Please Talk To Strangers...

Ok, let me clarify the title, if you are under 16 years of age and home alone, or are approached by a representative of any religious sect whose title includes the words “Davididian, Nuwabian, sojourners of perpetual creepiness, or a combination of more than 5 “less-threatening " words, (example: Freedom liberty family fellowship evanga-worshipful seekers of the seventh revelation) then pay no heed to the title and run away! I merely want to address the blinders we often put on to the rest of the world. You know, the intentional disregard of all people in our “peripheral” vision on a daily basis. We get locked on to schedules, meetings, productivity, and all of the above at the sacrifice of isolating ourselves to an island of comfort and stagnicity. (Yes, stagnicity isn’t a word, but I called Webster and it's pending for his next edition.)

Mine and Cassie’s blinders have been ripped off in the past two weekends by enthralling strangers around us. A mechanic and part-time Santa-Claus and missionary that traded me a banjo for a fiddle was only the start of these encounters with who, in every definition of the word, would be regarded as strangers. To follow would be a folk-hearted believer named Katie in ATL that knowingly traded a beautiful fender resophonic guitar for a quirky little banjo-lin simply because she wanted me to have it. Cassie and I were walked through 3 generations of a family business by a tailor in Chattanooga, helped a family propose via 20ft sign from the Market street bridge for their son, and ran into a tightrope walking (slack line) hoola-hooping couple in the park that granted me the pleasure of embarrassing myself on a tightrope. In talking, he was a regular supertramp, trotting the US from Alaska down the west coast and finally to Chattanooga TN for the climbing.

Very different people, yes, but the one thing that they all had in common was their innate ability to capture mine and Cassie’s hearts and admiration in the span of a single conversation. What has God been trying to show us? As much as we believe in miracles, we also are seeing a very different form of them. I think the miracles of our days aren’t necessarily spiritual outbursts in public leading millions to dive into the closest source of water for impromptu baptism. No, what God is doing in our collective midst is much bigger. He’s calling for talking to strangers. (Outside of the 15 min Sunday morning greet and seat? Gasp!) I count it a small miracle when I can see past my own world to connect to someone else’s. And as lost as I have become at times in my own schedule, I continue to be pulled out by wildly engaging encounters with people I’d normally avoid or disregard. So friends we implore you, from our hearts to yours, Please talk to strangers.

-Ben and Cassie

Whirlwind of craziness!

Well, March is flying by like crazy! We've got some pics to put up later, but we had a great St. Patty's Day party last week at the Barks and then a great Easter weekend with my family in TX. And there's much more to come! Hope everyone is having a great month and a wonderful start to Spring.

Be blessed!

Coyotes and Marshmallows

We went camping this past weekend near Gee Creek and while we had a good time, it was soooo cold! I think we had three or four blankets spread out on the bottom of the tent and then another one thrown on top of our sleeping bags! We had a great time though and Maggie just loved it. She's getting a North Face jacket for Christmas I think! Well, I don't know if they make those for dogs, but she's getting one if they do. Anyways, we had a great time, ate good camp food, listened to the coyotes in the middle of the night and had the best coffee the next morning. Thanks for the pics everyone!

The next morning...

Ben likes to jump over fires for amusement

Our campsite

Amber looks great the morning after

Beth and Jason - so glad they made it

Maggie was such a little camper

Aww

Notice Laura's outfit. :)

The ladies of the campsite

hmmm

and again. hmmm.

I just love Maggie's floppy ears!

I don't know if you can see it, but we are brewing freshly ground Starbucks coffee out of the back of the FJ. Thanks babe for taking care of that!

How adorable is she?! Yes, we are those people who love their dog like a child.

A little coffee quiet time

Our tents

Sausage and eggs for breakfast. Yum!

Maggie's Best Friend

Maggie has a new best friend - meet Prissy. Prissy belongs to Jason and Jaime and her and Maggie have bonded quite nicely. I think they are the two most adorable dogs ever!

Engagement Party!

Like I said in the last post, we have some great friends. Laura organized an engagement party for me and Ben and Tina and Adam. We had a great dinner in Cafe Roma in downtown Cleveland. It was so nice and we had wonderful food and equally wonderful company. Thanks to everyone who came! (And thanks to Kevin for the photos!)

Lovely friends and Creme Brulee

*Disclaimer: this post will be lacking in pictures, but chock-full of mushiness.

With that said, we have been truly blessed by our friends here in Cleveland. We have an amazing core group of people that we've grown quite close to. We laugh and cry together and we've become close enough to be genuine and honest with each other. We don't say it enough, but Ben and I appreciate this group of friends so much. Each person brings something so unique to the group and we are honored to be around them. We couldn't imagine a better group of friends.

A couple of those friends, Jason and Jaime, had us over for dinner a few weeks ago. It was so lovely and yummy (Jaime is an amazing cook.) We always enjoying hanging out with them. For dessert Jaime put to good use her great score at the Habitat Store earlier that morning - pretty, white souffle cups. She made some excellent creme brulee, which Jason and Ben happily set the torch to. :)

The Habitat Home Store

Jaime works at Habitat for Humanity and a couple of Saturdays ago we volunteered at the home store. It was so much fun and Jaime walked away with something great to use in the kitchen (more on that in the next post!) Also, thanks for the pictures Jaime!

On our way to Firehouse for lunch. Yum!

There was a heater above us keeping our hands toasty.

We are expert sorters.

You never know what treasures you'll find at the home store.

Flowers, madame?

Use those muscles, boys!