Wanaka

Mt Aspiring

Sunrise Lake Ohau

Hooker Valley Glacier

Banks Peninsula

Our first view of the ocean, 1 hour southeast of Christchurch.

Christchurch

New Zealand's second largest city, Christchurch has a rich Anglican heritage as witnessed by Christchurch Cathedral Square. We attended 8:00 communion, where Ed & I lowered the average communicant age to around 65. It was surprising to hear, during Prayers of the People, prayers of welcome for the diocese's first female Bishop, Victoria. You go girl!

WC madness

This is what you do after you've slept all you can on a 13-hour flight from LAX to Auckland and everyone else is sleeping: enter a lavoratory, lock the door, and take pictures of yourself. Ed and I will be hiking, biking and kayaking areas of New Zealand until September 10.

Approaching Christchurch Airport

It is winter in New Zealand, so there is snow in the mountain ranges.

Cuy

The annual cuy festival in Peru honors the guinea pig, a species that is native to the Andes Mountains. [Here comes the "awful" part...] Whether fried or baked, guinea pig is a popular, traditional Peruvian dish known as cuy, served whole -- including fur covered head and paws -- on a platter with potatoes and vegetables.

see Pilotsguide.com

Take time to look beneath the surface.

photo: nigel treblin/AFP/Getty

By 2050 or so, the world population is expected to reach nine billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life.

photo: Parth Sanyal/REU

God is in the details

photo: mkbilyk

The art of grieving

The Gaijatra, or ‘cow festival,’ is a week long, humor-filled observance in Nepal. According to religious scriptures the cow helps departed souls cross the cosmic ocean in their journey into the after world. People of all ages dress as cows or wear other odd costumes to commemorate those who have died during the previous 12 months. Family members of the deceased offer fruits, bread, beaten rice, curd and money to those participating in the procession, including real cows.
The festival was initiated by a king some 300 years ago to show his grieving queen, after the death of their son, that people die in everyone's family and that life should continue with happiness.

And, no, that is not James Carvillle.

photo: Gopal Chitraker/REU

Lord, come as sweet, healing oil

into my weary mind,

my bruised heart

and my dried-up soul.

Angela Ashwin

photo: mkbilyk

Food for Thought III

Now that we know what Michael Phelps has for breakfast (three fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise; two cups of coffee, a 5-egg omelet, oatmeal, three slices of French toast and three chocolate chip pancakes), I wish someone would tell us what he listens to on his iPod before a race. Heavy metal? A personal mantra? I suppose it’s whatever helps him focus while stressed. ***
Focus. Commitment. Discipline. All necessary to be a champion swimmer. Also appropriate for one’s spiritual journey.
Focus on the now: Those who focus on the past tend toward depression and/or resentment. Those who focus on the future tend toward anxiety and control. Being fully present to what’s happening in the moment gets us out of our heads and into life as it presents itself.
Commitment to being teachable: Letting go of knowing it all, accepting that “my way” doesn’t mean the “right way” (maybe there isn’t one); stepping out of a comfortable, personal point of view in order to see things differently.
Discipline. Ritual. Practice (any of these): 12 steps; meditation; yoga; prayer; meeting with a therapist or spiritual director; reading; art; volunteering; contributing to someone else’s well-being with no expectation of personal gain; worship. Don't forget to balance it all out with play (yes, play, that goofy, mindless, no goal fun stuff).

***Update 8/17: he listens to hip hop & rap
photo: Linda Nylind

Summertime and the livin' is easy

Our neighbor said this guy slept for 2 hours after his feeding frenzy in their front yard.

photo: mkbilyk

The Veil

Ground has been broken for the Louvre's $135 million Arts of Islam wing. France is home to nearly 7 million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe. A shimmering glass wave, known as the Veil, will hang over the wing's courtyard. The piece is described by its architects as a giant glass Muslim headscarf "blown in by the wind" at the heart of Paris.

photo: Times Online

Lord, help is to listen to each other,
to be gentle with one another,
to forgive each other,
and to be willing to laugh at ourselves.

Angela Ashwin

photo: Jack Delano

Be not afraid

I’m in the barn feeding Fluffy when I sense another presence, a movement in the shadows. A raccoon? Opossum? I roll the door open and wait for my eyes to adjust. There it is again, only closer. Black. Sleek. A cat bigger than Fluffy or Ally.
“He’s big, “ I say to Ed. “I’m afraid he’ll run our cats off the property.”
“You catch him,” he says, “Harold and I will take care of it.”
I place cat food in a carrier and set it on the floor. The menacing feral saunters in. This is one cool cat.
Ed and Harold put the carrier in the truck and do what others have done before them. They drop the cat at a neighbor’s barnyard four miles down the road.
Two days later the cat is back.
Fluffy and Ally adore him.

So does Ed.

We've named him Cooper.

photo: mkbilyk

This is not a WWI or WWII photo. This is a hospital shelter in South Ossetia (former Republic of Georgia) August, 2008.

photo: denissin yakov/ REU

The New Yorker

Angels can fly

because they take

themselves so lightly.

G.H. Chesterton

Live simply so others can simply live.

photo: Islamabad landfill/emilio morenatti/AP

On stewardship

Stewardship means to view the world, and life itself, as a gift entrusted to our care by its Creator; to hold ourselves responsible, accountable for its well being; to manage its resources justly, for its sake and for all who inhabit it.

photo: yuriko nakao Reuters

Holy toes

Construction of the Grand Buddha near Lashan, China, began in 713 AD, led by a Chinese monk who hoped its presence would calm the nearby river. When funding for the project was threatened, he is said to have gouged out his own eyes to show his piety and sincerity. Construction was completed by his disciples ninety years later. So much stone was removed from the cliff face and deposited into the river that the currents were indeed altered by the statue, making the waters safe for passing ships.

photo:michael reynolds

Death by spouse, boyfriend, or ex-

This display in Valparaiso, Chile, is an attempt to raise public consciousness of women who have been killed by acts of domestic violence.

According to the US Department of Justice, female murder victims -- in the United States --are substantially more likely than male murder victims to have been killed by an intimate (i.e., spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend).

In recent years
· About one third of female murder victims were killed by an intimate.
· About 3% of male murder victims were killed by an intimate.
· Of all female murder victims, the proportion killed by an intimate has been increasing.
· Of male murder victims, the proportion killed by an intimate has dropped.

photo: eliseo fernandez

My lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think

that I am following your will

does not mean that

I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire

in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything

apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this

you will lead me

by the right road

though I may know nothing

about it.

Therefore I will trust you

always

though I may seem to be lost

and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear,

for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me

to face my perils alone.

Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton

photo: mkbilyk

Skunked!

The first words I heard this morning? "Parker got skunked!" Ed calls to me from downstairs. I jump out of bed, pull on clothes appropriate to the task and head to the pantry for Odormute (the best skunk odor antidote on the planet.)

Parker's been through this before. Twice. The vet says no matter how many times a dog gets skunked, they don't learn from their behavior.

Sounds a lot like us humans.

On practicing hospitality

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice;
Meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi

All God's creatures

Sophie, our neighbor's 7 year-old great white Pyrenees with gentle brown eyes, was just diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. But for the swelling in her right front leg, and the flecks in her lung x-rays, she’s her content self. Her owner’s been told she has a week to one month to live.
I anointed Sophie this morning, as a sign of God’s presence and blessing. I anointed her, because there’s nothing else her owner and I can do, except pray and watch for signs that it’s time for her last visit to the vet.
I anointed her, because she is as sacred in God’s kingdom as you or I.

photo: mkbilyk