Pacific Grove, Monterey Peninsula
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.
Here's one of my favourites. Click on the photo collage to the right to see others.
7/12/2006
How can we understand the road we travel? It is the LORD who directs our steps. -Proverbs 20:24
We look at each other from across the table. He has a pained expression across his brow. I am defensive. My mouth is drawn in a firm line, and getting fermer. We haven't said a word, but after all these years of marriage, we know this conversation isn't going to go well. We dread it. Both of us. It's past time for a conversation we need to have. Again.
The conversation?
We've got to knuckle down and seriously plan out our "holiday" in the USA. I mean, afterall, we're already 2 weeks into it and the time left is ticking away. We've arranged a few things. The outline. Neither of us are gifted at administration. We have given up verbally wishing for a "Miranda Girl" (the personal assisstants in The Devil Wears Prada) to come rescue us. We feel hopelessly inept but know we have to start organizing our time.
When we're at home in Singapore, we have our gear for productivity ensconced around us, within arms reach or a click away. We do pretty well at keeping the gears between our personal planners going smoothly. BUT, Back in the USA, we're in a foreign land. Oh, sure, we can email and use the internet if we drive slowly down the street looking for a neighbor without encrypted wireless access. In a week or so we'll figure out where we can order a cup of coffee and do it for free, but for now, we're feeling a little out of synch and unproductive.
Who should we call using this new phone cell chip with a (714) number? Who really would like to see us? Who among our old friends would agree to a lunch as a "courtesy visit?" We feel insecure. If we get together with a financial supporter who 9 years ago was just a friend, what do we talk about? Do they want to know how their "investment" is going, or are they interested in us personally? If I do arrange to meet them, or take up the offer to sing in our home church for the Sunday services, what will we do with the kids? Where did I put those phone numbers? What were the dates for that neighborhood VBS? Did they have a deadline? Did I pay ahead of time for that on their website? While horrible things are going on around the world, or we learn of friends and family here who are suffering tremendous personal loss, I feel guilty for not being stronger in the face of these present inconveniences.
I cry out to the Lord for the world and my friends while Jim and I "suffer" through trying to coordinate our calendars; adding a prayer for us. "Lord, you've made us this way, with certain gifts that don't included organizing time with our supporters. Would you providentially orchestrate our time here? We'll do our best, but we need your help."
And that's what he seems to be doing. Day after disorganized day!
For today, I'd organized a sweet day with Andrea Ketcham and Karen Schmidt visiting Mia Moore. She has a booth for her lovely art at the Laguna Beach Arts Festival and this year I get a chance to see it and meet her colleagues there. On top of that, since I wasn't eager to face the traffic back, I got a ticket for the sold out Pageant of the Masters performance tonight. I'd tried to buy the tickets ahead of time in Singapore, but if I had I would have gone with the family in tow. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to make this such a leisurely afternoon getting to know 3 other women artists connected to CRM. If while still in Singapore I'd have known that I was going down there without the family, and bought just one ticket on-line, I would not have bought it in the cheap seats. God knew i would need to leave at intermission to beat the traffic and because I'd be dog tired. If I'd bought a good ticket months ago, I'd have stuck it out to get my money's worth!
That's just one of today's examples of my living out the Proverb: How can we understand the road we travel. It is the LORD who directs our steps.
I wonder what he has in store for us tomorrow.
(check the flickr link on the side for photos of other ways God's been arranging our plans.)
The conversation?
We've got to knuckle down and seriously plan out our "holiday" in the USA. I mean, afterall, we're already 2 weeks into it and the time left is ticking away. We've arranged a few things. The outline. Neither of us are gifted at administration. We have given up verbally wishing for a "Miranda Girl" (the personal assisstants in The Devil Wears Prada) to come rescue us. We feel hopelessly inept but know we have to start organizing our time.
When we're at home in Singapore, we have our gear for productivity ensconced around us, within arms reach or a click away. We do pretty well at keeping the gears between our personal planners going smoothly. BUT, Back in the USA, we're in a foreign land. Oh, sure, we can email and use the internet if we drive slowly down the street looking for a neighbor without encrypted wireless access. In a week or so we'll figure out where we can order a cup of coffee and do it for free, but for now, we're feeling a little out of synch and unproductive.
Who should we call using this new phone cell chip with a (714) number? Who really would like to see us? Who among our old friends would agree to a lunch as a "courtesy visit?" We feel insecure. If we get together with a financial supporter who 9 years ago was just a friend, what do we talk about? Do they want to know how their "investment" is going, or are they interested in us personally? If I do arrange to meet them, or take up the offer to sing in our home church for the Sunday services, what will we do with the kids? Where did I put those phone numbers? What were the dates for that neighborhood VBS? Did they have a deadline? Did I pay ahead of time for that on their website? While horrible things are going on around the world, or we learn of friends and family here who are suffering tremendous personal loss, I feel guilty for not being stronger in the face of these present inconveniences.
I cry out to the Lord for the world and my friends while Jim and I "suffer" through trying to coordinate our calendars; adding a prayer for us. "Lord, you've made us this way, with certain gifts that don't included organizing time with our supporters. Would you providentially orchestrate our time here? We'll do our best, but we need your help."
And that's what he seems to be doing. Day after disorganized day!
For today, I'd organized a sweet day with Andrea Ketcham and Karen Schmidt visiting Mia Moore. She has a booth for her lovely art at the Laguna Beach Arts Festival and this year I get a chance to see it and meet her colleagues there. On top of that, since I wasn't eager to face the traffic back, I got a ticket for the sold out Pageant of the Masters performance tonight. I'd tried to buy the tickets ahead of time in Singapore, but if I had I would have gone with the family in tow. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to make this such a leisurely afternoon getting to know 3 other women artists connected to CRM. If while still in Singapore I'd have known that I was going down there without the family, and bought just one ticket on-line, I would not have bought it in the cheap seats. God knew i would need to leave at intermission to beat the traffic and because I'd be dog tired. If I'd bought a good ticket months ago, I'd have stuck it out to get my money's worth!
That's just one of today's examples of my living out the Proverb: How can we understand the road we travel. It is the LORD who directs our steps.
I wonder what he has in store for us tomorrow.
(check the flickr link on the side for photos of other ways God's been arranging our plans.)
7/09/2006
17 Mile Drive, Monterey Peninsula
17 Mile Drive, Monterey Peninsula
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.
I've had moments of missing Singapore, but...not many with views and weather like this.
Jerky Perfection
I talked on the phone with a friend who has a number of children last week. She said it's great to raise toddlers when you have teenagers.
one minute you hear that you are a jerk and don't understand anything, and the next some adoring child will tell you that that you are the BEST MOMMY IN THE WHOLE WORLD. She says, "I know I'm not either. But, it is comforting to know I'm somewhere in the middle."
7/04/2006
She Just Doesn't Get It
I sit in the immaculate house with white carpeting, and a well kept garden. The gardeners come every Friday. The same day the house cleaner does.
We have another conversation in the livingroom where Jim grew up. FOX News runs in the background and the expensive collectables on all the shelves stare down at me.
I listen to her talk about all her annoying neighbors and the petty business between them all.
“Those people.”
"Yucky _______.”
It's not just the neighbors. The longer our visit stretches, I begin to realize that she has such easy criticism of all the others who get in her way, don't agree with her, or are not the same as us.
And then she talks glowingly about the people of prestige or wealth that she's met or is working with in her volunteer work.
No wonder she asks after dinner tonight,
"So you figure you've another 15 years until you retire? Don't you think you’ll ever move back here for work?”
What I hear between the lines in this and other comments over the past 8 weeks give me the sense that she feels her son’s wasted his career working, even serving, people who don't matter (to her).
I may not be being fair to read so much into it, but I do have a degree of discernment and I get the vibe that he's not living up to her expectations. Actually he's a big disappointment. He's not wealthy or well known. But there still may still be time for him if he gets back to USA; preferrably in Fullerton, CA, and gives himself more of a chance to be recognized for the bright, no, brilliant person that he is. Trouble is, I'm sure if he were the Mayor of Fullerton, or the Pastor of the largest church in town, there would still be other more powerful or influential or visible positions he could have to give her status among the people she believes are important.
It must be so hard for her to have her only son living on the other side of the world doing something that in her heart of hearts she doesn't feel is really worthwhile. She not only is robbed of her family being nearby (which isn't uncommon even if Jim had another career), but she's robbed of the prestige of having her son be "important" in the eyes of others who are "important." I pray that there is still time for her to grow a bigger heart and a bigger view of the world and our purpose in it. I pray for her to begin to grasp God's great love and compassion for ALL peoples, and that God's spirit would infect her heart with that same kind of love.
We have another conversation in the livingroom where Jim grew up. FOX News runs in the background and the expensive collectables on all the shelves stare down at me.
I listen to her talk about all her annoying neighbors and the petty business between them all.
“Those people.”
"Yucky _______.”
It's not just the neighbors. The longer our visit stretches, I begin to realize that she has such easy criticism of all the others who get in her way, don't agree with her, or are not the same as us.
And then she talks glowingly about the people of prestige or wealth that she's met or is working with in her volunteer work.
No wonder she asks after dinner tonight,
"So you figure you've another 15 years until you retire? Don't you think you’ll ever move back here for work?”
What I hear between the lines in this and other comments over the past 8 weeks give me the sense that she feels her son’s wasted his career working, even serving, people who don't matter (to her).
I may not be being fair to read so much into it, but I do have a degree of discernment and I get the vibe that he's not living up to her expectations. Actually he's a big disappointment. He's not wealthy or well known. But there still may still be time for him if he gets back to USA; preferrably in Fullerton, CA, and gives himself more of a chance to be recognized for the bright, no, brilliant person that he is. Trouble is, I'm sure if he were the Mayor of Fullerton, or the Pastor of the largest church in town, there would still be other more powerful or influential or visible positions he could have to give her status among the people she believes are important.
It must be so hard for her to have her only son living on the other side of the world doing something that in her heart of hearts she doesn't feel is really worthwhile. She not only is robbed of her family being nearby (which isn't uncommon even if Jim had another career), but she's robbed of the prestige of having her son be "important" in the eyes of others who are "important." I pray that there is still time for her to grow a bigger heart and a bigger view of the world and our purpose in it. I pray for her to begin to grasp God's great love and compassion for ALL peoples, and that God's spirit would infect her heart with that same kind of love.
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