We are resting on the north shore of Kauai,
drinking in beauty and quiet. Sun and rain and ocean. It’s a pastel
world, soft clouds, soft sea, soft sky.

It feels like a sort of de-tox. From the matrix we all take for
granted. But don’t really notice its effect. Until we get away, and
suddenly realize how overdue some rest is.

Our family reads a ton when we are on vacation. Stasi, the boys, all of
us. We read most of the day, lingering in the shade. Last year I made
the mistake of bringing the wrong books. War books, mostly, military
history, including An Army at Dawn, about the early days of the United
States Army in north Africa during WWII. It was a mistake because the
last thing I needed to be reading about was war; I live at war, most
every day, and the point of vacation is to get away from the front and
the almost constant emotional vigilance it requires. Anyhow, I dropped
the reading a couple days in because it felt too much like my life. But
didn’t have any other books to take up.

This year I learned my lesson. Brought Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Treasure Island, read it in a day and a half, and loved it. (Now
Blaine’s reading it). Moved on to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which
brought me back to my old love of Shakespeare. And such a delightful
and redemptive story it is. None of the darkness of Macbeth, none of
the battle of Henry V. Interestingly (I only realized this today) they
both take place on an island. And now that I think more about it, both
stories turn on acts of mercy. Wow. God was just talking to me today
about his mercy. And here I thought I just “chose” those books.

Sweet.

Okay, that's about all I have for now. Hope you are well.

Make sure you get some R&R this summer.