Signs of Spring

The end of Winter and the start of Spring doesn't happen at a precise moment that any human can see and announce to the world. Spring's arrival happens in the dark just beyond our sight but we are most definitely aware that it's coming.

Spring comes to us just like the mystery of resurrection. For some reason We look for the fixed points in time that we can name as the moment when new life starts after old life has ended. Maybe we are making a mistake to look for fixed points in time like Euclid encouraged his students to imagine as they studied geometry. The trouble with beautiful mysteries like the arrival of spring or the joy of resurrection we humans can't point to one moment in time when one ends and another starts.

As the daylight last longer there's no one point where you can say that the warmer weather has started. Maybe it's the day the kids want to play on the porch. Maybe it's the day the day when the front walk is no longer icy.

The last month we've watched as a couple feet of snow disappeared from our yard. And just this week we watched as the ice has disappeared on the lake. Last night I got the canoe out to paddle along side the ice just to see what it looked like at eye level. This morning, not even 10 hours later I got out to run and saw that most of the ice had disappeared in the night.

Thoughts on Tampa

A week ago my beloved, our youngest daughter, and I returned from 5 days and 5 nights in Tampa, Florida. My beloved attended a conference in Tampa while our baby and I took in the town. This wasn't my first trip the Tampa area, but it was the first time when I went to Tampa and didn't bring a car along or rent one to get around. It was a good city to walk in and people, including the homeless who we met on the streets, seemed genuinely friendly and curious about how our little girl was doing.

Monday was pretty quiet in Downtown Tampa (we learned that Downtown is usually pretty laid back) but this week was exceptionally cold, according to the natives. The headlines in the daily paper included reports of extreme record cold with 9 days below 60.

The baby and I had a great time even finding a park to relax in in the afternoon sun along the Riverwalk Downtown. It did cool off after dark, but the sun that afternoon sure was great. My great accomplishment was finding a handy grocery store and getting my bearings without a car.

Tuesday we headed across the Hillsborough River and checked out the University of Tampa. A noteworthy stop on campus is the Plant Museum in Plant Hall in the middle of the campus. This old main building was once the Tampa Hotel built by the Plant Line as a great vacation destination. It's a fantastic building noteworthy for hosting Teddy Roosevelt and other officers before the US invasion of Cuba during the Spanish American War. In the evening we hopped on the Street Car for Ybor City and supper.

Wednesday we headed towards Ybor City on the street car. We took in the Ybor City Museum operated by the Florida State Park System. The less than one block state park has been established as a museum detailing the lives of Cuban and Italian cigar makers who called this section of Tampa their home. Its a fascinating introduction into the working class life of Tampa in the early 20th century. It's not part of the usual beach and amusement park tour of Florida but it helps make sense of the area's history and industry.

My beloved joined us for supper Tuesday and Wednesday in Ybor. The Cuban sandwiches and bean soup are worth trying if you haven't had either before. Our little girl was very curious as we watched the cigar makers at work in some of the shops in Ybor as we walked through the city.

On Thursday we headed to the Florida aquarium. It was a really relaxing place during the middle of the week. It might get crowded on weekends but we had no trouble taking a couple of good long walks through from the bottom to the top taking in a shark tank, a reef, and a Mangrove. It was a very good introduction to some of the aquatic life I've seen, caught, and been stung by in prior visits to Florida.

A neat place for breakfast in Tampa is the Samaria Cafe on Tampa Avenue downtown. Its run by a married couple. They serve good food in enormous portions at great prices. I was so full I never needed to stop for lunch. I learned that this child, of all our 3, really likes eggs and potatoes too.

Yep it was a good winter break in a laid back big city. I'd go again.

Winter Thoughts on Trout Fishing again in 2010

Someplace in my early 20's I started to fish, at least once a year, for trout. As a kid I joined my dad to pluck sun fish and perch out of lakes and a few streams with bobbers and worms.

In my early 20's shortly after I'd started seminary I picked up a fly rod. A true shame, looking back, is that I lived a few yards from Gilmore Creek on the West End of Winona for 3 years and I wasn't ever smart enough to pick up a fly rod once in those 3 years. A couple years later a buddy invited me along fishing with his dads old hip boots and rod at a place called Pickwick. In one trip I was hooked. I saw more fish than I could count and I wanted to know how to catch them.

Over the past dozen or so years I've lived in trout country and I've lived a couple hours drive away from the cold water spring fed streams of Winona County there in Minnesota's driftless region. I've explored some neat spots and had some luck mostly with beaded nymphs and a couple times with dry-flies. Looking back it's been pretty good, not all that remarkable but pretty good just the same. I have had one regular time to go fishing, Mother's Day Weekend. Year after year, except when my wife was very pregnant, I've kept on fishing with one buddy and a few others who tag along for the campfire and the story telling.

Tonight, living out here on the Prairie where it's just too cold to chase pheasants, it's time to start planning for 2010 and reviewing a few discoveries of the past year.

1. I got out trout fishing 7 days last year. That's a pretty good record for a dad with 3 daughters 6 and under who is still married to the mother of those 3 daughters. My goal for 2010 is to teach the older 2 how to fish (at least with nymphs) so they can join me some of the time.
2. I've had success catching fish on a light weight spinning rod with meps, worms, and rapala's but for some reason I want to catch trout on a fly rod. I think it's the challenge of always learning and always trying to add a new skill or technique for each year that keeps me turning back to the fly rod rather than the spinner.
3. Trout are almost always feeding. I used to think trout were just feeding on the surface or in seams in riffles; but some good reading this winter has convinced me that trout are almost always eating. The key is to figure out what they're actually eating not what's under a rock or floating on the surface.
   
4. For some reason nymphs work best for me. Maybe its my lack patience, maybe its the streams I've been fishing. Maybe it's my inability to match the hatch. I don't know yet and I guess I'll have to keep on fishing for a long time to figure out.
5. I learned a couple things from a wise man who used to be from Michigan this year. He now calls the prairie home just like me, but it's good to have a wise
   

• watch the stream. The trout are there; so before you tie on a fly watch them.
  
• use 2 or 3 nymphs at a time on the same leader, but don't fish with a nymph right on the bottom of the leader. Put a weight on the end and the nymphs end up in the right place and you don't snag one on the bottom.
• be patient; but don't stand in one place for ever. If you've spooked the trout don't flog the water, either wait a while for the trout to start feeding or move on to a new spot.
  

Now I am just waiting for a chance to get a line in the water again and see if I've learned anything at all. Even better than that I am hopeful to see if I can teach anything about fishing to my girls.

Radical Like John the Baptist

One thing I keep hearing as people talk about the emergent chuch is the radical nature of the Gospel that's been sanitized and even hidden by the church in Christendom for years. As a Lutheran I see Martin as one of the first to listen to the whole text and to let it work on him and not the other way arround.

Reading John this week has gotten me hopeful about the future church again maybe because I can see God at work through such radical preaching.

After hearing a particular story from scripture a few times I start to think I know what it's really about. And I must confess that sometimes I stop reading the story and just try to push ahead thinking I already know what the point of the Word already is supposed to be. Advent and Christmas are seasons when we are tempted to push past the story found in Scripture without spending any actual time listening to the stories. And the stories of God breaking into our lives at Christmas without our authorization are some of the best that we can share with the world.

John was never tamed or bridled. He was created by God on purpose and he came preaching a message that was so radical and so bold that people came out to the wilderness near the river Jordan to hear it. They came from Jerusalem and all over Judea to hear John's bold unrestrained message. It was a message that wasn't meant for somebody else or some other people. It was a message that was meant for the nation of Israel. And it rung in their ears so boldly they couldn't stop listening.

John spoke so boldly to them, the NRSV and NIV said he addressed the people who came out to be baptized by him in Luke 3:7, as “You brood of Vipers!” John literally calling them the γεννήματα spawn or offspring or the fruit of ἐχιδνων poisonous snakes. How's that for the opening line of a sermon. You brood of vipers. John understood that God was up to something big. He knew that Kingdom was coming and that the time had come to get ready.

Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Luke 3:8-9 NRSV

John the Baptist was and is a dangerous radical. John was the most unrestrained man of his time in all Israel until Jesus came along. John came and told the people the straight truth. He didn't bother to shave off the rough edges that make us uncomfortable. John wasn't worried about being politically correct. He wasn't worried that the prophetic word that he shared with the people on God's behalf might sort of kind of make them uncomfortable. John knew who they were and he knew that they and all of us have shame, sin, guilt,and grief that we need to lay aside.

John's radical preaching was hard to ignore in his time and it's hard to ignore today. This past week I've been reading Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and seeing in John a true man of God who was really wild and free as God had intended. Eldridge makes a pretty good case in the first chapter that men are contained and constrained by our civilization and that was never God's design or plan. Adam, Eldridge says was created out in the wilderness, but Eve was created in the Garden. Eldridge even points to Jesus and John the Baptist being lead by the Spirit out to the wilderness. John was a radical bold man of God. He had a message from God that wasn't a lullaby. Repent. Lay down you sin. Repent. Don't fake it; don't pretend God doesn't know your sin. Repent.

Who do you imagine as a faithful man of God?
Do you imagine a nice guy, a real push over, a pussy cat or do you imagine someone dangerous an untamed: someone like John. But if your part of my generation of TV watchers you've seen Christian men often portrayed as a sort of Ned Flanders. Nice and restrained.

So what does that say about all of us: are we nice or a we wild and free, like John.

Look who's coming

Dateline: LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Walking along Pearl Street yesterday we spotted white car. The girls said there was even a red hat on the front seat.

2000 words or 2 pictures

Dateline: Sleepy Eye, Minnesota

Milestones: 3 Girls & 1 Teddy

I haven't added to this blog in a while but I think this is a good time to reflect and share. Our family keeps on passing more milestones every week. Last spring we moved 120 miles west into the prarie. It was quite a change. Looking back its been a change that's brought us a lot of blessings.
Our big girls are full fledged 1st graders. Today it seems like they've done well making the jump into so many new parts of life: new town, new school, new friends, new activities: so much new and the seem to be doing great with it all. They are fast becoming proficient readers and their violin playing is getting a little better with practice each passing night.
They ride a bus to and from school and have only missed once. Iwalked with them really fast all the way to school;. I think that will help make sure they don't expect a car ride if they miss.
Our little girl is almost 8 months old. She's laughing and smiling like a toddler these days. I love her smile and the twinkle in her eyes. She fusses some when she's put down and is usually opposed to going to bed. As a new born she didn't complain much until her pants were full.
She's a fullfledged crawler who loves to stand up and play with the contents of any basket she can reach. She knows her toys are in a basket in the living room so its no surprise that any other basket: like 1 full of clean clothing might also be fun to explore.
Teddy, our American Water Spaniel, is 2 1/2 years old. He's a wonderful dog with our trio. He sleeps on the floor in or 6 year-olds' room most night. We never replaced the last bed that he chewed up with all his end of being a puppy energy. Now he curls up on the carpet with any stray cozy object he can find. Teddy's never been allowed on furniture or in a bed, and with our rooms hardwood he looks pretty smart crashed out on the carpet between our big girls' beds.
When we got Teddy we wanted a family dog who would be patient with kids, not shed much, and love to run, especially after birds. Teddy is all that and more.
Last week our almost toddler and I brought him to the vet for shots. 3 other dogs growled at Ted. he wasn't phased by their bad manners at all. Teddy and I went walking looking for birds to eat last weekend. I guess we'll have to keep at it.
Pax
unlikely