the squeeze of rhymes - poem

as i write this poem
and i think of you
i struggle to make sure
every word is true
for life is like art
and often times
true reasoning's squished out
by the squeeze of rhymes

070228 midland

trip itinerary

Mar 15 - Canada / Tel Aviv

We depart Canada, bound for the Holy Land via Paris on AirFrance.

Mar 16 - Tel Aviv

On arrival at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, we meet our guide and depart for our hotel. Dinner and overnight in Tel Aviv.

Mar 17-18 - Galilee

We start our tour at Jaffa , the ancient port city just next to Tel Aviv. Here, Peter raised Tabitha from the dead. We visit the place of Simon the Tanner, the clock tower, the artist's quarter and view the Harbour . We drive north to Caesarea Maritima (where Peter met the Roman centurion Cornelius). We visit the amphitheatre and aqueduct built by Herod. Continue North to the port city of Haifa for a visit. Then to Beit She'arim, the 200 AD unofficial Jewish capital, home of the mishna. On to Muhraka (on Mount Carmel, where Elijah challenged the false Gods of Ba'al). Off to Megiddo (the source of our word Armageddon) where we peel off the layers of civilization. We drive to the Galilee, descending to the shores of the lake and its spiritual history.

After a ride to Ginnosar on a boat designed to resemble fishing boats of the time of Jesus, we stop at Magdala (home of Mary Magdalene), Tabgha (miracle of the swine), and the Mount of Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount). We visit Capernaum, where Jesus centred His Galilean ministry, and stayed in the home of Peter. Lunch is included at a seaside restaurant that features "St. Peter's Fish." We continue to Korazim, Bethsaida and Kursi (miracle of the swine). We drive through the Golan Heights around the Sea of Galilee. We drive to the Dan Nature Reserve to Banias (Caesarea Philippi) where Peter declared that Jesus is the Son of God. We see Mount Hermon, and stop at Nimrod Crusader Castle.

We drive to Mt. Tabor, traditional site of the transfiguration and where Deborah and Barak commanded the armies of Israel. We study the Jezreel Valley from this spectacular viewpoint. We drive to the home town of the Holy Family. We visit a grotto under a church that is thought to be the home of Joseph and Mary (Annunciation Basilica), we visit Mary's Well at the Orthodox Church, and we visit Precipice Point (Chapel of Fright). Then, on to Cana (place of the first miracle). We stop in Zippori (Sepphorus).

Mar 19-22 - Jerusalem

After breakfast, we start another fascinating day at Belvoir. We stop at the Jordan River (Yardenit - to tell the Baptism story and to baptize those pilgrims who wish to be baptized). We drive to Beit She'an (city of the Decapolis). We drive to the oasis of Jericho where we visit the excavation. We see the Wall of Temptation and visit Elisha's Spring. On to Wadi Qelt and the Monastery of St. George ending with a visit to Bethany. We look at the ancient walls that are the remnants of the Inn of the Good Samaritan. In Bethany, we tell the story of Simon the Leper and Lazarus. We catch our first glimpse of the Holy City as we check into our accommodation in Jerusalem for dinner and overnight .

You are introduced to the old walled city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. On the Mount of Olives we visit the Chapel of the Ascension and the Church of the Pater Noster (commemorating the teaching of Jesus to his disciples). Walk down the Mount of Olives (after viewing the Old City) toward Gethsemane and the walled city of Jerusalem. On the way down visit the chapel of Dominus Flevit, the traditional spot where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Continue to Gethsemane and the commemoration of the prayer of Jesus before he was arrested. We enter into the old city through the Lions' Gate. At each site there will be a reading of appropriate biblical passages. We spend time inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. View the Temple Mount, the place where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac and the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim mosque built on the site of the first and second Temples. Continue to the Western (Wailing) Wall. Continue along the Via Dolorosa (the Sorrowful Way or the Way of the Cross) stopping for a visit at Pilate's Judgment Hall, also called the Antonia Fortress and the Lithostrotos, where Pilate condemned Jesus to death. Continue along the Via Dolorosa to the church of the Holy Sepulchre to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. We visit the Upper Room for the commemoration of the Last Supper and Pentecost.

Drive to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity to commemorate the birth of Jesus. Visit the Church of St. Catherine under which is the ancient monastery of Jerome and his companions, who lived there in the 4th century. After departing Bethlehem, view the Shepherd's Fields which commemorate an angel's announcement to the shepherds that a Saviour was born in the City of David. Drive to Ein Karem to see the birthplace of John the Baptist and the visitation site (Mary and Elizabeth). Visit the Israel Museum to see the Shrine of the Book which houses the original manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Monastery of the Cross, where tradition holds that the wood for the Crucifix was hewn. We drive past the Knesset and other main sites of modern Jerusalem.

Today we descend through the Judean Wilderness to the shores of the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on the Earth. Visit Qumran, where the Essenes lived an austere lifestyle away from the city life of Jerusalem and where a Bedouin boy discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. Travel along the water's edge to Masada and ascend via the cable car to King Herod's fortress/palace built in the midst of the desert and the last hold out of Jewish resistance to the Romans in 70-73 AD. Continue to Kibbutz Ein Gedi to sample the unique buoyancy of the highly therapeutic Dead Sea waters.

Mar 23-25 - Sinai / St. Catherine's

Cross the border into Egypt to see the Sinai Desert, the land of the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, and the land in which Moses received the Ten Commandments. Your excursion will be to the barren wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula and to St. Catherine's Monastery where God spoke to Moses through the burning bush. We will make our way by bus to the Orthodox Monastery Santa Katarina which is at the foot of Mount Sinai. As we traverse the desert we will reflect on the Exodus experience, the Victory Chant (Exodus 15) and certain texts that speak of the Israelite's time in the desert. That evening, you are free for your own interests, or we will discuss the Sinai Covenant.

In the early morning hours (around 3 a.m.), we will climb the mountain and arrive at the summit for sunrise, where we will celebrate the Eucharist (led by our spiritual leader).

Mar 26-27 - Cairo

This morning we visit the three great Pyramids of Giza, considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world. Visit the 5000 year old Sphinx and the Temple of the Valley. Proceed to visit the ruins of the ancient capital of Egypt, Memphis, where the monumental statue of Ramses II is located. At Sakkara you visit the Step Pyramid of Zoser, representing a staircase to heaven, the Tombs of Sakkara and the amazing City of the Dead.

Spend an exciting day of sightseeing in Old Cairo. Visit the famous Egyptian museum which houses the Tutankhamen exhibition. Stop at the Citadel, the Alabaster, Sultan Hassan Mosque and visit the noisy and colourful Khan El Khalili Bazaar.

Mar 28 - Paris

Mar 29 - Fly home

coming full circle

a year or so ago, i was swimming in the seas of spirituality and cosmology and consciousness when i put into port at knox church and during holy week 2006 came to christ.

now, as lent begins and my mother struggles with cancer and i prepare for an unexpected trip to the holy land, my navigator points my way to grace and grit by ken wilber.

"I wasn't always a Christian."

"In a room in a pension in Stockholm, Jesus came to me with an overwhelming rush of joy and love and faith in the future. I saw the risen Christ in all things -- in the sea, the sky, the scarred faces of people passing...

All the diamonds in this world
That mean anything to me
Are conjured up by wind and sunlight
Sparkling on the sea

I ran aground in a harbour town
Lost the taste for being free
Thank God He sent some gull-chased ship
To carry me to sea

Two thousand years and half a world away
Dying trees still grow greener when you pray

Silver scales flash bright and fade
In reeds along the shore-
Like a pearl in sea of liquid jade
His ship comes shining
Like a crystal swan in a sky of suns
His ship comes shining.

The flashes, of course, aren't constant, and don't last forever, being only temporal/temporary incentives to encourage and strengthen faith. The real growth goes on behind the scenes, glimpsed only rarely, without God consulting us about the work He is doing.

On the edge of a ceaselessly shifting universe our lives wink in and out of being. The Kingdom, though, is always coming, always flowing, for whoever of us will take a chance on being part of it."

-- Bruce Cockburn, from "For what time I am in this world": stories from Mariposa (1977), pp. 92-93.

luke - song

an r&b tune

i am the doctor, i'll heal your body
i am the doctor, i'll heal your body
i am the doctor, i'll heal your body
i am the doctor, i'll heal your body
who is the healer, who'll heal you whole?
who is the healer, who'll heal you whole?

i am the writer, i write the story
i am the writer, i write the story
i am the writer, i write the story
i am the writer, i write the story
who is the author, who knows us all?
who is the author, who knows us all?

(drop D)
Em D
Em D
Em D
Em D
Am G
Am G

a spiritual tension...

... exists in me between a mystical sense of the ineffable creator and doctrinal understanding of the scriptural person of jesus.

alpha 2

topic: who is jesus?

weather: snow squalls kept several away

music: mike couldn't make it, so we banded together, found the music, and mary lee helped us figure it out. i played the 12string tonight.

food: more choice of salads! more veggie options, though i picked out the bacon from the caesar's.

small group: i'm in red group (as mary lee said, because red is evidently my colour). 7 of us tonight, including the 2 leaders; 4 of us go to knox. discussion was halting, as i'd expect on the first night.

note: to respect the privacy of the small group, i won't relate any details or hints of what was discussed or who is in the group.

infinite love

walking through blilzzardy downtown this evening, it occurred to me that material progress is based on a false premise of infinite material resources; only love is infinite; even hate is finite, for hate is not life-sustaining.

j.r.r. tolkein

i watched the fellowship of the ring this past weekend with my nieces, including many of the extras, in which i was reminded that tolkein "came to think of the internal combustion engine as the greatest evil ever put upon this Earth." he also didn't like fridges, adds bill hammack, a.k.a. engineerguy. he concludes: "In many ways the great theme of the Lord of the Rings is that no one should have dominion over the world. The Lord of the Rings is an anti-quest, with its goal to destroy universal power forever." had he read tolkein's The Silmarillion , which is the backstory to the creation of middle earth, perhaps he would have amended his statement to "no one creature should have dominion over the world" for there is only one universal power in tolkein's cosmology, eru illuvatar

i myself dislike the internal combustion engine as much as i like hobbits.

upside down

christianity

it confuses people

some reject it, it's non-sensical

radically all the values are different

but it works

like in that seinfeld episode where george realizes that since everything he does turns out wrong, if he started doing things the opposite way, maybe things'll turn out right

still learning to stand on my head

(image source: www.cgmarshall.com/images/Photos/head_stand.jpg)

alpha 1

before dinner: practiced the evening's two songs, mike on acoustic, me on the strat; met my new friend, spike, from last week and we visited our friends in out of the cold who are in 'the dungeon' tonight since alpha is in the gym -- the dungeon is cozier and warmer; and talked with shell for a bit who helped with ootc supper.

gathering and dinner: met some new people and some familiar faces, including rumblyvoice and his wife, whom i'll call miami, and huck finn's mum and dad, who i'll call ma finn and pa finn (inventing aliases on public blogs is such fun!). at the dinner table sat between j-brit and jordana, spike next to her, and across the table from rumblyvoice and miami.

the singing was strong, mike's a good leader, and those present responded enthusiastically. mike wisely chose a call and response song to start, 'you're worthy of my praise' followed by the upbeat 'holy is the lord.'

i saw the first video last year with scotsman and adrian. it's still fresh and funny and engaging. not a bad start.