Fun with fiber-optics!

Here's a trivia question: What happens when you give a fiber-optic cable a really good whack with a shovel?
a) The Internet goes out.
b) The television goes bye-bye.
c) The phone looses its dial-tone.
d) a, b & c, above.

If you selected answer "d", then you have obviously participated in gardening practices that confuse roots (that need to be struck firmly with the pointy end of the shovel while jumping on the shovel and yelling "Die, root, die...") with fiber-optic cables (these need to be worked around gently, handled with kid gloves, and flagged for future reference).

The good news is the Verizon guy managed to come early afternoon, and we were only incommunicado with the world for a matter of 5 hours. Plus, Rebekah's work on the flower bed that houses the aforementioned fiber-optic cable moved forward with great success. The area has been neglected for a long time, and has been "on deck" for some serious work for the best part of a year.

After dinner there was a gentle breeze and the evening air had a hint of freshness about it. I thought about how much more enjoyable the garden is after a day of hard, physical work. It's not so much pride in achievement as it is a sense of partnership with the ongoing process of creation.

This is a world that's constantly being formed and re-formed. The idea that God created it all four or five thousand years ago - exactly as is, without finessing the product via the work of eons, upheavals, weathering and a million other variables - is not only absurd it is an insult to the intention of God in creation. All you have to do is stand within rumbling distance of Mount St. Helens and watch the new dome grow out of the vast crater from the 1980 explosion - it's an awesome and humbling experience. (photograph taken - by me - from the Johnson Ridge observatory in 2006) We are invited to be co-authors in this creation, working the soil and tending the gardens. When we do this I think it calls to deep places in our spirits and we are satisfied...

I'm also glad that Saturday comes before Sunday, because there's nothing like a day of labor in the garden to prepare my heart for a morning at church, where I continue the worship I enjoyed today in the context of community.

I do so enjoy this life - DEREK
"The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good." - Genesis 1:12