Back Home in Indiana

 I finally got to wake up on a Sunday morning without an alarm.  I took my time getting around this morning.  It was wonderful.  I finally left my hotel around 10 a.m. and realized how I am surrounded by corn everywhere I go in the Midwest right now.  I hope I am staying long enough to enjoy some fresh sweet corn.  If you haven't had freshly picked sweet corn you don't really know bliss.

I headed for Starved Rock State Park.  I wanted to do an easy hike before another day of driving.  Since I left later than I thought I would I decided to do the easiest, shortest hike and just go to the top of Starved Rock.  At one time this area was populated by many different Native American groups.  The largest was the Illinois.  When the chief of the Ottawa people went to the south to negotiate a trade agreement with the French he was assassinated by someone from the Illinois.  The other tribes were so enraged that they chased the Illinois to the top of this rock. Then they surrounded the base of the rock.  Other warriors showered them with arrows from an even higher vantage point.  The Illinois had no food and no water.  The ones who didn't die by arrow or tomahawk starved to death.  That is how the rock got its name.  It is a great place from which to look down at the Illinois River.  

I drove along the south side of the river for several miles after the hike.  I was struck by how beautiful it was and how I felt so grateful for the beauty.  I decided to believe that God looks down on creation and marvels at its beauty and that I am part of it, not separate from it.

I love the mailboxes I see as I drive the back roads.  I especially loved this one.

I drove through construction and traffic trying to get to Indiana by supper time.  I spent 17 years of my life living in Indiana.  It was strange how wonderfully familiar the scenery felt.  I love living in So Cal and don't plan on leaving it anytime soon but I love the green, the clouds and seeing the farmland stretching out in every direction.

I am staying with my cousinTonja and her husband, Jeff.  I did their wedding many years ago while I was pastor of the Manchester Church of the Brethren.  I don't get to see them enough.  Tonja's sister, Roya and her husband Joe came down from Michigan to join the party.  (I officiated their wedding also.)  My uncle Roy lives in a retirement community not far away.  Tonja and Jeff's son, Micah married Alyssa in early June and they also live close by.  So when I arrived I got to see seven of my Stern relatives.  What a treat!  

We ate dinner and then sat around and caught up on everyone's lives.  Then Joe, Tonja and I played a game.  If you know anything about me you know that I love to play games and I don't get to do it enough.