Songs: words to my thoughts

In the past several years, I have moved frequently. If I haven't physically moved, I have changed churches, jobs, activities. All the different experiences, sights, sounds, people, relationships have taught me the world has so much variety. Different landscapes, food, daily life patterns, dreams, goals, challenges. Every place has taught me lessons that I have tucked in my pocket and pull out when needed somewhere else. I have been in this area for 18 months. I have a routine which includes several different things outside work. While, I am still learning every day at work, everything is not new. This appearing more stable season in life had certainly had challenges as well.

One day while on a run during a especially challenging week mentally, the song below came on. I had heard it several times in the background, but not paid attention to the lyrics. "Called me higher" by All Sons and Daughters.That particular day, the lyrics rang out clearly. While I do try to live and enjoy the present as I have no control over the past or the future, my thoughts get bogged down sometimes. Life is  full of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, love and hurt, relaxing and hard work. Although, I dread hurt, grief, unmet expectations, living life attempting to avoid these is not healthy. One may avoid some of the hardships, but one also misses out on true joy, contentment, love, seeing and experiencing new things.

This song challenges me to let God inside my walls/boundaries. In order to go higher or deeper, action is required. Hiking up steep mountains or scaling cliffs requires trust in the equipment (boots or ropes). It has an element of risk. Similarly, going deeper makes me think of the caves I have been inside. It requires head lamps, proper footwear. It also has an element of risk. In order to experience both well, a guide/friend who has been there before provides expertise and encouragement. Someone to lead. You can trust they know the way and can assist you if necessary. It eases the risk allowing for more enjoyment.

Jesus is calling me higher and deeper in trust of him. Do I trust he has my future? Do I trust he is good all the time (he does not change)? Do I lean into him when my expectations are not met, I feel hurt, or grieved about sad events? Do I try to take care of it myself? Do I follow his lead? I think I am learning to trust him more. It is definitely a process.

In church today a common sighting was the illustration I needed. A father holding his two year old son were in front of me. As I was watching them, it struck me what a beautiful picture of trust and love. The son had his head down on his father's shoulder and his hand gently wrapped around the father's neck but was completely relaxed with his legs hanging . The father had his strong arms and hand under the boy's bottom and occasionally gently kissed the boys neck.

similar to this stock photo

The young boy felt so secure in his father's arms he could relax. He trusted his father would care for him, protect him. He was close to him, resting in his father's love. The father was showing unearned love to his son. He was a safe place with no expectations. This is how we are with God. Because of Jesus's death and resurrection, we can be close, safe, secure, restful, relaxed. Jesus is showing us unearned love. Each party enjoying being together. This reminded me of another song I heard, "Still, My Soul Be Still" by Getty and Stuart Townsend.

So during this Christmas season, I hope you too can trust God and continue to follow where he leads even the scary, uncomfortable deeper, higher places.

"Called Me Higher"

I could just sit
I could just sit and wait for all Your goodness
Hope to feel Your presence
And I could just stay
I could just stay right where I am and hope to feel You
Hope to feel something again

And I could hold on
I could hold on to who I am and never let You
Change me from the inside
And I could be safe
I could be safe here in Your arms and never leave home
Never let these walls down

But You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You will lead me Lord
You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You lead me Lord
Where You lead me
Where You lead me Lord

And I could hold on
I could hold on to who I am and never let You
Change me from the inside
And I could be safe
I could be safe here in Your arms and never leave home
Never let these walls down

But You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You will lead me Lord
You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You lead me Lord
Where You lead me

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life
So let Your mercy

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life
So let Your mercy light the path before me

Cause You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You will lead me Lord
[x4]

Where You lead me
Where You lead me Lord
[x2]

Still My Soul Be Still

 Still my soul be still 

And do not fear 

Though winds of change may rage tomorrow

God is at your side 

No longer dread 

The fires of unexpected sorrow 

God You are my God 

And I will trust in You and not be shaken 

Lord of peace renew 

A steadfast spirit within me 

To rest in You alone 

Still my soul be still 

Do not be moved 

By lesser lights and fleeting shadows 

Hold onto His ways 

With shield of faith 

Against temptations flaming arrows 

Still my soul be still 

Do not forsake 

The Truth you learned in the beginning 

Wait upon the Lord 

And hope will rise As stars appear when day is dimming ”

— WORDS AND MUSIC BY KEITH & KRISTYN GETTY & STUART TOWNEND

Pottery Life Lessons

Watching a potter work is like magic. A lump of clay is transformed into beauty. Like many things in life, preparation is required prior to the creative part. I have been enjoying taking a pottery class for the past few months. I have had an interest in pottery for quite awhile, but never took the opportunity to invest the time and money into it. The class meets at a community center. There are no grades, and most of the students are medical or business folks.

Before

After: Not my work :)

 There are several thoughts and life lessons for this pottery phase of life so far.

The first few classes began with demonstrations of making cylinders and bowls. The teacher made a comment about planning ahead with a piece. We all chuckled as we go with the flow hoping our lump of clay turns into something functional. He responded, well nothing turns out exactly the way you imagine. The real thing is only in your head.

This leads into the next life lessons of redemption and expectations. The teacher encourages us to keep everything that we make at first. This means that they are thick, short, asymmetrical pieces. One of the more experienced potters is excellent in redeeming pieces. She encouraged me " Just cut off the top and continue from there. It can be a glazing experiment. You can put a hole in the bottom to make a planter." The teacher says if there is an opening in the clay that something else can fit into, that is a success.

First piece...yes it has a hole. It, however, can hold something like keys :)

One of first pieces with a very thick bottom, but cute

Yes, there are many pieces that are not redeemable as a useful piece: hole in the wall, too lopsided to be structurally sound, or you simply do not want it. Not all hope is lost, you crumple up the clay and set it aside to be used later. There is a freedom to this. Few things in life have this freedom.

Before one ever gets to the wheel, the clay needs to be wedged. This is a process of getting the air bubbles out of the clay and aligning the clay particles. It requires pushing the clay down and forward repeatedly. In the end it forms a shape like a rams head. The clay is then cut and formed into the size balls you want to work with on the wheel.

Wedged clay with ram's head technique

In life, we get filled with air pockets of hurt, self pity, distraction, business, etc. It takes purposeful significant attention to squash these out. If these remain, we like the clay will explode when we cannot handle the heat/pressure of life anymore. Sometimes, it is outburts, retracting to be alone, or others.

Next step is forcibly dropping the clay on the center of the wheel. If it is not firmly "attached," it cannot be centered.   After adding water, two hands are required to work together to apply pressure to center the clay. The clay changes from a wobbly flattened ball, to a smoothly rotating disc of clay. Skilled potters can do this quickly. When you ask someone how you know it is centered, often the answer is "you just know" or "you can feel it."  The feeling comes from experience. If one tries to open up the clay when it is not centered, the piece will be wobbly and not structurally sounds. If walls are managed with the non-centered piece, usually one side is thicker than the rest. The walls can not be very high either.

Centering clay

Centered clay

In life, centering is important. My foundation should be Jesus. Like the clay, we start each day off center. It takes effort, pressure in the right places for the right amount of time  to become centered. Reading the Bible, praying and/or journaling, worshiping God. It may mean leaving the phone in another room, going to a special place. I am trying to be more consistent with this. I can tell a difference. Ultimately, if we do not have a firm foundation, when life "falls apart" we simply crumble. If we are centered, there is often still hope even in the dark circumstances.

After getting better at centering, one can pull the walls up. This is done by applying the right amount of pressure (not too much and not too little). The pressure changes to form the height and shape. Responding to the pressure the clay will be a cylinder, vase, bowl.  The skill and art is knowing where and how much pressure to apply.  Another component of throwing is the wetness of the clay. It needs to be wet enough to be easy to work with, but not too wet  that it is too slippery. In other words, just the right amount of mess :)

Pulling the clay to form walls

This is where the images in Jeremiah come to mind. This is were the transformation is evident.  The thin walls, cups, bowls, vases, plates all start with the same process above. It is here that the difference happens. I have a new appreciation for God being the potter and we are the clay. Being a skilled potter, He knows exactly where and when to apply pressure and pull and push to form the shape he wants us. He knows what shape vessel we need to be to serve Him well. It is uncomfortable for sure, but we can trust He has our good in mind

Once a piece is made on the wheel, its time to think about wanting to trim it to make the bottom smoother or a different shape. Do you want to add a handle or not? Do you want to use slip to change the appearance of the glaze or just glaze?

The clay then dries and is placed in the kiln for bisque firing. Once a piece is bisque fired, it can stay that way forever. During this first firing, the piece shrinks. One of the benefits of bisque firing is the glaze can be washed off. Glaze is what makes the pieces look like glass after a second firing.

I think I have been stuck in the after bisque firing, but not fired with glaze in life. I am functional, but not at my full potential.

unfired, bisque fired, after second firing with glaze.

Once the glaze has been applied, the piece is at the mercy of the heat in the kiln. Each time something goes into the kiln, it is with expectation that the potter waits to see the final piece. Although there are many aspects that can be controlled, accounted for, known, the final product is not in the potter's control. The heat is what makes the components of the glaze react with components of the clay. It is the heat of life circumstances in combination that can initiate change for good or bad in our lives.

Glazing is a whole different aspect that one could spend years developing. Making glazes as well as combining them on pieces makes the pieces unique. The possibilities are endless. Once again, God creativity at work to make each piece individual. Well, are you ready to sign up for a pottery class?

experimenting with glazing

A lidded jar! Hooray

heavy cups, but handles are attached

Fun with glazes on bowls

Finally starting to get taller, even walls

Iceland 2016

Things to know when traveling to Iceland:

• Most cars/campers are manual (out company made Kalinda test drive it with them to insure she could shift gears)
• Familiarize yourself with the road signs: yield signs, town signs, no more town signs, falling car signs, gravel coming signs, sheep crossing, no horses to name a few
• The ring road is narrow and there are many single lane bridges and a couple single lane tunnels
• Go in late May to early June to see many many snowmelt waterfalls 
• It is remote. 330,000 ppl in country majority in capitol. 
• Lots of sheep and horses
• Campsite personel are around usually between 830-11pm to accept payment. The bathrooms are very nice for campsite bathrooms (tile). Some you have to pay for a shower; some showers are included. You pay by the person who is camping and number of items (two tents, one tent, one camper on the site which is usually a field)
• Get a cycling map of Iceland. It has the most information on one map of any we came across. 
• We enjoyed driving counterclockwise even though the guide book suggested clockwise. 
• Prices are going up for everything. Everything was more expensive than the guidebook quoted that was published in April 2016.
• Hot dogs at the N1 gas stations are "cheap," but nothing spectacular. There is a hotdog food trunk on the most south western peninsula that has unique hotdogs.  
• "kull" glacier, "foss"waterfall, "fell" mountain, "fjordur" pennisula

Hole in the middle is where the geysir erupts

Gullfoss (Golden waterfall) in the Golden Circle

The camper battery died. They delivered a new one, and we had no other car problems.

Cave worn away on a black sand beach

Lunch above the waterfall

A snow melt waterfall. So pretty

Skogafoss. The middle outlook is the best view. There were 527 stairs to the top of the waterfall

famous basalt colmns

Turf houses were built with driftwood, stones, and turf at there were and are few trees for building material

Glacier tongue in Skaftafell National Park

one of the many tongues of Vatnajokull glacier

Basalt Colmuns form when lava is still flowing but the upper part is cooling. The colums form perpendicular to the lava flow

A theater in the Capitol is modeled after skaftafoss

small iceberg lagoon, Fjallsarlon

Blue ice is old ice apparently. This was one of the icebergs in Jokulsarlon

Reindeer

East Iceland Fjords

One of the small coastal towns. Each town had a church, swimming pool, and most had soccer field

Another small town

Hengifoss and snow melt falls. The snow melt made the river rushing. We had to walk across it carefully at one point. 

The red layers are clay. It is a combination of volcanic eruption then soil repeated over many many years

Hverir. Boiling mud with horrible stench of sulfur. 

The cave that was farther away than we thought

Geothermal pool inside the cave

Not a huge pile of gavel... it's Hverfell

It's the outside of a crater

Hot Spring up north

Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe

Whale watching suit to stay warm. Despite the sun, the windy made it chilly on the boat

Husavik harbor

Puffins. They come to nest on an island here. They mate for life, have to beat their wings 400 times per minute to fly but can dive 60 m deep

This is Orion. Humpback whales have unique patterns on the underside of their tails. 

There were three humpbacks and several minky whales feeding. They would dive showing their tails 

Foreground is a whale breathing and in background is tail

Godafoss

Akureyri (Northern Capitol)

one of three fish tanneries in the world. They sell mostly to Prada and Gucci

Water boiling out of the earth. 

It is harnessed and piped 65km away. It only cools to 80 degrees C. 

A no town sign

Kirkjufell.  Most photographed mountain in Iceland

Best hotdogs in Iceland

Tallest lighthouse in Iceland (maybe Europe I don't remember)

Reykjavik

Brochures and maps we picked up along the way and used. 

Leif Erickson the true first European to discover North America

If you still want more details or photos, just ask :)