thoughts from the deep recesses

Hiking is one of my favorite past times... so I was clamoring all weekend for a family hike since we had three whole days off together... However, when Monday rolled around, it turned out our kids were tired from sleepovers and scrambling to finish up procratinated homework and no one was interested in going on a family hike. Except me and Asia. So we went. We commented several times how strange it was to be hiking alone - relating more to the empty-nesters we saw on the trail than the families... but we didn't let it spoil our afternoon. The Spokesman Review on Sunday had an article listed some local-ish hikes to waterfalls... we picked the one closest to us and went for it. And it was an amazing hike. My phone camera has some distortion going on here I think... our heads aren't really  that elongated... For my local friends, it's in Liberty Lake County Park... you drive to the campground and the trailhead sits at the far end. It's a beautiful hike - alm

We began a new series of sermons at church on Sunday. Sermons from the minor prophets. Beginning with Jonah. And in the first three verses, I'm already blown away: Jonah Flees From the LORD 1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Russ, our dear friend and the person who gave the sermon, simply asked, "What is your Ninevah?" And at first, of course, because I think I'm pretty cool and together most of the time, I thought "Oh, I don't have a Ninevah. I always do whatever God asks of me... After all, I am going to Africa in a few weeks." (Oh, how pride goes before the fall...) And then, over the course of the re

  Sunday, May 1st  was Bloomsday. In Spokane, that means that over 50,000 people take to the streets for the world's largest road race. And for me, this year, it meant running. This is my fourth Bloomsday - but I've always walked the whole thing. It's a 12K - which is 7.46 miles. Having run my first 5K race just two weeks before, I was more than a little doubtful that I'd be able to run the whole thing, especially when I considered that the Bloomsday course it MUCH more challenging, with several long hills. Just before mile 5, the course climbs what's lovingly referred to as "Doomsday Hill". That doesn't exactly inspire confidence, now does it? But I decided to run as much as I could... do my best. My longest training run was 6 miles, and when I did that, I felt like I had lots of energy left... so I should be able to pull out another mile and half, right? Well, I DID! Savannah ran with me for the first two miles, then had to fall back, having only rel