Run #10: 34 min.

It was a struggling run today. 80 degrees or so again, intermittent light wind. Many thoughts. So I decided to go all the way around the lake this time, but spent a good deal of time walking and praying too.

The mansions - it's funny, maybe they look different when you're wearing your sunglasses or something, but they've been catching my eyes more often this week. Not that I'm lusting after living in them...I don't know what I'd do with so much space! (Well, actually, I do, I'd probably just invite everyone to live w/me! ;P)

They made me think of a discussion I had this week w/a guy at The Beat Coffee - he was suggesting that maybe the Bible didn't really have much to say about the afterlife to us and was more concerned about social justice. I think it's likely he was just swinging the pendulum in the neglected direction out of reaction to the imbalances he'd experienced in the churches he'd been in, which I know I'VE certainly done a time or two - it often needs doing before we find a balance... In fact we're probably never perfectly balanced and our pendulums nearly always off center, but I think they swing less wildly perhaps as we grow older and we self-correct ourselves much sooner after we've seen a few more rotations 'round the sun.

Anyway, THAT was not the point I meant to make here (and at the time I think I only said that part of the hope of eternity in scripture is that everything is seen and known and justice will eventually be given perfectly)... but it made me look at these wonderful houses and think of what Jesus said to his disciples in the book of John when he was foretelling his departure and they were kind of freaking out -

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

I think it's interesting that the King James Version (KJV) translated it as 'My father's house has many mansions'...and the New International Version (NIV) says 'rooms'. I can't see it mattering too much one way or another. If someone who knows everything about you and loves you enough to die for you creates - not a mix tape/cd but a guest room or guest house for you to be near them, then I can't see that it could fail to be exactly what you need and desire. And if we have any inkling of who he is, THAT is the real focus - more important than Bono or the president or whatever person of importance you would love to be near, as any creativity or intelligence they have all reside in him and come from him! Could you imagine Jesus singing in the evening while you are falling asleep next door? In Revelation 1:15, his voice is "like the voice of many waters". It's a good image to me (although perhaps it's terrifying in person). I'm a water girl. I pray best beside water. Part of this may be being Minnesotan.

Well, I'm totally rambling today when I'm supposed to just be talking about my run. The run was very intermittent and hard and I was thankful for my ipod and Hoi Polloi, Ingrid Michaelson, The Ivys, and Over the Rhine today (H-O). Oh I hope the summer cools off a bit!

* photo lifted from luxist.com

* not my favorite mansion - my favorite had it's work done by 'Cousins Brick & Stone' which I cannot find a website for! - and looks like a large Hansel & Gretel sort of cottage

Run #9: 31 min.

Today. 80+ degrees. Supposedly a light wind but nary a ripple on the lake, until just at the end. Seemed like a wasteland compared to the weekend. Very few folks out & about. Clouds overhead. Felt like running through hot jello.

Saw a short stone path next to the water I'd never seen before. And there was a girl sleeping under a weeping willow; she looked cozy. Tommy calls those 'emo trees'. :)

Bees in the flowers. Summer.

*Photo from connectingwithnature.org

Run #8: 40 min.

July 3. 77+ degrees w/a light wind. It was a BEAUTIFUL run. I don't know if it was just the way of the sun hitting everything, but the mansions around the lake were so much more lovely than usual. The streets were full of runners and bikers and walkers and the water full of couples canoeing and folks kayaking. It was all in motion. When I stopped to do my situps (40 this time), I saw a little ladybug on a stickler. A white middle-to-upper class man ran inexplicably barefoot around the lake on the hot pavement. The city breathed in...and out.

* Art by Robin Street-Morris

Update on Ministry Trip Ideas: Stop 1 - South Dakota?

Ok, so this isn't anything final...but, while traveling, my roommate Kaitlin emailed me and told me she had put down an offer on a house and gave me the update on what that might mean for me housing-wise in the near future. This happened a time or two until one of the offers was accepted. Now, if the inspection goes well, I'll be needing to move most likely at the end of August. She doesn't mind if I move earlier. So this changes my view toward Tommy's August trip to Aberdeen, South Dakota. To refresh your memory, he has plans to spend a month working with the mentally disabled there on a creative project of some sort, to assist the ministry and coffeehouse, and in return they will be mentoring him in fundraising (which will be a bigger part of what he may need to do going forward w/his music consultancy work w/church plants etc.), and giving him a stipend for the month as one of their interns recently left, opening up some room in the budget. (This is a new development; he was initially just volunteering to do it for free because it is on his heart.) His biggest struggle with this is being away from me for so long, so early in our relationship.

I've wondered if the change in housing situation may make it possible to join Tommy on this first plan. I have seen Dan Cleberg (who runs the Red Rooster coffeehouse and the Fallout Creative Community out there with his wife Angie) speak before at an Urban Ministries Training Week with Source Ministries - and I STILL tell people one of the stories he told* at that, even 10 years later. So it wouldn't be too terrible to spend some time out there with such great folks. :) I'm willing to go if I'm not paying rent anywhere here, and if I can make money there for a month, perhaps by temping. Storage would not cost too much, altho' I don't want to move my stuff twice. Perhaps I can strike a deal either with my present or future roomies to accept $ for storage for 1 month?

Tommy's checked, and per the Clebergs, I could stay in the 'piano room' of the community house for the month if I wished, and there is reportedly a temp agency in Aberdeen. Once we find out for sure the details on that, I will contact them to see what I can do in advance to find placement for the month, if anything.

Oh! I've forgotten to mention - we've both gone through orientation this past week with eXtreme Loyalty Marketing, and have flexible sales jobs we are going to try out this summer, selling those great cards with free/discounted oil changes and other services door to door. (At least my sis and aunt say they're great!) We might love it or hate it, but it will be some non-office-job time outside together (working opposite sides of the street) in the sun, with potential to make some really good money. I'll probably look into temping also, just because it sounds like I'll need to stay in office work for awhile to qualify for a loan to get a house sometime - Kaitlin says they want you to have been in the same 'field' for many years; unfortunately that is never how I've lived and I get fearfully bored if I don't change things up. And of course I want to find a temp agency w/some medical insurance because the temporary kind I am on can only be used for 1 year. We'll see how it goes. My agency was so great with their benefits in NYC; I don't know if there are any comparable agencies here.

Re: the house dream - it's not necessarily the normal 'American Dream' thing, it's more that my family here doesn't have any 'guest room' available for me and wherever I (or I and Tommy) may be led to move futurely, it's nice to have a bed to sleep in when you come home for the holidays (not a futon or air mattress)...and a place to leave your books and such. Could be rented out when I am away... that's the thought anyway.

Ok enough rambling! I'll put the Dan Cleberg story in a note below just because it's unfair to allude to it and not share.

* The context of this story was (I think) in a discussion about prayer walks, and specifically how it's always good to go through your community and pray for God to fill the empty lots or buildings with good things. Dan had prayed for a particular space in the neighborhood.

At the same time, he had this guy who would come into the coffeehouse on a regular basis who wasn't very keen on God but LOVED the band Kiss. So whenever Dan would be out at a garage sale or something and see a Kiss album, he would pick it up and give it to this guy for his collection, just as a way to show him love.

Anyhow, time went by and the space Dan had prayed for was purchased by a church. One day he came into work and a whole pile of all the Kiss albums he'd ever given this guy were there, under the register. Next time he saw the guy, the guy said he'd given his life to Christ at this new church and he didn't feel these records were good for his spiritual life, so he brought them back. I don't know one way or the other since I'm not really acquainted w/the band, but anyhow, it was a fun story.

Run #7: 31 min.

July 2. About 75+ degrees. Has been hot as blazes this week so I'm yet another run behind. But there were heat advisories telling people not to even play tennis! "Kids, don't play tennis today!" So I stayed inside, watched movies, dyed my hair bright red & worked on catching up/finishing my travel blog, among other things.

This run, tho' 'twas hot, wasn't so bad. The air smelled of summery flowers. People sunned themselves in the grass around the lake. All good.