Don't curse the Road!

"'tis better to keep walking, than to curse the road" African proverb sighted in St. Paul.

Sometimes the road we are on isn't the road we wish we were on. But it is better to keep going, than to curse our situation, whine and moan and get nowhere! Lent begins tomorro, March 1st, in the Lutheran Calendar. So tonight we are having a friend over for pancakes, with all the gooey toppings we can find; syrup, chocolate, strawberries, pineapple, peanut butter. Maybe not all at once, but they will all be on the table. Then we begin in ernest the walk to the cross that is the season of lent.

In New Orleans and all over people will be celebrating "Fat Tuesday" with much more vigor and "fat" than we are. It is a way to keep walking in the face of a more somber road. We head into the season of Lent with singing and dancing and enjoying the gifts of God. Then we spend forty days contemplating and reflecting on those gifts, especially God's greatest gift, that of the life of his Son. It is a road to be cursed, the road to the cross, but as Christians, we know that at the end of that cursed road is the empty grave of Easter. To keep walking is to walk towards a goal greater than the road.

All things are made new

How long has it been since you were awed by a carrot peeler? My 2-year old son Jonah watched me peel carrots yesterday and exclaimed "Wow!" He was overjoyed at the news that the cleaners would come to Grandma's house today saying "That's very nice of them!" We get older and more jaded by life and forget that carrot peels are really cool! If you are only 4 months old, even toes are new!
Reminds me that "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.
All things can be new again: carrot peelings, the cleaners coming, the trash truck. Or in our daily routine; a new e-mail from an old friend, a different shadow out the window, a new word out of our child's mouth. We are constantly being reborn in Christ, as the waters of baptism pour through our lives, not just once but every day, renewing our strength, our passions and our lives.

A whole new world

We've anchored for the moment in St. Anthony Park, MN. A self-proclaimed small village in a big city, it is a far cry from the suburbs that we came from. There are wonderful old homes with character and too many steps. There are detached garages and steep driveways, and back alleys. There are SIDEWALKS! There are even places to walk to! From my inlaw's home we can walk to a corner grocery, hardware store, post office, two churches, several cafes and the library. And that's just the beginning. It's hard to see in the photo, but you can see downtown Minneapolis from our front porch!

It's been wonderful to put the kids in the stroller and go check the mail. This usually isn't an easy task in January, but it's been really warm, 45 degrees one day last week! I am stiffer than I have been in a long time, some combination of the weather and the walking.

Another difference between MN and NY are the shoes. I fell in love with clogs and slip-ons when I came to visit a few years ago, but then never could find much in the way of selection "back home". Now I come here, and every other woman is wearing clogs. The selections in the stores seem bigger too!

Maybe it's for real. Maybe it's just the stores my Mother in Law takes me to!! But either way, it's a whole new world here, and I'm getting used to it, even as I miss the people back east!



thebigboat

We're Here!

After 1200 plus miles and 28 hours we have arrived in St. Paul Minnesota! It is good to be in our new "home". Right now we are living with Peter's parents until our house sells and we find a new one here.

The Dads drove the big 26' truck, and Peter and I drove Miriam in the minivan. It was a rather uneventful trip, especially for mid-January. We hit the road about 6:30 AM after saying goodbye to Noah, and just kept driving.

We had lunch south of Buffalo, and finally stopped for dinner in Sturgis. ( I'm not sure how we got to South Dakota without going through Chicago!)

Tuesday we got rained on as we drove around Chicago, but no ice. It dried up during our long stretch through Wisconsin, and we arrived in St. Paul by supper time.

All is cold here, not much snow. Jonah got new hair!

More later!

thebigboat