Supporters

No, not that kind of supporter…

I had a job interview yesterday.  In anticipation of it, I emailed a number of friends and family members to ask for their prayers and ‘good thoughts.’

The responses to this simple request were overwhelming, one more crystal-clear reminder that God has filled my life with people whose generosity toward me and others is beyond my ability to measure.  A few samples:

I was just thinking about you and this position earlier this evening. May God confirm this position for you, Tom.

I can feel the stars aligning now, Tom.

Right on, Tom.  What a catch that’d be–I’ll be praying.

Let us know how far you knock it out of the park.

See what I mean?  Two results were immediately apparent:  1) the hour-plus conversation was relaxed, informative, and enjoyable.  Seemed to me that it went well;  and 2) I came to the interview all wrapped up in the love of God as expressed in the support and encouragement of friends and family.  This is an awesome offset to the potential stress of an interview, and I highly recommend it for other job seekers!

I would be delighted to make it to the next round of interviews and hope to hear something soon.  Meanwhile, the search goes on and I’m newly mindful of God’s gifts of provision in times of need.

Smooth move

Some new friends are leaving Seattle this week to move back to sunnier, warmer, friendlier Florida.  We’re sad to see them go but know that they are returning to family and loving friends who can’t wait to have them back.  That’s good.

They have done a great job of getting rid of nearly all of their stuff through Craigslist, word of mouth, and Goodwill.  Congratulations, Nathan and Beth, not only for meeting the rigorous standards of a Smooth Move, but for doing so with a kid who’s less than a year old.  This is a rare achievement, and you have done it with grace and style.

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And just what is a Smooth Move, you ask…  It is the gold standard for moving one’s household, and in all modesty, Susan and I set that standard the last time we moved.

We knew several months ahead of time that we’d be moving and we did not yet have kids, so we took full advantage of the lead time to go through all of our stuff.  Every evening we would focus on one thing in the house – a bookcase, a drawer or two, a shelf in the garage – and determine what to keep, what to give away, what to toss.  We made it our goal to pack two or three boxes every day if we could.  We clearly marked on each box what it contained, and after the deal on the house closed, we then wrote where each box should go in the new place.

30 friends helped with the actual move.  We invited them to join us for a leisurely breakfast at about 10:00 on a drizzly Seattle Saturday morning.  Three guys were in charge of packing the U-Haul truck; that team was led by a man whose workshop was meticulously organized, and who could load more dishes into a dishwasher than anyone we know.  The rest of the crew was carrying boxes and furniture out of the house to the truck.  Everything was packed, identified, and ready to go.  Susan and I didn’t move any stuff ourselves; we were busy answering questions and directing traffic.

Everything was moved out of the old house and into the new one in about four hours.  At the new house, Susan and I again answered questions and directed traffic.  By late afternoon our clothes were hanging in the closets, the beds were all made, the stereo was hooked up, towels were hung in the bathrooms, and the kitchen was unpacked and operational.  We had a wonderful home-cooked meal with the crew (I remember the stew that my Mom made) and felt like we were mostly settled in the new place that first night.  What a great gift from friends and family.  We presented the crew with commemorative T-shirts we’d made up as one expression of our appreciation for all of the help.

This was a sweet, clean, painless move for us and for those who helped us – they’d even tell you it was fun.  Started out with good food and coffee, then got right to work actually moving stuff.  No sorting.  No wondering.  No running for boxes.  No packing.  This, my friends, is a Smooth Move.  If you have to move, and even moreso if you are helping others to do so, I hope it’s a Smooth Move.  Amen.

Camping at Lake Chelan

We left Seattle on a warm Friday afternoon for an even hotter weekend in Eastern Washington. That’s where many of us Western Washingtonians go to warm up, dry out, and play in a dramatically different climate from ours. Goin’ campin’ at 25 Mile Creek State Park – halfway up the 50-mile length of Lake Chelan.  Like all good trips, this one involved some tradition. 

Blowin’ in the wind

Family and friends of our dear friend Scott gathered in Yosemite last week to scatter his ashes. The cremated remains had been placed in three bags for various members of the party to distribute as they wished. Scott’s lovely widow and a friend sat together at the top of a waterfall. Just as she emptied the contents of her bag over the edge of the falls, a breeze came up and blew the ashes back into their faces, eyes, noses, mouths, and hair.

I can’t help but think of how much Scott would have enjoyed this. In fact, he very well may have helped to engineer the moment. That the two women burst out laughing shows how well they loved and understood him. What a friend – even cracking ‘in your face’ jokes from beyond the grave.

Muffin tops

One of my favorite young friends occasionally manages to turn kind and encouraging words into unintended insults.

He recently scanned an article about “muffin tops,” one of the many terrible effects of gravity acting on middle-aged human bodies. If you shop at Costco you know what I’m talking about.

Off the grid

During our mid-winter break Snowboarding Adventure, we stayed on a remote piece of property near the Okanogan National Forest in North Central Washington. Our neighbors in Seattle built a house there that runs mostly on solar power, and is it ever cool:

A family’s journey through breast cancer

This is a lengthy post. It consists of 19 entries during the course of my wife’s diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer in 2004. It contains funny and frank stories, things that helped us get through a difficult time, and a look at how a life-threatening condition played out in our family.

April 27, 2004 (update #1)

To the many members of Susan’s Fan Club:

Here we are again, “standin’ in the need of prayer.” We learned this week that Susan has “early abnormal cells of ductal carcinoma in situ” (early stage breast cancer). A cluster of tiny spots showed up on a mammogram last summer, and a second cluster appeared on a follow-up mammogram in March.

Happy birthday, Zatchmo

I love days like today. Our niece and her husband of four months came over for a leisurely brunch, and I baked scones and Swedish toast. This promising young couple lives in Pasadena, so it took a little imagination to combine “sunny and clear” with “high of 46 degrees” and come up with “beautiful day.”

Death of a Friend

We knew it could happen any time, but we weren’t ready. When we received the news that our dear friend Scott Becker had died, it hit like a freight train. Even though this was his third brave fight against cancer, we had hoped he’d be around for at least many more months and even years.