For Love of the Game

Last night I experienced another first in my life. My first time attending a Pro Football game. The Seattle Seahawks vs. the Oakland Raiders. A pre-season game that serves no other purpose than to get fans and players a like riled up for the season ahead.

Maren's uncle was out of town so his 4 season ticket on the club level were us for grabs. So Maren, Braden, Brian and I gladly volunteered to fill the seat so that our Hawks would not feel abandoned.

Football fans are a fun bunch of people to observe. I was even inspired to join them by dawning a Seahawks hardhat. The announcers at the game informed us that the Seahawks have the loudest fans in the NFL. And I believe them. I have never heard anything like the sound of a packed stadium cheering in unison like that.

Braden was gracious enough to spend sometime at the beginning of the game explaining some of the nuances of the game to me so that I could better appreciate the game. And Football, it turns out, is quite a complicated game. I still have much to learn but I definitely have a new found appreciation and enjoyment of the game after having experienced it first hand.

The kick off!

Brian, Braden, Maren, and Me

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention. The Seahawks made us proud and won the game. Quite the first Pro game experience if I do say so myself.

Why I Love to Knit

During certain busier, more stressful seasons I find myself turning back to my knitting. There is something very calming about knitting.

You start with nothing but a ball of yarn and 2 needles, then before you know it the yarn has been transformed into something beautiful, something useful. I think I love this aspect of knitting so much because the progress in life is not always so easy to see. It is encouraging to see something come to completion when most areas of life are left open and unresolved. I become hopeful that the loose strings of my life can also be woven into so fine and useful a pattern.


There is comfort, too, in the rythmn of knitting. The steady motion, the clicking of the neddles with each stitch. I find myself hypnotized by this rythmn and all my worries fade away. I concentrate on the pattern I am creating. I focus on each stitch as I make it. I get lost in the music of knit and purl.

Wandering in the Desert

So is it really considered being lost if you never knew where you were going in the first place?

Saturday morning a group of 12 headed east to go backpacking near the Columbia River Gorge. I had never been east of the Cascades so I was excited for a change in scenery. The intended destination of our journey was Ancient Lakes. We got to the trailhead about 1:30 and the desert sun was high and hot. I was happy that our destination was a lake, which I was planning on jumping in to cool off.

Although none on the trip had made the hike before we had read a description of the trail and the destination. We know if was roughly 3-4 miles to the lakes and little else. Not long after we started on the trail we realized that there were no signs anywhere to lead us and forks in the trail every 50 yards or so. We wandered the dusty desert trail for two and a half hours seeing no signs of water anywhere. Were the Ancient Lakes so ancient that they had long since dried up? We decided it was wise to head back in the direction that we had come since we were drinking our water supply away and definitly needed to find some source of water. Plus we had traveled more than the 3-4 miles and still saw no water.

We soon discovered the we had made the wrong choice several forks back and while we did not end up at the intended Ancient Lake we found ourselves at the shore of neighboring Dusty Lake. Let me just say that I let out a loud hallelujah as we came up over the final hill and I could see the water just a short distance off. We quickly ditched our packs and released our feet from the confines of our hiking boots. And a few of us even braved the water of Dusty Lake. One of the most refreshing swims of my life!

We pitched our tents, enjoyed sharing stories, laughing, devouring our dinner and even used the strobe feature on out headlamps for a dance party. I love the simple, quirky pleasures that come to be when you are left with only yourself and the people you are with out in open, wild spaces. It is good to be reminded of how little we need in order to find joy.

I didn't take to many pictures but here are a few...

The Wisdom of Kincaid Chance

I have been reading my way through The Brothers K by David James Duncan. It is a book that came to me highly recommended and I would recommend it just as highly. But that is not why I am writing. I wanted to share a few lines that I read from this beautiful book this week.

These are the thoughts of Kincaid, the youngest of the Chance brothers, and the narrator of the story.

"It's incredible to me how blithely even intelligent people sometimes toss around terms like 'transcendence' and 'crucifixion.' The words move us on paper. They feel noble upon the tongue. But when they cease to be sounds and begin to caress the flesh and bones, when they leave the page and get physical, there is little that even the best of us wouldn't do to escape them. (Matthew 26:39: Jesus 'went a little further, and fell on his face...')"

How poetically the struggle between the the desire to be transformed and the comfort of staying as we are has been captured. I know I wrestle with this most days. I am glad that Kincaid has reminded me that even Christ himself did wrestle too.