130 years ago, this gravestone of my great great grandfather was fresh and clear. Now, the information about his life can only be read with difficulty. Not long ago my wife and I traveled to Park City Utah, near the birthplace of my father, to combine a week's vacation and a family heritage tour. Thomas Jefferson Thurston pioneered a valley east of Ogden, accumulated a number of worthwhile accomplishments, and passed away in St. George UT in 1885. But outside his family and a few historians, few have heard of him. But seeing his gravestone struck me with
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Walk Wisely
This last summer my grandson Josh and I took off to climb Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48. His success, and my failure, were recounted in an earlier post, so we'll not repeat my embarrassment. But the Whitney ascent begins with a nice, fairly moderate wooded trail. In my ignorance, I assumed the rest of the trail would be as easy. But like the pic of the trail shows, relatively soon the timberline took over, an altitude too high for trees to grow, and few plants of any kind. The woods gave way to ...
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pilot whale image by whoi.com
Reluctant Obedience
Jesus statements often haunt me. Particularly "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15). Not should, might, or may. Will. Why was that word so definite? Because loving Jesus means loving his life, loving what he wants us to become. Realizing that comprises the heart of a loving relationship: he is both Savior and Lord. The reverse seems obvious--if we have no desire to obey Jesus, we...
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Different Strokes?
Our Gray Hog group rode our bikes this last September to the Northwest--southern Washington, pretty much all of the Oregon coast, and all the way down the California coast, hitting the coastal redwoods, Big Sur, Highway 101, and a lot more. Yeah, we caught some rain with the beautiful country. In looking back though, what most struck me was how different the three of us are. Start with...
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A River, A Family, A Faith
This post comes weighted with a significant amount of trepidation. First, in our two years together, posts that focus on how faith touches current affairs tend to draw the most interest. This one will not directly do that. Second, readers who love action-filled and fast-paced stories, or those who have no interest in fly fishing, might not get grabbed right away by our central story. But I encourage you hang in there, because our topic has tremendous relevance to our walk with Jesus. The pic above comes from the movie A River Runs Through It, taken from
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Dualing I Pods
Funny how you can know a guy for over 50 years, take dozens of multi-state bikes trips together for multiple decades, and not know some of his darkest secrets. Take Jerry for example. After all this time, only on our last trip to Oregon and Washington and down the California coast did I discover the depths of his depravity. To me, one of the best features of our trips is to enjoy the ride and the country and to ponder it in its natural silence. Kinda like the Simon and Garfunkel song, "Sounds of Silence." Now, I knew Jer took an I Pod on our rides, which I ...
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Divine Tension
I never realized tuning a guitar had such complicated principles behind it! Of course, my tonal ability ranks with a paramecium, or likely lower, but this site, one that described how the right tension is set for a guitar string, based on the type of guitar, the style of playing, the diameter of the string, the amplitude of vibration and more, amazed me with the technical details. To summarize it, though, the correct and appropriate tension on a string allows beautiful music to be played by an excellent guitarist. But proper tuning requires two fixed points, the tuners and the tailpiece, connected by the string. If you want to confirm this, check out frudua.com/guitar_strings_tension.htm. Following Jesus compares to that--we must accept the tension between...
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image by backcountrymaven.com
Living Well
Mid September, and the end of a three month motorcycle tour of the US was in sight. Money had begun to run low, and Denver had just gotten snow. A bit east of Aspen I came across my own personal campground, deserted with the onset of the fall that comes early to the high country. Gold already adorned the aspen, and a likely looking trout stream ran next to my site. Lacking a license but unable to resist some temptations, I threw in a line, trusting in solitude, and landed a decent sized rainbow.
Earlier I'd picked up some ...
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