a weekend in indiana

last weekend daniel & i set out for indiana on a spur-of-the-moment four day adventure. we wanted to test out The Great White (with close runner up, Puff the Magic Volvo) & it was a great chance to see some old & very dear friends.
we set off on friday & decided to avoid all major highways. we meandered through new york, ohio, and indiana, stopping at yard sales, flea markets, & thrift stores.




it took us 2 days to get to indiana, with a few good deals & a taste of americana thrown in. but we did not mind, because we had an excuse to try sleeping in the back of The Great White. we're hooked, volvo camping is for us!


our first stop was at to visit elle & josh outside of muncie, in.



elle & i lived in seattle at the same time & bonded amidst the mountains & the sound & tea & sweet (& sometimes anxious) times of prayer & the general uncertainties of life & love.

josh is a musician whose music we enjoyed before we knew him, during our stint in the remoteness that is northern alaska & who has grown to be an encouraging friend & comrade in the journey. elle & josh are living in an amazing house surrounded by forest, with a river nearby. the place exudes peacefulness & we enjoyed freshly caught trout, a late evening bonfire with conversation about paths & life & ideals, & a leisurely sunday morning that included apple crisp for breakfast, some wendell berry on the porch & flying a stunt kite (daniel was in heaven).



from muncie, we traveled south to indianapolis to visit hannah & hans. hannah was a roommate in college, & has remained a faithful companion throughout the twists & turns that our lives have taken. we've spent thanksgivings together, she visited me in seattle, & she travelled all the way to british columbia to be a bridesmaid in our wedding. i would never pass through the midwest without stopping by for a visit. hannah & her boyfriend hans just returned from working in nigeria for the summer as part of their medical school training.
it was fascinating to see their pictures & hear their stories about their time in africa. a favourite tale involved hannah bartering for what she thought was two potatoes & what ended up being two bushels of potatoes ("basically 50 pounds", according to hans), which hans & hannah had to carry a very long way home. i've been smiling about that story ever since.


on our way home we meandered a bit more,stopping in columbus to visit a cousin for an evening of scrabble (our nightly pastime lately, combined with jeopardy...) & chinese food.


we spent another night in The Great White, this time in a farmers field in ohio & stubled upon a local diner with a full breakfast for only $1.99! a relief after the prices of manhattan.

as we continue to ponder where we go from here, the trip felt like a much needed breath of fresh air.

[while we were driving we listened to hubris: the inside story of spin, scandal, and the selling of the iraq war on our new zen player (thanks again, zamber!). it was 16 hours of very detailed analysis of the lead up to the iraq war & the interactions of the CIA, state department, the white house, congress & the media at that time. it was informative, astonishing, eye-opening, & depressing all at the same time. its grueling & long & perhaps overly detailed, but i would recommend it to anyone interested in what has happening politically in the past 7 years.]

live the questions now.

i came across this passage today & felt a quiet sense of relief & resplendence.
(our friend rachel has phrases from it tattooed on her arms)

"i beg you...to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is, to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually,without even noticing it, live your way into the answer..."

-rainer maria rilke

[picture by the talented laura schneider]

i also came across this review of iron & wine's new album the shepherd's dog & am now looking forward to a good listen (& possibly the idea of "a listening party").

the transition continues...

here's an update/what we've been up to since we left nyc. its interactive!

1) we've been frantically searching for jobs in these 4 locations.

ottawa

toronto

vancouver

terrace (northern b.c.)









[photos by christina from our visit last summer]

we're having trouble making a final decision, so we're putting it to a vote. what do you think?

2) amanda had an interview for a very cool job in ottawa with mennonite central committee. we were having visions of ice skating on the rideau canal but in the end, it did not work out. c'est la vie?

3) we saw a HILARIUS movie, "death at a funeral". if you have not seen it & you feel like laughing continuously for an hour & a half, GO!

4) we visited amanda's grandpa in southern new york & have had lots of fun with amanda's parents these few weeks. its nice being able to visit with family on a regular basis....how much should that factor into where one travels & settles?





5) due to bureaucratic impediments with the ny state department of motor vehicles, we are the proud new owners of a 1993 volvo station wagon. it's white. we're thinking of calling it "the great white" or "casper" or "the ghostrider". any other ideas?





(here is a shot of a particularly close call while daniel was testing out our new car at the local speedway)




6) amanda has a job interview with world vision tomorrow outside of toronto. working for world vision would be wonderful, but we're finding ourselves hesitant about the idea of living in a suburb of toronto (which from google maps appears to be rivaling calgary with its urban sprawl). if you live near toronto, can you tell us good things about how great it is? is it better to have an interesting job or live in an inspiring place? THAT is the final question.


7) to leave you on a happy note, we celebrated with good family friends, adam & emily, at their wedding this weekend. it was a night of great fun courtesy of family, old familiar friends, a dance floor, & an open bar.

transitions

so long.

last week we packed up our belongings, said goodbye to those we leave behind & left manhattan for good. our time in nyc has been full-we have enjoyed the experiment of living in such a bustling, bursting place, been blessed by community living, learned a lot about life, & most importantly, we've been surrounded by a community of beautiful friends whom we have grown to love...


[a beautiful picture our friend lowell took of our church surrounding us with their prayers]

but our hearts have dreams of a journey & a new adventure. we remain pilgrims-traveling, seeking, experience new beauty & finding exhilaration in movement.

in the short term, we're spending some time in western new york with amanda's family & then we'll be driving across the continent back to british columbia & very far north to be with daniel's family for a bit. for now, we're taking a deep breath & waiting upon the Lord for our next adventure.

here are some pictures of our last few weeks in nyc.


[on daniel's birthdy we watched 'pyscho' outside in bryant park]















[& had a birthday sushi picnic in the rain]

[our dear friends adriana & sara accompanied us as we moved from nyc & spent some time with us in western new york at amanda's parent's house]


[at lake ontario]




















[in the country]

talstra visit part 1

in july, daniel's parents & his sister, nathania, came for a new york visit. we spent a weekend in western new york with my folks & spent a summer afternoon picnicking & hiking in letchworth state park. folks around here call it "the grand canyon of the east"

 

we also had a "prairie picnic" at my parent's house and enjoyed a sunset with wine & cheese on the shores of lake ontario.

let the beauty we love be what we do.

there are hundreds of ways to kneel & kiss the ground.
-jelalludim rumi

[our family is now one person bigger: meet jordan, our new niece]

boston

daniel & i spent the past four days visiting boston. daniel was attending a conference on community gardening & i spent the days wandering around boston (where i spent a summer while in college) & visiting with my college roommate, katie.

(by the way, she has a new cd out called "firecracker" & is setting off on a tour in the fall [brooklyn & martha's vineyard], she's great, check her out by clicking on the picture)

i spent two leisurely mornings in coffee shops reading anne lamott's newest book- grace (eventually) : thoughts on faith. i loved it.

some favorite excerpts...

'the Spirit lifted me & now it holds on lightly, like my faither's hands around my ankles when i used to ride on his shoulders.'

&

'sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking'.

&

'no matter how much of our time is spent in the pursuit of physical beauty, even to great success, the Mirror on the Wall will always say, "Snow White lives", & this is in fact a lie-Snow White is a fairy tale. lies cannot nourish or protect you. only freedom from fear, freedom from lies, can make us beautiful & keep us safe. there is a line i try to live by, spoken at the end of each vedanta service: "and may the free make others free".'