Chambers in the Loop

My life up until now has been a series of moments, objectives rather.  As time goes on, it is not left without a new goal to reach or problem to solve.  Occasionally however, there are times when there are no goals to achieve or battles to win.  For some reason this part of my life that I am spending in Ohio feels like that.

That's not to say that everything is fine and dandy.  There are still day to day struggles and difficulties.  It's more like I've found myself in a time loop, and like the kids at Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (a really good book I read a couple months ago) the days all seem to melt together and my ability to tell the difference between them lessons the longer I am here.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just something I'm not used to.

Coming from a lifestyle of searching for spur-of-the-moment change, it is somewhat shocking to suddenly have a schedule that remains firmly set; unmoving, and for the most part, unyielding.  Aside from what I do with those precious moments that my schedule allows me to dictate, each day is relatively the same.  Joy is found in the small and seemingly insignificant differences instead of in life-altering change.

I am constantly thinking of how my relationship with God will grow here.  In the past, how close I was to God was determined by how large the current obstacle was that I was facing, or how much I desperately needed something, or how lonely I was left by a broken relationship with a girl, friend, or family member.  Now however, as I sit in my Aunt and Uncle's dining room, the problems I had in California seem distant and fading.  They're still there and they will most definitely remind me of their presence when I return, but right now, my only concerns (regarding myself) are to make sure I get to work on time and take care of daily things that need to be done.  Sure money is still an issue, but now that I'm getting a regular paycheck, paying bills is just another thing to do.  Still a burden, but one that's not quite as heavy as it used to be. 

So again I consider: How will I grow when life doesn't change, when I'm not constantly worried about something (having a job, paying bills, where money will come from, if it will come at all), when there are no hurdles to jump over, when my present needs are met?  I was reading My Utmost for His Highest this morning and in the passage set aside for today, Oswald Chambers writes--

Sometimes there is nothing to obey 

and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, 

seeing that nothing interferes with it.

Fitting, isn't it?  For some reason, now that I've written it out, I don't have much more to say about it except this: There will always be dilemmas to overcome (my Aunt's sickness, planning for the inevitable future, etc.), but instead of constantly searching for some grand obstacle to tackle or pleading to know "God's will" so you can somehow attempt to follow along with it, maybe those times of friendship with Jesus should be spent connecting.  Maybe we need a break from our ongoing quest to move mountains, if only so we remember who we are moving those mountains for in the first place.

Golden Hour

This is the street that my Aunt and Uncle live on.

Pardon the odd green lens flare. 

 

 

 

My Aunt

One of the reasons I'm here in Ohio is my Aunt Robyn.  She was a diagnosed with Cancer a while back but recently other ailments have developed.  She was in the Hospital for about a month with pneumonia and pancreatitis.  While she was able to overcome the pneumonia through the hospital's care, the pancreatitis has only gotten worse.  For the most part she just needs prayer.  There isn't a lot we can do other than hope that the doctors can help her through this and rely on God for support throughout.

As you're thinking of my Aunt, you might also send out a prayer for my Uncle John.  While I'm really only just now getting to know him well, it is easy to see that everything is wearing on him both physically and emotionally.  He has a lot on his mind from making sure Robin always has someone there for to running a construction company that is only getting busier and busier.

All your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated.  

Eat Fresh...Anywhere.

Now that I've been here for a few weeks I've gotten a good feel for the place.  As I've said before, Ohio is very different from California: the weather, the landscape, etc.  But there are a lot of quirky reasons why Ohio stands out.  Here's just a few.

Unlike the gridlocked freeways and standstill thoroughfares of Los Angeles, Ohio has little to no traffic anywhere.  Most of the freeways that I have seen have only two lanes and there is usually a good 500 ft. between each car.  So as you can image, the traffic laws here are a little more relaxed.  For starters, you don't have to wear a seat belt if you're sitting in the back.  Usually that would mean death by flying through the windshield for the pour soul in the middle seat but here in Ohio, there are many cars to hit.  There are however a lot of deer and they get hit all the time.  My cousin has already hit 6.  Apparently the whole "deer in the headlights" thing is true and in Ohio it's illegal swerve out of the way.  So the deer is pretty much screwed either way. 

In California we have a lot of Starbucks. So many in fact, you can find one on almost every corner.  I have yet to see a Starbucks here, but where Ohio lacks in coffee shops they make up in an overabundance of Subway sandwich shops.  They're everywhere!  Every gas station has one inside.  They have stand alone stores in almost every shopping center.  It's ridiculous.

Lastly, if there is one thing that the people here love more than Subway it's water slides.  I'm surprised we don't have more of in California but Ohio more than makes up for it in Indoor water parks.  There are two big ones near Ceder Point.  Both of them are fancy hotels with all kinds of indoor water fun.  There's even a restaurant down the street called the Thirsty Pony that has three water slides.  It's like putting water slides at Outback Steakhouse.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what life here is like.  So if you're ever in the area you should never have a problem finding a sandwich or a water slide or a deer to hit with your car.

Aunt Robyn Comes Home

My Aunt Robyn is back home from a long stay at the hospital as of yesterday.  It will be a little while before she is really back on her feet but I know that she is glad to be home as are the rest of us.  I'll keep you up to date with how she is doing as time goes by.  She is still battling the cancer that has remained present throughout all of this and could definitely use your prayers.  We all appreciate them very much.

In the Trench

All those years in the sandbox as a kid paid off today.  Over the past couple days Cody and I have been digging a decent-sized trench at Cedar Point.  Something we learned very quickly while working together decorating houses and hotels for Christmas this last season was that whenever we're together we get pretty goofy.  It reminds me a lot of when we used to share a room as kids. 

It's been a long time since we've gotten to spend much time together.  In high school I kind of just did my own thing and then I was off to college.  It was wasn't until the end of last summer when Cody moved out to LA and stayed with me that we really started hanging out again, and in all honesty it has been a huge blessing.  My life has been all over the place since graduation with my never-ending search for work and trying to find ways to makes ends meet with student loans.  Having Cody around has made things a lot easier to deal with.  I've often felt bad about being so distant over the last few years, but spending pretty much everyday with him has been so refreshing.

When we were kids (around 5 or 6 for me, 3 or 4 for Cody) my mom used to make us take naps.  Without fail, Cody and I would fake being asleep only to jump out of bed and grab these Cabbage Patch dolls we had (Don't ask me why we had Cabbage Patch dolls.  To this day I have no idea).  I don't know how they make them now but back then they were just lightly stuff dolls with huge (and heavy) plastic heads.  We didn't really care much for playing with dolls (our neighbor used to babysit us and her daughter would force us to play Barbies.  It was awful) so we'd just use their huge heads as baseballs and throw them back and forth as we jumped on our beds.  Pretty soon however one of us would drop the ball (or in this case the Cabbage Patch doll) and their huge heads would slam against the wall with a loud thud!  Immediately we would drop into our beds and pretend to be asleep again.  My mom would crack open the door, peak in to see us "sleeping," and then quietly go back out, none the wiser (so we thought anyways).  We would keep this up until eventually we got so tired we would fall asleep.  This was probably my mom's plan all along.

Needless to say it's been great having him around and even better living out here in Ohio with him.  Ohio is a very different place than I'm used to and in this strange period of life that I find myself in it's really been some kind of awesome that God has been so good to place my brother right here beside me along the way.