This is my friend Joe.  To put it simply Joe is an incredible musician, dad, friend and all around artist with a great big heart.  So if you haven’t heard Joe’s music before you should stop right there and check it out first and then return… Joe Kye Ok, welcome back.  Joe and I met…

When Ana and I first started actually dating after the Camino and called it such we decided that we would travel back and forth a few times before deciding what to do next. My career isn’t exactly portable but visa situations in the US are less than ideal.  Ana came to visit right away in…

I slept in a bit and got myself together. I took the dogs on their morning walk.  I wrote some and planned some and looked at my school work while I sipped my coffee. Ana got up and we spent some time together and then she encouraged me to head to church.  After some hemming…

Still a long way off but we are approaching closer and closer and our excitement is growing. This week Ana bought her shoes for the Camino and has already gotten them muddy and I am scoping out shoes that I need to buy soon. We should be breaking them in like right now. I have…

Mira and I met 16 years ago when I arrived at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. We don’t exactly remember how or when we met.  Mira was in a class ahead of me but we had overlapping friends, it was a smallish institution and we got to know each other a little bit then.  We didn’t really…

This January has been a little bit different for me.  We flew back to Berlin over New Year’s Eve this year.  We got on the flight at 1pm Portland time/10pm Berlin time on Dec. 31st and walked off the plane at 11am Berlin time/ 2am Portland time on Jan. 1.   We got on public transit…

In 226 days we are off, step by step from St. Jean. This week we prepared by making the reservations for St. Jean in an albergue that really sent me on my way last time and in Orisson in the middle of the Pyrenees…we probably won’t make any more reservations for places to stay yet. …

  Yesterday I got to hang out with one of my dear friends named Jeff.  Jeff Mar and I met when I was serving in McMinnville, OR. He and his then partner moved to McMinnville from Detroit in 2013ish and I was the United Methodist pastor in town.  He moved to Mac to buy a…

This is my fantastic friend Kate.  (The pic on the left is Kate with her amazing wife, Monica….who will get a blog of her own post someday:)).   I have a number of amazing friends named Kate will get their own blog posts as well so you should know that when I refer to this Kate…

This morning I was taking the dogs on our morning walk and the sky was soooo beautiful that they got a longer walk because I just kept following the sunrise.  Every corner took my breath away along the canal.  We walked along the canal and I oooed and awwwed at these amazing colors…. Lately I…