother
8. I am not in school anymore. Yes!
9. I have no excuse. This is why I wanted to get up. I did manage to make it out of bed at 7 though, so I was able to read my Bible.

This whole things will take some getting used to. Good thing I have French press and the hope for redemption to motivate me to get up. Otherwise it might not happen.

* I find it really interesting that people who normally wouldn't get out of bed until noon can somehow get up at 4am to do their preferred extreme sport such as surfing, snowboarding, skiing, biking, and so on. What is it about doing the things we want to do that makes it so easy to bend over backwards to do them?



But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
"Wake up, O Sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
~Ephesians 5:13-14

Happy Monday!

Currently

I am going to start here and then back track. It is like a good movie. You start at the end and then you go backwards toward the beginning of the story. I will not make it that confusing... kind of like Memento.

I am in Newberg Oregon. It is a nice town and during the four years I was in school here, I learned a lot about how to get the most out of it. Well maybe not the most, but at least the best out of it. I know where to get good coffee; I can get to the store (Napp's) and back on my bike in 12 min; I know where good food is: burritos, breakfast burritos, sandwiches, teriyaki; I know the best country drives; good houses to look at; nice walks to take; and I know why I am here.

I am living with Tim Timmerman and it is a sweet house right in the middle of Newberg. Tim is a art professor at Fox, so our house is decorated with some really good art. I have my own room and I think it is rad. We live with one other guy, but I never see him. I am not sure that he actually exists, but I do find evidence of him being real all the time. Who knows if I will ever know the truth.

I am here to fly Helicopters. I have my private helicopter license, and I am currently working on my Commercial license and my Instrument rating. Things are going well, but they are just now picking up speed. There is a lot to learn, but it will all come with time.

I got a new bike and I have been riding a lot. Every chance I get if the weather is at all nice I go out for a little while. Here is a pic that Sydney took of me the other day:



It is a fun bike. I have been riding with some friends in Portland on Saturdays, and that has been fun. I have only been twice, but I can't ask for more. Bikes, coffee, conversation, Portland, and anything else sweet that might cross our paths.
I am going to take this opportunity to plug a project of one of my new friends Brenton. He is working on a Photography book of fixed gears in Portland called Rose City Fixed. He has already done a book on Seattle fixed gears called Rain City Fixed. Here is Brenton's blog if you are interested:
http://www.vivasalo.blogspot.com/
He updates often, and is a true artist.

I am trying to make a band work. We have members, and a name: Mount Jerusalem. But all we don't have is anywhere to practice, and until we have that, there is not much progression in music making. We will see what the next few weeks does.

I am not looking for work as much as I should, but I have been doing some odd jobs here and there. Not really enough to pay the bills. I might just have to bite the bullet and get a really crappy job. Washing dishes sounds tolerable.

I am going to try and post more. I have a lot of thoughts I would like to post. Those of you who know me well know that I am good at pushing my opinion, so I might do some of that.

Pictures to come. I have to go through and edit a little, but I will post soon.

Peace and love... free love

Get Ready

Alright,
I am going to start posting here more often. Pictures and and thoughts. Updates of what I am doing from day to day. Things might get pretty interesting. Here is a pic I took during hunting with my Pops. That is a story I would like to tell, but later.

Last Europe vids

So here are the last videos from Europe. There is a recap video, and then kyle and I give some of our favorite memories of the trip.




Kyle's Memory


Abe's Memory

Tim and his Accent

Tim is from England, and he was roommates with Kyle during their time at the Shelter in Amsterdam. Tim came and stayed at L'Abri while we were there. Tim was teaching us English accents, and we discovered that Tim had a incredible American accent. The following videos are of me trying to get him to talk.







This might be an inside joke... so I apologize if you don't think it is funny.