OCTOBER OUTSIDE.

Last weekend I couldn't help myself from taking a trip to Russell Orchards.  The day was one of those brilliant fall days where the wind and the sunshine are perfect and you can smell both growth and harvest at the same time.  I sat by the pumpkins for a while, catching up on reading and listening to people choose pumpkins together.

Everyone knew exactly what they were looking for in a pumpkin.  I don't think anyone would be able to describe it, but they sure did know it when they saw it.

It was amazing, how sure people could be that they'd found the one.

I picked up a few treats while I was there: apple cider donuts (a fall necessity), mulled apple cider (to fight the brisk wind), a variety of apples grown right there and a bottle of strawberry-rhubarb wine.

It started to rain after about 2 hours, so I left and took a drive.
I felt so grounded and refreshed by the colors of marsh and fall and rain.  

Crane Property, Ipswich, MA

CATCHING THE NIGHT, DIGITALLY.

Lago Maggiore, Gignese, Italy, July 2011 

Night Sky, Readfield, Maine, August 2011

Devereux Beach, Marblehead, Massachusetts, September 2011

Attempts at using a digital point-and-shoot like I'd use a film camera.  Long exposures to capture the breathtaking mystery of being outside in the nighttime.

LUGANO: LIVING ON THE EDGE

San Salvatore mountain is right on the edge of Switzerland and Italy.  I had the joy of taking a funicular train up the mountain and hiking back down on a strangely beautiful day.  It was incredible.  To trek through the forest was refreshing and exhausting, and it began to pour near the end of our descent.
When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we were tired and wet and looking at this amazing lake at the base of these mountains, a valley lake.

 

It was calm except for the pouring rain.  And we decided to jump in.  Unplanned, in our hiking clothes.  And it was glorious.  Swimming in that cool, but not cold, water...in a valley, mountains all around...all quiet except for the tinkling, sparkling sound of the pouring rain on the otherwise still water.  It was too much to take in.  Too perfect, too beautiful.  So we treaded water and prayed.  It was the only possible response.  God was speaking to us and we had to speak back, to praise him out loud together for the fullness and glory we were experiencing.  It was a moment you can't plan, you can't prepare for, you can only be lead to.  

And when you're lead there, you have to be ready to jump in. 

CHE BELLA!: CINQUE TERRE AND RISK TAKING

On a day trip from Milano to Manarola this summer, I saw the Mediterranean for the first time.  The whole thing was an adventure, barely figuring out the train, bringing a pack of wandering Americans to a tiny seaside cliff town.  But it was magical.  The sea was amazing.  Stunning and a welcome sight after not seeing a distant horizon for a number of weeks.  I love the horizon.  I've said that.  It connects me to infinity and eternity and things that are bigger and more vast than I can fathom.  I need that in my life.    While I was there, I decided to jump off a cliff.  It was at least 25 feet up.  It was terrifying.  This is the picture to prove it, but I'll just say it took me about 15 minutes of standing on top of the rock and seeing other people not die to convince me.  The whole crowd of onlookers (on the side of the picture taker) were chanting my name by the end of my experience.  I just couldn't jump.  I was so afraid I'd do it wrong and die.  But I wanted to know what it was like.  I wanted to be part of the adventure.  I wanted to be and feel brave.  In the end, I couldn't look.  I couldn't think about it anymore.  I couldn't analyze.  I just had to jump.  I'll never do it again.  But I'm glad I did.

The rock formation in the center is where we jumped from.  The water come in from the right to the other side and the jumping picture was taken from the walkway below where the buildings are.

GOING PLACES.

Every time I see this, it thrills me.  

The spirit of seeing and moving and going and adventuring.  

It gets me every time.

Check out their other videos, EAT and LEARN.

Though this is by far the most inspiring of the three.

BEING WRONG.

Came upon this on one of the sites I follow.  This is a theme that's come up a lot lately.  The importance of making mistakes and taking risks despite the potential for being wrong is showing up everywhere I turn: TED talks, illustrations, fables of corporate leadership (see temptation #3), discipling conversations, and reflections on living in the Kingdom of God (I cannot rely on human calculations of results to evaluate potential courses of action.  I have to obey God.  Isaiah 50:10-11 and a hundred more like it).

This is off the usual focus of do/make/see/taste/tell.  But in a conceptual sense, it has to do with seeing.  And the fear of being wrong is a major source of paralysis for me in every area of doing/being/making/creating. Everywhere this message is coming through to me: be humble, let go of fear (of failure, of how other people view me, of how I will view myself, of being wrong), take risks of obedience, take action and walk by faith in God.  Get over yourself and your vision of who you should or shouldn't be, so that you can live and grow in truth.

This is a lesson I've spent my whole life trying to embrace and the recent thoughts are just the latest wave.  I have much to learn.  These are some thoughts I felt should be collected, even if they aren't fully developed.  Step one in letting go the fear of being wrong might be letting into the light sooner raw ideas and things yet to be formed.  I don't know, but I'll put it out there.  Thoughts?