Thursday, March 25, 2010

the road will reopen


Due to semi-popular demand (I flatter myself!), Views from the Road will be back -- but only after I take a much needed recharge-the-blogging-batteries break. So I plan to be offline for a full month (from today). On April 25th I'll ease on down The Road again.

(I tried to find a countdown timer without the ad, but no such luck.)


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

trails end at views from the road

It's time for a blogging break. I'm not sure when (or really even if) I'll be back posting. (Comments are being disabled, but feel free to email me.)

So, blog friends, in the words of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans...
Happy Trails to you, until we meet again

Friday, March 12, 2010

Frday Five: Spiritual or Religious?

Yesterday Mompriest attended a conference led by Diana Butler Bass, and that sparked this week's Friday Five. Mompriest invites us to share five thoughts, ideas, or practices that we consider to be "religious", then five we consider to be "spiritual."


Here are 5 I would put in the "religious" category:

1. Responsive readings during church. I am going to write in the past tense here since I am presently unchurched... but I often found responsive readings devoid of significant meaning (at least on a personal level). And maybe my being a child of the 60's gives me a big nonconformist streak, but I don't like being 'forced' to say something I may or may not agree with.

2. Standing, sitting in unison at specified times during church services. Again, I'm sure my nonconformist streak doesn't help this one.


(googled image from here)

3. Singing some of the hymns. I just flipped open a hymnal and randomly saw: "Good Christians all rejoice and sing! Now is the triumph of our King." The 'King' stuff always seems weird to me. (On the other hand, I have no trouble with Cat Stevens' Morning Has Broken...)

4. My former church always insisted on 'doing' communion the exact same ritualistic way. This made communion 'religious' instead of 'spiritual'.

5. Going to church simply out of habit...

And here are 5 things that are, for me, in the spiritual category:

1. Being out in nature. There is a 'spirituality of place' when one is hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, etc.

(from one of our Mount Hood area hikes)


2. Music. And I often find 'secular' music significantly more meaningful and spiritual than 'church' music. Just one example that comes to mind is Carole King's song Tapestry.

3. Theatre. Quite often I find plays to be transcendent. One example would be Broadway's Wicked. Another would be WWU's production of Dog Sees God in which Christina played Marcy.

4. Reading. A good book (fiction or nonfiction) can also be transcendent.

5. Petting Soots. Yep, spiritual! :)



And as a bonus, since I picked on the church earlier... When church 'services' are 'gatherings' and have an experiential focus, that can be spiritual!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

monday

On Monday when I am doing this...


(googled the picture, so it's not actually me!)

and this...



Soots and 'Grandma' get to do this...



and this...

Saturday, March 6, 2010

The Saga of Soots

Wow, it has been almost a week since I last posted. It has been a busy week. On Monday morning Soots seemed listless, and he didn't perk up during the day. He didn't want to eat or drink. (While we were at work my mom kitty-sat.) We ended up taking Soots to the vet after work that day. (I reached the after hours number of our veterinarian's office for some advice. The vet called back and offered to meet us and open up his office to check out Soots. We have always been loyal clients anyway, but that REALLY sealed the deal!)

Soots had a fever and was a little dehydrated -- probable upper respiratory infection. They gave him subcutaneous fluids, started him on an antibiotic, etc. After a couple of days Soots perked up. He is now playing like crazy and eating like a horse.

Whew!