why SQUIRREL vision?

Because God uses the simple to confound the wise. 

Because often the most sacred things in our lives appear the most mundane.

Because a change of perspective might bring a change of heart or mind. 

Because greatness has no relation to size. 

Because the extraordinary slips our notice when it comes dressed in smallness and grayness. 

Because fitting reality into tidy comprehensive categories is as promising an enterprise as stuffing a squirrel in a pill box. 

4,603 miles in half a second

Its not the first time its happened. In fact, it typically occurs a couple times a week. But every time, it catches me off guard and sends me flying across my memory at a speed of approximately 4,603 per half second. 

The path I use to cut across the St.Giles churchyard from Banbury Road to Woodstock Road, en route to Maison Blanc, is nestled against the Old Parsonage B&B. The aforementioned establishment has a fireplace, and they light it on cool days/mornings, that is on a nearly daily basis, as per English weather. When I take the churchyard path, passing through the shadow of the building, the smell of woodsmoke in the damp chilly air hits me out of the blue. That moment, that split second, sends me flying to a brisk dewy morning in the mountains of Nepal. My memory spins. Oxford rises around me and hems me in, but my senses fling me back upon my memories, and internally, Oxford fades from view... 

... in a moment, I'm back in time. I'm somewhere in the memory of months of mornings. Sitting on cold dewy earth and trodden down grass. Socks better off than on, because they are damp... preparing to dry them by roasting them on sticks over the hearty little fire I'm nursing. My hair smelling of smoke from a week of morning- and evening- fires past, since the last time I washed it in a bucket. Inevitably, the mountains would come into view as the early fog lifted and my heart would broaden and lighten like the vista... but until then, kindling the fire... the journey was long and called for perseverance. The paths rose and fell, steep days, and dancing days... but turning back was never an option. We were in too deep. We always are, in life. 

Woodsmoke and dewy, brisk mornings take me vividly back to my last journey into the villages of East Nepal. To the brothers and sisters of the village churches. To the passion of God for His people. To the wild and wooly backdrop against which it all played out. Such a special place in my heart- memories of beauty, vision, pressing challenges, and pressing on. Formative, precious, wild, and worth it all.

As quickly as I departed, I fly back into Oxford. 4,603 miles in reverse. Into another moment. Into a journey equally as wild, if in a wholly different way. Oxford materializes around me as the mountains evaporate in split second. I thank God for being warm, for having a coffee, for being dry... even as it begins to rain. I embark on another day of pressing in right where I am, where He's led me, and journeying on the rising and falling path that stretches ahead from wherever one stands in life. 

Lewis, Lewis, and life as usual

I love being in Oxford. Every block seems crowded with history. The whole city is overpopulated with stories and significance. Most of it I'm oblivious to until its pointed out to me in a lecture or even a television show. Which i never have time to watch. And by never, I mean I watched a British show two nights this past weekend and its literally the first time I have watched a television show in Oxford! The show I watched is called Lewis, and it is a follow on series from an older classic British detective drama called Inspector Morse. I like it because it takes place in Oxford:) Its not unusual to learn something about Oxford over the course of watching a couple episodes. Although I rarely watch television, I find Inspector Lewis interesting because of the depiction of a character called Sgt. Hathaway. He is sketched as a seminary student turned policeman, and the portrayal of his faith and character are surprisingly positive and very textured. The show also has the Morse trademark of pessimism about  humanity... a healthy challenge to the 'we're all basically good' narrative common today.  And of course, I enjoy the seeing the stories set right here on my street:)

Speaking of my street, just five minutes down Banbury Road is this the Lamb and Flag pub, if you can see the red canopy further down the block in the above photo, thats it. This is one of the pubs frequented by a different Lewis...C. S. Lewis, and the Inklings, the society of writing friends to which he belonged. Whenever I walk by, I notice this street lamp, and think of the street lamp just through the wardrobe in the snowy land of Narnia, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I can't help but wonder if the city placed this light here on purpose, or if it stood here in Lewis' day, or... well, one can dream...

Speaking of C.S. Lewis, one of his famous quotes - and indeed one of my favorites- has become an inside joke of sorts among my friends. It is recited seemingly everywhere and so often that my whole class at best exchanges knowing looks with one another, and at worst breaks out in barely concealed laughter whenever it comes up. It is none the less a great favorite of mine, and I have it penned on my window... "I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

We're already halfway through Trinity term- crazy how time flies. I try to take time away each weekend to just reflect. Sometimes just in silence and prayer, sometimes with a journal, always over coffee... this morning was one of those times. Loretta and I went to coffee at Maison Blanc, then shared the table in silence awhile, just pondering, processing, and reflecting. Coffee and journals at Maison Blanc may seem mundane, but its the stuff of life. Without such slow down moments, everything would rush by... too much to hold in one's hands. Life has to have spaces where you can soak it in, see the pattern, connect the dots, comprehend what you have heard. 

Plans for the weekend include sleeping in (finally!) and beginning to work on another essay. Clearly I am feeling more enthusiastic about the former than the latter. But thats just life. I am still enjoying my studies- I just might need another solid sleep in before my body can catch up with my enthusiasm, thats all;)

first Trinity term formal dinner ...

awesome blossoms

Gorgeous trees full of poof-ball pom-pom blossoms! I love them! 

Our packed timetable has me indoors much of the day, but the evenings stay light longer and the weather is considerably warmer- nearly seventy today ... so whenever there is an hour to spare we all rush out to bask somewhere... or take our walks between venues extra slow, soaking up the fragrance of blossoms and 'the sticky little leaves' (Dostoevsky).