Perspective

Ever since I have returned from Easter break my life has been consumed with work and responsibilities. I felt burdened by the extra hours I spend on work instead of doing recreational and social activities. A few days ago as Dan and I were driving somewhere I was complaining in my head feeling very defeated and frustrated to the point of self-pity. At a red light on a street near our house a middle-aged man in a wheel chair was wheeling himself across the crosswalk. They had just graded the street for repaving and the sidewalk was a good 4-5 inches higher than the street and he could not get his chair up on the sidewalk. Since he had no companion to help and no legs below his knees he threw himself onto the pavement and dragged his now lighter chair with great difficulty onto the sidewalk. He then attempted, several times, to pull himself back into his chair all while dozens of people stared at him waiting for the light to turn green. My cold, bitter heart broke.

Similarly, a few months back I was frustrated with the amount of times our worship leader made us stand and sit during the church service. (I find it distracting but he likes to keep us awake.) The sixth time he had us stand I rolled my eyes at Dan and begrudgingly pulled myself to my feet. In silent protest I didn’t focus on the song but turned around to look at the clock on the back wall only to meet eyes with a young man in his thirties in a wheelchair. He smiled at me as he cheerfully sang the words to the song– confined to his chair– nature having taken away his option to stand and worship. I’ve never since complained in my heart about standing in church.

A few weeks before this we were in church again on a Sunday morning and our music pastor was having us sing, “Our God is an Awesome God” which I felt was a very over sung piece of music. Annoyed and distracted I looked around remembering something I had heard another share in my bible study a week earlier: “It helps me in my worship time to look around and see others worship God knowing the difficult things those people are dealing with and personal trials they have overcome.” My eyes then fell on a third-grader who was born with a birth defect that kept him from speaking until very recently. This 11-year old stood next to his dad enthusiastically signing the words and loudly singing in his gruff, raspy voice “Our God is an Awesome God”. The power and weight of the words of this song hit me fully and immediately. Annoyance turned to remorsefulness and my complacent heart was moved to joy.

It is amazing how our perspective on our situation in life can change when we take our eyes off of ourselves. It is in our nature to be self-focused and I welcome the reminders that God positions in the way of our self-pity and self-admiration to help us gain a truer, clearer picture of life.

I miss vacation. . .

Well. . . since in my blog poll nobody wanted to hear about work in our lives and work is pretty much all Dan and I have been doing I haven't had much to blog about. The rest of our Newport vacation was so amazing. One of my favorite highlights was having burritos at the little park in front of The Montage. That hotel is amazingly beautiful! Tonight in preparation for our Saturday "work on the house" day I bought a few herbs to replant my herb pots. I picked lavender and rosemary in honor of our Newport vacation. (The Marriott has it planted everywhere!) Oh, yeah we are trying to rehome our cute bunnies. I love them but we had to demolish their roomy home last summer and they need more attention than I can give. If you know of someone who wants them let me know!

Newport Coast - Days 2-4

Well our vacation is progressing nicely. On Tuesday Ben, Lindsay, Rachel, Caleb, Joe and Kristy came out and we all walked to the beach, ate dinner, and played games (Super Mario Party). Joe and Kristy had to go home to paint the Kitchen and write a master's thesis (good luck with that Joe!). The rest of us stayed and woke early to go play at Crystal Cove beach where Caleb had a blast shoveling sand and running around on his little legs. Then we came back to the room for lunch and Ben and Lindsay went on a Marriott timeshare tour of the Villas where they were compensated for their time with $150 gift certificate to South Coast Plaza! After the tour and Caleb's much needed nap we all went down to the Grotto pool to relax in the water and sun. We then all went to Ztejas for dinner at South Coast Plaza (compliments of Ben and Lindsay). I had the pecan crusted chicken salad with spinach, goat cheese, and warm bacon vinaigrette. It was fabulous! We all had fun watching Caleb down everyone's french fries (with ketchup on every bite) and then we walked around the mall and Uncle Dan took Caleb on the merry-go-round. It was funny to watch Caleb's death grip on the pole when he knew it was time to get off. Day two was a good day!

Day three was a quiet one for most of the day. Dan and I relaxed alone until Kenny and Betsy Clark and little Lily came for a walk on the beach, a little dinner, and a round of Chance (our favorite card game). This was a nice way to wind down a relaxing day.

This morning Sam and Kristen are arriving- in about 15 minutes! They are the beach bums in the family and truly enjoy a good beach holiday. I'm sure a visit in to Laguna will be in our near future. Happy Thursday!

John Adams

One of the many things that Dan and I both enjoy is studying history. Of the trips we have taken together, Washington D.C. has been one of our most favorite places to visit. I love the idea of standing or walking where people did hundreds of years ago. (In LA we don't have too many places that have this quality.) This past week Dan and I discovered a seven part series on HBO produced by Tom Hanks on the life of John Adams. Paul Giamatti plays John Adams and Laura Linney plays Abigail Adams. The series is based on the research of biographer David McCullough who wrote a biography on John Adams and much of his research comes from the many letters that John and Abigail wrote to each other over their lifetime. The series has been praised for its historical authenticity. Those of you interested in the start of our country or history in general should definitely check this series out! The White House website has tons of great historical information too! Watch the trailer here and the making of here.

Theory of Knowledge - Does God Exist?

Most of you probably know that I teach literature at La Mirada High School, but I also teach this very interesting course called Theory of Knowledge. It is basically a philosophy seminar course where we spend time in discussion addressing a central question: how do we know? Here is our official course description:

Theory of Knowledge – Instructor: Mrs. Shackleton (Non-Honors Credit – UC approved elective credit) This philosophy seminar course encourages critical thinking about knowledge itself, to try to help students make sense out of what they encounter both within and outside the academic community. Students will investigate the origins, processes, and limitations of human knowledge and will discuss how logic, sense perception, emotion, and language are used to discover knowledge in the areas of mathematics, natural sciences, human sciences, history, the arts, and ethics. This discussion-based course is designed to raise questions rather than answer them. It encourages students to make connections between their core content classes and understand the ways in which personal views, beliefs, and judgments influence knowledge claims. Students will be taught how to write a basic philosophy paper and learn how to effectively communicate their ideas clearly both orally and in writing.

Right now we are in the middle of our chapter on religion. The chapter is basically divided into three sections: arguments for the existence of God (theistic point of view), arguments against the existence of God (atheistic point of view), and a third section called “should the existence of God matter?”. The awesome thing is there is going to be a debate between Dinesh D'Souza (a theist who is a fellow at Stanford University) and Peter Singer (an atheist who is at Yale University) on the existence of God and it’s meaning for human flourishing. I am so excited for my students to see this debate as it will challenge them to think more critically and have reasons to substantiate and support their beliefs. You can check out the rest of Biola’s Apologetics events here.

Newport Coast - Day 1

Well this morning I awoke to gorgeous ocean views from my bed. It is nice a toasty in Southern California (85 degrees today). Dan and I took a long walk on my favorite beach path at Crystal Cove State Beach. They have these great walking paths and you are surrounded by gobs of yellow wildflowers. We saw two huge snakes and a ton of colorful lizards. When you get to the end of the path you have a gorgeous view of the Newport and Corona del Mar coastlines. They certainly named Corona del Mar (Crown of the Sea) properly. I love the natural rock formations jetting out from the cliffs. On the way back we took a path down to the beach and walked back on the shore. After our long walk we went swimming and relaxed by the pool and played a game of travel scrabble (one of our personal favorites). I saw a large family with Oregon State clothes on and I thought how happy they must be for sunshine on their Southern California vacation. Personally I am looking forward to cooler weather in a few days. I love walking on the deserted beach all bundled up listening to the crashing waves. After a hot shower we are now expecting Ben, Lindsay, Caleb, Lindsay's sister Rachel, and Joe and Kristy for dinner and games. So far things are going very well here in Newport. Yea for Easter Break!

Yogurtland Mania!

Our new passion is this great frozen yogurt place called Yogurtland. In the last two weeks Dan and I have gone 5 times! This place is the mother of all yogurt shops because it is a self-serve shop. They have over 15 kinds of yogurt and then at least 15 dry toppings, 4 sauces, and 15 fruit toppings. You pay $.30 per ounce so you can just load your yogurt with tons of different toppings without the typical "$.70 per topping" charge. The hardest part is deciding what you want and coordinating your yogurt and topping selection so that you don't end up with a bunch of crazy flavors. Here are our personal favorites:

E- original tart yogurt with moshi, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and mango
D- cheese cake or tart yogurt with carmel, white chocolate chips, graham crackers, cheese cake pieces, and a few blackberries on top

You definitely need to try this place! http://www.yogurt-land.com