Athens... finally.

Acts 17:16-34
Paul in Athens

16Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.


The Acropolis as you walk up to it. It was really hot. People tried to steal pebbles from the site but people watch you like hawks so no one got away with it.


The Parthenon. Somewhat in disrepair. It's been a long history.



The Erechtheum.


Temple of Hephaestus. Right off from the Athens agora.

17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.


Dr. McDonough on the major road through the Athenian agora. Paul's "marketplace" teaching would have taken place here.


We took time to learn here too.

18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.


The Areopagus. This is a really slippery place now and very uneven. Years later, parents would take a rock from the Areopagus for good luck for their children. When a ton of folks do this it kinda deteriorates the original look of the place. Apparently, there were no government officials during that time to watch folks steal rocks and pebbles from important places. Such a shame.


My traveling pals on the Areopagus.

19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean."
21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
28for

"'In him we live and move and have our being';

as even some of your own poets have said,

"'For we are indeed his offspring.'

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."


Me showing the words of Paul's sermon on Mars Hill to the Athenian intellectuals written in Greek... as it should be.

32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, "We will hear you again about this."
33So Paul went out from their midst.
34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Reminds me of when Paul confessed to the Corinthians later,

¹And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
³And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
⁴and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
⁵that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
⁹But, as it is written,

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him"—



Syntagma Square in Athens just 2 days before the June 29th rioting after the Greek Parliament voted to accept the EU austerity measures.


Parthenon at night. I'm actually just one block from my hotel in this photo.

Corinth is next!

36 hours in Colorado.

Last weekend was spent in Colorado.

Pretty stinkin' awesome.



The clouds were so big and close. You just felt up high.


The aspens were at peak highlighter yellow. The leaves always remind me of golden coins at this stage. Beautiful. There are aspen trees in the new kingdom. Just have to be.




At least in the dear Appalachians, I don't have to worry about tundra.


So, about 2 Mount Mitchells on top of each other is what we are looking at here. I really like the bikers behind us.


What I haven't mentioned yet is I went to Colorado for a wedding of a dear friend from kindergarten. We were in school together more or less from Kindergarten to twelfth grade and then she went to Duke. But, we're still friends, really. She lives in Denver and married a fabulous gentleman named Alex. The best part was that many of the old pals from grade school were there too! So, we had a kindergarten reunion of sorts (shout out to the kindergarten class of 1985!). It was cute. Anna, her husband Jason, Kressa and I had a little adventure in nature before the wedding.


We were silly. We were happy. We were remembering.



Later, we cleaned up for the wedding and met up with some other pals, Winnie (far right) and Rachel (far left). Rachel was Brittany's roommate from Duke but we really liked her anyway. Don't worry. Obviously, Brittany is the one in the white wedding dress. Beautiful.


We ate. We danced. We talked. A lot.


Cheers to the new couple! Best wishes, Brittany and Alex!

You remind me of...

There is this strange phenomenon I've noticed in human (and animal) relationships. It's the tendency for friends, spouses, colleagues to start acting and even looking like one another when they spend a decent amount of time together. I guess it is the unconscious version of imitation as the sincerest form of flattery.

What's funny is that this same phenomenon manifests itself in human-pet relationships. Have you ever noticed how humans and their pets resemble one another? I think the link is stronger in dogs but recently I've seen it in Skip and me.

I've observed my liking of wearing my hair in two ponytails and how oddly familiar the look feels to me as I gaze at Skip's ears. hmmm. And, I even found myself last winter purchasing and wearing a disproportionate amount of gray sweaters and tops. hmmm. I do love hopping. So, anyway, this has led me to a number of realizations regarding my similarities to Skip.

Here it goes:
1. Skip likes to stay clean. Me too!
2. Skip likes his possessions to be placed in a certain way. ditto. *
3. Skip doesn' t like strange noises or alarms.
4. Skip gets easily overwhelmed with too much activity. I just wish I could hide in those situations and get away with it like Skip can.
5. Skip can often be distrustful of approaching humans.
6. Skip doesn't really like being picked up or cornered.
7. Skip DOES love being with people but he needs his space.
8. Skip has to check out situations before he engages.
9. Skip gets grumpy when his territory is compromised.
10. Skip loves food.
11. Skip loves being scratched behind the ears. I understand.
12. Skip can stare at a wall for an hour without feeling bored. I'm the human champ at staring.
13. Skip's baseline mode of operation is fear. Yep.
14. Skip is feisty.
15. Skip likes to feel cozy and burrowed when resting.

So, did I choose Skip as a pet because he subconsciously channeled Ruth-dom? Hard to say. But, I think we make a good human-pet match. The rabbit incarnation project has been easy because we might be cut from the same cloth anyway.

Just watch out and hold me accountable for a twitching nose.

*Before Skip was litter box trained, I discovered a poop on the floor organized in three separate piles with approximately the same amount of pellets in each pile. whoa.

-7.75

You know your eyesight is getting bad when you have to try new contacts because only a few contact lens companies actually make your prescription. Isn't legally blind somewhere at -9.0 or something?

In the spirit of Charlie Brown, "Good Grief."

If I could request...

I would really love a kangaroo pouch.

No one puts pockets in anything anymore.

A List...

... of things recently brought to the Yellow House after cleaning out my possessions from my old bedroom at my parents' house...

1. My coin collection
2. A bag of my teeth *
3. My Tooth Fairy pillow
4. Artwork of various sorts including a self portrait of Ruth with REEEAALLY long legs, various bug creatures, a scary neon caterpillar, a portrait of "A Pretty Life by Ruth Vann," an orange monster, and an abstract watercolor entitled "Happy with myself" **
5. A silver cup with my name on it (couldn't figure out what to do with it but equally couldn't make myself throw it away.)
6. My doll, Susan
7. My blanky (also known as "goggy" or "gaggy," according to my brothers)
8. My immunization booklet
9. My high school diploma
10. A pearl necklace from my godparents
11. Several badges from my brownie days (these apparently didn't make it to my sash, which is now gone.) In case you are wondering, my badges are for "safety," "my church," "Key to lasting friendship: Camp buddy," and one that just looks like a stick figure so I don't know what it represents.
12. Two blue barrettes that looked like they had turned the corner from out of date to retro cool.

* I had all my teeth because I used to write notes to the Tooth Fairy asking her to leave my tooth under the pillow but to still please leave me money, thank you very much. I wasn't sure what she wanted with my teeth anyway. What kind of crazy lady just roams around at night and takes kids' teeth? Is there a market for children's teeth? This made (and still makes) no sense to me. Apparently, she is a nice lady because she left my teeth just like I asked her.

**I tried to retroactively evaluate my artwork through a child therapy lens and came up with nothing... other than I was a weird kid just like all the rest of them.

Scary encounter with the gods...

On my way from Berea to Athens, I got to hike part of Mount Olympus. I felt brave walking boldly up to the Greek gods. I made it down just fine.

A baklava miracle!

My last day in Athens, I wanted to eat baklava. I mean, I really wanted to eat baklava. Really.

I had planned to find some after dinner and chow down. Instead, a miracle happened.

Baklava was served with our dinner!




Thanks to Joanna for capturing this special moment.

How Lowes gets $1400.

Mr. Dryer and Mrs. Washer died this summer. Mr. Dryer died first and Mrs. Washer died second. They went to appliance heaven. This cost me $1400. Grief.

Rabbit public service announcement.

This is new from the House Rabbit Society...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ev-5T3xEe9k