tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69823511076207304832024-03-05T17:42:05.549-05:00Traveling Light"These were his instructions: 'Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.'" Mark 6:8-9Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-2879012312061741532013-04-21T09:13:00.000-04:002013-04-21T09:13:44.925-04:00Reflection on the Single Vocation
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<span class="text"><i><sup>“</sup>I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has a
particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.</i></span><i> <span class="text"><sup> </sup>To the
unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as
I am.”</span></i><span class="text"><br />
1 Corinthians 7:7-8</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In light of
the recent political debates around marriage, the single life is unconsciously
restated as less desirable. Whether you are religious or secular, singleness
seems curiously odd to both. It encompasses the divorced, widowed, and never
married. Described in relation to marriage and not given its own identity.
Welcome to the single life, more precisely, in the Christian community, the
single vocation. The following reflections derive from discussions with Christians
living both the single and married vocations. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /><i>Ugly Duckling Complex.</i> In the Hans
Christian Anderson story, the swan was an outcast because he did not look like
the other birds. He finally grew into an adult swan and was accepted. Those who
are married, and even some of the single laity, view those who are unmarried in
the same light. You are an ugly duckling until married. It is reflected in asking
questions about whether you are dating anyone, offering hope that someone is
out there for you, and encouraging you to use your extra time to volunteer in
the church. Instead, let’s encourage the individual in their faith journey and
emphasize the goodness and blessing of God in their lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><br />Bi-polar:
Depressed and Partying. </i>Two extremes used to generalize the state of
singles. The first one encompasses a view that the single vocation is lonely
because you are not in a relationship. It is a state of life akin to sitting in
a drab waiting room with Kenny G playing over the speakers while you are forced
to re-read the same self-help magazines over and over and over again. The other
stereotype is the view that this lack of relationship with oneperson means you
spend your time partying and living up life. The second one was either created
by a married person using the “grass is greener” argument or a single person
trying to compensate for their inability to embrace the vocation God has placed
them in. Everyone has a cross to bear. It does not matter your vocation.
Instead of stereotyping, strive to learn about each person as a unique child of
God.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br />Worry-free
Illusion</i>. There certainly is stress from learning to work in constant
collaboration with another person in marriage. Sin and temptation does not
discriminate by vocation. Singles may, or may not be parents, but they are a
part of a family. They are not immune to the struggles that come from being a
sibling, cousin, aunt/uncle, or godparent. The lure of materialism in this
world remains. Lastly, deciding to live a life of chastity in a society that is
drenched in a base view of physical intimacy is a challenge. The 1 Corinthians
13 definition of love applies to all believers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br />Celebration
Blackhole</i>. Over the past decade of my life, many of my friends have gotten
married, started families, and added an extra set of celebrations to their
lives. Of all the differences between single and married, there is a distinct
inequality in the number of celebrations one has built into their vocation. One
of my friends is, jokingly, dreading all the parties and social rituals that
accompany the time from engagement to marriage. There are struggles in being
single and married, but a single person must be intentional in celebrating
moments in their lives. While the married vocation gives us microcosm of church
life, the single vocation emphasizes the need for forming and fostering the
Christian community and communion of saints. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br />All Christians were made with the
same dignity. Our baptism connects us all in the roles of priest, prophet, and
king. We are all called through our faith to follow the Great Commission and
share the love of Christ with the world. We are called to encourage and edify
each other in our faith journey. These are the things that bind us, no matter
our vocation, in the larger community of believers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-indent: 0px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: <a href="http://www.stmarymagdalen.org/">St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church</a>). </i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-91364402861515464682012-02-14T12:27:00.001-05:002012-02-14T12:29:54.444-05:00Word Became Flesh<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><style>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“I would like everyone to feel comfortable, that’s why I’d like to talk to you about Jesus.”</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">- Jim Gaffigan </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ever notice that the easiest way to make people nervous is to start talking about Jesus and Christianity? Even Christians get nervous when the topic comes up at work or family gatherings. Thoughts start racing through your head, “What if they start talking about controversial subjects? How am I supposed to defend God? I don’t know enough to explain my beliefs.” And yet, as disciples of Christ, we are told “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. The Great Commission sends us out in the word to proclaim the Good News. We are given the privilege to share with others the Word who became flesh. So, what does that look like?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">GK Chesterton has written a lot about his dislike for big words and long sentences. I believe Chesterton would have been a fan, or at least intrigued, with Twitter. Limited to only 140 characters in your message, you can’t mess around with fancy language. In<i> Orthodoxy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1908) he wrote, “It is a good exercise to try for once in a way to express any opinion one holds in words of one syllable.” While I won’t promise only one-syllable words, I offer the following tweets with short explanations in italics for those who need more than 140 characters. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>7 Tweets for Disciples</b></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span class="textexposedshow">"Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ" St. Jerome #ReadYourBible<b></b></span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span class="textexposedshow"><i>Spend time reading and learning about Jesus. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> </i></span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span class="textexposedshow">"All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room."</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">Blaise Pascal #ClassroomOfSilence<b></b></span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span class="textexposedshow"><i>Spend time in prayer in which you simple listen to God. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> </i></span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span class="textexposedshow">"In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 #GodsAlreadyWon<b></b></span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><span class="textexposedshow"><i>God doesn’t need you to convince every person or win every argument. Relax.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <b></b></i></span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><b>“</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” 1 Peter 3:15 #Gentleness</span><b></b></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><i>In addition to reading Scripture, read the Catechism, join a Bible study group and learn about your faith.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <b></b></i></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">It’s ok to say, “I don’t know.” But make sure you go find out the answer. #HumilityisNotDefeat<b></b></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><i>You aren’t expected to know the answer to every question. Never let a person cause you to doubt because you have no answer. Embrace it as a chance to learn more about your faith.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <b></b></span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23 #WeAllNeedJesus</li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><i>Don’t neglect to tell someone about Jesus because you are afraid to bring up the sin you see. We all need salvation. We all were born with original sin.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6982351107620730483&postID=9136440286151546468" name="67001003">“For you know that the testing</a><sup> </sup>of your faith produces perseverance.” James 1:3 #LackingInNothing</li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;"><i>Make sure to read the whole chapter. James encourages us to find joy in the trials that test our faith. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Please Re-Tweet</div><br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-62945877026053048062012-02-14T12:20:00.000-05:002012-02-14T12:20:22.815-05:00Jesus, the Just One<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; <o:p></o:p></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Matthew 12:18</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">“It’s not <i>fair</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.” A sentence exclaimed when a person believes that have not been treated as they should. Or, in my experience, exclaimed when a person does not get what they want. When we talk about justice we seem to apply this same underlying definition. It makes sense that these two words get used interchangeably since fairness is used to define justice in the dictionary. I think in our hearts we have a better understanding of the definition of justice. Just look at the themes and titles in the Christian section of any bookstore. The major theme is God’s mercy. We all love God’s mercy. Now, God’s justice? Well, good thing we have his mercy to take care of that issue. Deep down, even when we incorrectly cry out injustice towards ourselves, our clinging to God’s mercy demonstrates our acknowledgement of what we truly deserve. Paul writes in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” And so we love to hear of God’s mercy and cry foul when we are confronted with his justice. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Let’s take a step back. I think justice deserves another look. God’s justice is as desirable a virtue for us to cling to in our relationship with God as mercy. It is an attribute of himself that he calls us to desire, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you, but to <i>do justice</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) In the ministry and mission of Jesus we are given an example of justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">In the parable of the workers in the field (Matt 20:1-16) Jesus tells of a landowner who went out to find workers to tend his field. As the day went on he gathered more workers. When it was time for everyone to get paid the ones who had been there since the morning expected to be paid more. The farmer paid everyone the same amount. Just as we might do, they became angry at being treated “unfairly” because they worked longer. The farmer reminded the workers what they agreed on for their wage and that he did not break that promise. In the same way, Jesus teaches us that his justice will never waiver. That is a priceless security. What he has promised he will do. His justice is unchanging.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">We are called to show this same justice to others. Jesus shows us that everyone is worthy of being treated with the dignity in which they were created. He reached out to the lowest in society’s eyes and brought them the same gift of salvation. There are not different levels in heaven for economic classes, ethnic groups, or occupations. It is to all people he offers the gift of heaven. We are commissioned to share that same justice and invite all people to become workers in the Lord’s fields.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-24922442104919647482011-08-18T20:56:00.001-04:002011-08-18T21:00:43.876-04:00Conversion as a Resurrection Experience<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Luke 15:31-32</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the story of the prodigal son, we have two sons who make drastically different life decisions. One stays and works on his father’s farm, while the other takes his inheritance and goes away from his father. After ‘experiencing’ the world and finding it wanting, he returns to his father, not expecting forgiveness, but merely the safety of the farm and employment.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">This is a story of our relationship with God. In the Garden, Adam and Eve took their inheritance early by eating from the tree and separated themselves from God. As children of the Fall, we have all found ourselves in the stress and sin of the world. Deep within there is a longing to come back into our Father’s protection. Just like the prodigal son, when we return to God, we find not only peace in our heart, but forgiveness from our sins.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Conversion is a turning toward God. In the Christian faith, it is acknowledging Christ as Lord and Savior and following the will of the Father through the aid of the Holy Spirit. Cradle Catholics can make the mistake of thinking this is an experience for those who have never been in the Church, or have never believed in God. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">In fact, each one of us who believe and follow Christ must share in this experience. At some point in our lives we make a decision to turn towards God with our whole heart, mind, and soul. Whether this looks like a dramatic moment in time, or a slower, less poignant moment, the conversion experience has the same power.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">When we give our lives to Christ, we share in His resurrection power. We who were dead in sin become alive again in Christ. Through the power of Christ, death is conquered in our lives and we become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Believers focus on strengthening their relationship with God during Lent. This may mean repentance from sins that are keeping them from a full life with God. This repentance, or turning away from sin and back towards God are smaller conversion experiences. Even after our initial conversion experience, there are times that we lose focus and become once again consumed by the world. During these times it is important to not only look upon the cross, but also to remember the power of the Resurrection. Turn once again towards God and reclaim yourself for your God this Lent. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>“I am the resurrection and the life.” </i><span style="font-style: normal;">John 11:25</span><i><o:p></o:p></i><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-10606778728250770002011-08-18T20:54:00.001-04:002011-08-18T21:00:43.882-04:00Personal Faith and Spreading the Faith<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><i>But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Peter 3:15)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When I was twelve years old I remember sitting in church on Sunday and it hit me that there was something big going on in this place. For the first time I began to make my faith my own. It was something I wanted in my life, not just an event that happened once a week. In fact, I joke with my friends that one of my “rebellious” actions as a teenager was my strong desire to attend church by myself. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In college I had a crisis in my faith. A friend was challenging me about why I believed what I believed. She grew up Southern Baptist and had a lot of questions. God broke me through this experience. At the same time He used my brokenness to grow my faith. I finally understood the “whys” behind all the doctrines I had been taught growing up. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">God gave me plenty of opportunities to share my faith after this experience. I had to practice putting 1 Peter 3:15 in my life. Learning to share my faith with compassion. Learning to speak in love and not worry about winning the argument. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We are each called to come to Christ in a personal relationship. Once there, we join the Communion of Saints in growing closer to our Lord and King. Part of growing closer to Christ is joining in His mission to spread the Good News, to share our faith. Jesus commands us to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19) We are all called to evangelize the mission field God has placed us in.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">John Paul II stated in <i>Redemptoris Missio</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> that “No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.” In our lives we are to proclaim Christ through words and deeds. Evangelization is not reserved to the street preacher or the foreign missionary. We are all called to “give the reason for the hope” we have. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sharing your faith can be as simple as telling others about how God has worked in your life. You can also share your faith through your actions; how you treat your co-workers, your family, and the strangers you encounter during your day. <br />
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<i>For if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Cor 9: 16) <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></span></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-71829818083226977012011-08-18T20:52:00.001-04:002011-08-18T21:00:43.889-04:00Mary: Our Model Evangelizer<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"> Mary is not counted among the apostles. She is not a Doctor of the Church. She did not write a book in scripture. Despite these, she is our great example of discipleship, faithfulness, and evangelization. She was the first to say yes to the call of bringing the good news to the world. In a most literal sense, she carried the Good News for nine months in her womb. She remained at the foot of the cross while the apostles fled in fear. After her time on earth, she has come back in different times and places with one mission, to call people to her son.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">More than anyone, Mary’s life is focused on pointing the world to the message of Christ. She follows Paul’s command “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31). Unfortunately, throughout Church history, people have been attracted to Mary and stopped there. They have admired her role as the Mother of God, but have forgotten her purpose. In her revelations around the world, her continual message is for people to turn to her son, to worship him, and to believe in his everlasting mercy. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">At the wedding at Cana, when the servants did not know what to do about the wine she told them, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). With that declaration she set into motion Christ’s public ministry. This strength to submit to God’s will and cooperate with Christ’s mission of salvation for all did not come from quick decisions. Several times we are given of glimpse of how she lived out her faith and was able to trust in events unfolding during her life on earth. As events to place she “treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19, 51). She hid Gods word in her heart (Psalm 119:11) and through that was able to witness to the world with “gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">What does this all mean for us? How does it affect our faith journeys? We are all called in baptism to be priests, prophets, and kings. As we look at Mary’s role as the great evangelizer, we are given an example of our role as prophets. Whether we are sent to proclaim the Good News on a street corner, or quietly writing letters to friends who may not yet believe, we are all called to always point to Christ. Learn to say yes to God, trust in his provisions to help us in the mission he gives, and declare through our lives the reason for our hope.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-32114142888889139912011-08-18T20:50:00.001-04:002011-08-18T21:00:43.895-04:00Practicing Justice Through Mercy and Forgiveness<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Jimmy Buffet once wrote in a song, “Relationships, we all got ‘em, we all want ‘em. What do we do with ‘em?” While he was talking specifically about romantic relationships, I think his sentiments could be pointed at the root desire of everyone, which is being in communion with others. God created us to be in communion, so it is no surprise that all of our struggles contain a dimension of relationship issues.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One answer in relieving the struggles is to understand God’s justice and how it relates to our relationships. Our society today conditions us to make judgments first and then perhaps later find out the truth behind a person. Along with that it seems like somewhere in our middle school years we learn to judge first has a defense, or social survival method. If we never move beyond influences like these in our life, and look at relationships with God’s justice, I think we are destined to struggle.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Justice here is defined as “a moral quality or habit, which perfects the will and inclines it to render to each and to all what belongs to them” (Catholic Encyclopedia). That which most certainly belongs to each person is the dignity and worth given to them by God. That does not render them faultless, nor sinless. It does place upon us the responsibility in our relationships of practicing justice towards them. In doing so, we may be bringing them, and ourselves, closer in relationship with Christ. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">All of us have made decisions in our past that we would rather not let people know about because they may reject us. On the other side, there have been people in our lives who have revealed parts of their lives, which made us want to reject them. God’s justice asks us to show mercy and forgiveness towards others and ourselves. Lack of forgiveness traps a person within a space in time. Showing justice through God’s mercy, we can help set that person free from that decision or habit, and allow them to move on to truly live in the dignity God gave them.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In order to practice God's justice we need to begin by suspending judgment on others. This is difficult in a world where, whether we publicly subscribe to it or not, our society trains us to make a judgment first, and perhaps show mercy later. One of the most telling scriptures showing God’s justice through mercy is the woman caught in adultery (John 8). The people were quick to judge her and dispense worldly justice. Christ never said she was not committing a sin. In fact, he ends by telling her to go and sin no more. His justice requires mercy. In our relationships we to need to practice God’s justice by first showing God’s mercy.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ask yourself these questions: Do I show God’s justice to others? Am I willing to look beyond where a person has been to where they are and want to be? What are some common judgments I pass on others?<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This article was written for Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span> <o:p></o:p></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-4833473715604140672011-05-03T22:34:00.001-04:002011-05-03T23:35:08.039-04:00Hope for the Human Heart<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i>“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”<o:p></o:p></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">-St. Augustine</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Thomas Merton wrote that faith talks when reason can say no more. While it is true that some people’s faith journey begins with reason, there always comes a time when what we know becomes what we believe and finally what we follow. It is here that our heart speaks and understands. Scripture tells us that the demons believe in Jesus, but they do not follow him. It is our hearts that Jesus’ touches. When he gathered the apostles, they did not leave everything because of head knowledge of Jesus, they left because their hearts found their rest. After the crucifixion the disciples’ hearts were broken, they thought their hope was gone. When Jesus appeared in the Upper Room after the Resurrection, their hope was restored. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The Good News of Jesus penetrates the human heart. In him all our dreams, desires, and passions find their purpose. When we try to find them in other things they leave us wanting more because they do not satisfy. The woman at the well understood this after talking with Jesus. He is the Living Water of which our heart drinks. So many of the analogies Jesus gave about our created connection with him were in relationship with him. The greatest relationship we have in this life and the next is with Jesus. That relationship connects us with others as well. At Pentecost the barriers of language were broken, the consequence of Babel was lifted for a brief moment, and we were given a glimpse of the power of the Gospel. It quite often baffles our reason as it talks to the heart. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">The foundation of Jesus in our lives connects us not only to God the Father, but also to the communion of saints past and present. In the midst of all the craziness of our personal lives and the world, we find rest in Jesus. He conquered death and sin. He gave us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Let us celebrate this Easter season by showing those who have not found rest, the hope for which their heart is searching.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">**<i>This article was written for the Spring 2011 issue of Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL: St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church).</i> </span></div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-47209124963054593982010-12-14T21:52:00.000-05:002010-12-14T21:52:19.897-05:00Fun in the....Snow?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I grew up in Indiana. Before my sophomore year of high school my parents and I moved to Florida. At that point I said good-bye to cold winters and grey skies. I finished high school and got my undergrad in Florida. I tried graduate school in Ohio, but remembered why I didn't live that far north and moved back south after the first semester. All this to say, I really enjoy summer and warm weather. Unfortunately, the winters, even in the south, have been unusually cold the past couple years. This winter break I'm back up in North Carolina to work. On my way to my final destination I've stopped in western Carolina to visit a friend. Not sure why I decided driving my Florida bought truck down a snowed over driveway was a good idea, but thankfully I did manage to get it back up the hill this afternoon. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There was plenty of snow on the ground from the past couple days of weather. Today had lighter winds and a bright sunny day. My friend and I both got new golf discs for Christmas and wanted to try them out, so we headed to the nearest disc golf course to play a few holes in the frigid 30 degrees. It was a mix of wanting to throw the new discs and just saying we played in the snow. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXucfLBIV_B3Z_qxhb2Ke9tJbrPhsaVWGSASJut_Z0QiGEIct_eXLxMn7zMc6nYU3X4gk3nZOxCXJYR2cb3XToQwh2ARkNoPgIXANV_s3nl_S4e_gGyyBE-POdJKUc31B699ajgFL39Kc0/s1600/DiscGolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXucfLBIV_B3Z_qxhb2Ke9tJbrPhsaVWGSASJut_Z0QiGEIct_eXLxMn7zMc6nYU3X4gk3nZOxCXJYR2cb3XToQwh2ARkNoPgIXANV_s3nl_S4e_gGyyBE-POdJKUc31B699ajgFL39Kc0/s320/DiscGolf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
One of the most important lessons today is that you should probably leave your white driver in the car if you are playing in the snow.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-6966076072792157742010-12-11T18:16:00.000-05:002010-12-11T18:16:32.113-05:00Night of 1,000 SpidersDuring the fall of 2010 my cohort class had a caving/climbing trip. The caving trip was at Pigeon Mountain in north Georgia. We spent two days there and went through Petty John's cave twice. After that part of the trip was over we headed to Sandrock, Alabama to go climbing. One the second evening of the trip I was scheduled to give a lesson on webbing harnesses. The day went rather long and I ended up giving my lesson after dark. I apparently also was giving my lesson during a highly active time for every daddy longleg in northern Alabama. It started with a couple people having to flick one off every so often and ended with people continually flicking off spiders. Just standing still I had about a spider a second climbing up my pant legs! The rest of my class was having the same issues. It felt like being in the middle of a Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock episode. After my lesson our professor had a lesson to give and the entire time he had spiders crawling over him. <br />
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Anyone else ever have this happen to them?Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-9964521446668274282010-12-03T18:38:00.000-05:002010-12-03T18:38:39.788-05:00Follow the Flying CarsThis past week my cohort and I finished our final trip of the semester. We went coastal kayaking at Little Tybee Island, GA. The first day was enjoyable. I had a hard time being "present" because of all the stuff happening these last two weeks of the semester. Unfortunately, this trip became just another thing on the to-do list. The weather on the first day was fine, mid 70s, light wind. That night we knew a cold front was coming and none of us were that thrilled about practicing rescues when the air temperature was in the mid 50s. The benefit was that the water temperature felt much warmer. Due to unforeseen events we had to cut our trip by a day. We ended up doing our last bit of rescue practice right at the beach ramp. The 20 knot west winds that day made things quite interesting. When you flipped your kayak to start the rescue there was no time to waste. You had to start the drill in the middle of the river so that you could get back in your kayak before the winds blew you into the beach, or worse, a boat dock covered in oysters.<br />
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On our way home that day we came across a train track with a stationary train. We went down a couple streets but it looked as if we were going to have to wait it out. What better thing to do when you are waiting for a train to move then have a dance party? A bunch of us got out and started dancing beside the van and trailer. At one point someone looked north up the tracks and exclaimed, "Look! There are flying cars!!" It was dark out so all we saw were headlights. Wouldn't you know, there was an overpass. We all jumped back into the van and tracked it down. While it would have been nice to find the overpass sooner, the dance party was still fun. And yet again, we came back with no pictures from our trip.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-29552646344603374452010-12-03T10:17:00.001-05:002010-12-03T10:17:53.581-05:00Advent Conspiracy Promo Video<iframe frameborder="0" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eVqqj1v-ZBU?fs=1" width="425"></iframe>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-12701531686073789902010-11-24T21:55:00.000-05:002010-11-24T21:55:01.238-05:00How I Got to Georgia College (pt2)I had just drove back from Fort Lauderdale after sleeping in and being too late to the class to attend. I went on to Outdoored.com to look for possible work that fall and found something I wasn't expecting. You see, it took me 7 years to finish my first master's degree. I paid as I went and then took over a year off before working on my thesis. The nice part about that is not owning any money once I got my diploma and hood. The last thing on my mind was going back to school. I did a job search for the southeast because I enjoy warmer weather and on the list of jobs is a graduate assistantship. I clicked on the link and read about the graduate assistantships offered at Georgia College in their M.Ed. in Outdoor Education Administration. What? Could it be that I could get a degree that's directly applicable to my career? (side note: I believe both my BA in Humanities and my MLS are directly applicable to life overall). But I had just finished a master's degree, did I really want to start back to school again? The possibility for a tuition waiver and a stipend was too good to pass up, so within a week I had signed up for the GRE and sent in all my application paperwork. When I headed for Maine the only things missing from my application file were letters of reference and my GRE scores.<br />
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While in Maine I had a phone interview with Jude Hirsch, the chair of the Department of Outdoor Education at Georgia College. She explained the program and it sounded perfect. The next step was to wait and see if I got awarded a graduate assistantship and then find housing.<br />
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I believe I found out later in June that I had been accepted into the program and that I got a GA. Now was time to find a house. I had been told about the "farm" from another person entering the program. When I came to visit the school in July I was given a tour of the famous "farm" by one of the second year grad students. After looking at one of the trailers to possible share with a first year student, I opted to take the third bedroom at the pyramid trailer where my tour guide lived with another 2nd year grad student. The other trailer was just two small for two people, but had an amazing front porch which is where my kayak currently resides.<br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">The trailer I currently live in is called the pyramid due to the obvious fact that it's painted to look like a pyramid. Why you ask? Well, this trailer, along with another one on the farm, used to belong to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubianism">Nuwaubians</a>. After their compound was raided the trailers went up for auction and the owner of the farm purchased two of them. The other one has been painted white, but ours is still the original pyramid block design. It's a nice place to live. It's on the outside of town and I can't see any of my neighbors. There's another trailer on the farm that apparently belonged to Janis Joplin.</span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">My room isn't tiny, but it's too small to fit my queen size bed in and still have a desk and my gear fit, so I've been sleeping on a twin blow-up mattress all semester. At first I was going to buy a bed, but then I figured I already owned a bed and wasn't going to shell out the money for a temporary one. Perhaps next school year I'll live in a place that will fit my queen size bed. One of the "fun" quirks of the trailer is the shower. Due to a broken knob you have to use pliers to turn on the cold water. </span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">That's the story of how I came to Georgia College. Now I can start writing on all the trips I gotten to take this fall with class and for fun, including going to Las Vegas for an experiential educator conference.</span></i>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-81631420143967017352010-11-22T10:55:00.000-05:002010-11-22T10:55:18.929-05:00Christmas: Hope for All People<div class="MsoNormal">Have we forgotten? In the bustle of activity leading up to Christmas, have we forgotten to prepare for Christ? In the hurry to celebrate the New Year and take down the decorations, have we forgotten to celebrate our Savior? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Imagine for a moment the events of Jesus birth: the smell of animals and hay, the sounds of excitement around the birth and the feeling of anticipation from a new mother. Mary and Joseph were witness to the first moments of our Savior’s life. To see the first breath taken by the God who breathed the universe into existence. Before his birth humanity lived under the darkness of the Fall and now the Light had come into the world. And this Light has become the hope for all nations. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Advent and Christmas seasons offer believers time to reflect on the immense importance of the Incarnation, the act of God becoming human. God humbled himself and became like us in order to save us from our sin. Not only was he the light of the world, he gave us that light in our baptism and confirmation to spread that hope to the rest of humanity. In our celebration of Christmas let us remember our call to spread the hope we have found in Christ to the world, a world that has people still living in darkness, which can only be broken with the light of Christ’s love.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations… There are no <i>ordinary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You see, each encounter we have with another person is a sharing of the hope we have in Christ. We, by virtue of the light given to us by Christ, have a choice to share that light or hide it from others. That choice has eternal consequences. The Incarnation was a powerful event in the history of the world. Christ broke through the eternal into the temporal. He came to dwell among us. Now we are given the chance to share that light with others so that Christ may dwell among them too. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This Christmas do not forget to celebrate that hope in our your lives, and share that hope with the people you encounter every day. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">**<i>This article was written for the winter 2010 issue of Today's Disciple (a magazine published by my parent's church in Orlando, FL).</i> </div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-66822591621441632512010-11-22T09:51:00.000-05:002010-11-22T09:51:47.136-05:00Dealing with DisneyDue to the immense fun I had dealing with Disney, I thought I'd share some of that joy with everyone. This wasn't the first time I had dealt with Disney lawyers. When I initially went to get my USCG Captain's license I had to deal with them. We went back and forth several times on the wording of the letter to the USCG so that Disney was sure I wouldn't come sue them for back wages and the USCG understood exactly what kind of boat I drove and for how many days. I still had this letter in my file and thought, surely this will make things go faster. Oh how naive I am at times, or perhaps how dense the Disney lawyers are all the time. It still took all summer going back and forth with my managers and the paralegal trying to write my letter to get it right. Fortunately for me the USCG representative on my file was very helpful and worked with me to get all of it figured out. It took about three months from start to finish, but I finally got my license renewed. Of course, I still don't have that sailing endorsement yet!Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-86556806694636670162010-11-22T09:41:00.001-05:002010-11-22T09:41:41.632-05:00How I Got to Georgia College (pt1)Before I left for Maine I had graduated (finally) from Rollins with my MLS (Master's of Liberal Studies). I was also on a quest last spring to get my USCG Captain's License renewed and get my sailing endorsement added on to it. I need my sailing endorsement to be a Watch Officer (lead instructor) for the Sea Program at Outward Bound. <br />
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You see, this little issue had been plaguing me all spring. I was told in January that I needed the sailing endorsement, so I diligently looked for a class in the area to take. Trying to get to a USCG testing center would seem like the easier answer because I would just have to study and take a test, but as with most government things, they don't try to make it easy and the closest one in Florida is Miami. Taking a class in Tampa or Orlando would take the place of going to the testing center and reduce my driving. The only problem was finding a time that would fit into my spring schedule which by now was full with finishing my thesis, working at Disney or being in Key Largo working for Outward Bound. <br />
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The first course I signed up for was in Tampa. I drove almost two hours (I was just about to get off at the exit) and I got a phone call saying my instructor had gotten into a car accident and the class was cancelled. I turned my truck around and headed home a bit aggravated at the gas money spent, but also understanding to the situation. I then went online and signed up for another class. This time it was in south Florida, but it worked with my schedule. A few days before that course I got an email stating the class was cancelled because the had no place to hold it. Apparently the room/building they normally used had been booked. Great, this was the second time my class was canceled and now it was May. My USCG license was expiring the end of July and I needed to get working on renewing that quickly.<br />
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I had two choices for renewing my license. One was to go to a class and take the tests again. The second was attempting to get Disney to write a letter confirming my sea time over the past 5 years. Dealing with Disney lawyers is like untangling Christmas lights. If you take on the challenge be prepared for lights to be out and several trips to the store. I choose the class option. I changed my reservation with Sea School (the company I'd been working with to take the sailing course) to take a renewal class for my license. It was in Fort Lauderdale. All I needed to do was make sure I was up on time to drive two hours south.<br />
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As you can probably guess, that didn't happen. I woke up about 45 minutes late, jumped in my car and headed south. When I was an hour away I called the gentleman teaching the course to let him know I would be late. He kindly told me that if I was more than 30 minutes late (which I would have been) that the USCG would not accept my attendance in the class. Annoyed at wasting more gas and frustrated at over sleeping, I drove back to Orlando. At this point my mind was jumping between preparing to deal with Disney lawyers and determined to find work for the fall. When I got home I went straight to Outdoored.com and found something I wasn't expecting.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-2273083025601398492010-08-11T11:15:00.000-04:002010-08-11T11:15:08.051-04:00My Summer...Vacation?After all my training was completed in Maine I flew to Atlanta to start my next adventure for the summer. This was my second summer working for Alive In You. It's a Catholic service camp where youth groups come to a city and give a week of their summer to help others. They may be working in a food bank, community center, painting homes, painting schools, or helping at local churches. The first year my biggest job was going to worksites and taking video of the students working. The video is compiled at the end of the week for participants to purchase as a memory from the trip.<br />
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This year I was in charge of multi-media. DJ Skilz, our resident light/sound man, had gone back to graduate school and was not able to work this past summer. I moved into his spot for camp in addition to still filming at worksites. We had four camps this past summer. Between June 10 and July 18 we traveled to Chattanooga, TN; Belle Glade, FL; St. Louis, MO; and Gramercy, LA. The schedule for the summer was two weeks of camp, a week off, and then the last two weeks of camp. <br />
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While some of the staff went to the beach for the week of rest, two of us packed up and headed to Black Mountain, NC to help at FCA Girls Black Mountain camp. Ok, I was going up to work the camp as the lacrosse clinician. The other staffer with me was just giving me a ride. She ended up being the softball clinician because of a last minute cancellation from the original person. <br />
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AiY had some interesting moments. In the first two weeks of camp we had a total of three car wrecks. I was slammed into at a stop light by this lady in a Camaro. Another staffer backed into a car while he was driving the Budget rental truck. And the third was a staffer who backed into a car at a stop light. The one thing we all had in common? All three of the other drivers had no insurance!<br />
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The lady that hit me exited the car screaming/crying please don't call the police. Really? I'm in a rental car that she just beat up the bumper on, "sure, I won't call the police." Note: That did not happen. The police were called and a report was file. My boss will be spending the next couple of months dealing with Alamo over the payment of damages. It's upsetting that this lady had no insurance and the most she may had to pay is the ticket.<br />
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The lady that the Budget truck hit didn't want the police called either. This led to a bizarre text message stating she was taking our staffer to "small claims." Since the police weren't called for that accident, I don't think she realized she had no proof of blame. And the last vehicle took off before information could be exchanged. <br />
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There were some shining moments as well. Every Friday was called Mexican Friday. A couple of the older staffers would enjoy the flavors of a local Mexican restaurant on the last day of working. Fine, so in Belle Glade this ended up being a trip to Tijuana Flats, but come on, it's so good. The best was a restaurant we found in St. Louis. It was a great way to end the three day madness of driving all around the respective city taking photos and video of the students.<br />
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At the end of the summer I flew back up to Maine to instruct a sailing course up there. It was another VETs course. The water had warmed up from May. It was a balmy 61 degrees for dips. On land it was rather hot. Out on the water it was much cooler. I spent a lot of time in my fleece. This trip I took the Concord Express to and from Rockland from Portland. It was better than the airplane. They give you a decent size bag of pretzels and free wi-fi. <br />
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When I got to the airport to fly back to Orlando I was greeted with this, "You are flying to Orlando via Newark? Come over here, we need to talk." Apparently some large storm systems through the New York area had delayed a bunch of flights. They already knew I was going to miss my connecting flight in Newark. My choices were to spend the night in Portland and get the first available flight the next day, or fly to Newark and get the first flight from there to Orlando. I opted to fly in Newark. At least that way I was a bit closer to my destination. <br />
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I spent the night at the Newark airport. I first tried the chairs, but they were not that comfortable. I ended up sleeping on the floor. When I went to sleep the place was empty. When I woke up at 5:15am my gate was packed with people. The first flight out was at 6:15am and I was on it.<br />
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I arrived in Orlando that morning. It was a short trip in town. Just enough time to work at Disney and make some gas money and pack my truck up for school. Next stop: Fripp Island, SC for a vacation. I spent the next six days hanging out at the beach. I played a couple rounds of golf, hung out at the pool and beach, went kayaking, and played pool. It was a much needed slowing down from the summer.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-17107896496132739062010-06-02T10:09:00.000-04:002010-06-02T10:09:08.418-04:00New Sea 2010 - Days 10-12<b>Day 10</b><br />
<b> </b>Wake. Run. Dip. The morning of Monhegan was not the best for our crew. It was one of those "brains not fully operational" times. It began with Rip Hudner ending up on a rock because the tide went out farther than we had adjusted for on the anchor lines. Totally avoidable. Then we didn't put out enough scope to hold two boats on one anchor and our anchor began to drag, almost running Rip Hudner along some large rocks. And finally, when Rip Hudner cast off and set sails they didn't fall behind Ritt and almost sailed back into her.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguhqCtvGBY2KWScG0MIHM-8FEcsPlKdRbJ58PhNDMKQrPeM9N2r9atYGWNupn5_oNGBKwSU4CbEdtkozD5Vo3_YAnN_mTXFhamM7JfsckB-1druXqPtW6m0u4KJzGNHnWIy_8vQP0olp2V/s1600/monhegan-from-the-air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguhqCtvGBY2KWScG0MIHM-8FEcsPlKdRbJ58PhNDMKQrPeM9N2r9atYGWNupn5_oNGBKwSU4CbEdtkozD5Vo3_YAnN_mTXFhamM7JfsckB-1druXqPtW6m0u4KJzGNHnWIy_8vQP0olp2V/s320/monhegan-from-the-air.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Our route had us circumnavigating the island so we could get a better view of the cliffs. While sailing we got a glimpse of a finback whale. The day before we had a minke get within a few hundred yards of the boat. And during the whole training we saw lots of seals popping their heads out to say hello.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Our next destination was Burnt Island. This was another short sailing day, but it was an anticipated destination. Today we were going to have an overnight solo. We were out at our solo sights by around 5pm. I quickly put up my tarp, did the little bit of homework they gave us, and went to bed. I believe I got about 12 hours of sleep that night. I went to bed before it was dark and was back up after sunrise.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><b>Day 11</b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> Once we were all back together in the morning we dipped down by the pier. A lobster fishing family was at the pier that day getting ready for a bbq. They found great amusement in watching us all run into the cold water. Oddly enough none of them took us up on the offer to join in on our fun. After dip we made breakfast and debriefed our solo experiences. Then we were put on a scavenger hunt of the island. Burnt Island is the current solo and rock climbing site for OB. The scavenger hunt took us all around the island and ended with us being placed on Final Expedition.</span></b><br />
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<b>Day 12</b><br />
Since we had to be back at Wheeler Bay by 6am, we woke up in Tennet's Harbor around 4:30 and began our three mile journey to base. We were greeted with chocolate chip pancakes and eggs. After removing some of our gear we were given our last water challenge. The tri-fecta of capsizes; it was time to tip over a Sharpie! Redwing was gracious enough to let us tip her over. Since capsizing a Sharpie requires jumping on the masts to get them to turtle, we just laid her on her side and righted her again. With 11 people on a boat meant for 8, it was fairly easy to tip. Staying trimmed while bailing was a bit harder to do.<br />
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After finishing our last water challenge we divided and conquered cleaning the boats and gear. Training officially ended by lunch time and we all went back to the staff house for much needed showers.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-20600442257452466012010-06-02T09:35:00.000-04:002010-06-02T09:35:30.263-04:00New Sea 2010 - Days 6-9<b>Day 6</b><br />
Wake. Run. Dip. The only difference this morning was that the two new members of our crew had to do their swim assessment along with morning dip. We had a lovely breakfast of eggs and bagels. A couple of the folks had found fresh herbs on the island the day before and we added them to our eggs. Then we took a walk up to the ICP (ice cold pond) and our trainers were gracious enough to explain the group initiative that takes place there, but not have us actually do it. Oh, and we also learned how to make a coonskin hat as demonstrated by one of the crew.<br />
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We loaded back onto the Mighty 12 and headed off to Dix Island. The next day we were arriving back to Wheeler Bay in order to take a few tests and switch over to the Sharpies for the rest of training. On the way we were greeted by a motor boat with a fellow OB instructor, the man who maintains Dix island, and some stranger who, in the span of five minutes, managed to convey all known "cool/hip/rad/surfer" hand signals to our boat.<br />
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<b>Day 7</b><br />
<b> </b>Wake. Dip. Time to sail back to base for a fun filled day of testing. We arrived at Wheeler Bay around 12:30 and ate lunch on the mooring. Once we were docked, we began the process of changing into swim clothes for the our swim test. The swim test included jumping off an 18 foot pier with our PFD on, taking it off and placing it onto the dock, then swimming out about 70 feet to rescue a victim and bring them back to the dock. After that you swam about 10 yards underwater. The final element was diving down 10 feet and grabbing dirt from the bottom. We all successfully completed the swim test!<br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #cccccc;">On a side note: Don't try to fix your own coffee after swimming in 48 degree water. I mistakenly put lemonade powder in mine instead of powdered milk. It was rather disappointing and I had to make another coffee.</span></i><br />
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The rest of the day we spent reviewing and taking the Maine Wilderness Guide test and our Safe Boating test for Outward Bound. Mixed into the day was a great talk by Bob Rowe about OB history. I would have enjoyed the talk more had I not gotten sunscreen in my eye and it was causing me distracting pain the whole time. That night we slept in one of the student tents and dreamt about our second capsize drill to be done in the morning.<br />
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<b>Day 8 </b><br />
No run and dip today. Nope, today our mission was to capsize the Mighty 12 underway with a gybe. In addition to that we were all wearing our foul weather gear. In a highly scientific experiment I wore my SmartWool under my foulies to see if it would keep me any warmer. I'm not sure how well it did while I was in the water, but I believe it kept me warmer once I was back on the boat. We successfully gybed and capsized the boat. It was really awesome watching her rise back out of the sea. It reminded me of the scene in Pirates where they flip the boat and leave Davy Jones' Locker.<br />
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Once we sailed the boat back to the pier the majority of the crew started cleaning her up, while five of us went to go get our pre-employment drug tests done. When we returned the whole crew split into two as Sharpies only hold six students each. The two boat crews, Ritt and Rip Hudner, spent the next couple hours packing food and gear onto the boats. We left Wheeler Bay early in the afternoon and headed a short ways to Long Cove for the evening anchorage.<br />
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<b>Day 9 </b><br />
Wake. Dip. Off to Monhegan Island. This was a pretty straight shot so we took the opportunity to due more MOBs (man overboard drills). Tommy, our energetic crew member who resembled a round fender attached to a cooking pot (please don't make fun of him), offered to keep jumping off our boats. He also performed this altruistic task when we were sailing on the Pulling Boat. Almost 15 times he jumped overboard to help us hone our MOB skills. As an added bonus our trainer took away our rudder and we had to save Tommy steering only by our sails. Amazingly enough he never got hypothermia.<br />
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When we arrived in Monhegan we were given an island welcome as people flung themselves off the local pier when we rowed into the bay. We were happy to find out when we asked them how the water was, that it was wet. We anchorage ashore and set off for an hour to explore. One of the crew and I found a fun path that lead us to the white cliffs on the other side of the island. In order not to be late back to the boats we had to do a bit of running, but it was nice to get the legs moving after sitting on a boat.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-72853912172675621092010-06-01T21:12:00.000-04:002010-06-01T21:12:38.864-04:00New Sea 2010 - Days 2-5<b>Day 2</b><br />
The first bit of business on day two was to capsize Pulling Boat 12. The mighty 12 was going to be our vessel for the next six days of training. We got up at 5:30am, put on our swim clothes (covered by warm layers) and met at the pier to strip out boat for the drill. We were briefed on the process, went for a short run, and quickly boarded the boat. After being towed to a mooring ball we all lined up on the port gunwhale and flipped our boat. We successfully righted her and began bailing like crazy. This was to end up being the first of three capsize drills during training.<br />
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After swimming in from the boat it was time to get warm again. All I remember is being intently focused on the ladder as I swam back to the pier. The overcast, rainy, cold weather of the previous day had been replaced by a sunny, and slightly warmer air temperature which made warming up a ton easier. <br />
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The next bit of business was packing the boat and setting sail. We got left the dock in the early afternoon and headed off toward Penobscot Bay. With favorable winds, we managed to extend the planned mileage by about 13. It was a nice sail across the bay and we tucked in just north of Hurricane Sound on the southwest side of Vinal Haven. It was also the first night of anchor watch. Luckily none of our watches lasted more than 50 minutes a person.<br />
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<b>Day 3</b><br />
We woke up at 5:30am with great anticipation of only dipping in the cold water. Yes, at least for a couple days we were saved from staying in the water too long. I have perfected the five second dip. This was followed by an amazing breakfast of fried bagels and hot cocoa. <br />
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Today's big adventure was setting foot on land. We pulled into our afternoon anchorage and began a massive hike of 300 feet about sea level. Ok, it wasn't that impressive, but the view from the top was awesome. We played on the island for about an hour and then set out to Seal Trap for our evening anchorage. Equipped with both local "facts" and "myth" we successfully began a running joke about Seal Trappe that lasted the rest of training. <br />
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<b>Day 4</b><br />
Guess what time we woke up today? That's right, bright and early at 5:30am. It should be noted that sunrise was occurring around 5am, so the sky was bright when the wake up call was announced by the last person on anchor watch. Again we practiced our quick dips in the cold water.<br />
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Today's sail brought us to a lovely anchorage on the western side of Vinal Haven. We were missing two trainees which we had to pick up at North Haven the next day. One had been ill and the other was coming from school. <br />
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<b>Day 5</b><br />
<b> </b>Wake up and dip. This morning was a quick breakfast because had to beat the tide to make it up a very short bridge. And by short I mean that we had to step the masts, switch to a steering oar, and I had to bend over slightly when we went under it. The width of the bridge wasn't much bigger. Our boat had about two feet of clearance on either side. After we made it through each of us got a chance to try the steering oar. We paddled until we made it to the Fox Island Thorofare where we set up our sails again and headed to the pier to get our last two comrades.<br />
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<b></b> When we arrived we tied the boat off to the dock and were given a short time to walk around town. My first experience in a small Maine fishing town left me feeling like I had walked around a backstage lot from a movie set. It was Sunday, so the whole town was closed. Time to get to Hurricane Island!<br />
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<i>Bit of history: For over 40 years Outward Bound ran the Sea Program fully/or partially from Hurricane Island. The last few years OB was not able to use the island. Once again we have, if just in a smaller capacity, access to the island beginning this summer. </i><br />
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Finally we faced our first natural navigation challenge. The famous Maine fog decided to roll in during the afternoon. Time to put on our navigational game faces, sharpen our dead reckoning skills, and have a blast with the newest challenge. I got to take the tiller for a bit during the fog. It was great seeing land, then the land disappearing, then tacking hoping to find the land again and rejoice when you ended up where you thought you would.<br />
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Unfortunately, the fog receded and left us again with clear skies. We also ended up rowing for a good part of the day as we approached Hurricane. We docked the boat and went on a walk of the island. Our trainers took us up to the "crack" for a group initiative. I am a bit claustrophobic and standing in between two large rocks with only inches of space in front of me had me making a quick mental pro/con list for whether this was worse or better than dipping in 48 degree water. <br />
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That night we anchored off of Hurricane with more fun to be had on the island the next morning.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-13223337784142053562010-06-01T16:24:00.001-04:002010-06-01T17:09:11.064-04:00New Sea 2010 - Day 1<i>One Long Decision.</i> This was the name we choose for our watch. How true it was. The joke goes, "How many Outward Bound instructors does it take to change a lightbulb?" "One to change it, and 5 more to debrief it." When you gather 11 trainees together on one boat you have a similar issue; simple things taking longer than normal. <br />
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On May 18th I left the warmth of sunny Florida to fly up to the cooler weather of Maine. This would be my first visit to the lovely state of Maniacs. I arrived in the afternoon only to sit at the airport of a few hours waiting for my ride, a fellow OB trainee, to pick me up. My ride arrived about 4:30 and we headed from Portland to Spruce Head. I am now convinced after the drive that Maine has the most Dunkin Donuts per capita/square miles of any State. <br />
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The next day at 5pm started New Sea Training. I was already fearing the daily dips in the 48 degree Maine waters. I had been tracking the water temperatures on the internet for weeks. I had done lots of research on the affects of cold water on the body and tried to convince myself to believe the comments about the benefits of cold water swimming. In order to come to grips with my anxiety I walked down to the pier and stuck my hand in the water for about 30 seconds. This action confirmed my disillusion with all the positive research I had read. That water was cold!<br />
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We met as a group for the first time at 5pm that day. Having gotten a short tour of the base earlier, I had my hopes dashed that I would get a day reprieve from jumping into the water by the program director. His casual comment was confirmed during out first gathering when our trainers announced, "Go get your run and dip clothes on." Those eight words resulted in a blood pressure rise of about 100 points. The time had come to face my dread of cold water. We went on a short one mile run and ended at the pier. One by one we jumped in for our swim assessment which consisted of swimming 10 yards on our stomach and 10 yards on our back along the pier. Well, I survived my first immersion in sub 50 degree waters. After a short evening meeting, that concluded day one of training.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-3405623362868209392010-01-17T14:57:00.001-05:002010-04-12T18:10:45.382-04:00Adventure Race (pt 3)After hiking for five hours, it is not wise to take a 10 minute nap. Especially when the next segment of the race consists of riding a bike downhill for about three miles. What happens when you take your short nap to rest is that your sweat begins to cool. Combine cold sweat with a brisk breeze in 60 degree weather and you experience mild hypothermia. Oh yes, it would have been smart to stop and put on my soft shell jacket to block the wind, but then I was trying to catch up with my team and stopping would not have helped. Finally, after about thirty minutes my body caught up and my sweat was warm again from exercising. <br />
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This section of race consisted of paved roads, then a recap of our mountain biking area, and ending again with more paved road. Oh, but what fun we had during the mountain biking section. It was about 2 or 3 in the morning and our headlamps weren't bright enough to safely light our way. Most of the trail was about 2-3 feet wide. One side of the trail was the hill going up, and the other side had the hill going down. In an attempt to not break any bones with a tumble down the hill, we spent a good bit of this section walking our bikes. While I avoided broken bones, my right calf suffered severe bruising. It looked like I had been beaten with a baseball bat. What happened was that the pedal on my bike kept hitting my calf. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Somewhere on the trail we decided to take another nap. This was our longest break of the race. Yep, a whole 30 minutes of glorious sleep in the middle of the trail. What was most surprising was the lack of other teams coming through on the trail while we slept. The only thing I remember was throwing a couple ticks off of me. After getting up from this break I was smart enough to put on my jacket. This idea was short lived, on pushing my bike up the next hill I was sweating again and had to take my jacket back off. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We finally rolled in to the finish line at about 8am. Around 6am we had all run out of water. We checked our team in, got the map for the optional orienteering section, and took the most amazing showers. Not opting for the orienteering section, we turned it back in. That's when we found out that our time didn't end until it was turned in. With the shower time included, we finished in 19.5 hours!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The ride home was quite interesting. We stopped to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Honestly, I remember what I ordered, but I couldn't tell you what it tasted like. I ate it too fast. Then we all took turns driving back to Annapolis. Shifts were traded off when the driver started to fall asleep at the wheel. I remember turning on my blinker, then I was in the other lane. This was indication it was my turn to stop driving. At one point during the drive I remember pulling off at an exit. One of my friends asked what was wrong. All I knew was that my body needed protein, and it needed it right then. I saw a sign for an Arby's, but it was a lie. I ended up going to another fast food restaurant and getting a hamburger.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We got back to Annapolis safely. Our day was completed by eating a lot of pizza and then going to bed. We all slept about 16 hours that night. I won't be doing that again.</div>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-84998092673137036182009-12-20T14:35:00.000-05:002009-12-20T14:35:26.343-05:00Adventure Race (pt 2)As we turned the corner on the way to the canoe ramp, we decided to take refuge at the gas station on the corner. We picked up some provisions (Sports drinks, Combos, etc.) and used the bathroom. While I was standing around waiting on my team to finish up a guy walked up to me. "Are you in the race?" "Yes, why?" "Well, turns out it's taking the lead teams longer than they thought to finish up the canoe section. They decided to not let anyone else start the section after 6:45pm." It was 6:50, we had just missed it. On the plus side, not finishing the canoe section didn't count against our officially finishing the race. And we got bussed to the take-out location to start the next section. On the negative side, this was the one section of the race I was really looking forward to doing.<br />
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As we waited for the bus we chatted with a couple other teams. We also ate our Combos. Frankly, they were the best Combos I've ever had in my life. After over six hours of moving, the combination of pretzel and pizza flavored filling was heavenly. We talked about how amazing they were for the rest of the race.<br />
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We arrived at the take-out site greeted with quizzical looks from the teams who actually did the canoe section. The next part of the race was orienteering and bushwhacking. Stephen was a great help with this section. Mad props to his land navigation skills! Instead of taking a long way around this hill to get to the ridge, we climbed straight up. This was a bit taxing on my already tired self. I was really impressed that we found the check point at the top of the ridge. We then had to bushwhack through blackberry bushes. Good thing we all had long pants to put on for this area. <br />
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</div>As the sun went down we saw an amazing sunset. It was time to break out the headlamps. My Princeton Tech has an amazing ability to produce daylight. One section went walked through was covered by about a foot of leaves. It reminded me of walking through snow. <br />
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After a couple hours we found ourselves in what looked to be someone's private property. This was a bit disturbing because we were pretty sure someone was going to come out of the house and shoot at us. After we found our way off the property we saw the sign that said, "Private land designated for public use." Whew. That was a relief to know, but information we could have used a half mile earlier!<br />
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We ended up walking down a road for about an hour before we arrived at the beginning of the last section. They had moved out bikes from the drop off to this new location. We decided to take a 10 minute break before we jumped on our bikes and headed off. It was around 2am at this point. This may not have been the brightest idea.<br />
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To be continued...Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-67727655111552820962009-12-13T12:46:00.002-05:002009-12-13T12:47:17.276-05:0024 Hour Adventure Race (pt 1)70-90 miles. Paddling, running, biking, and bushwhacking. 24 hours. What the crap was I thinking?!?! I'm not sure what delusional frame of mind I was in when I agreed to join a four person team for a 24 hour adventure race. A race that was taking place in the Blue Ridge Mountains for West Virginia. Training for those conditions in Orlando was going to be a bit of a challenge. And I would find out very early into the race that I was not prepared. Unfortunately, this realization came in hour one. We completed the race another 18 hours later.<br />
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</div>Our four person team met in Annapolis, MD. Two of us flew in from out of state, the other two were from the Naval Academy. The first day was spent searching for bikes. Since two of us flew in, we didn't come with mountain bikes. We borrowed one bike from a crazy adventure racing guru USNA student and another one from student none of us knew. The other two people had their own bikes. One of those bikes was made overseas and the brake system was backwards from a US bike. This wouldn't have been a problem expect the owner didn't ride it. He rode another bike. This caused for a couple braking, bike flipping issues on the trail. We had two bike riders using brake systems that were opposite to what they were used to. <br />
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After driving around town and gathering the bikes we headed out to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The drive was a bit tight. Two of us were sharing the back seat with a couple front bike tires and other random race stuff. We arrived at our hotel in the late evening, repacked our gear for the race and went to bed. <br />
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The next morning we went to the lobby to have our pre-race breakfast. It was a bit difficult trying to eat with the race nerves building. I believe I slowly ate a bagel and some cereal. Soon we were packed back in the car and headed off to the race.<br />
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The race was sponsored by Odyssey Adventure Racing. If you are unfamiliar with adventure racing, the length varies from a few hours to a few days long. They usually include several different activities. The race is not marked out, that's the adventure part. When you check in for the race you show them all the required gear and get your map and coordinates. The next thing you do is take your map and mark out the checkpoints. The purpose of the race is not only to finish in a decent time, but also to hit each checkpoint along the way. <br />
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****<i>As a side note. I'm not sure how we managed to get past the gear check-in with our bike repair kit. I'm not sure we had anything we needed, or could use. We definitely would have been finished if any of our tires blew out because we brought no spares. And frankly, none of us knew how to repair a bike if a chain broke, tire blew, etc. Oh yea, we were totally prepared for this race. Not to mention one of the bikes already had issues. The front tire was losing air throughout the race. We pumped it back up at least three different times.*****</i><br />
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The first part of the race consisted of a run to spread out the teams. Then it was on to the first biking section. That section lasted approximately 5-6 hours. We only got lost by about a mile. This was impressive since we ran into some 'experienced' adventure racers who got 15 miles off course. And we found a bunch of ripe blackberry bushes. At one point we passed a group who were fixing a chain. They gave us some good advice, "as long as you are moving forward, you are going in the right direction." <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC2T9uPIIS0iPZ0mRu5sHy_jhIDR7an15Ca-5IKZ1Q1XSYQV5UzU5juw96gjC4TjCcTELvMV8Dn4M1gcV7I13ZGvbLyzgSocaJagDNiavhsIaPkQeKwdAbUFiBGScjlcA1-AvEwEaSNMPQ/s1600-h/OAR+Bike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC2T9uPIIS0iPZ0mRu5sHy_jhIDR7an15Ca-5IKZ1Q1XSYQV5UzU5juw96gjC4TjCcTELvMV8Dn4M1gcV7I13ZGvbLyzgSocaJagDNiavhsIaPkQeKwdAbUFiBGScjlcA1-AvEwEaSNMPQ/s200/OAR+Bike.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At one point in this section the rest of my team had gotten ahead of me (this happened most of the race actually). I was going down a section that had a switchback on it. When I turned the corner my bike flipped over me. I laid there for a moment, realized my team was out of shouting distance for help, and I really hurt my pride more than my body. So, I got up, got back on my bike and continued to ride. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Some time during the biking section I pulled my upper left calf. I concluded this happened because I was resting on that leg during the downhills and it was putting a ton of strain on it. This happened about 2.5 hours into the race. Probably not a great idea to continue for another 17 hours, but I wasn't going to let down my team. Plus, I paid $175 to run this race and I was going to finish it!<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the end of the first biking section we had to run about 2 miles to the paddling. Along the way we stopped by a Trail Angel's house. Trail Angels are folks who take care of people hiking the Appalachian Trail. She was really excited to see us and let us fill up our hydration packs. She was disappointed that she didn't know about the race, or she would have put up a tent and had refreshments for the racers. God bless her!<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After leaving her house we ran to the pier for the canoe section. We were not prepared for the surprise waiting for us there.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To be continued..... <br />
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</i>Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982351107620730483.post-13890039315934502152009-12-06T14:59:00.000-05:002009-12-06T14:59:05.005-05:00Praying My Way to HawaiiIn the fall of 2000 I found myself living in what was once a bustling coal town. Doesn't sound appealing yet? What if I told you I woke up one morning to find that my room smelled. I left my room to discover that the whole house smelled. After breakfast I left the house to find out that the entire town smelled. I also lived close enough to the Ohio river that I could both see and hear the dynamite blasts from a hill in West Virginia. If these descriptions haven't sold you on the amazing beauty of Steubenville, Ohio I'm not surprised. I felt the same way. And that's why I needed to get to Hawaii in October.<br />
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My sister and her family were currently living in Okinawa, Japan. That fall, my parents and I decided to meet them in Hawaii for a vacation. Since the weather in Ohio had been cold and dreary since late August, this trip was the highlight of my fall. I had talked to some friends from school about getting a ride to the airport. They agreed to pick me up at 5:45am and drive me to the Pittsburgh airport. It's about a 45 minute drive.<br />
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The morning of the trip arrived and there I stood in front of the house, in the freezing cold, waiting. I waited for about 30 minutes. At this point I had to make a decision. Should I continue to wait or jump in my truck and park in long term parking. My flight was to leave just after 7am. Giving up hope that my friends would show, I jumped in my truck and hauled it to Pittsburgh. I later found out that all my friends slept through their alarms.<br />
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On my drive to the airport my truck kept making a strange vibration. I would later find out this was a combination of my fuel pump going out and a leak in my transmission fluid line. At the time it was just known as the mystery problem that could possibly hinder my trip to Hawaii. This was my first bout of intense prayer for this trip.<br />
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I pulled into the airport with a limping truck and ran through the terminal. Good thing the Pittsburgh airport isn't very big. I got on my plane with minutes to spare. After sitting down and getting situated in my seat I felt a huge sigh of relief. I was on my way to Hawaii and leaving Ohio far behind for a few days. Then the next glitch happened.<br />
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From the cockpit the pilot announced that they were having trouble with one of the engines. The mechanics were going to look at it, but it may mean delaying the flight. "NO!! This can't happen. I need to get to Hawaii!" After the initial shock ran through my body and I started to get really sad, I began praying once again. Ten minutes later the pilot came back over the speakers and said they fixed the problem and we would be leaving shortly. Whew! I'm not sure how many more moments like this my nervous system could take, but I was glad to be up in the air. Off to Houston, TX for my layover.<br />
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The layover was long enough in Houston that I wasn't rushed to the next plane. Finally, I was one plane ride away from Hawaii and I was already many hours away from Ohio. The plane loaded and tookoff without a hitch. Then, when we were in the air for about 30 minutes the announcement came. This time the problem dealt with air pressure. The pilot announced that, "We are having trouble stabilizing the air pressure in the airplane. We are working to get it fixed, but if we can't we will have to turn the plane around and return to Houston." "Oh no! I need to get to Hawaii. We can't turn around!" I believe I actually hoped we'd get far enough from Texas that it would make more sense to continue to Hawaii instead of turning around.<br />
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And once again I was asking for a little help from God. And once again after about 10 minutes of praying, the pilot announced the problem had been corrected and we were continuing to Hawaii. Finally, I could go to sleep and dream of a warm beach that was far, far away from the bleak blandness of the Ohio valley. And six hours later I safely landed in Hawaii.Traveling Lighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09665761151916670154noreply@blogger.com0