unwrapped

On Friday night K&L came over for dinner. They arrived with a small gift wrapped in soft, pink paper. I received it, thanked them and left it as we moved to food, wine, coffee and conversation. (K- I still have no idea how you resisted the choc chip friands with hot fudge sauce & ice cream!?!) The next day I realised that by leaving the gift unwrapped I had done the polite thing in Cambodian culture, but here in Sydney maybe I should have opened the it in front of them?

The gift was a small book of questions and poems by the “connoisseur of fine words” Cameron M. Semmens. Here are three of my favourite quotes from my reading so far, with thanks to my Friday night guests : )

What if crows started flying crooked?
How would we know how far it is
directly from one point to another?
Could pelicans take over?
With tape measures flowing from their expendable beaks,
they’d be the perfect replacement.
Why aren’t there any catchy phrases involving pelicans?

Why be good when you can seem good?
Why be yourself when you can act like someone else?
Why be honest
when people would rather a good story?

Should I eat and drink righteousness or should I just hunger and thirst for it?

all the other days...

I think have an average of 2 or 3 highly productive days every month. On productive days I’m organised, focused and efficient. I think, write, work, plan, make bookings, send emails, return phone calls, clean and make lists.... Things get done, I love my work and life is excellent!

The only question is: what on earth do I do on all the other days?

37 days to go...

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

I know I've blogged this quote before but there's something great about taking on a new challenge. A dare. An adventure. A risk. An escapade.

In 37 days I will line up to start my first marathon. (That's 42.195km or 26 miles 385 yards in USspeak.) I plan to finish. Even if I only do it once. To this end I've been preparing for Pacific Crest every day for weeks and weeks... even though the actual event will take up less than half a day! I run between 8 and 30+ km per day, six days a week. I do long runs, pace runs, short runs and a couple of practice race runs. That's without mentioning the spin classes at gym, swims, walks or whatever else...

But the preparation itself is pretty fun! A couple of weeks ago I was in Canberra for some meetings. In between I squeezed in a few runs including an amazing 22K run around Lake Burley Griffin. Running around the lake in Australia's Capital was small something that was a first for me.... a beautiful, peaceful, prayerful run in the middle of the city.

Kisses

This is a weekend for kisses! My cousin Michael married Karen yesterday. Congratulations! It was a lovely, relaxed wedding with stunning views across Manly for photos like these... and no shortage of sunshine. Tomorrow is mother's day. I think mum is happy that both her kiddies are in town... : )

me DVD

Today I watched a DVD of myself. (It isn't something I do often.) There's me presenting at FFBC on May 4 about Cambodia. There I am again- this time preaching. I appear relaxed and sincere. I surprise myself with the number of times I smile. There are some notes in front of me but I don't use them much... I remember the feelings as I spoke, the moment I glanced at the clock at the back of the room, the points when I prayed people would hear something that connected with them in their context.

One of the reasons I started blogging what that I had finished preaching regularly and missed having an audience! I realise that preaching and venting aren't exactly the same thing but I guess I needed to find my voice again from the silence of moving into a new culture and not being able to communicate in the strange Khmer tongue.

Now I'm back in the pulpit but finding that three-service Sundays take it out of me! I come home on Sunday night and think that there can't possibly be anything more than needs to be said. And as I watch the DVD I notice that there is a lot of me in there. I'm vulnerable. So I trust that something worthwhile is communicated as my stories tumble out in churches around Sydney. I will get back to posting here...finding the fun things and the silly things too...knowing that there are but a few copies of the me DVD.