Grey Community...

I live in the Grey House. It's a big grey house at the corner of 43rd and 8th. It was the first place I ever lived at in Seattle. I feel a sense of ownership towards it, although it's not mine. I've moved in and out of the grey house over the past 4 years, and it continues to be a house of change for my soul. It's strange for me to think of physical objects such as buildings to be able to bring healing. I'm sure it's not the actual building but I will always love this house because there has never been a time in my life where more has happened to me than in this grey box. I'm continuing to live here for another year and for lack of a better phrase.......I'm PSYCHED!!! The other night David Harris (one of my favorite people in the world) thought we should have a family dinner. We ended up inviting a lot of people, neighbors, friends, classmates, etc. I think about 12 people ended up coming. It was so great having a house full of old/new friends and feeling a sense of true community. We lined our two dinning room tables up in the middle of the room. Lit tons of candle, turned the fairy lights on and ate great food. There were a few moments while we were preparing the dinner that I looked around and was so proud of myself and my friends. Here we were a bunch of punky kids (as my father would put it), not just surviving but thriving and growing in a city of apathy. We were working together to build community and the end result was beautiful. Two tables full of people from different walks and places in life, laughing, eating and building realationship. Everyone brought an aspect of themselves and their giftings and helped to create a family, even if it only lasted a few hours. David worked on the lighting in the house, Jolene, Mandy and I made the food. Anna kept everyone entertained. It was great. By the end of the night I made a bunch of new friends and I like to think that everyone felt a sense of belonging and safety, which for me at least is hard to find. I want to do it more often. Provide a safe place. I don't want to save, fix, or fulfill anyone, I just want to offer safety. I think also that's what I want for myself. Dave Laird would have been a proud papa.

pedal or paddle??

.....i wish that was our boat.....







today jolene, mandy, david and myself went pedal boating on greenlake. it was fun.....although i think our boat was defective and jolene decided to get "tennis" knee as soon as we started pedaling......how convenient. we decided to pedal our boat clear across the lake to the secret island. after a sticker bush debacle we landed in the lagoon of the secret island. at that point i had to pee, so i thought to myself, no better time than the present. i trailed off into the spider web infested island to find a good peeing spot. somewhere inbetween the sticker bush and pedaling with my hands incident, i lost the $20 in my pocket. that sucked, but the rest of the experience was great. we thought we were never going to make it ashore, but we did. on the way back in we noticed that every other pedal boat was going much faster than ours and they weren't pedaling nearly as hard. oh well, like i said it was fun. as a side note to the boating experience, i almost got into a fist fight with some jerk who decided to run a stop sign. i think i scared him off though.

july, july, july.....

I used to go to Baja Fresh more frequently than I do now and the guy who would call out my name, for me to come get my order would always call me july. I liked it. anyways, it's july. i celebrated my first seattle independence day this year. i've been around for other 4th of july's but i've always been too busy with mission adventures, so i've never really been able to celebrate it. we had a bbq and went to gasworks to watch the fireworks. i've never really seen a real fireworks show, and it was amazing. there were a few times i almost started crying. especially when the fireworks were going in sync with "what do you do with a drunken sailor". it was great. i'm back and school and haven't been as studious as last quarter, as a result i've spent the weekend cramming my brain full of heart and blood information. ask me a question about your leukocytes, go ahead, i'll know the answer. i love seattle in the summer, it's the 2nd most magical place in the world.....disney world's the first.