It's Not Jeopardy....It's Love

Right now I'm loving Sugarland's new album Love on the Inside. It's good. I mean really good. It's... roll the windows down, crank up the volume, sing as loud as you want and dance in the car without caring what the person next to you at the stop light thinks... good.

There is a song on the album titled Love. The premise of the song is this. If the answer is love, then what is the question. The song attempts to answer that with potential questions whose answer is love.

So I ask. If the answer is love, what would you say is the question?

Up, Up & Away

For years now I have wanted to parasail. Why, I don't know. I'm not the daredevil, seek out adventure kind of person. But something about parasailing intrigued me. So, when I went on my mini vacation, I decided to give it a shot.

Lucky for me I have two friends who were kind enough to come on the boat with me. Cindy started out strictly as a passenger but somewhere along the way decided to sail with me. Mandy stuck to her guns as an observer and took some truly spectacular pictures as our on board photographer.I knew I didn't want to go first. I wanted to see what I was in for. The 'captain' asked who wanted to go first and this little kid raised his hand. So the captain sent up the only couple on the outing first instead. So glad he asked who was going first. Seems we didn't have a choice for our order and Cindy and I ended up last.

The other guy on the boat got us both strapped into this swing type seat. As he was tying the swing seat to my life jacket he proceeded to calmly tell me to be aware of sharks. Just yesterday, he said, there was a whole school of them following the boat. Uh huh. And one of them was named Jaws right? Nice try dude.

It was our turn. We made our way to the back of the boat, got hooked up to the parasail itself and there was no turning back from there. Once attached we were suddenly flying and I do mean flying backward into the air. Seriously, that thing just shoots you up there. You can tell by my face that I'm not exaggerating.It's a very odd feeling. Once you get up to a certain height (I'm not even going to begin to guess how high up we were) you just kind of float in the air. You can hear the wind in the sail. You can also hear the quiet, except for Cindy and I questioning our sanity.
We were looking around and below at the boats, jet skis, beach, buildings etc. All of a sudden we are leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Or just lifted even higher into the air. Seriously, we were high up there. I looked down and our boat was so small. It looked like a toy.After what felt like days being left up there, we were suddenly being reeled in like giant fish. Slowly we crept out of the sky. In order to land we were told to keep our legs out straight and we would be gently place on the back of the boat. Obedient little bees that we are, we did as we were told and landed safely on the back of the boat.
I haven't been that happy to see land since I got off the plane on my way back from Turkey in 2004.

We did it. Another adventure under my belt. Although I'm not ready to sign up and go again this weekend, I am glad that I did it. And I am especially glad that Cindy went with me and Mandy was on the boat and taking pictures. Especially glad.

This, after all, is the great adventure and I'm glad that I've been given adventurers to travel with.

Operation Mini Vacation

I spent this past long weekend down in Virginia Beach visiting with some friends from college. It was so good to be with them. We have known each other for 16 years now, considering we met during freshman year. Actually Cindy and I met our first day arriving on campus since we were suitemates. I met Mandy shortly there after.

There is something to be said for spending time with people with whom you have a history. Although we have drifted in and out of each other’s lives over the years, I can’t help but think of them often. They each played an integral part in both my spiritual and life journeys. They come up in stories I tell about college life.

And now, after this weekend, they’ll come up again in stories I tell about crazy adventures I’ve been privileged to take. Who knows how many more they may be in in the future. After all, friends are friends forever……

Is It Me?

It's summer. It's vacation season. People are going places. Or having a 'staycation' instead. I get it.

What I don't get is people who write on their Facebook account that they are 'having a blast at [insert place here]' or 'loving being on vacation in [insert place here].' I can't help but wonder, if you are having such a blast and loving being wherever it is that you are, what in the world are you doing on Facebook? Maybe it's just me.

do you think this is true?

Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best. God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best and man will not take it. -George Macdonald

Now that is going to take some time to sink in.

Timber!

So there I am in CVS, innocently looking at their beach chairs (that are 25% off this week, by the way). For some reason they are all stacked on top of the shelves. Maybe they had no where else to put them? I don't know. I pulled a couple off the shelf to make sure they opened and closed. I took them for a test drive, aka sat in them. I decided on the one I wanted.

Rather than leave the ones I pulled off the shelf on the floor (as some people are in the habit of doing) I decided I would put them back up on top of the shelf. I placed one back up. I folded the next and put that on top of it, which is how I found it. In my effort to make sure it wouldn't fall off the top shelf and knock someone in the head, apparently I pushed a tad too hard. On the shelf behind the one I was re-stacking there was a row of ugly Igloo coolers. My attempt to return the chair resulted in several Igloo coolers becoming one with the floor. With great flair from what I could hear. (Hey, if you're going to do it might as well do it well.)

So I did what anyone else would have done. I pretended like it wasn't me and went about my business. Oh come on; you would have done the same thing.

*Note: no people or ugly Igloo coolers were harmed in the telling of this tale.