Naked Spirituality, by Brian McLaren

Anyone who has done any reading on the Christian spiritual disciplines has probably read the book by Richard Foster titled Celebration of Discipline. For some three decades this has been the modern authority on good writing about and practice of Christian spiritual disciplines. Foster's book presents 12 practices one might consider in one's pursuit of God, purpose, meaningful faith, a deeper sense of the spiritual, stuff like that. It was the first book assigned us in seminary. I've read it, and have always thought very highly of it.

Brian McLaren's newest book Naked Spirituality: A life with God in 12 simple words, is another book in the same vein as Foster's. McLaren typically writes mostly about theology, culture and how bad theology is influencing Christian culture. In a recent book A New Kind of Christianity he proposes just that, a new Christianity that is devoid of most of what he considers to be bad theology out there today. Because of this, McLaren receives, I can only imagine, a lot of criticism from Christians, especially from the conservative right, who like things just the way they are and are uncomfortable with any sort of theological change.

My guess is, McLaren wanted to demonstrate with this book that he, like his critics is also a spiritual person in pursuit of God, like the rest. His liberal theology is very tame in this book as he points readers rather toward their own spiritual path and offers encouragement for the journey.

Following in Richard Foster's example, McLaren offers 12 simple words, which represent 12 different spiritual practices that correspond to, and fit into, what he has identified as four seasons of the faith journey. The template looks something like this:

Simplicity: The Spring-like season of spiritual awakening
Words:
Here: The practice of invocation and presentation, awakening to the presence of God
Thanks: The practice of gratitude and appreciation, awakening to the goodness of God
O (like "Oh"): Practice of of worship and awe, awakening to the beauty and joy of God

Complexity: The Summer-like season of spiritual strengthening
Sorry: Practice of self-examination and confession, strengthening through failure
Help: Practice of expansion and petition, strengthening through weakness
Please: Practice of compassion and intercession, strengthening through empathy

Perplexity: The Autumn-like season of spiritual surviving
When: Practice of aspiration, exasperation and desperation, surviving through delay
No: Practice of rage and refusal, surviving through disillusionment
Why: Practice of lament and agony, surviving through abandonment

Harmony: The Winter-like season of spiritual deepening
Behold: Practice of meditation and wonder, deepening by seeing
Yes: Practice of consecration and surrender, deepening by joining
[. . . ]: Practice of contemplation and rest, deepening by being with  (p. 26-27)

McLaren's approach or template of the spiritual life-cycle is similar to Foster's famous proposals in that each have 12 practices that one pursues to become more 'whole-y.' However, Foster's disciplines are more prescription-like: do this practice and you will grow. McLaren's approach is markedly different, and I'd argue more accessible, in that he clearly states that these disciplines are to be practiced or emphasized along with one's place in one's own spiritual cycle. If I'm in the season of simplicity, I may not be focused on the spiritual practice of lament and agony found in the season of perplexity.

McLaren is clear that this template is not a mountain to climb, that once you reach the season of Harmony you've reached the top of the mountain or highest rung on a ladder. Rather, this is a cycle, much like the seasons it parallels, that repeats time and time again within one's spiritual journey.

The author bears his own experiences in the book illustrating for instance that he has numerous times lived through the cycle. And I find myself agreeing with this approach. As I read through each season, I found myself saying that yes I've been there before. I resonated with most of the book, and especially with the notion that though I have been through each of these "spiritual seasons," I am still in process and will continue to go through them again.

I enjoyed the book, I'm proud of finishing another book, and I felt happily refreshed by it. McLaren is a gifted communicator who is able to write simply, presenting complicated ideas in accessible ways. If you are in a season of reading, perhaps you will pick this one up and consider it.

Dog Lovers Beware

Isn't she adorable!

I thought I'd share my broken heart with you. But if you love dogs and have a tender heart, you might want to steer clear of this little story (which means Hannah and Yaar E should have no problem with it).

As a college graduation gift for my sister in-law (SIL), Heather and I have been planning to get her a puppy. This has been no secret. A min-pin (mini pincher) was the dog of choice, and it was decided that Christmas was the appropriate time that my SIL was ready for a dog.

A month ago I contacted a NC breeder of Minpins outside of Raleigh and reserved a puppy in a litter that, at the time, had not even been born. After the birth, the breeder sent me this picture of the little angel. I passed it along to my SIL, and the picture was shown around to friends and family both here and in Raleigh as many soon-to-be parents show off sonograms. In dog loving families, a new dog is almost as significant as a new baby.

Anyway, on to the sadness...

About two weeks ago, I got a phone call from the breeder, late one night, who said she had some "bad news." My defenses went up. Had she sold it to someone else? Had the puppy gotten sick? I waited for her to continue. And then, I recognized a "tone" of voice that I've grown all too familiar with as a chaplain talking with grieving people. Her voice choked a little, became a bit scratchy and her pace of speech slowed. Like a doctor delivering bad news to a family, the words came out like heavy stones thrown from her heart.

She has a nursery structure on her property in which most of her dogs (mommies, puppies, studs) live. The previous night, the heater for this facility went on the fritz. The thermostat malfunctioned and the heater pumped out as much heat as it could for hours on end until the next morning. The breeder awoke the next morning and walked as usual to her nursery to find it heated to 120 degrees, and 24 dogs laying lifeless in their beds. This 24 included the little girl in the above picture.

The stronger dogs that survived were drenched with sweat, and she said one of them was even coughing like a person who inhaled smoke into the lungs. She was devastated. I was shocked. Her two young children didn't understand and had cried most the day until their tears ducts were depleted. What had for years been her little oasis of dog and puppy tail-wagging life each day had been transformed over night into a mass K-9 grave.

I went into chaplain mode, and spoke with her for more than half and hour, doing my best to listen and console as she bore her heart to me, a stranger whose face she's never seen. She'd spent most of the day, burying dogs and nursing the survivors back to health. The rest of the time she spent making phone calls to customers like me to deliver the bad news. As the last piece on her pile of grief, she'd lost thousands of dollars in her business.

Yet, instead of throwing in the towel, refunding deposits and giving up all together, she expressed her strong desire to do right by me. She had a friend and fellow breeder of Minpins whom she'd contacted. The friend agreed to sell her a female puppy so she could honor her agreement with us. I was grateful, but mostly saddened on her behalf.

We still have a new puppy soon entering the family; however, this sad story is now attached to the joy that the dog will bring. My hope is that the traumatic event (and this post's telling of it) will not sully my SIL's joy of a new dog.

Our hearts go out to this breeder. So if you have a little extra, send some light and lover her way. If you're a praying person, whisper and utterance of compassion on her behalf.

Sorry for the sad story. My brother is probably crying by now reading this. I once heard someone say something like this, "Suffering bared alone is multiplied, but suffering shared is divided." (Lance hopefully, these are emotions working for the good.) I find there's healing in sharing our sadness and bearing our hearts to one another.

Until next time, shalom.

Pups + Snow = FUN

Our dogs love the snow! More specifically, Lola loves running and playing it it. She dashes, leaps and then disappears as a cloud of white snowy mist arises from where ever she landed or turned. When she emerges from said cloud she is as happy as dog-ly possibly. In contrast (those of you who know Dakota best will understand this) Dakota loves to eat the snow. 

Total accumulation, we probably received a little over two feet of snow so far in my part of Anchorage. 

Dakota and Lola, of course, are NC dogs and not really made for this kind of cold weather. Hence, when we go to the dog park for long periods of play, they have to wear doggy vests and little booties over their feet. 

Now, when ever we get out their vests, they get so excited. 

In the snow, there's no need for a tennis ball. Snow balls make perfect fetch apparatuses (apparati?). Well, sort of, they can't exactly bring them back. But, at least they get to go and run. 

Ready to pounce!

We regularly go to the dog park with our friend Janalle and her husky-lab mix, Dannie-girl. Around our house, whenever we say Dannie's name, our two muts get really excited.

At dog park, w/ friend Janelle and Dannie-girl

Other words that instantly excite Dakota and Lola are, "play," "outside," "go," "hungry" (and Hungary), "Anna" (Heather's mom), and daddy saying to them in puppy voice, "Your momma's home!"

Of course, the most motivating sound, the one that get's them up the quickest, the mover of those muts, the thing that has them scurrying through the house as fast as you'll see them move is....the sound of food dropping to the floor when cooking. 

(Similarly, the single sound that gets me moving the quickest is... the sound of dry-heaving pre-upchuck that Dakota makes at 3am in the morning on a work night.)

Heather, Janelle, Lola and a little spit of Dannie on the right

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. 

A month of 1s

The first picture is without any distortions, but not the rest

November marks an entire year we've lived in Alaska. Heather started her job last year 11/1 and about a week later we moved into our apartment, (about 11 days later did our furniture show up). And it's been, I have to say, a pretty amazing year.

We skied more last season than ever before. Heather took several lessons which improved her skills on the slopes considerably. I can't wait to see how she continues to improve this season.

We've seen and driven in more snow than ever in the last year. The snow showed up early November last year and didn't completely melt around town until sometime in April, I believe. It didn't disappear from atop the mountains until July.

Talk about a tight pucker

Trying to get some corn out of my teeth

We've gone and done so many new things in the last 12 months. From several boat trips to view glaciers and Ak wildlife in Seward, we biked to a glacier, I hiked up to the Harding Ice Field (a vast expanse of ice sitting atop numerous mountains some 700 square miles in area), I hiked up Flat Top for a beautiful overlook of Anchorage, we spent a day catching halibut from Homer, we spent a day catching nothing in Soldotna, we took in gorgeous views of Mt. Mckinley and an assortment of wildlife, we biked all over town all summer, we tried out cross-country skiing, we watched sled dog mushers and the Iditarod, we saw enormous ice and snow sculptures, and we discovered that the Turnagain Arm is the most beautiful drive in the world.

We discovered that Lola loves the snow! I mean LOVES it! We discovered that Dakota loves eating snow...LOVES it! I surprised Heather with pretty new dog booties. Dakota surprised Heather by throwing up in the truck. Lola got bit at the park and we paid for minor K9 surgery. The pups discovered what a moose is. They made a new friend-dog named Dannie-girl.

We made a few new friends in people that we've worked with (most notably, Janelle who is Dannie's momma).

Lola, helping me with the corn thing

Also during this year, Heather became licensed in her second state and has worked for a year now. I took on and completed a second CPE residency as a hospital chaplain, which increased my experience, padded my resume and really firmed up my professional identity as a chaplain. After the first residency, I ended it feeling like a minister/pastor with chaplain training; but after the second residency, I really feel like a trained chaplain.

I officiated my first wedding. (Turns out they're easy!)

We paid cash for two cars. (Here's one of them.)

Oh on, turning into alien form...

We were visited by my parents and went skiing together. (Dad had a glorious wipe out and left his phone at the resort twice!) We were visited by Heather's mom and went to Seward. (Heather always feels better with her momma.) We were visited by Anna and Robert-o with whom we went to see Denali. (We almost killed Anna with an allergic reaction, and Robert almost killed Nathan for testing his fear of heights.) In a few days we'll be visited by my sister and her bo and have plans to go snow-shoe hiking. (We shall be braving the bitter cold as the high today was 2 degrees and where we're hiking it will be much colder.)

I said goodbye to my great grandmother. 

We said goodbye to a friend and marine who was killed in Afghanistan. 

We adopted a girl named Indah from Indonesia through Compassion International.

We vacationed very near that child when we ventured to Singapore and Bali with Hannah and Greg, marking our first independent international travel together, but surely not the last (because I want some more Mi Goreng and that skewared chicked with the peanut sauce; Hannah what's that called again?).

We gazed awe struck out of an airplane window as aurora borealis danced for us.

We celebrated out 5 year marriage anniversary. And the other set of 1s that this month marks is the 11 year anniversary from when Heather and I became a couple (Nov. 18th).

All in all, we've had a blast. I'm hoping the pictures convey this as well. My friend Robert would start crying and looking for a job up here if I said we planned on staying another 10 years, or even 5 years. Both our families would probably disown us if we said we were going to have kids and raise them up here so far away. (Actually, both the moms would probably take off work and come up for a month.) But I can't say any of these are the long-term plan. In fact, for those of you wondering, there is no plan. We're here, we're loving life, and that works for now.

So, thanks 11/2011 for being a month of 1s. Our 1st year in AK. Our 11 year dating-versary. I potentially land my 1st long-term big job (more on that later). Here's to another year, just as great!

De-ligion

Have you ever heard someone say that she is "spiritual but not religious"?

Personally, I don't think I have. BUT, I've heard (and read) lots of other people talking about how many people out there ascribe to this stance on the sacred--spiritual but not religious. And I have no problem agreeing that there's probably a lot of people who would say this about themselves. Heck, there's been times when I would've said it about me. 

There's a short moment in the movie This Christmas where a man is talking to a deacon of the local church, and says he doesn't really do church. The conversation continues: 

Deacon: Church ain't something you do. It's a place you go to commune with God in God's house. 

Man: I don't believe in God. Not in a traditional sense. 

Deacon: Not in a traditional sense...?

Man: I mean. I'm a spiritual person. You know, I believe in a higher source. 

Deacon: But you don't believe in God. 

Man: I don't believe in your god. 

This is one of Hollywood's presentations of the "spiritual but not religious" position. 

I was looking up the etymology of the word "religion," and I was delighted and surprised at what I found. One of the possible sources of the word (there are a few different possibilities) suggests that the root word of religion is "lig," as in ligament, meaning to connect or bind. The prefix "re-" means again. Used in the arena of those seeking the "higher source" the inference becomes obvious. The initial meaning of the word religion was to re-connect or to bind-again humans to God and to one another. Religions becomes then a means of meeting, of reuniting with the sacred and with people. 

Along with that, I would contend that this is similar to the way we use the word 'spiritual' or 'spirituality.' We often say or suggest that someone who is spiritual, is in tune with the things of God, always looking for connections to God. 

Unfortunately, use of the word 'religion' is not usually as wholesome, due to organized religion's history of demanding conformity under the threat of exclusion. (If you're not like us, we will de-connect with you.) But this is not religion at all, because religion is meant to re-connect, not disconnect. Brian McLaren suggests that we ought to use the word "De-ligion" for those times and those people who are misusing our religious institutions causing disconnect where reconciliation and reuniting is the chief goal. Dressed up deligion divides people based on arguments over creeds, holy lands, denominational differences. It creates in-groups of elites and out-groups of excluded others. 

This isn't a new problem either. Many of the Pharisees in Jesus' day were practicing deligion--casting out the unclean, asserting oppressive purity laws on large populations elevating the few that had the time and resources to abide by them above the masses. This, in essence, was the quarrel between Jesus and the religious (or should I say deligious) leaders of the time. 

People in Christian circles often use the image of wine and wineskins. Back in antiquity, wine was kept in wineskins (basically a leather pouch or bottle often made from goat skin), but eventually the wineskin would go bad causing the wine to sour. New wineskins would be changed out to keep the wine fresh. Imagine "spirituality" is the wine inside and "religion" is the wineskin encasing it. But too often the wineskin has aged and gone bad causing what we've named as deligion. 

McLaren brings it all home well when he writes: 

A spiritual life is a Spirit life, a life in the Spirit, and Jesus' life and work come into proper focus when we realize his goal was not to start a new religion--and certainly not to create a new religion that would seek to compete with or persecute his own religion, Judaism! No, his goal was to fill with Spirit-wine the empty [wine skins] of religion--his own religion and any other one...When people say, "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual," many of them, I think, see what Jesus saw, that the Spirit's realm of activity can't be limited to the sphere of religion in general, much less to any particular religion. 

So, if it ever happens that I hear someone say she is "spiritual but not religious," I'll probably find myself wondering how that is possible. And, I'll probably interpret them to mean that they are fed up with all the De-ligion around us, but they continue to acknowledge that there is something sacred out there worth pursuing. Most of us call it "God" (a placeholder word, since we don't actually have a name for God), some call it "the More." So, to all the spiritual but not deligious out there, may you continue your quest for Spirit, knowing that your quest is of value, is worthwhile, is beautiful.

Christ has no body

I've come across this poem/song a number of times over the last few years, and each time it causes me to pause and ponder. Thought I'd share it. 

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

-Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Born in Spain, Teresa entered a Carmelite convent when she was eighteen, and later earned a reputation as a mystic, reformer, and writer who experienced divine visions. She founded a convent, and wrote the book The Way of Perfection for her nuns. Other important books by her include her Autobiography and The Interior Castle.

It would be tragic to sit and contemplate the theology of the poem, to analyze, knit-pick, deconstruct and/or challenge St. Teresa with your own minute over-dramatized theological propositions. Instead, let the ideas proposed wash over you and imagine if your hands were Jesus' hands, your feet and mouth were Jesus,' how might that change you? How, then, might you approach the world? 

Reflections on Reading and Writing

"If there is such a thing as human perfection, it seems to emerge precisely from how we handle the imperfection that is everywhere, especially our own."  Fr. Richard Rohr

You may have, at some point, noticed the list of books on the right-hand side bar of this blog. Like most people, you may have paid it very little mind. And there's nothing wrong with that. My list of recently read books has always been mostly for my benefit. However, if you're reading this post, it's likely you've read others, which have often included my own take on books I've read.

For most of my life I have not been a reader. All through grade school I hated reading assignments. I was one of those kids who found all the loop holes in how not to do the required reading. Never finished a summer reading book. (Not something I'm proud of.) One summer, we were assigned The Grapes of Wrath. I never even considered reading it. I rented the movie, went to my friend Landry's house to watch it, and fell asleep during the movie. Like an idiot, I didn't re-watch it, I just returned it! How stupid can you get? (Also not something I'm proud of, but in hindsight, it's pretty funny.)

Not much changed for me in college; however, for one reason or another, I did read a few books independently during those years. Like a dolt, my junior year of college, I signed up for Introduction to American Fiction, only because I'd had the teacher before and liked her. Over the course of the semester we had to read like six novels. Again, what was I thinking?! I wasn't a reader. So, I did my usual, read as little as possible to get by in that class. I might have actually finished one of the Hemingway books (A Call to Arms)...might have.

As I was contemplating attending seminary, someone once said to me, "If you want to go to seminary, you'd better like reading and writing a lot, because you'll do a lot of both." My inner response to this comment was something of disgust, because, though I'd always received good grades on papers, I didn't particularly enjoy it. I went to seminary anyway.

In seminary, I was assigned more reading that I could have imagined. What had I gotten myself into? It was like our professors thought the only thing we did was go home and read for their classes. However, I was slowly maturing, and I managed to do a higher percentage of the reading that I would have in college. I even managed to finish the entire book a number of times (quite an accomplishment for me at the time). During the summers I actually began doing some self-chosen reading...Harry Potter (thanks to my brother lending me the books). It took me two summers to get through them all, but I did. I guess you could call Harry Potter the gateway drug to literature. I also made several strides with writing assignments. I wrote my first sermons, which I actually enjoyed. Then I wrote an exegesis (i.e. long Bible research paper), and was proud of what I produced.

Studying Greek and lots of Hebrew introduced me to the study of language, which I took to like a mosquito to my wife's fair skin. (Having her nearby, I don't have to wear bug repellant.) I learned so much about English from studying the Biblical languages, and this seemed to ignite my enjoyment of reading and writing. All the sudden I was able to spot all kinds of English words, take them apart and often trace the basic meaning back to their Greek or Latin roots. This also made reading theology easier, because high-folutent theologians like to use unnecessarily big words, which are usually just extended logisms on Greek or Latin roots.

I remember being assigned another 12-14 page exegesis for an upper level Old Testament class. I got so into the assignment, my teacher almost penalized me for writing over 20 pages. That was about the time I began this blog, which is an endeavor to explore and expand my capacity as a writer, find my own voice and test to see if I had anything worth saying that people actually wanted to hear. So far, I have developed as a writer, found my voice, and I'm still working on the "something people want to hear" part.

But, it wasn't until after seminary, during my first CPE residency that I discovered joy in reading. I began choosing books that I wanted to read. To my surprise, they weren't fiction or exciting tales, they were theology books; reading from which most people would vomit. I had some assigned reading, but I found myself enjoying it as well. And every time I finished a book, I experienced a rush of pride. This life-long non-reader just finished a book! Take that!

I decided to celebrate these achievements, and secretly boast about them, by blogging about the books I read. Thus, I have a list of book reviews on my blog. And I've just exposed a vulnerable secret with you, something I shared with Hannah while in Singapore: every book review I write serves a few different purposes, but one of them is to bolster my pride in finishing a book. But along with that, I write the reviews, because I like keeping a list of what I've read and when I've read it. I also like being able to go back and read what I thought about a book. It has already helped me in recommending books to others seeking some good reading.

Then, this morning I read a quote from Brian McLaren's book Naked Spirituality, "A secret to the spiritual life is desiring to actually be more spiritual that you appear to be...The secret to hypocrisy is desiring to appear more spiritual that you actually are" (p.87). And this quote, brings to mind my not-so-altruistic motives for writing book reviews: to brag to myself. Hardly a deadly sin, it still made me pause and think. This is exactly what I have been doing. Hypocritically, I was writing book reviews to appear more something (educated? spiritual? well-read? informed?) than I actually am.

But, so as not to wallow in self-pity or whatever, there's another quote in McLaren's book by Brother David Steindi-Rast that says, "Jokingly but with a great deal of seriousness, [Father Damascus would] say, 'Don't worry about purifying your motives. Simply know that they aren't pure, and proceed'" (p. 93). Ah, the sweet and heavy exhale of permission to be impure, it's very satisfying and right up my impure alley.

If you'll notice, the two most recently read books on my list are not hyper-linked. I have not written reviews on them. The Brown text was very enlightening: theology of the Third World, and how it differs from our own privileged theology. But, my sense is that theology book reviews on this blog are as uninteresting as blogs can get. The Martin book is a very gripping and popular fantasy novel, about which you can find far better reviews on the internets (that thing you're on right now). And if you surf the internets as well as I surfed the waves in Bali, you'll have no trouble at all!

So, while I'm still reading, and have many books that I still wish to get to, you'll probably see far fewer book reviews on this blog from now on. I will still keep the side-bar list current, and feel free to inquire about any of the books you see posted there; however, unless one of them is uniquely inspirational, I probably won't be blogging on them...unless I feel the need to brag.

Visiting Hannah and Greg, part 4: Back to Singapore

A short plane ride, and we were in Singapore once again. First things first, that evening, Greg and I had some zombies over due for some slaying.

Our next fun adventure booked in Singapore was a Segway tour on Sentosa Island, which is like a big theme park, tourist trap/attraction, activity place, thingy-ma-jigga-wha.

All surprised we can balance without holding the handle bars

It took just a few minutes, after watching a safety video, to get used to riding these over-priced contraptions.

She-Heather and her Segway

The moment Greg mounted his Segway he turned into a two-year-old, dashing and swerving, going off course and getting out of line. At one point we raced, and I think I won by a hair. 

Greg acting out his terrible 2s

Our tour lasted about 30 minutes, taking us by beautiful vegetation and a sandy beach. 

Cruisin' and taking in the sights

After the tour we also got to do a "Fun-Run" thing on an off-road course. It was kinda neat.....Greg blazed through it! 

A little about Singapore: Singapore is a southeast Asia city/state located off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula only 137 kilometers north of the equator. It is highly urbanized, though almost half of this small country is still covered with greenery. 

I used to think that the US was the most developed, most urbanized, progressed country. No longer. SIngapore has us beat. Clean is the word. The streets were clean, the sidewalks, buildings. It seemed there were no potholes, no cruddy roads, no "wrong side of the tracks." Greg and Hannah can amend these statements if needed, but everything was well kept and in good shape. 

The boat atop these three towers comprise a hotel, casino, restaurants and possibly more

Singapore is a very expensive city. I'm fairly sure it is far more expensive to rent there than in New York or LA. In the very crowded grocery store I noticed $10 boxes of cereal.  The Singaporean government seems to have all the money it needs to do what needs to be done. There are all kinds of fines and taxes. For instance, just for the ability to have a car, one must purchase a Certificate of Entitlement (COE). Now, the exchange rate is about one US dollar = .8 Sing dollars. Now, a COE costs somewhere above 30k Sing dollars. You do the math.

I liked this building's look

By the river

 From our first day there, Hannah and Greg told us about the chili crab at Jumbos. Our last night, we went for it! And oh my gosh! I could have gone swimming in that bowl of chili sauce the crab was served in.

Very happy with my noodles

 The food was served family style. So we just ate and ate and 8.

It was my first time eating crab, but it surely won't be the last

Second best meal during the trip. And that's saying something. See part 2 for my favorite meal.

 Our final event was to take a ride on the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest observation wheel. Much more than a ferris wheel, the flyer has large pods that can each hold about 28 people at a time.

Beautiful night views of the city

 It takes 30 minutes to go around once. And some of the cars are dining cars, each times around starts a new course.

Beautiful views of Heather and Hannah

Our girls

Hannah and Greg, we had so much fun visiting you. Thanks so much for sharing your home and putting up with us. We love just hanging out and playing games with you. The best part was not any of the things we did or great places we went, the best part was simply spending time with you. Keep having fun and loving life. We can't wait to see you next time.

Visiting Hannah and Greg, part 3: Bali (days 3 and 4)

Bali day 3: Snorkeling! 

A car from Blue Season Bali picked us up at our Villa bright and early and brought us to their head quarters where they gear up to take people scuba diving and snorkeling. We got sized for wet suits and headed out to the beach to ride a little tin boat out to the larger boat for the day. 

Waiting to board our transport boat

On our boat was a group of scuba divers along with the four of us snorkelers. Our first stop was Crystal Bay, so named for its crystal clear water. Snorkeling there was so fun. At first the water was cold, but really it wasn't bad, especially with a wet suit. Beneath the bay was a megalopolis of beautiful coral. Every color your eye can imagine was shining brightly up at us as we gazed through our snorkel masks and floated along back and forth with the waves and current.

They don't get sun like this in AK!

Crystal bay is in an island about a 45-minute ride off the Bali coast. We snorkeled two separate times in  this location, each for about an hour (before and after lunch). Meanwhile, the divers went down deep where it was so cold one of the ladies lost the use of a hand while down there and had trouble getting warm back up top even back on the deck of the boat in the intense equator heat. One of the divers was training for her certification for deep adventurous diving, or something like that.

A nice Bali view

At our second location, later that afternoon, while the divers went down deep once more, we did a "drift snorkel." For this, the boat dropped us off, then we let the current take us gently along the coast line as we eyed more gorgeous coral cities, and the boat met us down the beach to pick us up.

This is also a nice view.....(wink*)

They tried to rent us a water proof camera so we could take pictures of the snorkeling, but $45 was just too steep a price, and they didn't want to haggle. Too bad for them, and too bad for you, since you don't get to see any underwater pictures.

Soaking up vitamin D on top deck of the boat

We were out for the bulk of the day, I think about 7 or 8 hours total. 

This ship got stuck on the sand bar just a week earlier

This sand bar had two ships recently stuck. Our boat hand said they had to wait for the big tide to come back next season before they could get them free.

That night we decided to go out to dinner somewhere. Our first stop, recommended by our villa's info book, was a restaurant called Ku De Ta. It was probably the most "hip" most "sheik" most trendy and most "posh" place I've ever been. (Not really me scene.) It was all poorly lit, with loud obnoxious new-techno music and a modern look; but, it had a grassy area with cushions that looked out on the beach. We plopped down and watched the sunset while we enjoyed some over-priced drinks. 

The sunset was awesome, and better yet, we paid almost $30 for two drinks. It doesn't get better than that.

Our sunset view from Ku De Ta

We ended up heading down the street to Ultimo Italian Restaurant and eating some good old Bali-made italian (and well priced) food. Heather's and my entire meal ended up cheaper than two drinks at Ku De Ta.

Day 4 in Bali: Surfing and departing

On our last day in Bali, we finally went to the beach (the beach at which, the very next day there was an earthquake). So, actually, Greg didn't make it to the beach, he had to stay behind to take care of some work stuff. (Those suckers with those jobs. I pity them.)

There were lots of chairs and big umbrellas. But if you wanted to use them you had to deal with one of the guys trying to sell them to you. So, we haggled with the first guy, but he was trying to get too much money out of us. We walked away and got a better price from the next one down the sand.

The girls enjoyed some ice cream while enjoying the beach

After settling in, I went back to my same little haggling friend and did something I'd been wanting to try for a long time....I rented a surf board! I talked him down to $3. Not bad. Of course, I don't actually know the first thing about how to surf other than what I've seen on TV. However, I can do quite a few sports that involve a board on your feet (snow skiing, water skiing, snow boarding, wake boarding, knee boarding and probably something I'm forgetting), so I figure I had a good chance at figuring out the surfing thing.

My big ol' beginner board

It took me a little while to figure out the board, and the waves, and timing and balance and all that, but after not too long, I was up...at least for a matter of seconds. My first several attempts to stand resulted in a quick and dirty splash back into the waves.

One of my early attempts, not looking to good for me

HOWEVER, I eventually did figure it out, and got in some long and really fun rides. Below is video evidence, that my previous foot/board experience paid off, as I surf for over 13 seconds all the way to shore with no wipe out!

Go, Nathan, go!

I was surprised out how much work surfing was. I was sore all over after only 1.5 hours of surfing, and I was beat. For the next several days my back and neck were sore sore sore.

Back at the villa, Greg fought the mosquitoes by smoking them out with the super smoker

But, we had to get back to the villa, pack up, and get to the airport to catch our flight back to Singapore. So, we said goodbye to our beautiful villa, the low Bali prices, and the Southern hemisphere and checked out. We had a few hours before having to be at the airport. So, Hannah and Greg went back to Body Works and got another massage each, while Heather and did shopping and haggling in the markets.

But finally, it was time to go...(sniff). Waiting for our plane, we took in one last great Bali sunset.

 Back to Singapore for two more days with Hannah and Greg (and zombie killing!).

Visiting Hannah and Greg, part 2: Bali (1st two days)

Bali is only a two and a half hour flight from Singapore. After two days in Singapore, we awoke the third morning and boarded a plane bound for Bali, Indonesia. Bali is on of over 1,000 islands in the country, and one of the more developed because of it's status as a popular tourist destination.

We stayed at Villa Coco, which is in Seminyak, an area of the island. The taxi ride from the airport was terrifying and fun at the same time. There are road lines, but that doesn't mean anyone abides by them. Driving in Bali is first come first serve. People cut you off, cars dart in and out, there's constant tailgating, and blinkers are seen as announcements rather than requests. Not to mention, they drive on the left side of the road, which just feels very awkward.

Our villa, view from the door 

Finally, we made it safe to our villa. We had our own private pool, lounging chairs, a kitchenette and living room type area all outside. Our two bedrooms were separate buildings each with their own bathrooms. The bathrooms were technically "indoors," but not really. They had walls and ceilings, but the walls weren't connected to the ceiling everywhere. They also weren't air conditioned. So, going to the bathroom meant simply going through a door into another room, but it was also like going outside. 

Kitchen and common area

Our first day, we went to get massages at a parlor called Body Works. In Bali, one US dollar is worth about 8,000 Rupiah. So, your money goes a long way. An hour long massage with (not 1 but) 2 people massaging me in synch only cost about $35.

Relaxed Hannah and Greg after some good Balinese massag'n

The rest of the evening we spent enjoying our awesome villa and room service.

Day 2 in Bali:
We were picked up early at our villa by our tour guide for the day. The plan: a bike tour through Bali's rural mountain area. It was a long drive north to the mountains. On the way we stopped at a coffee plantation for a quick little tour, and so that they could "farm some money from tourists" as Greg put it. (Heather and I proved very fertile in this regard.)

Me and my sweetie among the vegetation. They even had cinnamon trees 

After showing us how different coffee beans are grown, harvested and processed, they sat us down for free samples.

Enjoying our many different assorted coffees and teas

 We were sitting on the side of a cliff, our table was facing out toward a chasm full of jungle-y vegetation.

All hopped up on coffee!

For lunch (still haven't gotten to the biking yet) we stopped at this awesome restaurant at the top of a mountain with a killer view of a volcano and a lake.

The black soil is burned from the last eruption

Front of our mountain side eatery

Romance on the side of a mountain

After lunch, we finally made it to the bikes. We donned helmets and heard a quick "crash" corse on bike safety and pedaled. (I use the term "crash," because the first thing Greg did on his bike was to wreck it.)

Other than our group of 4, there were three others from China

Rice fields. For miles and miles, we rode past rice fields.

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Even though it was in a hilly part of the island, the rice patties were were flat and terraced. Our tour guide boasted that Bali has the best irrigation system in the world. And while, I wouldn't bet that it was the best in the world, considering the level of development for this country, it was very impressive. There were drainage ditches and pathways for the water everywhere. When it spilled out of one rice patty it was always routed toward another. They didn't waste a drop. I imagine this is essential during the dry season.

The terracing was beautiful

Though we biked for 2.5 hours, most of our ride was downhill. However, we did have a few uphill sections. One in was really long and steep. Afterwards we were all sweating profusely, and this picture showcases Greg's particular hurting after the hill.

Hoping he's not about to throw up

Our bike trip through rural non-touristy Bali took us through several villages and towns. Little kids yelled to us, excited to see rich Americans and gave us high 5s as we passed by. We kept going by the walled off compounds. I took picture after picture of them, until I found out that they were people's houses. In a highly Hindu culture, each compound was surrounded by a wall, had multiple structures and their own temple. Families live together, multiple generations in one compound.

After the biking concluded we stopped at our tour guides house as his wife had prepared an amazing Balinese spread of food for us. We all had a few reservations about eating completely authentic local food (fearing Montezuma's Revenge!), but it turned out to be the best meal we had. Oh my gosh, her food rocked my world. I went back for thirds! If I was the kind of Mormon that had multiple wives, I would marry this guy's wife, and Heather would have no objections.

We sat at a low table which was tough for non-limbre Greg and Nathan

 Here's a video of walking into our tour guides compound and looking around. Hopefully it works.

Full bellies in front of one of the buildings in the compound

Our ride back to the villa was horribly long. It wouldn't have been if we hadn't gotten stuck in the worst traffic jam. We sat at on traffic light, waiting to go on a round-a-bout for an hour. Plenty of other lanes were moving, just not ours. There were traffic cops directing the traffic circle, but they never gave priority to our road. FOR AN HOUR we sat and watched them ignore us. It was soooo frustrating.

Scooters out numbered cars on the roads by at least 5 to 1

Finally back at the villa, we relaxed and went to bed, ready for another adventure the next day...the next blog. See you then.