Getting back to the dirt

We watched Julie/Julia last night with Dale Marushy. It was delightful. What an inspiration Julia Childs is to this tall dame. I love her optimism and determination. David was inspired to make a special roast today!

The boys had an important time in the dirt today.

And yesterday they chipped out a miniature fossil from a kit.

All this digging makes me want a garden.

Thankfully, we do have a few crunchy sweet peas from a tiny patch in our front yard and some potato and a couple of tomato plants survived too. They're late, but maybe we'll harvest them before the frost sets in.

Getting back to the dirt. Sometimes you just need to put your hands in the earth. Do we feel a kinship with the substance we were formed from? Part dust, part breath?

It appears our friend Jeremy Tow is in the final stages of the little life and ready to enter the big life.

We will pack up our tents and travel across the rockies to be near the Tows in the next few days.

Please remember us as we hope to share love and work and not add stress to our dear friends.

We look forward to playing with young Sebastian (Donovan's first best friend) as his sister Emma is away at camp, and we hope to visit with Anita's 96 year old mother Doris who lives near by.

My good friend Lisa hooked us up with a lovely woman named Amy who is loaning us her backyard, bathroom, and kitchen access during our visit. How sweet. All it took was asking a friend to ask some friends.

So, tomorrow we prepare and try to ready ourselves for a different kind of camping adventure; a mission of love and grief.

May God give us wisdom and courage along with a sense of fun and adventure.

Getting back to the dirt is helpful for grounding in reality.

Death is an ever-present reality that I only think about when I have to.

I believe that Jeremy's body will return to dust, but not his soul.

Just like a fossil, the earth keeps many of it's creatures, but they are mere shadows, remnants of the flesh and blood being... only hints to the whole story.

I can't fathom what Jeremy's days are like right now, but he and his family are on our hearts.

Soon he will have super sight and understanding at the feet of his Maker, seeing the story from a new perspective.

Please join me in praying for Jeremy, Anita, Emma and Sebastian Tow this week. (And parent/grandparents: Doris, Leah and Jerry).