Amy and I took a couple quick shots of the Abbot cooling towers tonight. The cold weather has left them, as well as their surroundings, entombed in ice. I’ll do some editing of the shots and post them up on picasa but for now, here is one that didn’t need much editing:
Early this morning, while installing Ash‘s new CD player in her car, we began discussing photography. I mentioned how I hoped my parents would be getting me a digital camera for Christmas. A camera would serve utility purposes, enabling me to better capture and share places I’ve seen God’s beauty in creation – living out of my backpack, snowboarding, or sitting in a park. True to what I’ve come to know of Ash she was very encouraging, suggesting I give photography a try and saying she thought I might be decent. This afternoon I grabbed Ben‘s camera and headed out to the streets around the Dawg Haus, talking to God and admiring his ice encrusted creation.
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| Ice Storm |
(click for my picasaweb album to view more)
(John street in front of the Dawg Haus)
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Now playing: Norah Jones – Don’t Miss You At All
via FoxyTunes
Illinois has mountains too… well sorta. This is Camel Rock in the Garden of the Gods, part of Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois.
In a few short minutes I’ll be on the road with my twin brother Chris headed for Harrisburg, IL. We’ll be spending the next 3 1/2 days hiking a small section of the River to River trail – specifically we are destined for The Garden of the Gods.
I’m excited to have a chance to retreat and spend some refreshing simplistic time with God. I pray He meets with me as I walk through creation and communions with me as I drink deep of His beauty.
See you in a few days.
It’s been a bit since I last posted. Odd how compelled I feel to apologize and explain how life has been busy – only that would seem to imply I have points of non-busyness. It’s been quite the norm as of late though, packed days, long hours at work, early morning running – all along the list of people to catch-up with and things on the backburner boiling over. I just returned from Wilderness LT and I feel like I need another vacation. This weekend served as a bit of a break. I can’t remember the last time I got to work on a Monday and thought “that was a really fun weekend!”
On Friday Chris, Marla and I went to Mike and Molly’s to see Elsinore play – tangent: These guys are awesome, great song writing, great vocals, original style and feel. You should buy their CD Nothing for Design on iTunes and Ryan Groff Solo CD People In The Midwest from Parasol.
On Saturday I got up extra early and joined the Buffalo – the trail
running group of Second Wind Running Club. Marla has been inviting me out to run with them for over a year now, figured I’d finally take her up on the offer. We did a 10 mile loop around Lake Clinton. It was a beautiful morning, the temperature cool, the shade nice, and the trail clean. That evening there was a going away party for a friend who is moving back to Taiwan and then I caught up with some friends at Cowboy Monkey for a bit.
Early Sunday morning Darren, Marla and I joined the Second Wind fall marathoners for a long training run. Feeling a little beaten up by the trails the previous day I only did 11 miles instead of the planned 16. The remainder of the day was relaxing, some dinner and watched The Last King of Scotland. I fell asleep last night with a smile on my face – good music, good friends, good running.
It’s official!
I’ll be returning the wilderness of Colorado for an 8 day trip oriented around connecting with God in a uniquely distraction-free way. We call the program Wilderness LT or WLT. Part of the GCM Network, WLT takes a group out into the wilderness for an extended period of time focused on the spiritual disciplines of Solitude, Silence, Fasting, Prayer, and Simplicity.
There is a strict list of equipment we are allowed to bring – only the essentials, NO Coffee 🙁 The food rations are small for the few days that we will be eating. Five days of complete solitude. No music, TV, or computers to distract me. Just God, me and my issues. It breads intimacy that forever changes how you follow Jesus.
We’ll be returning to the same remote wilderness we stayed in back in the summer of 2005. Pictures of that excursion can be seen here. The dates of this summer’s trip are July 6-14. I’m eager for it to arrive.
I’m being really productive this morning 🙂
It all started when I was reading JK’s recent post and then jumped over to his flickr sets – this dude has shot some pretty cool pictures. Once there I noticed a picture of a time I had almost all together forgotten.
A group of us from i-life were headed to Mexico to build homes for families in need about 3 years ago. One morning on our journey down we stopped off at White Sands National Park – I think simply to be kids again. The picture is of Ben Chase, Matt Dobsch, and Me (from left to right). We are jumping off the edge of a sand dune. Funtimes.
Remember how fun snowdays used to be as a kid? You know the routine, wake up as usual but make sure to take your time getting ready. Watch the school closings scroll across the tv below the morning news casters – “I didn’t see district 300 that time, maybe the next time around, or the one after that. Surely they can’t be expecting us to go outside in this!” When in reality all you can think about doing is climbing the biggest hill in the neighborhood sled in hand – heart racing as you head for the enormous-very-dangerous-looking ramp the older boys built.
Years have passed since the snowdays of youth. Today I learned something about snowdays in the adult world that caused me to long for the ones of childhood. A blizzard-ish storm started beating on Chambana last evening and supposed to continue on through the tonight – resulting in the University of Illinois closing for at least today, maybe tomorrow as well. Since I work for the U of I that meant I was sent home this morning after working just a few short hours.
That’s how I learned that when you’re an adult a snowday doesn’t mean sledding, hot chocolate and naps, but instead means your home becomes your office. Here is a picture of my new office:
Comfy huh? It doubles as a bedroom – which is convenient for those long afternoons after a big lunch.
When you work in IT as a Network Nerd you are the people responsible for making it possible to work from home. Translation : there is no good excuse for me to not be working today. The change of scenery is nice though.
The whirlwind of holidays is over now; or more accurately, recovery from the whirlwind of holidays is now complete. The past month saw me bouncing around the suburbs visiting family, enjoying the eerie quiet that consumes the vacated campus, hosting visitors for New Years and breathing the beautiful snowy air of Upper Peninsula Michigan.
As usual I received an unholy amount of gifts from my family – including gift cards meant for a Nintendo Wii, which Best Buy has yet to get in stock. Among my gifts, Settlers of Catan, firefly and multiple excellent books. With the cash-money my job provides me I was able to buy things for people that were along the lines of their desires and meaningful to them – my brother got a burr grinder which was hard for me to part with since I so badly wanted it for myself. Enjoy it Chris!
In addition to the loot received from my family I purchased a palm treo680 for myself. For the most part I’m pleased with it, however it crashes more than I would admit is acceptable. My treo had been in my possession nearly 3 weeks when Mr. Steve Jobs announced the new apple iPhone. If you know me at all you know the past week has been quite the mind game – “should I keep my treo or return it and wait for an iPhone?”
I’ve decided to keep it and commit to buying an iPhone as my next over-powered-all-in-one-cellular device.
I leave you now with this wonderful picture of me holding my baby.
Chris documented the UP Snowboarding trip pictorially with his new camera, you can find some of them in his Picasa Album.
I love this photo, my good friend barnsey took it one afternoon when we were at LT together. We two hiked up Eagle Cliff – one of the small nearby mountains. The view is of Moraine Park and the snow peaks of the Continental Divide in the background. Simply Beautiful.
Is there any question that God is an artist?
The thing I love about this image – what draws me to it – the definition between the light and dark places, the shadows and sunlit areas. The definition is so pronounced; only I’ve been in those shadows down there and it doesn’t seem like such a sharp edge or even that dark when you’re in it.
Life is like that, isn’t it?
When we’re in the shadows they don’t seem so ugly, so dark, so bad – but when we are in the light, looking back at them, they can seem so distinct, so trying. You can almost see the line where things changed and your path returned to the warmth and comfort of the light.
Starting work has been a bit of a shadowy place for me. Instantaneously my time disappeared – the thing is, I think I am working less and have fewer stresses than I did when I was in school it’s just that I have a continued commitment of 8 hours of my daily schedule. The breaks between class, the afternoon naps, the make my own schedule-ness of school is gone. That makes all the difference – after 3 weeks I’m just starting to get the hang of this balancing act.
The time has been shadowy because I’ve found it hard to get in a routine of spending time with God each day. It was easy when I was in school, when I got in from class I’d spin a CD, spend sometime unwinding and praying and then turn to scripture for a time and enjoy the Lord. After 8 hours of work I usually want to sit in front of the TV for the evening – or worse my laptop some more.
Recent days have been better. I’ve begun reading before bed and talking with my God in the mornings on a set pattern. My soul breathing deeply of His presence. Warmed by the light, the days seem more manageable.
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Greg Van Nada
VERY COOL Love you, Dad
On Mission in Haiti and Memphis / nicknamy.net
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Desiree
Ahahah! Such a funny commercial!
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Generousee seems a fitting word, surprised we made it this far without it. :-) Thanks for the prayers and kind words
