Alive and Well in Seattle

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I come to you, my dear readers, after a long and enlightening respite from the blogging world. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged regularly, but I suppose now is as good a time to get back in the swing of things than any. I hope that I haven’t allowed too much time to lapse since my last post. I’ve been meaning to post for the last three weeks, the time that I’ve been home from my trip to England. But I’ve been having a lot of “yeah, right” moments, in terms of things I’ve been trying to cram into my schedule, and I didn’t want to post unless I could do my last couple months at least a small amount of justice.

However, I’m just this morning reflecting on my past few days; I left my home and family on Monday for school again, and was able to fit in a roadtrip in with my dear sister. We were able to stay with some wonderful friends in Portland, and catch up with each others lives. And then we headed up to Seattle, where we are now. This morning, we are reflecting on the breathtaking Over The Rhine concert that we were able to attend night before last. It was a really wonderful event. Set in the magnificent Triple Door theatre and club in downtown Seattle, Karin, Linford, and their musical cohorts wowed us for an all-too-brief couple of hours, with piano, upright base, and a voice so smoky and emotional, it sounds like it belongs to a different era. They were really on last night. They started the night with the song, “I Don’t Want To Waste Your Time”, and immediately, we knew they wouldn’t. Every second of that concert was priceless. Karin brought with her an amazing stage presence that filled the whole room; Linford was quite a sight as well (as always), and played piano with bravado and plenty of soul. They were given two encores by the audience, and I was up on my feet along to cheer them on. It was an unforgettable night.

Yesterday we spent all day driving through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world, north of Seattle in the Cascade mountains. The entire Northwest region of the United States is actually a moderate rain forest, and in being so, it has some of the most fabulous flora and fauna anywhere on the north american continent. Add to that the fact that Washington is perched right on the edge of a massive tectonic plate, which besides creating some of the most spectacular earthquakes around, has also driven the earth upwards over thousands of years to form some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. No matter what direction we went, we saw mountain ranges rising like castle walls tens of thousands of feet up into the air. We hiked the most amazing trail in Rockport National Park, about 60 miles north of Seattle, and I was able to take some great pictures along the way.

It’s been so great to be up in Seattle. Of course, there’s a home that I’ll always have with my family, and nothing could ever replace that. But Seattle has become a home away from home, a place where I feel comfortable in my own skin. There’s so much about Seattle that I love, from the quirky people you see everywhere, to the coffee shops on every street corner, the arts and entertainment, Pike’s Market and the Seattle Public Library, SPU (!); I could go on and on. I’ve said before that Seattle is the best kept secret in the States, and I still hold to that. It’s amazing to me that more people aren’t heading up here in droves. I’m also thankful for that fact, because it means that Seattle will remain the jewel of a city that it is. I’m glad to be able to settle down here after a few months of jetsetting and busyness.

I think that being away in England really taught me a lot. It was a very good learning experience that I think I’ve benefited from greatly. My sister and I met wonderful people along the way, had very fascinating and philosophical conversations, met wannabe politicians and neurologists, pastors and theologians, scientists and engineers; and that just scratches the surface. Cambridge is one of the ancient centers of the world, from which so many great people and events proceeded. It almost seems that it acts like a magnet; it draws on such a cornucopia of people from nearly every country and continent. We got to intern with a wonderful organization, which is currently trying to bring about a greater awareness and appreciation for Christianity in England and Europe, and to train people how to give an apologetic defense of their faith. We got to work with a fellow intern and all-around spectacular human being, Nathan (not of the same last name, for those of you who know my family), who became our ally and co-conspirator in our jaunts about cambridge. It was a wonderful experience, and I’ll try to write about it at length someday soon. It takes a post unto itself.

England was a great experience for me especially in the sense that I learned a lot about myself. I think I found that even across the world, people are still people, and we all struggle with the same problems and difficulties. It’s funny how much we want to go away to solve our problems. Maybe it’s that a country on the other side of the world is so detached from our experiences, sorrows and difficulties, that we think that it couldn’t be tainted with the same things we struggle with here at home. I think it was God’s providence that He allowed me to go to England this summer. Not only did I benefit from working with a great ministry, and make a lot of good friends, I also found myself longing for the things that God has so long given as a gift to me, and that I have scorned for freedom, experience, and my own self-centered desires. I found that I really do rely on my family much more than I thought, and owe so much of who I am to them. I found that God really has put me in an American cultural context for a reason, and that it’s ok to embrace that cultural context for myself, and not feel the need to be “international”. I was able to see hidden qualities and values of mine rise to the surface, things that I never knew I believed strongly, but that are now hallmarks to the person that I am. I think God allows us to do what we want to do, so that we can understand why He ordains our lives in different ways that those self-desires. It’s like He lets us get things out of our system. Now I don’t mean that I’ve got England out of my system. I loved the experience I had there, and learned so much. But I’m better anchored to the life that God has created for me here, in America, in Seattle, and back at home with my family.

And here I am indeed, in Seattle, following the seemingly precarious but ultimately trustworthy path of God. These last couple days have been such a gift from God, I already feel like all will be well. I’m so glad to have settled back into all that God has for me, and I can’t wait to revive this blog with even greater fervor than before. Make sure that if you are reading the posts here, that you make it over to my other blog, where you can see the corresponding photo stream.

Ok, dear readers, tell me, what has happened during your summer? What great events took place in your lives? Leave a comment! I’d very much enjoy hearing the stories!

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