A Proud Dad & Re-energized Mom

Mt Bierstadt in the background on the right.

With Heather taking advantage of the solitude of a three-day “mommy retreat” in the mountains, the Dillon boys decided to undertake their first 14er (they brought Dad along to carry food and water). After the hour-and-a-half drive to the top of Guanella Pass, they were on the trail of Mt Bierstadt by 9 am. Things went very well until about an hour in, when Micah heard nature calling. There is not a lot of cover up above tree line, so all three scurried off the trail, over a grassy knoll, just out of site of other hikers to take care of business. That being done, everybody felt great again and were off on their quest.

With it being Saturday, their was a steady stream of other hikers. This worked to their advantage as the higher the boys got, the more marveling comments, cheers, and high-fives the boys received from the other hikers. I should have kept track of how many people asked, “How old are they?” This kind of attention energized Caleb & Micah all the more! Even though Dad can be quite driven in such situations (understatement?), he was the one who kept reminding them that it’s okay if they didn’t make it to the top. Soon though, it became apparent that for this 6 and 4 1/2 year old, the summit was within their grasp. Caleb in particular enjoyed the final accent, which is primarily rock scrambling on all fours – something he has a lot of natural prowess for. Dad took delight in seeing their reaction to the panoramic view they were experiencing for the first time. At 1:00 pm they summited!

The journey down proved to be a little more difficult with the combination of tired legs, and the steep trail where it was easy to lose footing. But with only a few minor faceplants and skinned up knees, the three were back at the car by 4:00. All celebrated appropriately – especially the proud Dad who marveled at the shared successful journey and overall lack of sibling conflict. It was a great day!

Re-Engaging with the Family

Much time has passed since my last blog entry – many good intentions have been there, but have continued to be crowded out by things to do, people to be with, and maybe even a little bit of doubts about having something profound to say. Most recently though, it has been due to being very “unplugged” in a remote part of Upper Peninsula, MI with the family at a beautiful cabin, on a beautiful lake, with an abundance of not-so-beautiful mosquitoes! But I am getting ahead of myself.

June 4 at the Queen Street Station in Downtown Glasgow, 8:30 am. While sitting on a bench in the busy train station, watching the people bustle about, I felt a gentle kiss on the back of my neck, and I knew that my best friend had arrived to enjoy the rest of my European travels by my side! At 10:30 am Heather and I caught a train for the three-and-a-half-hour journey to Oban, followed by catching a 4:00 ferry to the Isle of Mull, followed by an hour-long bus ride across Mull, concluding with one final fifteen-minute ferry ride to the Isle of Iona – the destination of our pilgrimage. This small island off the west coast of Scotland has long been a destination for Christians seeking a deeper connection with God. It was settled initially by the Irish monk Columba in the 6th century where for 200 years, until Vikings invaded, it served as a mission outpost, spreading the Good News to what is today the northern part of England and Scotland. For Heather and I it was a three-day refuge of worshipping with brothers and sisters in the 13th century abbey, long and leisurely hikes in the green hills and along the rugged coast, and being pampered by Sarah, our host at a lovely B&B.

From there we did the same journey in reverse back to Glasgow where we spent the night, and then headed south by train to Stranraer where we caught a ferry to Belfast. Highlights of the Emerald Island for us were: David learning to drive on the left side of the roads; our two days at the Antrim Coast, where we saw the geological wonder of the Giant’s Causeway, walked across a rope bridge 90 feet above the churning surf, and Heather “enjoying” her first taste of Irish whiskey at Bushmills Distillery (maybe not a highlight for her!). From the north coast we headed counter-clockwise around the island stopping briefly in the small, out-of-the-way townland of Drumkeeran where Heather’s family, the McNiffs, came from. We thoroughly enjoyed the Wicklow National Park which contains Glendalough, the ruins of a monastery founded by St Kevin in the 7th century – lots of beautiful stone churches and Celtic crosses! And then finally we ended our tour in Dublin where we took in the Book of Kells (an illuminated copy of the Bible believed to have been created by the monks on Iona), and heard some great Celtic music in a couple of different pubs.

Upon returning home, we spent exactly 33 hours there, sleeping, doing laundry, reconnecting with the boys, and then packing for our family road trip through America’s heartland. First stop: Micah got to be the ring-bearer for his Uncle John and Anna’s wedding (Heather’s brother) in Hastings, NE.

From there we headed to Mason City, IA where both of my parents came from. Mom’s claim to fame was marching in a 4th of July parade with Meredith Wilson (of Music Man fame) serving as Grand Marshall, and Dad’s was being at the final concert of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper at the Surf Ballroom before their ill-fated plane crash the next morning. The boys enjoyed swimming in Clear Lake where their Grandma learned to swim, and then going to the farm where their grandpa had grown up. I hadn’t been there in over 30 years, so it was a very moving (and surprisingly healing) experience for me. You can ask me about that later.

This brings us up to this present week where we have enjoyed staying at the Mylanders’ cabin on Beaton’s Lake, UP, MI. Caleb had the joy of catching his first fish, followed by his second, third, and many more after that! Micah enjoyed riding on the ATV but didn’t enjoy getting bit on the forehead by a “marshmallow” (he meant to say “mosquito”!). We all enjoyed many canoe trips around the lake, campfires on the shore by gorgeous sunsets, and hikes around the area. Tomorrow we start our journey back home and, if all goes well, I can find a wifi signal to upload this. Thanks for your many prayers!

David

Southern Man with a Scottish Brogue

To begin with, let’s talked about important stuff like the weather. I have been blessed with great weather on this whole trip, but Glasgow has been down right hot and muggy – the kind of weather where you need to take a cool shower at the end of the day, and hang up your clothes to dry. But it has made for some great photographic opps (see above as well as more on my Flickr site)

I should probably back up though to my journeys before arriving in Glasgow, as for at least for part of it, I was completely unplugged with no wifi access, and therefore no Skype capabilities with Heather and the boys

Edinburgh was a great experience the highlights being the National Gallery of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle. I hadn’t known about the National Gallery there before arriving, but was very impressed with their collection. Unfortunately, as with its London counterpart, there was absolutely no photography allowed. I was even reprimanded for having my iPhone out until I explained that I was merely jotting down some notes on it about some of the paintings. That was okay, but I remained under the watchful eye of the museum security, especially when I broke out my iPad to do some sketching!

Edinburgh Castle is perched up on the highest point of the Old City, and I happened to go on probably the windiest day of the week. I dare say I almost got blown over the castle walls by the 70 mph gusts. You can take a look at this picture taken from the castle and note the white caps on the bay!

From Edinburgh I headed back to England, just over the border to the area known as Northumbria for a 3-day retreat. This part of England in a very special place as it is where the Celtic saints, Aidan and Cuthbert settled and got a Christian foothold with the barbarians in the 7th century. There are many ruins from that period to be taken in, especially on Lindisfarne, known as Holy Island, which as Celtics say is a very “thin space” where heaven seems very close to earth. Unfortunately, while I was there I felt more like a tourist than a pilgrim, taking lots of photos, and the devotional time I did try to engage in while praying the labyrinth they have there, was an exercise of trying to stay out of the way of the kids running the circuit to see how fast they could get through it. The only redeeming thing was that there were a couple of monks in the center who, once the kids got there, explained that this was a tool for people to connect to God through prayer.

It was amazing though to walk on the coast and consider the amount of prayer that has covered this place over its long history. The place where I stayed during my time there is known as the Northumbria Community, which is the community who produced the book Celtic Daily Prayer. The 3-day retreat was a very different experience as I had envisioned. It was billed as a retreat called “Be Still and Know that I Am God” which to me conjures up visions of lots of extended alone time. That was not the case though. As in many monastic communities the day was broken up into times of communal worship, four in the case of Northumbria (9 am, noon, 5, and 9:30 pm). But unlike other monastic communities, conversation was encouraged during meal times. Now I did enjoy the regular times of worship throughout the day and the many wonderful conversations I had with my 15 other retreatants, but as I said, it just wasn’t what I had expected. The other thing was that you were encouraged to spend sometime working to help the community during the day. I chose to help Peter with some work in their garden area moving some brick and concrete pieces, as well as helping him install an electrical fence for their three pigs that were arriving later that week. During the times I did have to “be still”, besides doing lots of reading of books that I brought along, I did take some time in their extensive library both to read about Aidan and Cuthbert, as well as try my hand at drawing some Celtic knots which you find in so much of the Celts artwork.

It was a great time, and I am thankful for the experience, but it was good to have a room to myself again and some truly extended alone time in Glasgow. I arrived yesterday and wasn’t too sure what to expect – certainly not balmy weather. My initial impressions were, this is just a big city, but I will make the most of it until Heather arrives Saturday morning. I ended up having an absolutely fantastic day! I took a bunch of photographs during the crystal clear morning, walking around the grounds of the University of Glasgow and The adjacent park. At 11 the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum opened, and I was once again surprised at the amount of great masters represented at this gallery I had previously not known about. It is a very eclectic place having both a substantial galley of art but also a sort of natural history museum under the same roof. To further add to the eclectic sense there was a fashion show going on in the main area followed by a pipe organ recital. I took the opportunity to do some sketching of their amazing pipe organ while listening to Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue” immediately followed by Harold Arlen’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (eclectic!).

I was amazed at the number of excellent Scottish painters whom I had never heard of before, including Peploe, Cadell, Lavery, and Fergusson, all late 19th / early 20th century artists. One painting in particular by SJ Peploe called “Old Duff” caught my attention, and was worthy of a sketch.

After the gallery and museum I wandered around people-watching and doing some more shooting (photography that is). There were a number of excellent street musicians that I stopped to listen to including two young guys singing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” with the thickest Scottish brogue you can imagine! I had to put a pound in their guitar case and thank them for importing a little bit of Americana for me!

Supposedly, Heather is on her way here now (yay!!!) and is due to arrive early tomorrow morning. We then catch a 10:30 train to Oban, a ferry to the island of Mull, followed by a bus ride across Mull, followed by another ferry ride to the island of Iona, getting the sometime in the early evening. Do you think she will be tired after that? The saving grace is that Iona is a very quiet place (and another Celtic “thin space”), so it should be perfect for getting over jet lag.

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Location:Glasgow, Scotland

Soli Deo Gloria

York Minster

What an amazing evening of worship! I just came from Evensong at York Minster Cathedral, which is a primarily choir-led, daily worship gathering that the Anglican church offers. The form of the service has remained unchanged for about 500 years – lots of music and Scripture reading (no sermon – sorry Steve).

The service took place in the “quire” of the cathedral, which is at the top of the cross as you look down on the footprint of a cathedral floorplan. (The next photo below is looking toward the quire, just beyond the distant shroud-draped cross. Note: you can see much larger copies of these photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddgrafix/sets/72157626770059010/) That portion of the limestone cathedral was predominantly adorned in candles and dark aged oak, a kind of a rich sanctuary within a sanctuary. I had the privileged seat of being about 10 feet away from the choir, which as tradition dictates, was split in half, where each half faced the other along with the two halves of the congregation.

The choir itself was all male and about 30 voices. About 20 were boys, and the youngest of those (about 5 of them) weren’t much older than Caleb! The youngest had only the traditional deep red robe without the white over-garment, as the rest of the older boys and men had. I took this to mean that these were “choir-boys in training”. The sound was nothing less than glorious! Sometimes they sang accompanied by the pipe organ and sometimes acappella. Interspersed among the choral pieces were Scripture readings, including Exodus 3, Moses first encounter with God. This was such an appropriate text for the holiness and grander of Him that I was experiencing. The other thing that I was was very struck by was that we, the congregation, entered the sacred space first. Then once the service began, with the choir singing outside of the quire area, they processed in joining us in the sacred space. The service concluded in the same manner except reversed. Once their final notes drifted away from the outer halls, I sat there in awe realizing that I had been touched by something transcendent that now lingered fresh in my memory.

After the service I was able to walk around the mostly empty cathedral for another 30 minutes or so, savoring the beauty and imensity of this 13th century Gothic masterpiece, and trying my best to capture it with my camera – an impossible feat. What an evening – Soli Deo Gloria!

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London Pt II

Today is my last day in London before taking the 3-hour train ride north to York. It has been a great week, but I am looking forward to getting out of the big city! It seems as though it has been non-stop moving for the past week in a city that just doesn’t slow down.. Some of the highlights have been:

The National Gallery (of course!)
The National Portrait Gallery
The Tower of London Walking Tour (the guide, who had a real flair for the macabre, is what made the tour, though – all of his detailed descriptions of various executions over the thousand year history of this castle)
St Paul’s Cathedral, including taking the 550 steps up to the top of the dome. I enjoyed touring this cathedral much more than Westminster Abby, which Heather and I did 7 years ago.
Worshipping at St Martin’s in the Field – absolutely gorgeous music!
The British Library – especially seeing the illuminated manuscripts, including the Lindisfarne Gospels which came from Northumbria (c. AD 700) where I will be in another week for a 3-day retreat.
Walking the streets and taking photos – please check out pics I have uploaded here, however, I am missing access to Photoshop, so many more will go up after I get back home. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddgrafix/sets/72157626770059010/
Also, I am not in the least bit tired of fish and chips and mushy peas yet – so yummy! (I just hope all the walking I am doing is taking care of some of the calories and fat.)
Today I went back to the National Gallery to practice sketching on my iPad. I feel like I am starting to get over the hump of the learning curve in sketching with this new digital media format. Today was a big help in that! Here are some of the sketches:

Erasmas by Hans Holbein

From a Rembrandt self-portrait

From another portrait of Rembrandt’s

Velazquez “The Toilet of Venus” (pardon the naughty bits)

Another benefit and joy of technology has been being able to video chat with Heather and the boys on almost a daily basis. I miss you three! Caleb, I hope your loose tooth has fallen out

Cheers!
David

London Town

Arrived in London yesterday noon, and jet lag has been minimal (yay!). Spent yesterday afternoon and evening walking the city and shooting photographs to try to stay awake, and then went to bed about 10 pm and slept through the night.
Most of today was spent enjoying the goal of my pilgrimage (at least one of them), the National Gallery. Though I had been there with Heather seven years ago, there was such a sense of awe and reverence as I walked into the “Center Gallery” that one first encounters upon entrance. I had been spent quite a bit of time in preparation of been here, studying paintings online as well as taking in a 12-hour video course on the artwork in this museum. However, nothing can compare with the vividness and color saturation of seeing these masterpieces in person. For those art-geeks like me (others may want to skip to the next paragraph), two paintings that really captured my fancy are a self-portrait by the 18th century female painter, Elizabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun, and Louis-Leopoldo Boilly’s “A Girl at a Window.” Vigee Le Brun’s painting I had seen in the coursework I did, but again, I was so moved by viewing the actual work in person. She is an artist who is new to me, and it was a delight to see a feminine work from that period, which was dominated almost exclusively by men. The National Gallery had one other painting by her of a little girl that was equally enchanting. The Boilly painting was just unique. It was an oil painted monochromaticly (almost like a sepia photograph), so it had almost a sculptural look to it, and though it was also from the 18th century France, it looked as thought it was done in the 1940s silver-screen era. I need to go back tomorrow to see the rest of the museum! I feel like now I just want to paint.
My day was broken up in the middle by going across the street to St Martin’s in the Field for the 1 pm Holy Communion service. Unlike my experience at Nada with their midday mass, this was filled with gorgeous music, both participatory and performance. The music was led with pipe organ and a 10 voice choir, where all the members appeared to be late teens or early 20s. However, like Nada, the Scripture reading from the mass was a continuation in the Acts of the Apostles, right from where I left off a week ago! There is something to be said for the cohesiveness of the body of Christ in following the lectionary. Here I am halfway around the world meditating on the same passage of God’s Word. The other thing I thought was odd, merely because I have heard this argument used against using video projection in worship, is that the hymnal everyone sang from had only the words, no notated music. One of the hymns sung was to the Hyfrodal tune, but the other two I didn’t recognize. Still it was very easy to follow, sing along, and worship Christ with these sisters and brothers.
Tonight I think I will take in one of the London Walks that a friend highly recommended. The “Jack the Ripper Haunts” walk must be a popular one as it is offered just about every night, so instead I think I will do the “Ghosts Gaslight and Guinness” walk tonight.
Later that evening…Lesson number one to make note of: do not try to get out of Victoria Station at rush hour. The Brits bring a whole new meaning to that term. Lesson number two: if you can’t get to where you are going at rush hour, don’t expect to be able to get a table and order food at 6 pm. Everybody and their brother packs out every pub. However, nobody is eating; it is time to enjoy a pint with your mates no matter what their status, gender, or whatever is. Finally found a burger around 8:30 after video Skyping with Heather and the boys while standing in front of the Apple Store, taking advantage of the free wifi. (Lesson three: free wifi is an extreme rarity here – praise God for Apple!)
Blessings and thanks for all you prayers!
David

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Location:http://daviddillon.wordpress.com

Rest, Painting, and Jesus-led Prayer

Yesterday completed my ten-day solitude retreat at Nada Hermitages. Today finds me back at home with all of the regular routines of taking Caleb to school, fixing the sprinkler system which broke (again!) while I was gone, etc, etc.

The ten-days a Nada was fantastic, rejuvenating, and in some ways surprising. Since the work of the Spirit is an ongoing work, I am a little reluctant to publically process the retreat yet, as God is still showing me things that he did and is continuing to do. Once again appealing to Emilie Griffin in her book “Wilderness Time” she writes that it is important to take some time with God two-weeks after the retreat to read through journal entries, reflect, and allow God to remind you as well as show you more of what he did. I am typically not much of a journaler, however, I did write just about everyday for which I am grateful of that record of where I was at certain points.

I will share with you one important way Jesus led my praying during the retreat. This falls under the heading of one of those “surprising” happenings. It happened the morning of May 5 when after having already painted a couple of images that brought me joy, I heard Jesus say that he wanted me to do portraits of all three people in my life who are most important to me: Heather, Caleb, and Micah. On top of that Jesus said that I should be in a posture of prayer for each individual as I worked on his or her portrait. Looking at my journal from that morning, it is obvious that I thought this was a leading for that day; by the end of that day though, I realized that this was the primary way that Jesus wanted me to spend the balance of the retreat time.

Each painting, starting with “Caleb’s Prayer” took about 6 – 8 hours. Now if you had told me before that I was to spend that kind of time intentionally thanking God and interceding for that person, I would have laughed at the impossibility for me of doing that. But I was surprised at how easy it was to focus prayerfully on each of these people whom I love so much! I also became aware that there was a great deal of wordless interceding going on as stroke by stroke I applied lines and washes of color that slowly revealed images of my loved ones. The title for the series became obvious as the portraits themselves captured my (and God’s?) prayers for these individuals much more than the expressed words and thoughts in the moments that they occurred.

“Caleb’s Prayer”

“Heather’s Prayer”

“Micah’s Prayer”

That is all for now – I have to take Caleb to his Children’s Music Academy lesson. Thanks so much for all of your prayers and comments. More to come soon…

David