Just another stroll to work

I (Phil) walk a bit over 2 miles to and from work each day.  It is steep for part of it.  But as I said in an earlier post, there are advantages to walking.

Today, in less than 30 min, I saw:

• A beautiful layer of clean new snow (it's 3 April).
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• I saw Ula from Church.  She was near our apt doing an orientation to do some care-giving.
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• Someone filled a bird feeder and the pigeons were holding a FEAST!
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• The lake has refrozen- almost completely.  It was covered with snow.

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• The Canadian geese, who had come North, undoubtedly with high expectations of food and nesting, were now all standing on ice.

• I say a person fall through ice- but they were on a "leash" and expecting to.
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• It was slippery in places, but not too bad.

The Sun shone gloriously on the new snow.

G^d is good.  His gifts are "new every morning". Great is HIS faithfulness (even though mine isn't).

Race Walking

I am a fast walker, or so my wife and kids tell me.  Our family has walked a lot over the years.  And, on many occasions, my wife has kindly reminded me, "Don't walk off without us!"

Sometimes I even run.

But around here I am an average to slow walker.  Just this morning, as I walked briskly to work, a young gal of around 20 passed me, as if I were on a stroll.  This is not unusual.  I get passed by men and women, short and tall, young and middle-aged.

I am hyper-competitive, so sometimes I take this as a challenge.  I will pick up my stride to max velocity and stay with them for a while.  Besides being hypercompetitive, I am also ADHD, so after a couple of minutes, my mind wanders to something else and I forget what I am doing, and slow back down.

People here never seem to put their hands in their pockets, despite the cold.  I figure this is in part so that they can keep their arms free for balance on the ice, but more importantly so they can get a good fast arm swing and walk at about a 10 min mile pace.  Seriously, if they walked any faster, they would have a flight phase (both feet off the ground) and be running.

Most of my life has been at this fast, fast, competitive pace.  But is that the best way to live?

G^d does NOT seem to be in a rush.  I think that is part of the message of Matthew 11:29  "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Wow, ski 90 Km in under 4 hours

On 4 March the largest cross-country (X-C) ski race in the world was held just south of us.  The Big race is 90 km (56 miles).  It is the capstone of a week of racing that draws more than 40,000 participants.  The 90 km race can draw more than 15,000 competitors.

As I watch it on television, all the competitors are “double-poling” almost exclusively.  This is a classic ski technique in which all the propulsion comes from the upper-body.  That means about 4 hours of intense upper-body exercise with only occasional down-hill rest breaks.

Almost 2 hours into the race, the lead pack, sort of like cycling races, has about 40 competitors in a pretty tight bunch (within 20 seconds of each other).  Three of the guys from our lab completed the race, all in about 4 hours!

Imagine swimming intensely for 4 hours!!  No wonder these folks have the highest ability to generate energy of any athletes in any sport.

G^d has designed a very adaptable body for us.  Despite the abuse we give it, for most of us it functions for a long time, remarkably well.  How long would you expect your car to last with NO maintenance?

How about artificial limbs or heart?  How do they compare to G^d’s design?  Not too good, eh?

G^d’s design is better than man’s design.  I guess by implication we can expect that G^d’s design for living my life is better than my design.  What think ye?

Friends

We arrived here 2 Feb, knowing exactly one person.  Within about three weeks, we had a pretty good circle of friends.

One lesson that Brenda and I learned in our years in the Navy was that you need "local" friends, outside your circle of friends at work.  In the Navy, lots of our Navy friends marveled that we knew so many local folks, whereas most Navy folks only knew other Navy folks.

Of course, we had no secrets about it, we met people at Church!  These folks were locals, and knew local things, which are always valuable to outsiders.

We have learned from Wes F, and others that relationships are important, and you only make relationships up close.  That's partly why I DON'T support distance education.

G^d has been generously giving us friends in Froson and Ostersund.  That has been one of the greatest rewards of being here.

Thank you L^rd for the gift of friendship.  May we never take it for granted.

My, how communications have changed!

Brenda and I got married in June 1972.  I left in September for 7 months on a US Navy Guided Missile Destroyer.  Each day we wrote each other letters.  BUT, in those days we actually wrote, I mean really wrote, with real paper and real ink. 

Each time we pulled into a port, we’d mail our letters, and collect the letters for the ship.

Right before I got off the ship to start Flight Officer School, I sent her a telegram.   No really, a short, to-the-point, expensive, real telegram.

My, how communications have changed!

We have SKYPED all five of our kids, plus our two grandkids, plus a few other folks.  We email constantly and we even have this blog.

My, how communications have changed.

Were we still typing papers, I would have likely left the world of research years ago.

“A picture is worth a thousand words but it takes 3,000 times the disk space.”  ~Author Unknown

“User, n.  The word computer professionals use when they mean ‘idiot.’"  ~Dave Barry

“There are 10 types of people in this world:  those who understand binary and those who don't.”  ~Author Unknown

“Computers have lots of memory but no imagination.”  ~Author Unknown

And one I’ve used before:

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.”  ~Mitch Ratcliffe

My, how communications have changed!

Thank you L^rd for Computers and the Communications they make possible.

Boots everywhere

When it’s snowy everywhere, boots make a lot of sense.  When the snow begins melting, boots make even more sense.

On the street, you see all styles, colors, and heights of boots.  

 

Back in Alabama, except for Sunday I wear running shoes every day.  For Brenda it is a bit more varied.  But, one of the things that she never considered before she came to Sweden, she now wears nothing but the same pair of boots, day in day out.  To dinner, shopping or church, it’s boots, boots, boots.

This illustrates one of the great virtues of simplicity:  when there is but one thing to wear, you don’t waste time, talent or thought in making that decision. 

Everyone wants lots of  CHOICES these days.  We want 500 channels of television, 101 Dalmatians, and 31 flavors of ice cream.  We have to choose, because we demand CHOICE!
 

One of our biggest daily choices is whom we will serve.  I am tempted to serve myself foremost, next family and friends, and occasionally others.

So choose this day whom you will serve…  We have to choose.  G^d designed life that way.

Windy City

Even before I got here, I knew Ostersund would be windy. 

Apparently we lie to the East of a major mountain valley that funnels in "warm" air from the Atlantic Gulf Stream which keeps Ostersund area's weather "milder" than some places further south, or so I am told.

Apparently too, this valley funnels these westerly winds right onto us.  We get some high winds. Sustained winds of 25 mph + are not rare here.  This morning, I walked to work with sustained winds of almost 30 mph.  Fortunately, I was walking East and the wind was from the West, otherwise, I think it would have taken a lot longer!

Wind chill is real, and works because the wind blows away the nice layer of warm, humid air that forms naturally next to our skin.  So when it's cold, and the wind is blowing hard, keeping the wind off our skin is vital to staying warm.

This reminds me of when Jesus talked about the wind, saying, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (Jn 3:8)

Just from the sound of the wind, we can't tell much about it.  Likewise the mystery of the Holy Spirit is just that, a mystery.

I understand a lot of thermodynamics, weather, fluid flow, and physiology, but I don't understand G^D.  In fact, I no longer even seek to UNDERSTAND G^d, I just seek to listen, learn, and follow him.  That G^d makes himself known at all is a miracle.  That He makes Himself understandable even in a small way, but remains comprehensible, is to be expected.

Wes once said, "a heresy is a mystery explained."  True that!