hangin' around

ropes course Certification School


Wish you were here!

Hogwarts

Woke up for this mornings run at my new home. Well, my three-week home at Wartburg Seminary for the Youth Ministry Certification School. Styled after a German castle I do get the sense that Dumbledore may be right around the corner.

6th Place!

The Apple Blossom Run at Carpenter Nature Center.

The computer print out said 6th place!
I’m sure there were at least 100 people ahead of me. I didn’t even know I was racing.
Okay, closer look --- 6th place of men in my age bracket running the 5K.
Okay, their were only 12 of us in that category.

Beautiful morning!

Early May Morning!

–Moon –New Life –Sun

Finally a good early morning run. No rain!

"There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be." ~George Sheehan

GrinerGUY day

Day out...
Roller Blades
Coffee house
Ikea shopping
Mission Impossible Three
Magic Pan Crepes
Cemetery stop
Dad's Rhubarb Cake

Beyond the Ramp

2nd year at the ELCA Churchwide offices in Chicago to train teams who will go out to facilitate activities and discussions around issues of disabilities.

Creating the door! – Accessibility
• Are your facilities accessible?
• Do you choose transportation so that all can enjoy the relational group building experience of travel?
• Are camps, retreat centers and other activity centers chosen so all can participate?
• Do you advertise accessibility?
• Do participants need education to help understand and welcome people?

Opening the door! – Invitation
• Are people specifically invited?
• Do participants value a ministry that is open to all?

Being inside the door! – Participation
• Are participants welcoming?
• Do you choose events that include all?
• Do participants get to know and work towards genuine relationships?

Going out of the door! – Empowerment
• Valued for thoughts, opinions, and feelings?
• Included in decision-making?
• Trained in leadership and Peer Ministry skills?

Teacher's Passion

Gold Finch (Iowa's State Bird)

Red Wing Black Bird

It is what my teachers had passion for that I most remember.

Ms. Ford, my 5th grade teacher had passion for birds. There were other things too. In general she was a passionate person. I remember her sticking a record on the phonograph in the corner and making us all sing, “Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas, goodness how delicious, eating goober peas.” As 5th graders we knew this was corny (well---no not corn, when singing about peas – peanuts really – she would teach us about the song, but…) certainly not cool. But, for Ms. Ford we would do anything.

It was after school, the bird hikes, where we discovered her deep passion. She would only take 10 of us at a time. Equipped with binoculars, bird books, and check lists we followed our beloved leader for miles, quietly, very quietly, looking for birds. Actually I don’t know that any of us overly cared about the birds, but watching Ms. Ford’s pure delight at each new discovery, whispering the details, the history, the rarity at what we were seeing, that was worth all the after school extras. The birds were special, Ms. Ford’s enthusiam was special, but mostly, because we were her honored guests on these hikes we somehow new how special we were too.

I suppose, considering Ms. Ford, it is not so odd that where ever I am, even on runs, my awareness of the sounds, and an eagerness to see each bird makes sense. The passion of a teacher can be alluring. It is from passion that learning takes hold.

a sunny morning run
checking out convention center, dome, my hotel, a friend's hotel
and other important destinations where we get to hang out with 40 thousand kids this summer

eating out with some fun organizing frineds

San Antonio

Riverwalk + run!
My favorite South American band.
So now can add Texas to that run list!
I like this picture. The little girl wondered up and stood with the band intrigued with them and them with her.





The riverwalk









I caught some of the Fiesta parade in front of the Alamo.






running through market square---not an easy journey when the streets are full of fiesta participants.

travel time

After a couple of months of staying close to home it is time to travel again.

I have already made runs in
–Minnesota
–Missouri
–Iowa
–South Dakota
–Indiana
–Nebraska
–Wisconsin
–Hawaii
–Florida

I will be adding several more new states in the weeks and months to come.

Delray Beach Florida

Another state, another place makes for a couple more good runs.

Good Good People

All good, good people
People I am privileged to be with for a weekend.
People who I know will take what we did in training and make it all happen.
People who touched my heart and then I had to say goodbye.
Fun, funny, holy people
Making life better for one kid at a time
Great Florida Episcopalian people

Submitting to Stuck

She was my camp counselor buddy, my partner in youth and family ministry at three different churches and so much more. We had just celebrated 25 years of marriage.

On August 17th I had started training a group of campus pastors in Boston. It was after lunch when a retreat center staff person brought a note asking me to call my Mother-In-Law. I turned my cell phone on to see recorded 20 missed calls from my son. Something was wrong!

I was to learn that my wife was found dead in her bed….......……….......………....................

I had talked to her the night before. She was at a meeting fighting to keep music alive and healthy in our school district. A prolapsed mitral valve in the heart would be attributed as the cause.

The next weeks and months… lots of tears, lots of sorrow, lots of adjustments – there still is. But early on I determined not to “be stuck.” I started walking, rollerblading, biking and then running. I went hiking, sailing, to concerts and to trips to see special friends.

“Not being stuck” had seemed the right language. Yet, challenged by Mike Yaconenelli’s, Messy Spirituality, I find these words (p. 93) “Getting stuck could be the best thing that happened to us, because it forces us to stop. It halts the momentum of our lives. We have no choice but to notice what is around us.”

I have had to stop. I have had to change. No choice but to change. I have had to find new ways, and submit to “stuckness.” I have had to stop and let go. Being stuck really has meant slowing down, turning off the TV, observing my world, letting others take care of me, and bit by bit start moving, often in very new ways as I have to, get to, am forced to, have the opportunity to rebuild, reshape, and sprint unhurriedly forward, or maybe forward is not the correct word, maybe just willing to be, just being in the present.

During a class at Augsburg College two students led the session on Wellness. As I sketched out my own diagram of my wellness, (in the form of a gingerbread person – you will have to take the training to understand) I found myself staring at the most balanced picture of myself I had seen for a long time.

Maybe while I thought I was smugly moving ahead, I was really allowing a number of people to support me, ask me the shaping questions, being my mirrors. Thank you to the Chuck’s, Tom’s, Heidi’s, A.K.’s, Andrea’s, Barbara’s, Dave’s, Dick’s, Marilyn’s and all the rest who dare to stay with me – all the Peer Ministers in my life. The Wellness session works! It is the session that invites people to stick with, walk beside, support and encourage change.

More work ahead – yes, I know. But, maybe this time allowing for stuckness times, some intentional, I hope not always forced by the tragic.

“Let’s listen for the quiet,” Pastor Rod used to say at the end of the children’s sermons before the prayer. What great words. Time to stop… time to listen… time to be… time to allow some stuckness as we wait for the resurrection this Easter.

Etta James

Etta James

Sassy R&B diva Etta James and Roots Band at the O'Shaughnessy.

No dead weight on stage last night. Etta, singing for 5 decades still has an amazing voice, and the 9 peice band was very tight, all top musicans. What a show

Earth & Sky

Minnesota North Shore wonders

Bright Sun Shine

No more snow... No more ice...

Running along the streams and ponds this week holds and keeps me as we move towards Easter.

His Name is Les…

First rainy day, complete with lightening storm!

At first look… single, drinks – often too much, normally has a live-in girl friend – for short periods of time, has a continues very witty sense of humor – although often “R” rated, and he was my neighbor. In fact if anyone in our neighborhood knew how to be a neighbor it was Les. As a “Christian” I don’t know that I thought very highly of Les. But when I needed to build a deck it was Les who coached, loaned tools, and taught me how to build runners for stairs. When I needed to learn how to tile a section in my basement, it was Les who was came over to help lay tile. It was Les who bought a Cotton Candy machine that occasionally was put out in the front yard and kids from blocks away showed up for an impromptu sidewalk celebration. When I blew a head gasket on my car and had no money, it was Les who said, “That is an easy job, let me do it.” Les did this for every neighbor, no matter who or what they thought of him.

It was during the handing of wrenches and screwdrivers as he performed his magic on my car that we talked theology. It was during this conversation that I learned Les had an incredible faith, that he understood grace, and that he understood what it meant to love one’s neighbor. It had been a long time sense Les entered into a church. But he seemed to understand better than anyone I knew what it meant to be a neighbor, how to live out the Good Samaritan story, how to love and not use words.

Les eventually sold his house, bought a house boat on the Mississippi, fixed it up and floated away from Minneapolis ending up somewhere in the Florida Keys. I think of Les often, wondering if I learned anything about being a real “Christian” from this odd prophet who preached without words.

backward and forward

Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, observes that we understand our lives looking backward, but we plan our lives looking forward.

So, for me, looking backwards there are disappointments, losses, weaknesses, misunderstandings, grief, unexpected changes, loneliness and tragedy in my life. Certainly these things are a part of me. But who I am has been more shaped by the fingerprints of miraculous events, beautiful places and wonderful loving people. These are the powerful marks that have touched and molded my understanding of life.

I have plans, visions of possibilities, and great hopes as I look forward.

For now, however, my life is paused somewhere between the backward and the forward. As a friend pointed out, there is also the being. Maybe most important is the being in the now. Enjoying, experiencing and being thankful for the present.

Birds and Fog

The morning choral arrangements performed by Robins, Cedar Wax Wings, Red Wing Black Birds, Geese, and Ducks is becoming fuller and richer as new members arrive daily. A bit in the fog, I still find my way, as my mind plans tomorrow evenings session on prayer.

A Memory

Cedar Falls High School, my junior year, a science class, strangely enough called Edible Plants class. It was a rather odd botany study where we learned what to eat in the woods. The old Grape Nuts commercial with Eual Gibbons, “Ever eat a pine cone? Some parts are edible, still sticks in my memory. Doug Holmes sat next to me in that class. I remember telling him about my last two summers working at Ingawanis Boy Scott camp outside of Waverly, IA. He in turn told me about his last summer at a Lutheran camp called EWALU outside of Strawberry Point, IA. In the conversation he suggested I apply.

One of the most pivotal moments in my life was that moment in time sitting in that science class. If I had not been there that day, my life would have taken a different direction. It was just a moment. Nothing flashed, or seemed out of the ordinary. It was not a recognizable moment of significance at the time. That conversation would take me to a place that would shape my life, my occupation, my vocation, my values, my beliefs, my church, many key relationships, my wife, my family, and so many other amazing directions.

Nor would have I spent the afternoon and evening with my sons eating out and enjoying comedian Jim Gaffigan at the Pantages Theater (opened 1916). Very ornate theater on Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis.

Snowy week

Very little out door running as we had two March snow storms!
Getting back to it the last few days.

Week highlight.
Jamie Cullum in concert. One of the best performers I have seen.

Jamie Cullum Web Sight

Robin & SNAPSHOTS

first robin down by the pond during today's run

SNAPSHOTS:
LIFE IN THE CITY
click to go their site

Nathan picked up tickets for this. I had no real idea what I was going to see. This was absolutely an amazing performance. The plot was woven together by David Grant from hundreds of stories, scenarios and poems written by kids in the Twin Cities. J.D. Steele put it all to music. The energy, emotion and depth was breathtaking. The audience could do nothing but jump to their feet and applaud at the end. This was not a polite standing ovation, this was an “I have to stand and applaud wildly.”

If you liked RENT you will love this. I would even place it a notch or two above! Don’t miss it.

Home Sweet Office!

Welcome to the new office. Stop in any time!

The music is playing, the coffee is hot and the candle is burning.

Beavers and Bands

Beavers are hard at work taking down trees and stripping the bark by the stream.

Too many puddles and too much mud for a good run.


The Gloria guys also hard at work! Got to hear them at the Tripple Rock Sunday night.

NEW LOOK and NEW great song went up last night on MY SPACE! Click to hear.



“There was a child went forth every day and the first object he looked upon, that object he became. And that object became part of him for a day or for many years, or stretching cycles of years…” –Walt Whitman

What is the object or picture or thought that you want to offer that will become part of someone else?

BE

Ps 46:10
"Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth." (NRSV)

In the beginning is the Word. God gives us this Word in a cosmic act of creation, in the cosmic gift of his son, and finally in a cosmic act of the spirit. Through the spirit God amazingly trusts us humans to be vessels containing this wonderful and mysterious good news Word. God trusts us and honors us to communicate this good news Word just by our very being in and amongst the world.

Prayer:

Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be

I the midst of my own busy world, in the midst of both my personal great joys and great pains, life’s mountain peaks and the desserts I daily repeat this prayer. It is a simple prayer adapted from Ps 46:10 with the origin unknown, but introduced to me through Father Richard Rohr’s writings. For me God speaks loudest in stillness and the unexpected simplicity of being. God’s loving eyes stay with me even when I find my own gaze directed unintentionally, sometimes intentionally, away, or sometimes way too inward. Somehow as I pray this prayer I sense, I trust, I believe, I know, that God is. All my doubts cease. It is by my very being that God’s love and grace reach out in ways that I may never understand.

God was hiding...

Nick joined me today! I had a hard time keeping up. I think it was the cold, or maybe the sun was in my eyes. I'm sure there was a good excuse.

“I had expected to meet God in the lives of those who were whole, instead God was hiding in the lives of the broken.” -Mike Ycaonelli

When have you been surprised to find God hiding in someone you didn't expect?

Now and Now and Now

Great winter run day to be in the now and now and now!

We can not attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness. Little do we realize that God is maintaining us in existence with every breath we take. As we take another it means that God is choosing us now and now and now. –Richard Rohr

When is a time you expereince awarness?