This weekend we spent some time up on Squam Lake and went to church on Church Island where our friend Tim was doing the service. Tim is also the man who married us and someone who has been a great counselor in both good and tough times.
We stayed at the Red House with Margie and Charlie and had a great time visiting with Tim, his wife and two kids and Matt and Heidi. (By the way--did you know that Matt and Heidi got engaged. I feel the need, it seems, in this post to identify how I know everyone so Matt was second in line at my wedding.)
Before going to church on Sunday we were having a very pleasant night's sleep until Amelia woke up ready to play at 1:30 am. Heidi was up with her until 5 when she came and passed her over to me. What was odd about this early awakening is that Amelia was really nice and fun. She just didn't want to sleep.
First we went to Dunkin Donuts to get some coffee and then I decided that since we were up we might as well hike Rattlesnake Mountain which is behind the Red House. We got back to the house, got Yoda out of his cage and started our hike. To prevent bug bites for Amelia I drapped her in white bug netting which she quickly began to inhale. Now that she has two bottom teeth she latches on to anything within mouth reach and begins to gnaw on it
We had a great hike and Amelia and Yoda were both very good on the hike. This was at least 20 times further than Yoda had ever hiked so I did carry him for a little bit of the way down.
After a few hours--and some really good sausage at breakfast--we made it out to the island. Heidi went out on the boat but Matt his Heidi and I took some kayaks.
Here is a picture of Tim preaching. Amelia was still being fussy so I was wandering around at the back. It was actually quite a bit of fun back there because there were 4 or 5 moms with their kids in the back too. We had a little area where there were some granite rocks in a circle and we could all hang out with our squeaking kids.
We were all still able to hear Tim's message about what it meant to actually be a Christian. He did a great job of tailoring his message to a multi-denominational congregation and he referenced a gruesome event where a man went to an Amish school and killed 5 children and then himself. In reaction to this horrific event the Amish of the community--rather than react in rage, went immediately to the wife of the man who had done the murdering. They sought to comfort her and help with what she needed. They also went to the man's funeral and sat with the widow of the man. They reached out to her. Amazing.
No matter what faith you are--all in or nothing at all--it is a universal message of kindness and comfort that I know I would have a hard time living out. But on the days that I'm a buddhist and the days that I'm hindu and the days that I'm nothing--I'll keep trying.
