chilled

stairwell accompaniment: Radiohead-Amnesiac

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S. Lewis

Cider

stairwell accompaniment:Damien Rice-O

I experienced the glorious first tastes, smells and sights of autumn this weekend in Michigan. On a two day road trip to visit my long lost friend Christa and her husband, James, I had my first encounter with an authentic Cider Mill, a small-town-Michigan festival, a spectacular home-cooked dinner and an afternoon of painting a closet.:) But autumn visits Michigan slightly before it creeps upon Ohio so I had a preview of the fabulousness that awaits me this October…



Thanks Chrita and James…for letting me paint your closet.

Prov. 19:20-23

Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man’s heart but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails! What a man desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar. The fear of the Lord leads to life; Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

therapy

stairwell accompaniment:Broken Social Scene

Chronicles of a Modern Day Massage Therapist:

Saturday-

I carry my exausted self to work at 730am, groggy from a late-night bonfire I hosted the night before. I’m never as welcoming as I should be to early-morning clients, but today I am especially bitter because of the blue-sky morning that tells me it will be an perfect fall Saturday spent indoors. So I greet my first appointment with slight distain and offer a cappucino while I set up. I grumble to myself and catch him smiling as he gazes out the window. I roll my eyes. He’s a elderly black man and his distinct cheer leaves a bad taste in my freshly-brushed mouth. Smiling on a Saturday morning? But as I sit down in a chair beside him to get some his medical history, he slowly, articulately explains that he’s sick. I realize that until this moment I hadn’t noticed that the left side of his face was almost completely paralyzed. We’d been in the same room for nearly 10 minutes and I hadn’t even looked at his face. He deep, shaky voice, his half-smile and aged, brown eyes explain to me that he suffers from lung cancer. “Those doctors have done given me all the medicine they can. Now I’m just’a waitin’,” he says. I stare for a moment and relize that he’s not at all joking. This cheerful man is going to die in a matter of weeks and he is sitting in my waiting room smiling. “My wife and I figure we’re gonna do everything we always wanted to. Don’t wanna do out regrettin’, right?” He flashes another sincere, toothy smile. I spend the next hour giving on of the most heart-felt massages I’ve ever given as he tells me tales of growing up in the south, farming, and the day his firt child was born. I know that my hands aren’t enough to explain to this man what his early-morning smile means to me. He smiles in the face of death and I’m frowning at a few hours of lost sleep.

Monday-

Mr. Harlan. My regular 2pm Monday massage. Mr. Harlan is a distinguished old man with great jokes and a young heart. As I massage his left arm today I ask him, in the unashamed way that I ask questions, “So how old are you anyway Mr. Harlan?” He looks at me and says, “90 years this December.” He pauses for a second and laughs. “I swore I’d live to be 150 until that doc said otherwise. Yep, 150 for sure.” I shook my head at him and smiled.

Adena

stairwell accompaniment: Aimee Mann-Save Me

Here are the pictures I promised from the night Chad and I drove 2 hours to see the outdoor drama Tecumseh…



I must include that on the drive home late that night we went through the Steak and Shake drive-thru to purchase some rootbeer floats and Chad unashamedly said “Amesome, Dude” to the young man working the window.

Today was a warm and sunny late-summer day. Perfect for hiking. So I ventured out to Cedarville where Chad and I hiked (aka trail walked) up to the famous Indian Mound there. It’s always more refreshing that I expect to be outdoors. A dinner of oraganic HaHa’s Pizza followed and after traveling way, way back into the embarasing depths of Chad’s photo albums, the late-summer day was closed with a late-summer star filled sky. We were on out back in the driveway musing about days past. I definitely saw a shooting star.

Things I love right now:

*A fat dog named Lucy

*Belly laugh/coughs

*high school football

*rocky streams

*Vanilla ice cream cones

throw your head back

stairwell accompaniment:Ohio-Over the Rhine

Things I love right now:

*Republic of Tea Roobios Red Tea-Good Hope Vanilla

*Sitting on the Art Institute Steps with Chad in the city of three stars

*”The Graduate” in my DVD player

*The Shins-Chutes too Narrow in my CD player

*74 degrees and sunny Saturday

*good morning kisses from Levi

*shopping aimlessly for random household goods-dental floss, detergent, conditioner

*Sandals

*Pig tails

*The windows down

*Heading to the 2nd Street Market with Julie…later…

P.S. My brother is out of the hospital and on the road to recovery in the way only a 16 year old boy can recover.