From North to Naples

This is a panoramic photo (compliments of friend Lilly) of the first and fastest storm I've ever witnessed rolling in from the ocean.  It was a rather phenomenal sight - the temperature literally dropped by the minute and a ferocious wind kicked up enough sand to put an abrupt end to our picnic on the beach. 

Doesn't look so threatening does it?

But an hour later it's "mild" beginning... began.

Very soon after that panoramic shot we scurried back over the boardwalk in Delgor-Wiggins State Park to our vehicle and made haste, seeking refuge in Books-A-Million where the rain came down (monsoonal style) and thundered on the roof loud enough to interfere with normal conversation.  

I've been happily visiting this part of Florida for many years and have never seen the likes of it.

This is a new activity for us.  I must say, we could get quite used to it except that biking at home (anywhere) is not unlike risky behaviour, living on the edge, and downright dangerous.  

This, on the other hand, is not such a new activity for us.

Eeek!  The Ents have relocated!  And look at that prevailing stormy sky.  

It might chase one off the beach but there is NO way to intimidate the die-hard golfer 

(of the sort I am married to).

We are really enjoying our rental digs.  There's my funny boy.

Books A Million here in Naples has a giant banner draped outside announcing Store Closing. 

This is a sad thing. 

I confess I felt like a vulture descending on some woe-begotten prey.  But I did it anyway.  

 I exercised restraint mostly only because my beloved said I wasn't allowed to buy another 

suitcase to ship all the books back home.  

*sigh*  

The spoil-sport.  :) 

Naples in Florida is now synonymous with knitting as well.  This is crow eating admission for me, having heckled my family & having protestith overmuch at the notion not even 3 years ago.   

So I just want to say, in my effort to come clean and all, I started this all on my own 

and even watched several online videos last week to jog my memory on how to knit 

in a seamless round with two circular needles.

Grand-daughter Danielle picked out this skein of hot pink wool with candy coloured flecks 

in the hopes that I would make her a beret.  Well. It's done my little Dee.   

Tomorrow, I will attempt a few flowers to accessorize the hat in a manner that matches 

the fun & flair of your personality! 

To temper this dangerous amount of pride, I make special mention once again of my sister. 

Let's face it, without her extraordinary long-suffering mentoring I'd be nowhere on the knitting scene.  

And finally, I love spending this leisure time catching up on some reading, blogging and cooking, 

...with wine of course.  

Hey! Some recipes do call for it.

We enjoyed a birthday dinner with Lilly at The Bay House - famous in the area for its mind-boggling seafood menu.  We dined outside as the sun set and a nearby firepit substituted its warmth.  The waiter insisted we go inside to the crustacean bar to see the "beautiful" 8 pound crab available to a fearless diner.  Or was it 4pound beast suitable as appetizer for 8?  We can't seem to agree on the facts.  Another admirer put a 10 ounce glass in front of the shot for perspective.  CRUSTacean's are aptly named don't you think?

Light for the Lost Boy

Andrew Peterson.
How I wish I had a better sense of recall.
I think we first discovered him through the online program Haventoday.org
How often have I and my beloved been served up true blessing by the widely diverse and oddly well-timed contributions featured here?
(a rhetorical question that can be blissfully ignored btw:)
It was a series on Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas, complemented by a music video of Petersons' Dancing in the Minefields that had us first sitting up straight and taking notice.
Imagine that for starters - a marriage referenced as a dance of two in a minefield.
Newlyweds will balk and quickly proffer disgust at such a notion.  Been there, done that.
The seasoned longer-serving couples however will smile at its quirky truth.  Been there, doing that.

We fell in love with his gift for getting to the heart of the matter in song and story and even made a road trip to Valparaiso, Indiana last year so we could listen to him live on stage.

I'm here to tell you he's done it again with his newest album:  Light for the Lost Boy
But don't take my word for it.  Click the link and decide for yourself.
You are urged however, to take your time with it, to listen carefully to the words, to let them steep slowly in your soul.

Andrew Peterson is equally gifted as a writer - working on book four of the fantasy adventure series Wingfeather Saga.   I couldn't put them down, now joining the throng who wait eagerly for the conclusion of the story.
(truly? does it have to end?)
To be so doubly gifted seems almost cruel to the rest of us.
Conversely, the rest of us can simply take up and read or take up and listen - finding ourselves a place of respite in a crazy world and a peace to pass on to those around us.
Well, I call it a peace but it is perhaps more aptly termed a restless sense of grace.  Such as you might eventually discover in reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy or least this commentary of same: A Sudden Joyous Turn


When I look at you, boy
I can see the road that lies ahead
I can see the love and the sorrow

Bright fields of joy
Dark nights awake in a stormy bed
I want to go with you, but I can’t follow

So keep to the old roads
Keep to the old roads
And you’ll find your way

Your first kiss, your first crush
The first time you know you’re not enough
The first time there’s no one there to hold you

The first time you pack it all up
And drive alone across America
Please remember the words that I told you

Keep to the old roads
Keep to the old roads
And you’ll find your way
You’ll find your way

If love is what you’re looking for
The old roads lead to an open door
And you’ll find your way
You’ll find your way
Back home

And I know you'll be scared when you take up that cross
And I know it'll hurt, 'cause I know what it costs
And I love you so much and it's so hard to watch
But you're gonna grow up and you're gonna get lost
Just go back, go back

Go back, go back to the ancient paths
Lash your heart to the ancient mast
And hold on, boy, whatever you do
To the hope that's taken hold of you
And you'll find your way
You'll find your way
If love is what you’re looking for
The old roads lead to an open door
And you’ll find your way
You’ll find your way
Back home

Enjoy exploring this artist as we have.
I think it's time for another road trip with my beloved.

Furry Burry in need of a name!

Hey.
Was it really ME who claimed knitting to be the amusement equivalent of watching paint dry?

Meet furry burry.

My first project with fun fur.   

Since he'll be living with us indefinitely, offering hugs and comfort to innumerable soul mates now living in the family clan (and some yet to be!) Furry Burry will need a name of more lasting value.

A name that will truly distinguish him from the store-bought counterparts.... 

He is quite lovable.  I have found him to be a patient and interesting couch mate with good listening ears, eyes that melt the heart and a quirky lop-sided smile that disarms even the most cautious.

So what about it kids?  

Can you help me come up with a fitting monkier for our little buddy?

I think a first and second name is appropriate.

Maybe even three?

Breaking Bread Together

It isn't just that I like food.  I DO like food but what really turns my crank about good food is its underpinning of fellowship and community.  

The purchasing, planning, preparing and sharing of the meal is the very stuff of life to my way of thinking and upbringing.  

As a first born daughter in a family of seven kids born on top of each other, cooking for crowds was second nature;  feeding the five thousand didn't seem like such a stretch.  

And quality mattered! according to my mother's strict code of kitchen ethics.

I'm the gal who went to see Julie & Julia three times in the theatres.  

The gal lucky enough to browse the Julia Childs exhibit at the Smithsonian in the same year -- 

with her exceptional, understanding husband alongside! (The same man who, without a murmur, replaced a perfectly good kitchen table with a beautiful custom made 60 inch round to indulge my dream for face to face dining).

Ahhh.  Long and happy sigh.

My foodie soul found home here at Laity, particularly after reading 

Setting The Table 

by Laity Lodge Chef Tim Blanks pictured below 

serving up his corn chowder and black bean soup.

I have his permission to share his well-earned wisdom on the subject verbatim, 

after which there will be no doubt as to why my soul resonates perfectly with his quote: 

"I'd say some of the best work of the retreat center takes place at the dining table"

 If the subject is meals, I have opinions.  About preparing them.  About serving them.  About setting the table.... in fact, let's start with that, with the table.  Yes, every meal needs a good setting.  And yes, the food has to be my best.  But to truly invite -- to welcome all comers -- a table has to mark off an area of well-being, a safe place to share yourself and, in every sense, to make room for the person next to you.

Last year the Lodge hosted its first food retreat, and to know Laity Lodge or me is to know that a good meal hardly stops with the food.  But before we get to Laity Lodge, I want to detour through a couple of scenes that illustrate my strong feelings about the importance of the table.  

Detour one:  my boyhood home, wherever it happened to be.  In most houses today the biggest dust catcher is the dinner table -- we know that.  But when I was growing up, the dinner table was our family circle.  As kids, my brother and I had two certainties:  Sunday's meant roast beef and 6:30pm meant family dinner.  Period.  So while my father's work moved us across datelines and meridians, at the stable center of the Blanks' spinning sphere was the family meal.  

Next example:  picture my wife, Amy, and me at our first dinner with Barbara Dan and Howard Butt -- pre Laity Lodge employment.  We all had on our best that night; the table looked like a spread in a House Beautiful magazine.  But settings and people have chips and cracks if you look closely, and flaws are part of a good table's safety perimeters.  My personal chips that night were about coming out of addiction and alcoholism to faith as I shared my story with Howard and Barbara Dan.  

When I was through, Howard said simply, "You're safe with me".  And that evening we feasted.

Now we fast forward to Laity Lodge's first food retreat where participants, just as I do, tend to arrive packing their own opinions.  All good.  Divergent views welcome.  I say often that the magic around a table trumps the quality of the cuisine.  So we made certain that the tables for the food retreat served up our dining philosophy to also feed every person's human need to be himself or herself.  As feedback (good word) came in, I saw that we'd dined well.  We told stories (best meals, worst meals).  

We weighed in on the importance of the table in our lives.  We laughed.  We never advised people to try to get along or to get to know each other; we didn't have to.  

I expect to serve more of these retreats at Laity Lodge, and each time I'll hope our guests go home to stir up more magic.  To eat is human after all.  

But to nourish the soul.... that's a meal;

that's what Laity Lodge is about.

I'm grateful to be in the kitchen.

As chef of Laity Lodge, Tim Blanks sets meal tables to know and be known, to grow and share.

Amen brother Tim.  Thanks for nailing it so perfectly!

Oh, and for making our first food retreat precisely that, 

a place to know, be known, grow and share.

The Lure of Laity Lodge

Disclaimer

In recounting our retreat experience I will at times default to shameless plagiarizing (word for word!) from the welcome package/promo material we found in our room.  A room of more elegant-rustic charm than we could have ever imagined

and to which these few photos might testify. 

Plagiarism will be henceforth identified in blue text to 

ease my conscience.  

Call me weak but to my way of thinking, 

it is senseless self-injury to try the telling of a thing already available in prose that cannot be improved.

Our sweet suite was one of six in the Black Bluffs, a structure built right into the cliff side 

and over-hanging the Frio River. 

Anne of Green Gables might have her Lake of Shining Waters,

but does it compare to this Emerald Sea? 

I thought not.

 The walk from the parking lot to the Black Bluffs

 Down one flight of spiral steps to our room

 Literally built into the rock face

If you know me, then you already know how hopelessly smitten I am with the music of Sara Groves and the writings of Sally Lloyd-Jones.  These women have been nurturing my soul for a few years now with their particular artistry and spiritual giftedness.  Sara's blog led us to The High Calling (and the daily bible studies with Mark Roberts) which in turn led us to the awareness of Laity Lodge and the concept of spiritual retreat.

In a random sweep of the retreat schedule for 2012, 

my attention was drawn to November's Food Retreat.  

Yes.  You read that right.  A Food Retreat.  And yes, the better half of me needed some time to consider the merits of such a theme on our spiritual health.  

As a firmly established foodie however, I needed no such convincing 

and knowing that one of the featured speakers 

was none other than the illustrious Sally Lloyd-Jones 

clinched the plan for me us in no *uncertain terms!

(*aka unnecessary negotiation)

Dr. Wirzba has published The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age and Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight. His most recent book is Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating. He also has edited The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land and The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.

“I grew up farming and still grow a garden. I also love to cook and eat. I want to help Christians think about and practice better eating. Doing the right thing tastes really good! I love sharing the table with others.”

Sally Lloyd-Jones
Sally Lloyd-Jones wrote the Bible. Well, not exactly. But she did write The Jesus Storybook Bible, along with other highly regarded (and highly recommended) children’s books. Sally also likes food. She joins us for The Food Retreat to lend a second voice to the weekend. Expect foodie-centric readings from the Storybook Bible (there are quite a few) and beyond.
 Though this marks only her second trip to Laity Lodge, 
we already count Sally as an old friend and look forward to introducing her to you.


Musician
Nathan Tasker
Artist
Gabe Scott (Pie Making)
Special Guests
Ben Edgerton and Andrew Wiseheart of Contigo Austin. 
They’ll be cooking up something. More details soon.

I needed nothing more to start the registration process.

Here is a write up of the same retreat by Sally herself.  

God’s Love Made Visible:
The Laity Lodge Food Retreat, by Sally Lloyd-Jones 

Friend and best-selling children’s author, Sally Lloyd-Jones, recently spent some time writing at Laity Lodge. The tail end of her stay coincided with The Food Retreat, so we asked her to take part, take some notes, and write about it after she returned home. We’re happy to share Sally’s account of the retreat, and look forward to having her back in the Canyon soon. (We’re big fans of her books too…they make great Christmas gifts!)

The remainder of this post is still under construction but I will publish it anyway.  

I am going out right now with all my boys to see The Hobbit - 

(my first real outing in three weeks as I struggle to recover from pneumonia).  

Like Bilbo Baggins, I'm going on an adventure and know not when I'll return!

*** 48 hour Time Lapse ***

Stepping out of the car in the parking lot, we caught the delightful aroma of Texas BBQ in the making.

We cast each other a thumbs up.  This Food Retreat was off to a mighty grand start.  WE passed this incredible conglomeration of outdoor cooking space en route to the Registrar's Office.

Everything and I mean Everything on the property has purpose and detail and is done with an excellence that surpasses even the most discerning taste.
When things are done for His Glory - the difference becomes very obvious.
THAT was an enormous take away for us as we ruminate the experience of Laity Lodge here at home.

The Bookstore welcomed you to either carefully borrow or buy 

from her shelves.  

 Sally's books!  (I noticed they couldn't keep up with the re-stocking)

 

A Hammered Dulcimer brings Rich Mullins lovingly to mind

Turns out Gabe Scott (resident Pie making expert as well) and Nathan Tasker are well connected to many of our favourite musician artists:  

The Getty's, Sara Groves, Michael Card, Rich Mullins, Andrew Peterson....

*sigh*  Music Heaven 

I wish I had gotten the story behind these sculptures but alas, 

now you are left with my uneducated guess.   

Feed my lambs?

We fellowshipped with approximately forty others at this Food Retreat.  

You are about to meet some of them, at the table and elsewhere.