Something Fantastic and Trivial

Did you know, that if you took those old root ends of green onions, put them in a cup of water, they would grow again?  They do.  The tallest one has been in there about a week and a half.

Here is why I think that is amazing.

We chopped it up, used the green onion to season rice, and plopped the root ends into water.  This plant took air, sunlight, and water and has transformed those three things back into an onion!  Anyone who farms or gardens is probably rolling their eyes at this point, wondering what the big deal is.  Here's the big deal: this thing is sitting there, calmly and fantastically recreating itself.  It knows it's an onion, and it knows that given the simple conditions of water, air, and sun, it can clone itself just so your rice can be seasoned again.

This thing sits in dirt, and it has done something that I couldn't imagine doing in all of history.  Imagine amputees sticking their severed limbs in a bucket of water, sitting in the sun, calmly growing their limbs back? 

I almost think that this is a more pure form of "renewable energy" that everyone clamors about.  Maybe if we payed more attention to the renewable energy source that has been sustaining us all these years, rather than finding a renewable energy source that can sustain our rapidly growing technological obsessions, we would find what we're looking for.  

My Favorite Place in Jacksonville

I like to write about things that I love.  This is about my favorite coffee shop in Jacksonville.  It’s a little place called “Sippers Coffee House.”  If you are a local to Jacksonville, or even if you just make it to town every once in a while, you need to stop by this place – you will fall in love with it.  This is the Yelp rating on it.

It is a quaint little shop on the corner of a small little island of other little shops.  There is an old stereo against the wall that is always playing the old songs of the 40’s - 60's.  Right now, as I sit in the small study booth they have, a big band is playing on the radio and it’s riffing off a light jazz melody. 

There are two old wooden pews against one wall with a couch and two comfy chairs with a lamp between them.  In one corner, there is a piano with the cover up, keys exposed, tempting anyone to sit down and play.  There is a TV that is always on silent, and almost always has old black and white movies playing. 

On the way to the bathrooms, you’ll notice a rack with white boxes stacked up that say “Fresh Vegetables” on the side.  Sippers doubles as a pickup location for the Veggie Bin, a service you can sign up for that allows you to buy in season, fresh vegetables from local farmers.  From what I gather, you never quite know what’s going to be in the box – just that it was grown locally, some are certified as strictly organic, and that they are the veggies that are in season.

As part of the décor, there is an old coffee grinder that is actually identical to the one my family used when I was growing up.  Until just now, I didn't realize how odd it was that we used something this antique to grind our coffee beans each morning, but I also love that we did. 

There is a world map on the wall with probably two hundred pins stuck in various places around the globe.  There is a small box of pins and you are encouraged to pin anywhere in the world you have been. 

So far, I have said nothing about the coffee, bagels, pastries, tea, iced smoothies, free wifi, home made cookies, or even their cold chicken salad sandwiches which are really top notch, because they are only one part of the reason I love Sippers. 

My favorite thing about Sippers is a recent addition.  The bookshelf against one wall will now be a community library, where you can grab books you want to read and put books you don’t use.  I love this idea, not only because it was my suggestion (though they had been meaning to do something like it for a while), but because it gives me one more reason to stop by and spend an afternoon. 

Rest: Our Response to The Beautiful

If insomnia were a character quality, I would be venerated on the spot. 

I do feel fortunate, though, that my particular flavor of insomnia only strikes when I have some kind of idea which I am excited to flesh out.  This means that as far as long, lonely nights go, mine are fairly productive.  Insomnia is my response to the curious.

Sleep is an interesting idea, spiritually speaking.  We are no doubt familiar with the concept of rest and how that is something God wants us to do – no doubt, for our own good.  Those two must not be exclusively the same since one can have a restless sleep and a restful experience while fully awake.

This reminds me of an experience Caroline and I had in a museum in St Augustine.  We were wandering around the city, with nothing in particular to do, and we poked our heads into a small art museum.  I cannot tell you why, because art has so rarely affected me in any significant way, but Caroline and I were moved to silence by this art.  We stayed in this small shop for close to two hours, looking at each piece by an artist I cannot now recall.  Two hours we marveled in the face of the beautiful.  When we walked out of that small shop, and were reborn into the street of St. Augustine, I took a deep breath of the hot afternoon air, and felt like I had just woken up from a long and restful sleep. 

One of my favorite words is “insatiable,” because it has a driving sense of internal thirst for something.  I often feel this driving thirst, and I think it is this thirst that keeps me awake at nights.  It is my curiosity monkey that will not leave me alone.  But when we walked out of that museum, we were satiated – full and content.

To rest is to relax every muscle in your mind and come to rest in the eye of a storm, momentarily knowing that it is okay. 

I think rest is our response to the beautiful.  This may be why God gave us beautiful Sunday afternoons to take a picnic somewhere, or sit at the beach, or walk in the woods.  I think He likes it when we experience rest as a response to His beauty.  Our greatest rest, of course, comes gradually, as we see more and more of Him.