Short Cruise and A Boat Blessing

I thought I would give a photo essay of a short cruise of ours over and back to Sucia Island. Our family finds Sucia a special place. Upon our return, Scott saw me and asked if I'd officiate a de-naming, re-naming and blessing ritual for his new boat. "When?" I asked. "How about in 15 minutes?" he grinned, "I'd like to have it done before we take off on our first little cruise." "With pleasure!" Thanks for the honor, Scott! As you can see from my little remarks, it took a little longer to get started than 15 minutes ...

Sucia Cruise:

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. An issue I've been pondering comes from some reading I've been doing. Sometimes we parents bring our concerns, our anxieties, about the world and environment with us rather than leaving them at home. As such they then become shadows or ghosts that not only impact our views, but our children (and others) pick them up also. After all, children are really created to climb trees, explore caves, and run in the shallows rather than sit and watch TV and play video games. I'm glad that Laura has often commented, as she did on this trip, "Joel, when we set off sailing, it doesn't take long and the layers of stress disappear. You are more truly yourself." I'm thankful for this time of grace. Sailing is a way of prayer for me. And I'm reminded of an octogenarian friend of ours who said, When I feel like I'm losing my soul, I go out sailing for awhile. It puts things back into perspective, (he was 88 when he made this comment).

May this photo essay inspire you to find ways to be more truly yourself, as God intends you to be.

Enjoy the pictures,

Joel

Off to Sucia - leaving the Semiahmoo spit to port.

Crew eating jaw breakers

Joel trying out rowing to move the boat.

Works ok, we were able to move at about 1 knot.

Good to know this could get us out of a tough spot if the engine were to conk out.

Cooking up dinner!

Notice the roosting Blue Heron?

Returning from a shore excursion.

Some of the crazy crew on the sail home.

We spent the last night anchored outside the marina in Drayton Harbor.

Here are some shots from a re-naming and boat blessing ceremony on Sat. July 25, 2009.

It had poured down rain, and we had thunder and lightening just prior. The nice thing about events like this is that we can easily postpone for another 15 minutes or so. No sense in standing next an aluminum mast, while holding a stainless steel bowl!

Development, is Rampant Necessary?

The end of the school year, Annual Conference and pastoral care with some friends with cancer have keep me away from the on-line world lately. But I've also been busy thinking about Development - of the housing type. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for personal and spiritual development!

In particular I have been thinking through development plans for the Semiahmoo Spit, here in Blaine. Plans are once again underway to develop the land here. The thinking is to place "residence" for another 450 housing "units" while also expanding the marina. In the process, most of the parking is eliminated, and the open space taken over by "housing" (whether this means houses or condos). Now I should mention, that there is a three building condo unit under construction. Unit A is done, Unit B is up, but not sided, and nothing has been done internally. About half the windows are in, the other half are open to the weather. Unit C is still just the foundation. The rumor mills says either that "none" of the units or "only two" of them have sold. But I did see a sign offering 1/4 shares. 

For me this brings the dilemma of property rights vs. long term community rights. And, yes, I'm willing to expand the "community" to include all the living entities that are there. I strongly believe that humans need wild places. I believe that humans are impacted for the worse when we don't have wild places available to us. At the same time, I'd like to say that people have the right to use their property as they wish - within reason. 

But what does "within reason" mean?

To whose detriment?

I do not believe that the capitalistic market economy (or what I've hear others refer to as "consumer capitalism") is the best rubric to making these types of discussions, or even appropriately framing the critical debate. But I do believe in the process of public discourse. I'm well aware of my gifts and my shortcomings. I don't have all the answers. And perhaps you have insights, to share, too.

After all, the Kingdom of God is a community proposition.

Fair winds of Grace - 

Joel