Light snow dapples our rented RAV4 this morning; God TP'd our Toyota with his own special blend. Don't worry about us: we'll scrape through this somehow...
We're scraping snow off our frosty hood in the Twin Cities this weekend. It's the world premiere of our new book: The Soul-Mate Marriage: The Spiritual Journey of Becoming One. This book has our voice, our life, our soul in it --- this book is what happens when you work with marriages for 25 years, you pay attention, and you stay awake.
We stay awake with Caribou Coffee, our favorite, available here and in Chicago, plus a few of our most frequent airports. We're lifting a few frothy cocoa mugs this weekend to raise our spirits; we love Caribou! Sadly, Caribou have not roamed in the Pacific Southwest for many years; we lament their absence.
Absent from Minneapolis for so long, we are reminded of what we miss about this frozen forest: Caribou, Byerly's, Target, the Vikings, and fond memories of what once was Dayton's. What's not to love?
Speaking of love: it's these people. We've spent this weekend surrounded by close friends, kids of friends, friends of kids, friends of close friends. Friday night was a blur of handshakes and autographs and camel's breath. (Yes, there was a live petting zoo behind us, and a reptile pit nearby.) Saturday was more of the same, but only after sleepy Scandinavians were awake.
Awake this morning before church, we're dazzled by the sight of snow, counting our blessings that this massive metro area contains so many of the people we most value, cherish and treasure. Our hearts are here; where is Tony Bennett when we need him? We left our hearts in....Minneapolis.
Minneapolis is a multicultural igloo, beautiful and varied, a place where the term 'melting pot' would first be preceded by a long discussion: what the heck is 'melting'? Talk freezing up here: then we know what you mean.
Here's what we mean: we miss this place: not the snow, not the traffic, not the road construction which apparently guarantees permanent employment (it never ends). Just the people. Small and large, all shapes and sizes and races and colors and languages. If we made a gallery of our favorite faces we would frame these! Here are the people we love and here is a culture we understand and celebrate.
Celebrating 30 years of an amazing and God-blessed marriage, we know for sure we aren't worthy of these friends and their families. Yet as winter marches in with relentless Norwegian fury, we're slowly rolling out with our hearts freshly warmed for the season ahead.
Ahead of us: many more roadways. If only we could take the grandkids along, just like we took them to Burger King on Friday -- laughing and joking, pretending to be lost in a neighborhood we served for a dozen of the best years of our lives. If today there are fewer lost kids in that neighborhood, then perhaps those 12 years mattered for eternity.
About eternity: we believe there is a plan for our lives, and we believe we are following that plan. We are not perfect, not always right, sometimes mixed up with our culture and customs instead of authentic faith. But we are, on this frosty Minnesota morning, moving consistently in the direction of what we truly believe: that there is a home for us in eternity, around whose hearth we hope to see all of these faces, plus many more.
From the journey....Dave & Lisa
Sunday, November 16, 2008
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