Tons of stuff swirling around inside my head at the end of these weeks of study leave. Hopefully it’s lots of fodder for future posts. Since I didn’t really get to post when we got back from our time in the mountains, and haven’t posted for this week just past, I thought I’d throw out a few quick thoughts…
Week 3:
- Someone asked why I hadn’t taken any/many pictures of the family. Well…it rained for a lot of the time, so unless you wanted to see pictures of us sleeping (or eating!), it wouldn’t have been very interesting.
- Nevertheless, when the weather cleared, I decided to take
a break from photographing the the fungi-tour of the Cherokee National Forest and post some pictures from our unsuccessful attempt to hike up to Rock Creek Falls.
- We had a blast harvesting homegrown apples and grapes (for pies) and crab apples (for jelly) at my Mom’s. Catherine prepared & froze as many of the apples as she could so we can have fresh pies and cobblers to remember the adventure.
- We spent part of one day at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport, the largest city-owned park in the United States. They have a number of displays and trails, and we enjoyed a few hours there with the animals.
- For years, the Chamber of Commerce
has referred to Unicoi County (where I grew up) as “The Valley Beautiful,” and just before we left, the weather cleared enough for me to get a few pictures of just what they mean. You can see them all here.
- For me, being able to take the time to slow down (sometimes figuratively) and take in the magnalia Dei–the marvelous works of God–through the lens of a camera is deeply refreshing. Pausing to notice the light coming through the lichen, or the mushroom no larger than the end of your little finger, or the butterfly pausing on the thistle-blossom re-calibrates my spirit. When I have my camera in nature, I force myself to slow down and look and strive to really see.
One of the last things we did was to get a copy of the book about what may be the most well-known fact about Unicoi County: The Hanging of Murderous Mary the Elephant on September 13, 1916. You can read the Wikipedia article here.- Honestly, there are just some things you just can’t make up!
- We headed back to Virginia in the rain, which made it like driving in a 400 mile car wash. No fun.
- Eventually we got ahead of the rain, and we stopped in Crewe, Virginia, where we discovered the pleasures of Mint Chocolate Moon Pies.
- The rest of Week 3 was spent unpacking, and getting back into the groove of some projects around the house.
Week 4:
- After 3 weeks out of the office, I began to ease back into the routine this week. Most of my first day back was spent over the trash can–sorting the mountain of mail that had accumulated.
- Tuesday through Thursday we had our Kid’s Music Day Camp at the church, so it was kinda crazy for most of the morning those days.
- There were several key phone calls and meetings that came together during the week, and I continue to be in awe of what God is doing and preparing.
- Now I’m getting back in the groove preparing for Sunday’s message, Don’t Go To Church.
- Next week we’ve got our Cradock Community Day, an outreach event we’re co-sponsoring on Afton Square, and I’ll be launching a new series called Mutant Christianity.
- For now, I’m back out to untying all the stuff we tied down in anticipation of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Earl. While I know some areas got hammered, we’ve had higher winds in March and more moisture in a heavy dew. Oh well….
- Looking forward to the rest of the Labor Day Weekend, and to being back in the pulpit on Sunday.
- See ya there!
