Heart Food: Holiness

"Therefore [since we have been privileged with the Gospel], prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when jesus Christ revealed.  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'"

---1 Peter 1:13-16

1 Peter is SO GOOD.  It's just packed with cool stuff.  Here Peter says three things--to prepare your mind for action, , to be self-controlled, and to set your hope where it should be.  It seems that all of these things have to do with being holy, something he calls us to at the end of the paragraph.

In order to actually do it, actually live a holy life, I need to prepare my mind.  My actions flow out of my mind, what I think and the values I've embraced, whether consciously or unconsciously.  If I've prepared my mind in advance, I won't have to stop and think about what to do in many situations.  It will be ingrained there so I can act.  No hesitation.  A huge part of that preparation is reading God's Word.  David said "I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11).  So we can understand that hiding God's word in our hearts, which I take to mean reading, meditating on, memorizing, and loving, will keep us from sin.  It makes sense to me.  I know it works that way with many things.  For an example, let's look at eating healthfully.  I want to do it.  I know that it's a good thing, but I don't always do it.  When I'm around others that make it a priority or I read a book or blog about healthy eating, I'm filled with inspiration and I can't wait to get started.  This week I've been reading such a book, and today I had Greek yogurt for breakfast and packed cucumbers and hummus for a snack at work.  Sure, I could do it without the book, but it becomes such an effort.  Instead of being automatic, I have to force myself.  There's not as much joy.  And with sinning, and living a holy life, we can't even hope to do it on our own or force ourselves to do it!  We could force ourselves to adhere to certain rules or standards, but that's not holiness, that's legalism.  It's only through Christ that we can truly live a holy life.

Then there's the self-control bit.  I know that self-control is important, but it's not my favorite fruit of the spirit.  I much prefer love or patience or joy.  Self-control...well I'm not so great at that.  If I feel like some chocolate I make up a big glass of chocolate milk (side note: I just read that humans don't register liquid calories the way they do solid ones; so strange!).  I'll decide to get up early to get stuff done or exercise and then will actually get up around eleven.  Self-control is something I should definitely work on.  Part of being holy is staying pure.  I don't just mean that in an abstinence kind of way.  Purity is part of your whole life.  It's being free from evil and corruption.  It's walking in God's ways and saying no to my own selfish desires.  Without self-control I give in because it's easier and because I want what I want.  I know it won't be easy, but thankfully "I can do all this through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:13).  

Finally, I need to set my hope on the grace of Christ.  I think I often set my hope on other things, especially in myself and my own abilities.  I feel like through my own experience I can land a job to support myself.  I build a life plan based on what I can do for myself and what I think I can realistically accomplish.  If i study hard and learn other languages then I can get a job as a flight attendent or work with exchange students.  If I have experience teaching I can land a good ESL job.  If I'm good at making coffee, I can work at a cafe or get hired as a barista on a cruise ship.  While that is kind of true, there's so much more to it than that.  If I look back on my life, the story it tells is different.  

I know that God had a hand in every job I've gotten.  I had the credentials to get hired as an English teacher after graduation, but I struggled at first.  During the first couple months I felt like I was doing a bad job in some of the group classes.  I had trouble reading the students, picking topics they enjoyed and getting the to talk.  I really prayed, begging God to help me.  I didn't know what to do, but he did. After several more months I was able to run effective classes and have fun at the same time.  And I know it was nothing I did.  Then when I moved back to the US, I had no coffee experience but was hired at the Cafe anyway.  I gained valuable experience that helped me get my current job...right?  Well, I'm sure my experience helped some, but the way I've gotten my jobs showed me that it was all God and nothing I could do.  I applied for many, many, many coffee jobs here.  I have experience in coffee, restaurants, and interacting with people so I figured it would be easy.  But no.  When I was finally hired at my current cafe, due to some bizarre circumstances. She called me because she didn't know what else to do.  Then the library.  When I applied for the shelver position initially, I figured I'd be a good candidate because I worked in my college library for four years.  But I didn't get the job.  It wasn't until more than a month later that they called me back and offered me a job.  That clearly was God opening the door for me.  Clearly I can come up with all the plans I want but God is the one who makes things happen.  I want to learn to pin all my hopes on him.  In these I'm talking about a jobs, but we must pin our hopes on him in every situation.  And most important of all, he is our hope for salvation and true life.  Amazing!

Holiness isn't that popular of a subject these days.  I think it comes with the connotation of being stuck-up or self-righteous or the "holier-than-thou" stuff.  But we can't ignore the fact that the Bible has called to holiness.  It's not something I understand easily.  What does it mean to be holy while still being a sinner?  If not, then why has God called us to the impossible.  There's so much more to learn and study, but that's the exciting part.

On Corned Beef and Barbershops

Yesterday I had a strong desire to consume some corned beef.  On any other day, that might be unusual, but yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  It's one of my favorite holidays.  No, I'm not Irish.  I just relish the day that the world turns green.  Growing up, it was a given that we'd eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  My mother would usually buy several corned beef masses, a couple to be frozen for future use, and one to plop in the crockpot.  My anticipation would build as the smell of cooking meat filled the house.

Last St. Paddy's Day, I attempted my own corned beef dinner.  Now, I'm usually pretty good with new recipes, but that day I ran into several problems.  First, I was working with a new (well, technically used) crockpot and was confounded when the water refused to come to a boil.  What do you do when it won't boil?  Does that mean the meat won't ever cook?  Then there's the fact that corned beef is pink.  How in the world do you tell if meat is cooked if it is pink even after it's done?  You can smirk and tell me to use a meat thermometer, dummy, but no, I didn't have one.  And without it, my wonderful hunk of corned beef turned into a paradoxically tough and soggy mass.  After a few forced bites, I gave up in despair.

This year I don't have a crockpot (that one didn't last long), and I went to church and worked all day so I didn't even have time to make another attempt, but I still really wanted some corned beef.  My brother and I tried to go to an Irish pub downtown.  Surely they would have corned beef.  Unfortunately, they were more about the beer than the corned beef.  We squeezed our way into a white tent filled with people in leprechaun hats downing pints of beer.  That's all well and good, but I was hungry.  It didn't look like we'd be getting any food for at least an hour, so we left.  Our next attempt was a place called Cafe Amsterdam.  Although not Irish, they have (I hear) a variety of beer from all over Europe.  We assumed they'd also have Ruebens.  But they were closed.

Finally, we went to a non-descript place called Peggy's.  Peggy's.  But at least their special sign said they had corned beef.  Our waitress showed us to our booth, and the first thing I noticed were the spider plants hanging in pots from the ceiling.  It reminded me of my grandma's house.  In fact, after looking around the diningroom, the whole place reminded me of grandma's house.  There was blatantly fake wood panelling on the walls.  Strange little knickknacks were tucked around the room in odd places.  Brown, well-loved mugs sat upside down on our table.  Everything was clean but a bit dark and worn.  They offered a plethora of pies, even blackberry, my personal favorite.  I gave in to temptation and had a slice.  Delicious, but grandma's was better.  Probably because she always put sugar on top that got all crispy while it baked.

The corned beef was fine, albeit a bit too well-cooked.  Even that reminded me of grandma.  She always made sure that the cow was very, very dead.  We ate in a side booth, and I couldn't help noticing that we were the only customers in a booth.  The other patrons sat at the horseshoe-shaped counter in the center of the room.  I kept a quiet eye on them as I chewed my smushy carrots.

 They were all men, mostly in their fifties and sixties, but a few forty-somethings.  One thirty-something wandered in at the end.  They didn't come in together and sat a few stools apart, but they had an easy camaraderie like they were in the same club.  Boys only.  One would wander out and another would take his place drinking coffee and gobbling pie.

I heard snatches of local gossip--a man shot a Walmart manager for not allowing his dog inside--and some good-natured ribbing.  The waitresses, two ladies in their later years, were honorary members.  They greeted and joked and poured coffee.  It was a community.

I've always heard of the famed barbershop, the local male hangout where men bond and get a shave.  I've of course never participated in such a phenomenon, but I did witness it from afar.  There was a barbershop across the street from my old cafe.  I enjoyed watching the men come and go.  Grizzled old vets would stump in and out.  Young fathers would herd their young offspring in the ever-swinging door.  A wide assortment of men would come and go under the twirling red, blue and white pole.  Some would visit every two weeks.  I wanted to yell at some, don't do it!  You'll have nothing left!

I liked to think that we had our own barbershop at the cafe.  A group of men would crowd around a table early in the morning; on the sidewalk tables if it were nice, in the diningroom if it were cold.  Most of them ordered black mugs of bottomless drip coffee and talked and drank the morning away.  When I worked mornings, I was a supporting member, greeting them and making sure the airpots of coffee stayed full.  It was a neverending battle.

There's something magical about a place like that.  The community is tangible.  No matter how we've morphed and evolved as a society, the campfire story hour is still alive.  I think it's stayed with us because it's a necessary time of connection.  It's never really about the shave or the pie, it's about the people.

But it would help if the pie had sugar on the crust.

Fur Rondy

Last week one of my customers at the cafe told me that this weekend was Anchorage's Fur Rendezvous festival.  I looked into it and it sounded great!  Apparently Fur Rondy, as it's called, has been around for a very long time and originated as a time for fur traders to get together and sell their wares.  These days it still has a fur element (many people wearing and selling fur) but seems to be more of a winter festival.   I had a thoroughly enjoyable time!

Nathan, Dan and I started the day off by breakfast at City Diner.  I've been looking at that building every time I drive by, so it was fun to finally eat there.  It was a cute, fifties-style diner, and we all ordered pancakes.

Coffee. Need. Coffee.

After breakfast we went downtown to catch the dogsled race.  I was surprised to see that most of the dogs weren't big huskies or malamutes, but little mutt dogs instead.  I was later told that the big dogs are for long races where they need endurance but the little dogs are better for short, sprint races.  It was fun to watch, but my feet got so cold standing in the snow.  

There were a lot of people selling food up and down the streets.

Run, doggies, run!

Trying to stay warm.

After the race we wandered down to the Railroad Station where they were having a miniature train show.  They had a bunch of different environments (if that's even what they're called) but my favorite one was the miniature Hogwarts. 

Afterwards we wandered through the carnival and stopped to watch some of the fur auction.  Of course, the fur auction is how Fur Rondy got started in the first place.  While I'm not particularly interested in fur (although it does look super warm and fuzzy), it was still fun to watch the proceedings and the people in the crowd.

Can I get three hundred for the artic foxes?

Many people were really into the Fur Rondy spirit.

We were a little cold at that point so we stopped in Sidestreet Espresso for a hot drink.  I really like Sidestreet.  It's very quirky and eclectic, and has apparently been around for twenty years.  The owner creates intense whiteboard special boards for their drink of the week.  He draws authors or literary figures or adventurers or musicians and has a quote included on the board.  They're awesome!  

We walked around downtown some more, looking in different shops.  I stopped in the art fair to look around.  I found the original customer who had told me about the festival at a booth selling some of his handiwork.  After walking around for awhile, we were getting hungry so we stopped in a little hole-in-the-wall that sells pelmenis, Russian dumplings.  The owner was very friendly and chatted with us while he cooked us up some dumplings.  

I had the potato and Nathan and Dan had the beef.

SOOOO good.  Perfect cold-weather food.

After filling up on delicious dumplings, we headed over to the the snow sculpting contest.  There were so many fun sculptures and it seemed like everyone was having a great time!

Near the snow sculpting area, they were having a snowboard/ski competition, so we went over to watch.  It was the first such competition I'd been to, and it was fun!  The one downside was that the competitors kept wiping out.  I'm no expert in the least, but it seemed as if something wasn't set up right.  Maybe the original ramp wasn't high enough or the angle of the slope was wrong or something, but it seemed like most of the skiers/snowboarders were having trouble.  Still, a couple of them managed some cool flips and stuff.  It was a good ending activity.

Moose!

The ramp.

In the air!

By that time we were tired and ready to go home.  As we walked back to the car, it started snowing, a lovely, soft snow.  Beautiful.

Sunday Drive

I've really been enjoying myself here, although I'm not doing tons of crazy things.  I'm just enjoying being here in a new place.  I love the cold weather!   In Arkansas right before I moved, it was in the seventies!  In November!  So terrible.  I think cold weather feels so fresh and invigorating, and it's nice to wear coats and scarves.  The one thing I don't like is about it is that it's harder to wear jewelry.  I'll start to put on a bracelet but then think, "What's the point? My coat will cover it up anyway."  Also shoes.  I have a lot of shoes I like, but they're all summer shoes.  Fun, but definitely not snow friendly.  I do have one pair of boots that I wear all the time.  

Now that I'm more settled, I'll try to post more.  I have a lot of ideas of things I'd like to post about (especially sketchy food places) but I keep forgetting my camera!  I'll have to remember to carry it around.  Well, here are some pictures that will show you a bit of the area around Anchorage.

One Sunday afternoon, Nathan and I decided to go for a drive.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  We went down the highway by the frozen bay.

See the sun setting?  It was only threeish!  Although the days are longer now, when we first arrived the sun would start coming up at nine thirty to ten and start setting around three.  It would be totally dark by four!  

The water looked so cool with all the floating ice.  The current was making the ice chunks swirl around each other and it was actually moving really quickly!  

Of course, we stopped at a little coffe place to get some espresso!  Man, there are SO many espresso places around here.  There are coffee huts everywhere.  I guess that's what happens when it's cold and you only have five or six hours of sunlight in mid-winter.  This little shop was so quirky and interesting.  See the fluffy dogs on the porch?  I also bought some fun cards to send my penpal.

The light was fading, but I was still able to get one of the ski mountain.  So twinkly!

Hope you enjoy these, and look forward to more frigid fun!

Making Christmas

Of course this is WAY late, but I thought I'd give a little update about my holidays in Alaska.  First though, an update.  I have found two part-time jobs!  I work three days a week at a small cafe.  The owner is great, and I really enjoy it.  I also am working at a Target Starbucks (yes...).  I'm very grateful to be gainfully employed!  It's also nice that both places are relatively close to where I live.  I bought a car, but it's not quite in running shape yet, so until them I'm walking.  Yeah for forced exercise.

Anyway, the holidays were pretty uneventful, but not bad.  Nathan and I skyped with Mom, Dad, and Amelia on our Christmas Eve, so that was nice.  We opened our presents from Mom and Dad, and Dad opened the present from me, but our other packages hadn't arrived yet!  It got there, eventually.

I had all these plans to decorate and stuff, but I lost my motivation.  We still weren't unpacked and had stuff everywhere.  Besides, I wasn't feeling up to buying a bunch of stuff that I probably wouldn't use again.  SO, I had to settle with my favorite little Santa.  We didn't have a tree, so I figured he'd do, since he's kind of tree-shaped.  

He was kind of small for a tree, but since our presents were small too, it worked out perfectly! 

Nathan gave me a coat!  Isn't it cute?  We went to REI a few days later so I could pick up my present. 

There's nothing like a good Christmas dinner!  For us it consisted of porkchops (which I don't often cook), potato salad (my favorite), cranberry sauce (my second favorite) and garlic spinach.  It was pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.

In the afternoon we decided to go see a movie.  Funnily enough, a few weeks before I was incredulous that Les Miserables was coming out on Christmas Day.  I think my words were somewhere along the lines of "what loser would go to a movie on Christmas day."  [side note: I was half joking and not trying to offend anyone].  But then on Christmas, it was just me and Nathan and no other family to hang out with, so what did we do?  Yup, went to a movie.  

The first theater we went to was sold out, so we went to another one.  That had a later show available, so we bought tickets and went for a drive while we waited.  It's like driving around in Narnia.

All in all, it was a quiet but nice Christmas.  

Northward

I got picked up in Seattle by Nathan and some of his friends.  They spent some time wandering around Seattle, and then we dropped two of them off at the airport to fly home.  Their part of the roadtrip was over.  Nathan, his friend Tim, and I went to Nathan's college roommate's house that night.  The next morning after coffee and breakfast, we were off.

Breakfast with our host before heading out

Happy to get started

We spent quite awhile at the Canadian border talking to their security agents.  There was a friendly-looking one with a mustache and then a tall, grumpy-looking one.  Can you guess which one we got?  Yes, the grumpy one.  He questioned us for quite awhile and informed my brother tersely that he would be sent to jail and then deported and never allowed back into Canada if he was carrying any guns over the border.  After emptying the contents of our car and going through them, they were satisfied that we weren't arms smugglers and let us go.  I suppose we should be grateful that they at least put our stuff back.

Our first destination was Fort George, one of the largest (in a matter of speaking) towns before heading out into the wilderness.  We stopped were going to get a block heater installed that night before things got really cold, but the mechanic found a leaking water pump.  We had to spend an extra day there waiting for that to be fixed.  I wandered around the town a bit.  I had fun at the local natural history museum, a chocolate cafe, and the local library.  While at the library I read John Goff's book "Love Does."  I'm a big fan and would recommend it to everyone!

   1. Trying to fit in with the Canucks by having breakfast at Tim Hortons.

2. Making friends at the Fort George museum.

The next morning we hit the road again with our smancy new heater.  We were definitely going to use it.  The timeline is a little hazy (five days in the car will do that to you) but at some point we made it into the Yukon and from there made it into Alaska.  It was pretty chilly but gorgeous.  High up the trees come pre-flocked!

One night, in Tok Alaska, it was -45F!  Even with a new heater, the floor never heated up.  I had to keep my feet off the floor of the truck or they would freeze.  The air felt really strange to breath as well, kind of ticklish and dry.

1. -45F!

2. We were enveloped in a cloud whenever we opened the door.

3. Trying to stay warm.

The next day after our frigid night, we drove our last leg into Anchorage.  The way was beautiful, and I was so happy to be in my new home!

Hanging in Seattle

The day after Thanksgiving at six in the morning, I was on a plane heading to Seattle.  I got to spend three days in the beautiful city!

After a layover in Chicago and two uneventful flights, I made it to my downtown hostel by three in the afternoon.  My hostel, The Green Tortoise, is located right by Pike's Place Market!  The staff were really nice, and I loved that they had green beds and bed curtains.  After checking in I couldn't decide if I was more exhausted (I only slept two hours the night before) or more hungry (I hadn't eaten since three thirty in the morning).  My hunger finally got the best of me and I headed out to find sustenance.

My humble abode

I tried to go to an Italian place that the girl at the hostel recommended, but I had a hard time finding it so I finally stumbled into a Thai place, ravenous.  I consumed one of my Thai favorites, Pad See Ew, and went out to explore.  I wandered through the rain, looking at different shops.  There was an extremely kitchen store that had cute gadgets, specialty food items, and a million different kinds of whisks!  If I had my own home and money, I would have been tempted to walk away with lots of things.  I explored for awhile, but I got too tired so I went back for a nap.  When I woke up. all I had time for was dinner and interesting conversations with other people at the hostel.

The next day I spent most of my time in the International District.  I mostly spent time eating and drinking, but I also had fun wandering around.  I spent a lot of time at Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore.  From the bookstore you can walk right into an enormous Japanese/international grocery store.  Man, I wish I had a store like that near me!

I had SO many things to eat!  I had almost all of my Hong Kong favorites.  I started out by getting egg tarts at a Chinese bakery.  There were a bunch of older Chinese people at the back tables, hanging out, reading papers, shooting the breeze.  I sat while I ate my egg tart, and was so happy to hear Cantonese again!  I asked the girl at the front if she knew where I could get Hong Kong style milk tea.  She directed me to a little shop around the block.  There's no way I could have found it on my own, since there was no English sign or visible English menu.  I think the people were a little confused that I only wanted milk tea, but I was in heaven.  I hadn't had HK style milk tea in so long, and I was pleased to see that their size was larger than in Hong Kong.  Later for lunch I had shrimp in egg sauce and was able to practice (albeit very badly) my quickly vanishing Canto with the ladies at that shop.  And then in the early evening, before heading back, I went to a bubble tea shop.  I was so happy that they had my favorite flavor, chocolate milk tea!  I've never seen that in the States before.  If only there were some in Anchorage...

The next day I went to church and then walked over to Olympian Park.  It was a nice walk, but I think maybe the park is a little overrated.  Or maybe my expectations of the park's artwork were overblown.  I walked down the harbor and around the city.  I did a lot of walking!  I went up (literally, up a very tall hill) to a free museum.  Nearby there was a beautiful cathedral that had started exploring when the bells rang.  I looked at the schedule and saw that afternoon prayers were beginning, so I snuck in.  It's been awhile since I've been in a traditional service like that, and it was very refreshing.

The next morning I had to check out at eleven in the morning, and my brother was going to pick me up later.  I went with my bags to a cafe next door.  I was joined by some lovely people I met at the hostel, and we spent a nice couple of hours, drinking coffee and chatting.  It's always nice to meet new people!

New friends

I've always loved Seattle, and I'm so glad I could spend a couple days there relaxing and exploring.  I'd totally move there if it rained less.  I guess I'll just have to get someone else to move there so I can visit during the good weather.  Hm...sister?