Outdoor Summer

I don't mean to brag but ...this is the view from my apartment. Only that this wasn't taken by me and there is barely any snow on them there mountains as it is summer!

This post is brought to you by the letter M. M for Mmmm Mountains. And, for those who live by or below these mountains I am offering you a once in a life time offer to come and enjoy them this summer.

Alright, it's not a one time deal and you can enjoy them any time you want with or without me but I have started a little project and I hope it fares well!

My plan was and is to create a group of people who can post on facebook when they are outdoorsing in Canmore and want company (I am clearly not the only one who has thought of this as there are official groups who do this). The "Outdoor Event"'s purpose is to broaden the community of people we live in and to enjoy outside with others (my network of people extended to the network of people I know to the network of the network of the....)

You'll find the event on my facebook page. It's public so anyone can join. Take a peak and "join" then "comment" as to what things you might be interested in doing this summer. No commitment expected, just interest. If you want to get outdoors and have other come along, post in the event the who, what, when, wheres and why and contact those who seemed interested.

I really want to try paddlesurfing this summer. Things Ill be wanting to do are floating down the river, geocaching, hiking, canoeing and scrambling for sure. Summer passes me by to quickly so I gotta plan these things and be super intentional about them. I'm also wanting to be intentional about connecting with those around me.

Come, join me!

The coffee shop calls

I'm a big procrastinator. Lucky for you it provides you with posts.

I don't know what it is but every time I sit down to do work, I end up thinking about blogging and then sometimes blogging. I know what you're thinking: 'you don't work very often'. True.

I'm in a coffee shop though and that just brings about a sense of blog worthy thoughts.

Strange how your atmosphere can change you.

For instance, when I'm at home I'm usually in my bed. I never sit on my couch or outside on the deck. I like to eat in bed, read in bed, watch tv in bed, surf the net (is that still cool to say?) in bed, sleep excessively in bed, craft in bed... it goes on and on.

When I'm at the coffee shop I start thinking.

When I'm at the dance studio I start making plans to abandon life and join a theatre.

When I'm on pinterest I loose all track of time and want to craft my life away.

So, today, I'm at the coffee shop. I get more accomplished here. On the blogging side of life anyways as I've been here for an hour and haven't touched my work.

Ever since we learned about advertising in grade 8, I've been obsessed with pin pointing marketing schemes. Why the Mcdonalds sign is yellow, how different fonts appeal to different people, how changing the way you say something can be received one way or the other. It's fascinating to me.

All of this makes me think about Church and the environment we create for a service.

If we manipulate the visual, emotional, audio and physical surroundings of a building are we in fact manipulating people's experience?

For instance. If you want toddlers to listen to you intently, you might turn off the kiddy music, dim the lights, gather them in a circle and speak clearly and slowly with eye contact.

If you want adults to listen to you, you do the same.

Why do we play music softly in the background during an alter call? Why do we have preacher voices, prayer voices and normal voices?

What would happen if we took the pews out of church and sat on the ground with no sound system? Would we feel the same way? Would we leave the same? Would we even come?

 Don't get me wrong, I love creating space, especially for comfort. Ill be one of the first to say 'dim those lights' or 'put those chairs in a circle'. Either way we have emotions (and rightly so as they are given to us by God) I'm just trying to work out where their place is as a reaction to space.

Thoughts?