118-What Are You Reflecting? “See ya in the morning” bounced back and forth between couples as Jen and I slid open the screen door to get the full impact of the cool night air. Lake Huron breezes lightly graced my face when I closed the door behind us and pointed myself toward the tent pitched on the uniform grass that led all the way back from our friend’s cottage to the sandy shore of the great lake. Just about
117-Nerves Of Steel Or Jello? I think I could feel my heart pounding on the inner wall of my chest cavity. It was requesting more blood, my brain meanwhile, requesting an escape plan for the moment and cycling a rolodex of questions for my experience to answer—Who is going to be on this adventure? Will they be impressed or think this is stupid? Are we ready? Like, really ready? One might think that we had somehow joined the majors
115-There's A Time To Rappel And A Time To Just Be... I punched in my passcode again, feeling the weight of my own, self-inflicted guilt for my dependence on my personal computer and connection to the world, held nonchalantly with a single hand. Compared to most, my display of apps doesn’t even require folders for organization because they are so few, but ranking among the highest in priority is that weather app. Where’s the adventure in this? I thought
114-Over The Laser and Through The Lava, Up The Cargo Net We Go... It was hard to tell from the blank stares that I was receiving if gears were internally turning or there would be an upcoming long sigh of boredom. Then, with the initiative of just one student stepping gingerly from the small four-foot by six-foot tarp onto the even smaller carpet square, ideas began to buzz. “Our instructions are written?” another student doubtfully questioned, while still another
113- The Nicodemus Hug All Day“How can these things be?” naturally flowed from his lips without any thought, his mind racing to build a concrete mental vision of the words of Jesus. Spirit, water, wind—I’ve spent my lifetime studying the Torah and this guy is so outside of the box, but it’s real. He’s real. God, what do I do? Nicodemus took the time to seek Jesus of Nazareth at night, concealed by the cloak of darkness, away from the
112- Plug In | Tune Out... They Say. 3D, 3D, 3D I repeated in my head as I hurried in the direction of the terminal that I have been frequenting more regularly this past 12 months. Does my parking ticket have 3D on it? No! How the heck would the machine have any idea what section of the Big Blue garage at Metro Airport I intended to park? Come ‘on Matt, get with it! As I worked to log into
109- What Do You Do When You Hit 'The Wall'? “I can’t” leaked from Jahiem’s lips for the final time in my humble opinion. My feet remained planted on the root covered rock that acted as my belay platform, while I gently sat into the rope a bit more, letting Jahiem know that I “had him.” He had battled his way up the first twenty-five feet or more of the dry, sandstone face that had likely split thousands of years
106-Lug Nuts One, Two, Three, Four, Five... My mind wandered a bit and the once distinct words flowing from conversation about how to share our personal story and encounter with Jesus turned to a blend of pitches and my brain quit making them make sense. In the background of the fringe of Wilson Park, littered with walnuts, good for throwing at trees and one another (as my kids discovered), was a man at the back of his car, trunk popped
105-And That's How The Poison Ivy Patch Improved Our Lives The lack of patience some people have in our current culture was slightly eating at my insides as I observed a local guide hopping over the four-foot gap to gain access to the top of our next intended climb site. We were wrapping up our climbs on Guide Left and Guide Right to hand over the reins to the first-timers behind us, but now it was time to revamp our
104-Turning The World Upside Down... After a quick squeeze of the blue-walled tires, satisfied that they were still firm to keep pavement riding smooth enough to avoid the slog of a flat tire, I pulled on my kid-sized helmet (don’t tell anyone I still wear kids gear and shoes…), gloves and glasses and got all five foot four and three quarters of me on the saddle. The right shifter on my Sette frame mountain bike was still sticky from a
