Morning light

The morning light at Wellington Lake brings a calm surprise. It looked smoother than my coffee table. To wake in the morning and see this out your front door is something special! Pascal wrote, "By space the universe embraces me and swallows me up like an atom, by thought I embrace the universe."

Look another direction and a few minutes later and everything changes. In the words of Leo Tolstoy, "I thought and thought, and came to no conclusion."

Little canyon

On our camping trip last weekend we hiked up a little canyon and found this unusual stream rolling down the carved grooves in the stone. It was delightful on so many levels. Had it been bigger without a drop off at the end, I would've been tempted to ride it down.

Here is a view from the side of the creek. It's almost like the water created rolls in the rock in the same way a car would create wash boards on a gravel road.

Power

I like what Henri Nouwen writes in his book In the Name of Jesus, "It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life." He says that power is a temptation which is almost irresistible. Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" and then we ask, "Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your kingdom?" (Matthew 20:21). Perhaps there are a thousand little ways we seek power in our lives, instead of loving others and loving God. God does demonstrate that He is truly powerful in all things.

In the mountains

We went with my daughter, her husband Seth, and the kids up to the top of Mt. Lemon near Tucson. It was so much fun watching the kids run all over the forest, throw pine cones, and climb up the rocks. It reminded me of summer camp. Someday they'll take their kids to camp. That's the greatest pleasure trip of all time - driving your kids to camp! We sent our son and daughter to camp every year and they kept sending them back! I recall one of them sending a postcard that said, "Please send me some food. All they serve her are meals." I suspect in the case of our daughter and son-in-law, they will try to save a little money when the children are young and send them to Camp Grandparents.

Camp Grandparents

Saturday morning we drove into the mountains looking for a place to call "Camp Grandparents." We had some ideas where to go but weren't exactly sure. However, the location had to meet certain requirements. It had to be: 1. Somewhat remote, 2. Close enough to Denver to be reasonably accessible, 3. Really nice views, 4. Not too many bears, and 5. A good place for Grand kids to play and goof off. Good fishing wouldn't hurt either. Hmmm... let's try this road... the leaves are changing...

There! That's it. The lake in the distance. Let's try that place and spend the night. We'll see just how good it is.

Of course we had other motives for making this trip. The aspens are changing color! We wanted to see lots of good color and beautiful scenery. We were slightly early, but we definitely found the leaves changing.

We found a nice camping site too, right on the lake. That's Nancy in the chair down by the lake. No bears, but during the night we heard some raccoons around the camp making a nuisance of themselves and waking us up.

In the morning the lake was smooth as glass and all was quiet. We enjoyed several cups of coffee, a fire, a nice breakfast with eggs, sausage, muffins, etc. and watched the ducks swim across the lake to come visit us. Maybe they wanted to talk to me?

We rode our bikes all around the area and then hiked up this little canyon with a creek that fed the lake. A small trail led us just a quarter mile from our campsite. It was absolutely beautiful - full of color and life. There were changing leaves, a quiet brook tumbling over the rocks, a small waterfall, ferns, aspen, pine, fir, and spruce trees sheltering the hot September sun. I think we found Camp Grandparents.

Fathers

Fathers can be a great thing for a kid. I'm just glad my grandson has a good one! Now he's going to have the job of teaching his son the value of a dollar. No doubt he'll want his allowance in yen!

You ain't goin' nowhere

Some great music by The Byrds was on this album. If you want to check out some of it, try "You ain't goin' nowhere." The meaning of lyrics in this tune was always a subject of great controversy. What do you think it's about?

520 BC

Zechariah 12:10

China

I bought a new pair of Murano dress pants yesterday and when I got home I realized they were made in China. (see below) Just yesterday I was talking with my neighbor Julie Stone, who just returned from a trip to China. She's a bit of a show off and bragged about the number of fancy restaurants they'd eaten in. I asked her, "Did you get to see the pagodas?

Mrs. Stone answered, "See them? We had lunch with them!"

Hanging Lake, Spouting Rock

Our friends took this photo of us near Hanging Lake last week. Just above the lake is this place called "Spouting Rock," where the water just squirts out of the side of a cliff into a waterfall and then eventually flows into Hanging Lake. You can walk behind the waterfall without getting wet.

Richard Petty

I met Richard Petty a few months ago and still haven't found time or interest in watching a NASCAR race. It's boring. Mr. Petty however, was anything but boring. Now horse racing is interesting. A horse is an animal that can take thousands of people for a ride! In fact, did you know that a pessimist is an optimist on the way home from the track? These are the guys who like to follow horses - which follow other horses!

When I get old I think I'll get a hat like his.

The problem of evil

Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel relates in one of his essays an experience he had when he was a prisoner in Auschwitz. A Jewish prisoner was being executed while the rest of the camp were forced to watch. As the prisoner hung on the gallows - kicking and struggling in the throes of death, refusing to die - an onlooker was heard to mutter under his breath with increasing desperation, "Where is God? Where is He?"

From out of nowhere, Wiesel says, a voice within him spoke to his own heart, saying, "Right there on the gallows, where else?"

Theologian Jurgen Moltmann, commenting on Wiesel's story, astutely observed that any other answer would have been blasphemous. Ravi Zacharias asked the question, "Is there a more concrete illustration than the death of Christ to substantiate God's presence, right in the midst of pain? He bore the brunt of the pain inflicted by the wickedness of His persecutors - and showed us the heart of God. He displayed in His own suffering what the work of God is all about in changing our hearts from evil to holiness."

Hanging lake

We hiked up a steep mile up to hanging lake with our friends over the weekend. Being really brave, we decided to walk out on this fallen tree. Since the water was icy cold, one slip would've meant an unhappy ending to our hike. The water was very clear and well over our heads, maybe 8 to 10 feet deep.

Hmm... where did they go? Fortunately, we just walked off. The lake sits perched on a high cliff overlooking a long canyon above Glenwood Canyon. It's a spectacular place.

Aspen near Aspen

The hike up to Crater Lake involves hiking through thick aspen groves. This is what will be so stunning in a few weeks when the leaves change colors. Each elevation will have unique colors and hues based on temperature, tree health, and even the movement of colder air. Hopefully, we'll be back up for that spectacle.

Maroon Bells on 9/11/11

Nancy and I went hiking with our friends up at Maroon Bells near Aspen, over the weekend. The weather was a little "iffy" in the morning but by afternoon it was beautiful. Actually the morning clouds provided some cool temperatures for the climb up to Crater Lake, pictured below...

After getting up to Crater Lake we decided to hike on up Maroon Creek for a few miles to look for moose and bear. Of course, you can never see any wildlife if you're specifically looking for them. They usually only surprise you.

New eyes

Marcel Proust wrote "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Perhaps the same is true as it relates to belief in God.

The facade I am pretending to climb was painted on the flat side of a building in Cortez, CO. Just about everything in the world; its art, its nature, its people, and even me is a fascination. In order to know God, I need to give up my fascination with things I see in the world and focus on the character and purposes of God. I am not the point. He is. I exist for him. He does not exist for me. To do this, I need new eyes.

The world

"The world is charged with the grandeur of God."

- Gerard Manley Hopkins

Holidays

Our trip to Tucson on labor day left us with warm feelings of joy and peace. Most people celebrate a holiday by not going to work. In my family, we'll celebrate when my son-in-law does. It's not that he's lazy. In fact, it's quite the opposite. He's very busy going to school to get his doctorate. We're excited for him and for the future rewards of his efforts now. In the meantime, we like to play with the kids.

Incapable of believing

In John's gospel, the Jews are said the be incapable of believing because they "look to one another for approval" (5:44). Maybe there is a large incompatibility between human respect and authentic faith in Christ. The strokes or scorn of our peers become more important than the approval of Jesus.

Bendon Manning writes, "When we freely assent to the mystery of our belovedness and accept our core identity as Abba's child, we slowly gain autonomy from controlling relationships." It's at that moment we become inner-directed instead of outer-determined.

A birthday

I forgot to mention that Andy had a birthday over the weekend. We celebrated his 4th year in this world. I asked him how he felt about things so far and he said, "times are bad when 'dollars to doughnuts' is even money." At least he has his baseball.

We also had cake! We had cake after dinner and we had cake for breakfast too. In fact, I think we're still having cake. It was really really good.

Mt. Lemmon

On the weekend we drove up to Mt. Lemmon with Seth, Noelle, and the grand kids. Just outside of Tucson, it brought welcome relief from the 105 degree heat. At our picnic table we enjoyed 70 degree temperatures and lots of laughs and fun in the pine trees.

We found a small picnic site and a nice table with a view of the valley below. Daisy picked daisy's and Andy collected pine cones.

Just 25 yards from our table was this nice rock overlooking the valley and a small mountain town. After lunch we drove to this mountain town and enjoyed giant cookies at the cookie store.

Bear

Last year I saw a couple of bear near Roxborough Park, just a few miles from my house. I heard a rumor that this one and his mate were shot trying to get into someone's house nearby. Too bad.

Sheep

A few years ago we could walk up Waterton Canyon and see the big horn sheep. As you can see they are quite tame. However, the canyon has been closed for over a year now due to the dredging out of Strontia Springs Reservoir. We'll have to wait a while longer I guess.

Deer

The deer are coming back down out of the mountains and you can see signs of them everywhere. These were just a few miles from our house.