Where I am right now.

In the last 7 days...
1.  I left my job of 9 years
2.  Moved out of my own house
3.  Relinquished my car temporarily to the Volkswagen people
4.  Handed my beloved bunny over to my parents for safe-shepherding

Sounds like a great start to an adventure story...

... or the beginning of the craziest thing I've ever done...

... or both.

8 more days...

and I will never have to wear tights/hose again... like for the rest of my life ... unless I want to... on my terms...

Out with it, already!

I hate goodbyes. They are my least favorite thing in the whole world. I think goodbyes are hauntingly post fall-ish. Very, leaving the Garden of Eden-ish. Most evil and suffering in the world can be linked to some kind of goodbye.

Anyway, the point of this little entry is to communicate a big goodbye that is coming up. I resigned from my teaching position of 9 years last week. That's some hefty goodbyes and I've got 2 months to do it. The parents, the kids, the administration, the faculty... Ms. Vann the teacher herself. Goodbye.

It'll probably be messy and I'll probably have a lot of facial leakage in the process (already have.) But, I have to remember that this side of the kingdom, the cycle of goodbyes will happen. And this one I've chosen. Building the kingdom in Ruth's little life just took a big turn. Wish I knew the landing spot up ahead but at least I can see a little bit and it looks all yellow and happy.

Yellow and happy are not incongruent with tears and challenges, though. So I expect them with all the rest of the newness. And I pray for courage to know I'm not alone in the mess of it all... even though I'm saying goodbye.

Confusing when you're in it.

Sometimes courage looks a lot like idiocy. Or, maybe idiocy can be prettied up to look like courage. I've seen it both ways. Sure hope I'm on the right side. Beats me.

Preparations.

I've been craving "Jesus" music recently. It's because of life. Scary changes in life, I mean. Whenever I start listening exclusively to "Jesus" music I know I'm in for some challenges. It's a sure sign.

I also like staring when I'm in for it. And that's been happening a lot too... endless staring. Sometimes it is broken for a moment or two of Skip chasing. And... then... staring again.

Sad, I know. But, everything I do is slow and the bigger the task is, the slower I am at it.

So, in the meantime, I'll just keep staring and listening to Jesus music... until "action" stands up and says, "Ruth, let's get going!"

You'd think I'd at least get my taxes done...

I talk too much...really, really too much...

Resolved:
Must start blogging more frequently. Failure to blog leads to a burdensome and overwhelming volume of "Ruth talk". This must be stopped for the good of mankind. Think of the poor unfortunate souls subjected to the debris of Ruth's jumbled mind... the sorting out of disjointed, often unexamined ideas. Protect these poor unfortunate souls from the mental tornado by funneling the talk into blog format. This ensures that "Ruth talk" is confined to a medium designed for people to read or not read at their own whim, desire, leisure. Must start embracing the introversion again.

Signed,
Ruth Vann (the talking lady)

Rabbit entertainment.

A rabbit sheep herder.

http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_oddities/2012/02/rabbit-herds-sheep.html#mkcpgn=fbapl1

Enjoy this.

Special announcement.

Today is Herb's birthday. He's my brother.

I love him.

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!