Adult Children

During the sermon this morning, our pastor asked what we thought it was like or meant to be a child of God. The congregation wrote down answers and was invited to share if they wanted to.

There were some really good responses. Actually, all of them were good. Being a child of God is like…

…having peace.
…being loved.
…being accepted.
…being forgiven.
…being able to serve.

There were many, many others. But I noted something while I was at lunch with my friends. All of them were very adult answers. That is, they were answers an adult would give. They are answers that speak of a life that has had its share of pain and sorrow as well as joy. They weren’t the innocent answers of a child (how could they be?). The response at lunch was telling. My friends replied that of course they were adult answers, there weren’t any children there.

I didn’t have opportunity to reply as the conversation turned on its merry way to other delightful topics. But I felt sad at that fact. They were right, the congregation was full of adults and a baby or two and at least one child, but I doubt there were two present. The rest of the kids were in their own Sunday morning activities having fun and learning in a different way instead of being in the church service.

Then again, they weren’t right. The room was full of children. The sermon spoke to that. These children had simply forgotten a little bit about being children. As if Peter Pan really did grow up.

Being a child of God is indeed about peace and compassion and joy and forgiveness and love. But a child generally doesn’t think in such clear terms. At least, I didn’t when I was a child. I simply knew I was safe at home or with my parents. I didn’t need to describe it, it just was. I took it for granted, no doubt, but that was part of the indescribable nature of the whole thing.

So I thought about my own answer to what it is like to be a child of God, but in the way an adult who is thinking as a child would answer.

Being a child of God is like…

…running through the sprinklers on a summer day.
…ice cream in a sugar cone melting onto your hand.
…skinning your knees in a baseball game.
…trying to swing all the way around the swing set.
…playing freeze tunnel tag, no tag backs, safe zone at the oak tree for five seconds.
…a rainstorm while the sun is still shining on the horizon.
…staying up past your bed time for a fireworks show.
…running, for no reason, in any direction.
…water balloon fights.
…making a sand castle and wondering where the tide takes it.
…being friends with everyone else around your age because that’s just how the world works, isn’t it?

At least, that’s what I think. How about you?

Back on the Mainland

We returned from Catalina without too much adventure (that I’m aware of).  I had a great weekend relaxing, talking with friends, reading, thinking, examining my life a bit, and generally recharging.  There’s probably lots to tell, but I’m still digesting some stuff.

In the meantime, here are some photos I took.  I stuck with black and white photos this time around.  I just like it better.  I feel like I can express things better without the color.  Go figure.  Only a couple are color and you’ll see why.

Enjoy!

Going Dark

I’m out on Catalina Island this weekend. There may be Wi-Fi some day, but not where I’m going. Not yet (unless there’s something they aren’t telling me). Even if there were, I wouldn’t bring the laptop I don’t have. This is my weekend to relax, rest, do some reading, get in some photography of a beautiful place, and maybe recharge a good bit.  In other words, no blogging from me until Sunday or Monday even if I could.
See you on the flip side. Or there. It’s a small world.

Worry vs Working

I’ve noticed a bit of a trend lately in the world around me. Often it is the case where people who are thought to be hard workers also worry more about the tasks before them. They may be productive in this fashion, but a great deal of energy goes into simply being concerned about everything on their plate. The trend is that folks like this tend to be well-regarded as people with a work ethic to strive for.

This confuses me. I know plenty of people who worry less, if at all, and work just as hard or harder. These folks are generally less stressed out and seem to be regarded as folks who get things done. This isn’t to say that the worriers don’t get things done, but the world’s perception of them is more that they work hard. When I think of this type of person, I think of the old man doing a simple job slowly. When others ask him to speed up, he turns and says, “I could do it faster or I can do it right.” and continues on. The concept of moving quickly and being right isn’t quite there. Being right is all there is to it.
I think I travel easily between these two types of people. I’m sure there are many more as well. But I find it occasionally frustrating that the people who don’t worry and are known to get things done don’t seem to be in the first draft when people are looking for help. We want the people who do important things for us to not just work hard, but look like they are working hard. The worriers excel at not just working hard, but appearing to work hard as well.

The folks who get it done don’t think about the spotlight or who is watching. The important thing is not who sees the task get done and what they think but that the task is simply done. There tends to be less stress involved, but also less adventure or excitement.

Which do you think is better?

Day After Disneyland

I had a good time at Disneyland yesterday.  I took a couple of photos with my phone and sent them to my flickr account (more links in the lower end of the sidebar).  I love that I can send photos from my phone to an email account that will suddenly appear on my blog and flickr site in a few minutes.  Pretty damn cool.

Anyway, I got to do some stuff that I hadn’t done before.  Namely taking an unadvertised tour of the second apartment in Disneyland.  One is above the fire house on Main Street that is still used by Walt Disney’s family on occassion and no tours go there.  But there’s another in New Orleans Square above Pirates of the Caribbean.  It’s now the Disney Gallery where you can see lots of concept art for the lands over the last 50 years as well as a good deal of concept art for the ride underneath.  Pretty cool, but the gallery was first intended as an apartment for visiting VIPs to stay.  From that perspective, it’s a bit cooler.

The exciting part was being able to go out on a balcony that’s usually locked and see a crowded Disneyland from a relatively secluded area.  Each night, 20 people are allowed to view Fantasmic from this balcony for $59 a pop.  To sweeten the deal, an all-you-can-eat dessert part is part of the package.  Not too shabby and it really is the best view of Fantasmic you’ll get anywhere in the park.

We also ate lunch/dinner at the Blue Bayou.  I’ve never been there nor had a Monte Cristo sandwich (I still want to say Monte Christu for some reason when I talk about that sandwich).  It was delicious, but the big surprise was (not the check) the dessert.  I had to take a picture of the cookie boat and was a bit surprised that others had as well.

All in all, it was a good day.  I even decided to go on Star Tours at the last minute knowing that I’d be alseep on the ride home just as the migraine was kicking in.  I still felt a little weird, but not nearly as weird/poor as I have the past few times.

End of a Week

My week is over.  Yup, tomorrow I’m heading to Disneyland with some folks to get my weekend off to a good start.  I’ve had a pass to Disneyland for just over a year now, but this will be the first time I go to spend a whole day there.  Lately I’ve been going to ride a couple of rides, meet up with a friend at Downtown Disney, then go home.  In all, about 3-4 hours a pop.

Tomorrow is a full day and I’m excited about that. :)  The only disappointment is that I won’t be going on Star Tours.  Every time I go on that ride lately, I get a migraine a couple of hours later.  That makes me sad, but I honestly don’t know if the others in my group would want to go on that ride anyway.

Good weekends to everyone reading this!  And prayers for friends of mine stuck in Oxford as the airline situation works itself out in the next day or two (hopefully not longer than that).

Geek Meetup

Tonight, I did a very cool thing for the first time ever. I attended a meetup of Geek Brief viewers in the virtual world of Second Life. You can view a couple of snapshots here.

Topics ranged from hobbies to professions to programming languages and on and on and on. I had a good time and really hope they do this again soon.

Part of it was surreal, though. There I was, totally anonymous, talking with the host of a popular video podcast (which I happen to enjoy) about nothing in particular. Is this a bit of where community is headed? How long will it be before a church meets in a virtual world? Or you can vote in a virtual world? Or you go to work there? That’s assuming it hasn’t happened already (I’m betting it has).

What do friendships look like when you never meet face to face?

Free Time? What’s That?

I’ve been so busy the last three nights finishing off the site I mentioned earlier that I almost don’t know what to do with my time tonight and tomorrow. I have things I’ve planned to do (watch Lost, work on some recordings from last weekend’s Sing for your Supper, catch up on TV I’ve recorded, etc.), but the concept of having nothing conrete planned has left my world-view in as little as three days.

I find that exteremely disturbing that I can forget restful activity so quickly. I take pride (sometimes too much) in my ability to have unstructured down time in a world that reeks of structure and here I am having lost part of that ability in relatively no time at all.

I’m sure the opposite will prove to be just as true, though.

How about you? Do you find it hard to find downtime? If you don’t get downtime for an extended period, is it still harder to find?

The Getty Malibu

The Getty Villa in Malibu is open to the public again. I have no idea how long this has been the case, but I’m looking forward to going.

Admission is free, but you have to get tickets just like when the Getty first opened. Looks like most days are “sold” out right now, so this is a plan ahead trip instead of a spontaneous weekend thing.

Market Night in Redlands

This was an odd Thursday evening as we didn’t have worship rehearsal (a good chunk of the worship team is out of town this weekend by chance, so we all got this Sunday off). I decided to take my iPod and walk up and down State St. a bit to take in the sights and scents of Market Night.

The first thing I noticed, nearly all of the teens are doing the goth thing. I remember that being a thing to do over ten years ago. Will it ever get old?

I also heard a musician by name of Marianne Keith who does acoustic guitar, mostly. She was performing and the music was fabulous! I decided to stop and listen along with the now forming crowd (I’m a trend-setter, what can I say) and found myself talking to one of her entourage. Turns out that everyone there helping this 18 year old singer and songwriter were her family; parents and grandparents. They were selling CDs for $10. Her sound was getting to me, but the fact that her family was there supporting her sold me, so I bought the first CD I’ve bought in years. I later downloaded U2’s How to Disarm an Atomic Bomb as my first iTunes purchase, incidentally.

The best part of Market Night, though, was listening to Van Morrison while walking through downtown Redlands with the people mulling around you. It’s a taste of heaven, my friends.

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