Legal Nomads.com

Photo LegalNomads.com

One excellent website that came out of the mediocre book in the previous post was this one: LegalNomads.com; Where culture, food & travel intersect. It’s the website of a young woman who left her job as a lawyer in Montreal to travel around the world, trying foods one country at a time, one meal at a time.

Her site is well documented with interesting links and resources. The photography is beautiful and the way she records her experiences is fun and entertaining to read.

Whether she is Christian or not I don’t know – but her life exemplifies the idea of Christain mission – engaging the world and allowing it to change you. She is entering one culture after another and immersing herself in its people, language, art, food, music, smells and soaking up the experience. This is what mission is about. Opening ourselves to others and to the world.

I’ve put her on the blogroll here at InnerPacific.

 

Visit to Lutsen

Today we’ve decided to head up to Lutsen on our way to Grand Marais. From the old bridge to the majestic stream and lake views, it’s really worth the stop. The air is so crisp and the water so clear.

You may also like Stillwater Stop.

 

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

This year, as most years, we are headed up to northern Minnesota and Lake Superior for a week of vacation. I will post a few pictures each day and you can see how our week unfolds.

We don’t normally make a plan, or if we do we change the plan as the day progresses. We tend to be pretty opportunistic and veer off the beaten path if something interesting presents itself. Come along with us.

We’ve arrived and here’s the view of Lake Superior from the cabin we’re renting for these next few days – right on the water.

This evening the sunset was dreamy –

The Healing

If you liked the story The Help, you’ll enjoy The Healing. It’s a great novel for summer reading from Jonathan Odell, a Minnesota author. Beautifully written, the reader is instantly transported into a plantation in the Deep South.

Rich in mood and atmosphere, The Healing is a warmhearted novel about the unbreakable bonds between three generations of female healers and their power to restore the body, the spirit, and the soul.

In Antebellum Mississippi, Granada Satterfield has the mixed fortune to be born on the same day that her plantation mistress’s daughter, Becky, dies of cholera. Believing that the newborn possesses some of her daughter’s spirit, the Mistress Amanda adopts Granada, dolling her up in Becky’s dresses and giving her a special place in the family despite her husband’s protests. But when The Master brings a woman named Polly Shine to help quell the debilitating plague that is sweeping through the slave quarters, Granada’s life changes. For Polly sees something in the young girl, a spark of “The Healing,” and a domestic battle of wills begins, one that will bring the two closer but that will ultimately lead to a great tragedy. And seventy-five years later, Granada, still living on the abandoned plantation long after slavery ended, must revive the buried memories before history repeats itself.

Inspirational and suspenseful, The Healing is the kind of historical fiction readers can’t put down—and can’t wait to recommend once they’ve finished.

“A remarkable rite-of-passage novel with an unforgettable character. . . . The Healing transcends any clichés of the genre with its captivating, at times almost lyrical, prose; its firm grasp of history; vivid scenes; and vital, fully realized people, particularly the slaves with their many shades of color and modes of survival.” The Associated Press

But in the end, one of the characters, wasn’t able to envision freedom. Caught in the culture (in the story it was a culture of the plantation life) creates blinders that prevent us from accepting the invitation for a new life when it is offered.

This story alerts us to the fact that merely changing the laws on slavery doesn’t create free people. In the same way enacting a law requiring affirmative action doesn’t eliminate descriminatory behavior – it just takes on more subtle forms.

Like the characters in the story, in our own lives we are often caught in the same way. We are invited, either by a new situation or by someone we know to embark on something new, to leave what we know. Because we can imagine something worse, but not something better, we refuse. We are too caught up in our own story – which we believe is true. It is our failure to imagine something better that holds us back – a failure of imagination. God exists, however, in our imagination – or God doesn’t exist at all. Our imagination is the only place God can exist because we can’t see, hear, feel or touch God.

God is not safe. Through our imagination, God is constantly inviting us to stretch, to become uncomfortable, to step out of our comfort zones. But we want so much to be comfortable, to have health insurance, to stay in a space that no longer serves our needs or our life. We are complacent and we want to stay that way. However, this is not living, this is not a life.

Next time you are asked to stretch – say “yes” to life, “yes” to God.

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Visit the best, exotic, Marigold Hotel and be transformed. Life after all, is about transformation. This film will take you right into India. On the big screen you’ll swear you can smell the curry, feel the linen kurtis, hear the cacophony that is India.

The British characters in the story enter into a new culture and a new life, with all the challenges that brings. Like many of us, these characters are not at all used to being stretched or challenged. They come from a life of over privilege – like most of us – and believe they have earned the life they have.

Entering into a new life in India challenges their deepest assumptions, about their lives, their beliefs and who they are. This is Christian mission at its core. Opening ourselves to others who are different – and to the world. Like the inhabitants of the Marigold Hotel, it is we who are transformed.

Colors of India
Patna the oldest city of India

 

Flavors of India

Use the film as a way to become curious about the history and culture of India. Check your local library for books on Indian history and cuisine. Go to an Indian restaurant and sample delicious Indian dishes. Try cooking with curries. Learn about Hinduism or Yoga. Travel to India. Get curious. Learn more. Have fun.

You may also like The Empire of Tea and InnerPeace – Rewire Your Brain.