Pre-K Graduation

One of their last days of school

Just graduated

Elias and his beloved Ms.Pam

And one more of the boys

The Recently Ingested Quote

We don't know how to take joy in simple things anymore because, frankly, we are sated. You and I have had so much thrown at us! Unless we choose to deliberately under-stimulate ourselves, I don't think we can reasonably talk about spirituality. We don't really taste, suffer, enjoy, feel the images that come our way.


Westerners have a mania for experience. Descartes said, I think, therefore I am. For us it is I experience, therefore I am. But I'm pretty much convinced experiences don't change people; realization does. I think of all the powerful experiences that I've had. But only when I taste my experiences enough so they become realizations, do I change. That takes time and space. Put time and space together and you have a new definition of silence.

We've got to create some kind of space so our images can become realizations. Unless we choose silence, I don't think a lot of this is going to happen. I don't think were going to become willing people. We become, instead, willful people, trying to make the world fit our needs. Will triumphs instead of the Spirit. Silence alone is spacious enough to allow Spirit and to let go of will-fullness. Silence makes us willing instead of willful.

- Richard Rohr

Garden To Table: Snap Beans

Picking the snap beans. We planted two varieties this year- Royal Burgundy and Roc D'Or.

Snapping the ends off of the beans.

Frying the beans (1 part wheat flour, 1 part cornmeal, Tony's for seasoning.)

Voila. Fried Snap Beans alongside an organic, free-range, grass-finished, Gotreaux Farms Longhorn beef burger.

E's Clone Wars Party

Clone Wars cake

Five you are.

Will gave light saber lessons and the kids jumped on fun-jump.

We played pin the light saber on Yoda.

Darth Vader pinata ("What's a party without a pinata?"...Elias)

The unwelcome guest

Ryan served up sno-cones for all those sweaty kids and adults!

MC Hammer, He Is Not

Stevie Ray Vaughn, I am not.

Semper Audio

Those of you that have only followed this blog probably don't realize that I had a blog from 2003 - 2006. It was on the coolest domain ever- Wimpkiller.com. I loved talking blog specs with other bloggers, "'Hey what are you on? Blogspot? Wordpress? Typepad?' No, I'm on Wimpkiller!" I wrote about pretty much anything and thoroughly enjoyed blogging until I read a quote by AW Tozer- The scribe writes what he has read. The prophet writes what he has seen and in between them is a gulf as vast as the ocean. I originally read the quote while sitting at the beach. I was perched on a rock at the end of a small stone outcropping in Bei Dai He, China, looking out at the Bohai Gulf. It was a cool moment where the metaphor I read was laid out right in front of me. I reread the book in 2004 and was floored by it. I skimmed the book looking for quotes in 2006 and the one I just mentioned punched me in the face. A few months earlier, during a time of contemplative prayer with my church, God invited me to journey with him into "the land of the prophet". I jumped at the opportunity but hadn't followed through with it at all. AW Tozer's words called me out and I knew I had to cut out some of the scribe-like things in my life to make room for God's voice. As a result, I killed the blog (Without backing it up. I was a Stupid.).

Fast forward two years (really? has it been that long?) and here I sit, blogging again, which begs the question of what I've done with the quote and God's invitation.

When someone says that God speaks to them, I quite often have an internal roll of my eyes... the cynic in me cries out that their version of God's voice sounds a lot like their own voice. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when dudes as cool as AW Tozer or Richard Foster write about hearing from God, I put them on a pedestal. That kind of intimacy with God is reserved for saints, not me.

I don't believe that any more.


Catholic theologian/monk Richard Rohr points out that the Spanish word for God is Dios. The Latin word it is derived from is Deus. The Greek word Deus is derived from is Zeus... the grand deity of Greek mythology. See the jump from Greek to Latin to Spanish there? That isn't just a linguistic oddity it is also a theological oddity. Zeus lived on clouds, was a mixed bag of emotions, and was distant. The Hebrew God was present, consistent, and intimate. He was slow to anger and abounding in love. Jesus told us that if we accept his invitation, we can truly know Him. I realized when I read Richard Rohr's observation that I needed to reform my ideas of God... in my mind he was too much like the Sistine chapel's version of God and not enough like the God of the scriptures.

Regarding my cynicism, it makes sense that God will be present in our days if he is near. It also makes sense that we'll hear him speak if we're in tune with his presence. I've been fortunate enough to have God put me in places where the people around me modeled what it looks like to live a life that hears God's voice so the jump into hearing Him hasn't been that difficult for me.

Sorry, I usually give the long answer before I give the short one- yes, I hear God in prayer. Sometimes it is simply, "I love you, Dallas, and am so happy that I made you." Other times it is more specific to the pain and concerns of my days. Sometimes, it's simply working in my garden and God surprising me with a metaphor that tells His story. Recently, I was reading a book on prayer and meditation and the author said "Don't be surprised when you start listening for God's voice that he tells you how much he loves you."

Those words are so true. As true as the voice that speaks them to us.

My big boy is 5 today!

Happy Birthday Elias Luc! I still remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. We were so excited to meet our little man and I just can't believe you are now 5 and such a big boy! I love you a zillion, kazillion, a trillion!
Love, Mommy