God Keep My Head Above Water

I apologize to those of you expecting part two of my Seattle trip. That post will have to wait. I got hit with a strong wave of inspiration this morning and I knew immediately I had to write about it.

My commute to work is roughly 30 min in normal traffic. However, with all the construction going on along the shoreway, it takes me 45ish minutes or more. Depending on my mood each morning, I either flip the radio on to the Fish, which is one of the major Christian music stations here in Cleveland, or I have a conversation with God. Today was more of a music day.

The sun was out, it's Friday, and I was feeling great. I was one minute from work, sitting at the bottom of the hill on Nobel Rd, when they started talking about Avril Lavigne. They mentioned they were about to play one of her new songs. My attention was instantly honed in. For those of you who don't know, Avril Lavigne is a pop/punk singer/songwriter who came onto the music scene in 2002. She produced popular songs such as Sk8er Boi, Complicated, and Girlfriend. If you look at the lyrics to these and more of her songs, you would  wonder why in the world a Christian music station would play anything by her. I know I did.

Eventually, the fame died down. She hasn't put out an album in 5 years, has been divorced twice, and had a nasty bout with Lyme Disease. Here was someone who was on top of the music world who had miserably faded away. But when the Fish played her new song this morning. I was moved. The song is called Head Above Water. Before you read on, I encourage you to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKF6ghfcQic

She was in a place where the Lyme Disease was so bad, she thought she was going to die. She had mentally prepared herself for the end. But then, in her weakest moment, she did the unthinkable. She prayed. She said "God, please help to keep my head above water." Then the song you just heard came forth. She beat the disease and has a powerful testimony.

The reason I was moved is because Avril was someone who had it all. She was as far away from God as anyone. But He changed her heart. He changed her life. He gave her this song that I can see will help so many people. And the thing that makes me believe this is the work of God and not some fancy schmancy fake publicity stunt? The first half of the chorus: "God keep my head above water, don't let me drown, it gets harder. I'll meet you there at the altar, as I fall down to my knees." In the old testament, the altar is for sacrifice and spiritually it represents the burning off of your self. Falling down to your knees is a sign of surrender, but in this case, it's the best kind of surrender.

You may not be inspired like I was. You may not even like this song. But for me, it made my day. It's a constant reminder that no matter how high or low we are, we must rely on the Lord and surrender all. God is truly Amazing.

Seattle

Last weekend I took a trip to Seattle Washington. Why Seattle? Why not? Actually there are many reasons. I have some dear friends who call it home. My wanderlust was acting up again. It was on my Places to See bucket list. I could go on. Seattle was calling my name and so I went.

Before Seattle, I have found myself in Boston, New York City, Chicago, Indianapolis, Raleigh, Pittsburgh, Austin, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Buffalo, Toronto, and Sydney. The desire to travel has been coursing through my veins since high school. I love exploring a place I've never been, seeing the sights, experiencing different foods, cultures, navigating it's transportation, meeting new people, the list goes on. So much so in fact that I have multiple bucket lists, mainly filled with travel stuff. I know they'll never be fulfilled, but I can dream can't I? It's also that drive to complete them that pushes my dreaming forward.

I've always wanted to visit Seattle. I have a job. I'm single. I'm young. I know people who live there. What's stopping me? Nothing anymore. I got a hold of Nick Caudill, said something along the lines of "hey can I come visit you?", bought a plane ticket, and the rest is now history.

I landed in Seattle around 9:30pm. Nick has a baking job and had to be up mad early the next day, but he and he wife Lau still came and picked me up at the airport. Such a swell guy. We made our way back to their apartment where we chit-chatted and ate brisket doused in death sauce before finally hitting the sack.

Because Nick and Lau had to work, I had the whole morning/afternoon to myself. Being an avid geocacher and Seattle being home to the headquarters of geocaching, that's where I headed first. I arrived outside HQ an hour early, so I went geocaching and managed to run into a troll. He was quite friendly though so y'all should say hi if you're ever in Seattle.

I left the troll to his bridge and went hunting for more geocaches. Near the headquarters are 9 caches that are hidden that are part of what's called a Geo Tour. A Geo Tour takes you to interesting places while finding cool caches and once completed, you can earn a digital souvenir and in some cases a cool coin. For this tour, I counted rocks to get a code, let a chair down from a tree of chairs, learned the history of a rocket, gathered info to open a locked box, dialed a coded telephone number on a pay phone to reveal a box, etc etc. I stopped by HQ in between and again at the end to complete the tour and enjoy all the HQ has to offer. That was just my morning.

I was told of Gas Works park and this amazing view of the Seattle skyline.

Notice that green bike on the ground. Those are called Lime Bikes and they are all over the city. The are parked nearly anywhere and everywhere. To use them, you download the app, link your credit card, and scan the QR code on the bike. The bike will then unlock and you can use it as long as you please and park it anywhere (As long as you aren't damaging it or there's no police order) you wish. Just remember to lock it so it stops charging you. I used one to get here.

After my morning excursion, I decided to walk to my next destination...

Hello Space Needle! It cost $38 to go up to the top, but it was so worth it.

By this point my phone was running low on juice, so I spent the next half hour searching Yelp and wandering around for a local coffee shop that was an actual coffee shop and had enough outlets that I could use at least 1. As mentioned in my vlog, I had an interesting bucket list item that nagged at me for so long. Which was to sit in a Seattle coffee shop (not starbucks), drink a Seattle coffee, and watch the city move along before my eyes. I don't know why I desired to do this so much, but it was totally worth it.

An hour and a half later, I wandered down to the ocean. I made stops at Olympic park, the Big Wheel, the piers, the gum wall, and Pike's market. Unfortunately I was too late to see them toss the fish, but seeing the market was awesome.

By this point, my legs were dead as I probably walked close to 6 miles. It was getting dark, the skies were threatening rain, and I still hadn't heard from Nick. I knew I had to head North, so I began walking up what seemed like San Francisco streets. I started at 1st ave and by the time I got to 6th, the sky burst open. I ducked for cover under the nearest awning as it poured. I saw a rat or two dart out from their hiding places, but they fled at the sight of me. My phone was running low again, but thankfully Nick texted back. Work let him go late. Forty-Five minutes later, I was rescued. We met his wife for dinner at a scrumptious seafood restaurant. First time I had oysters. They were good, but oysters aren't my thing. The crab roll and fries on the other hand were amazing. We capped the night with some weird-flavored, but delicious ice cream. That's all for day 1. Stay tuned for day 2.