Cheese and more cheese

We interrupt the series of posts about last year's volcanic ash to bring you this semi-live report from Zurich.

Tonight we had dinner at a traditional Swiss restaurant, which means there was lots of cheese and bread. That is a very good thing - I love both. After we all shared some four-cheese fondue, I ordered this:

It was absolutely delicious. It was a mixture of potatoes and a very rich cheese covering...a specialty here in Switzerland we were told.

And then we realized it. What I had ordered was an extra-large, extra-rich helping of Waffle House covered hash browns.

Come to think of it, not a bad thing at all.

Volcanic ash revisited, Part I

As I sit on a plane somewhere over the north Atlantic Ocean, alot of thoughts a running through my head. I’m grateful for the opportunity to travel and work with people from all over the world. I’m looking forward to a weekend over there before we begin our long days of meetings. I’m REALLY grateful for an exit row seat with an empty seat next to me.

And I’m reminiscing. Reminiscing about volcanic ash.

Last year I was on this same business trip – overseas to meet with underwriters who provide international coverage for large catastrophes such as hurricanes. I will never forget that morning, the last day of meetings in London. We were on our way to the office when we heard the news. A volcano had erupted in Iceland and there was a large cloud of ash spreading over Europe. You remember that being on the news, right? It probably was just an interesting news story to you. To me, it was life.

Well, it wasn’t too long before we knew that our itinerary was completely blown out of the water. We would not be able to fly to our next meetings in Zurich. We were supposed to wrap up the tour after that with a meeting in Paris. Could we get there by train? Could we switch the order around? Would we be forced to settle for conference calls? But most of all, WHEN AND HOW WOULD WE GET HOME?

Yes, that was a real concern. All air travel in Europe was canceled, except (I think) some flights out of Madrid. Every day that we were there, it was getting worse. Nobody knew when it would be lifted.

Back home, family and friends were following the news closely. They heard stories of overbooked hotel rooms. They wondered whether I was constantly breathing in a bunch of junk that would clog up my lungs. They were worried, and I guess if I had been in their shoes I would have too. But it was a great example of how the press sensationalizes stuff to get viewers and readers. Once we got to Paris, our hotel manager assured us we would have our rooms as long as needed. Believe it or not, we could not actually see the ash – most of the time the skies were blue. Just walking around, it was hard to understand why we were stuck.

So it was time for the adventure to commence. Trains, planes, and automobiles. We had our conference call with the Zurich underwriters, giving up on getting there.  Then we got word that we had seats on the train to Paris (the one that goes under the English Channel – that’s pretty cool). Well, “seats” is not exactly right. As you might imagine, transportation was getting rather scarce as everyone was scrambling to find alternatives to air travel. But we got tickets, just not with seats. So we got on the train, and found ourselves standing in the compartment with our luggage. But we were grateful to be able to get the heck out of London.

So there we were on a Friday afternoon, with meetings scheduled for Monday. What to do Saturday? Oh. My. Goodness. That Saturday was one of the wildest things that has ever happened to me.

More on that next time.

Random?

It was one of those moments...one of those comments...that caused the switch to come on. And I was looking at my surroundings in a whole different way.

I was in Bermuda last week for some work-related meetings. (I know, I know...sounds like tough work. I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. Although it really is.)  The morning after we flew in we had some free time before our colleagues arrived and so we decided to explore the beach.

It was different - nothing like the white Panama City beaches we're used to around here. More like what you would picture for California. Intermittent stretches of light colored sand with alot of rocks and cliffs.

Beautiful, right? It was breathtaking, and not just because we were climbing some of the rock formations to get a better view down the beach. (See what I did there?) I have been to Bermuda several times but I had never taken time to see this part of the island.

So we were walking along taking in all of God's handiwork when suddenly we came across this odd rock formation:

See there on the bottom left? It's a series of letters carved into the rock. And four of them actually form the name Rick. Well, a friend in our group noticed this and made the observation of how strange it was that nature could have carved out all these initials naturally while forming the rocks. How random!

Of course Bill was being facetious; everyone knows that letters have to be formed by people. People who know a little something called the alphabet. The initials were a sign that someone had been there.

And that's when it hit me. Something I knew of course, but something that was not resonating deep inside. Until then. The whole beach, all the rocks, the whole island was a sign that someone of unfathomable intelligence, creativity, and power had been there. A person had carved the initials. And the God of the universe had carved the whole thing.

And the whole expedition changed. I marveled, worshipping that God in my spirit.  It was awesome.

Days like these...

What an awesome day was Saturday. Well, really an awesome weekend but Saturday was so jam-packed it seemed like a whole weekend.

It began with me stepping off the plane in Atlanta Friday night after a business trip to Bermuda. (Yeah, I know what you're thinking...but it really was alot of work, no matter where it was.) It so happened that my good friend Steve was in town with his wife and his daughter Rebecca for the daughter's volleyball tournament. Steve lives in Tallahassee so I thought, what an excellent chance to spend time with them and to see Becca play.

So I grabbed a late dinner Friday and then spent all day Saturday experiencing the life of a volleyball family. It was so much fun I can hardly describe it. Nevertheless, here are some highlights:

• We got up at six in the morning in order to get to the venue in time for Becca's 8:00 match.

• Her team played extremely well, winning all three matches of the day.
• Becca is the setter. I'm told this is like the quarterback of a volleyball team. (I don't know much about the sport's strategy, but I was hanging with alot of people who do.) From what I could tell and was told, she had an excellent day herself.  Which makes sense, because teams play well when the QB does, right?
• The 5 or so hours we were at the GWCC went by like lightning. I was having so much fun watching the matches that I didn't even realize how fast time was passing.
• As we left, it was announced that there would be a team dinner at PF Chang's. (Yay, I thought, since I was invited.) It was to be at 6 pm.
• Even though we were leaving the arena close to 2:00, we still went for lunch at Buckhead Pizza. So I ate way too much lunch, and then went back for dinner a few hours later. But it was PF Chang's and I almost never get to eat there, so I ate anyway. I'm not even going to talk about the dessert I scarfed down in between at Cafe Intermezzo.

As I write this, it seems that I can't express what I'm really trying to. I think it's because I'm trying to show you what a fantastic day it was by writing a narrative. That's impossible. Because was made it so great wasn't the volleyball. Or the food. Or anything else tangible. It was time spent with amazing people: friends that mean the world to me and also folks I had never met before yesterday. A group of girls that I could tell really enjoy playing together and who had a great time hanging out at dinner (the picture above of them all is so cool - the fun oozes from it). And parents that have become almost like a second family for each other because they have something so important in common: children they love that have formed a team.

Days like these are what life is made of; in alot of ways, the reason we were created. For each other. To get a glimpse into what that life is like for my friend's family is something I wouldn't trade for anything.

I'll close this post with a 14-second video I made yesterday - a single point played out of approximately 250. You'll see a group working together to win a point by all being in the right place at the right time doing what they're supposed to:

May I always be found at the right place, doing the right thing - loving God and loving people. And living life to the full. Like yesterday.