Hi!  How are you guys?

I know we took off on an adventure I kind of left you out of the loop.  I'm sorry about that.  There was the predictable chaos of leaving our old house, followed by the predictable chaos of traveling, followed by the predictable chaos of moving into a new house, which was THEN followed by the predictable chaos of a time change (a week after changing time zones, no less) .... and then it's now.

I do have so much I want to tell you guys.

Starting with this.  This is the backdrop of my life here.

The mountains bring a spiritual undertone to my day that I haven't had in a long time.  It's like normal life is going on all around me - going to Target, driving in circles looking for the DMV, realizing I forgot my cash (and my check card is in a fast food dumpster 150 miles east of here, but that's a story for another time), then getting lost on my way home from the DMV - it's all just normal life, but all around me there is a constant visual reminder that daily life is trivial.  God is bigger, and sturdier and more constant, than whatever is happening in my day.  It is reassuring and beautiful.  

Also?  A coyote was trotting down the middle of our street this morning.  Hand to God.

I guess the obvious question is, how are we settling in?  Slowly, slowly, friends.  Do you remember the very last scene from Finding Nemo?  The aquarium animals all manage to roll across the road ("That was the fastest red light I've EVER seen!") and bounce into the ocean.  And then there's a moment when they realize they made it!  They're in the ocean!  But ... they are still in their little plastic baggies, and now what?  I can relate to those fish.  Somehow we made it across the country with our kids and dog and twelve (yes, really) boxes of toys.  We bounced dangerously along the highway until we landed in the perfect little house in a perfect little corner of Denver.  We made it!  We're here! And ... now we have to figure out how to actually interact with our new world.  It's a little daunting, a little exciting, and absolutely worth every effort to break through.

And so, in the spirit of Finding Nemo, we went to a new kind of church this morning.  Brian and I both have been to a similar type of service before, but never together, and never with our children.  We fumbled with prayer books and hymnals and quickly coached our children on the etiquette of being blessed at the altar.  I listened as the priest sang the liturgy and wondered, is this the place?  Could I be here, could my constricted heart reconnect with a constant God in this place?  Would these people hear my doubt and hesitation, and still welcome me?  I think I could.  I think they will.  

There's only one way to find out.

Happy Sunday, friends.