Ben Harper & The Goodwill

Went to see Ben Harper live last night at the Moore Theater in Seattle- my first time. UBELIEVABLE. If you love Ben, you must see him. And if you can see him here Seattle, I would recommend that because the crowd was flipping out. Everyone was singing along to all the songs…he even commented that he only gets a crowd that good maybe once a year. (adda boy, Rainy City!) He did a bit of the show with a band, but then after 2 encores he came out and did another 6 or so songs solo and then 2 more with the band. It gave me goosebumps. Its such an experience to be with a room packed with people singing and connecting…its about as close to a sense of community as we here in the west get these days. People were shouting out “thank you!” all night…that man’s honest and spiritual songs have impacted so many people.

Then the lead singer of Pearl Jam happened to be in the audience and he came up and sang the last song of the night (impromptu) with Ben. They did the song “with my own two hands”…it went on for a long time just singing the chorus:

“I could change the world- with my own two hands, I could clean up the earth- with my own two hands, and I could reach out to you- with my own two hands, with my own, with my own two hands”

...and everyone in the audience had their hands stretched out to the ceiling and the last time through Ben put down his guitar and backed up from the mic, lifting his hands… and the concert ended. POWERFUL. I wish we could’ve taken a picture, cause that would be a photo to have. I think heaven is going to feel like that only a million times more of whatever that feeling is…

[abrupt change of topic #1]

Its day 4 in the new house…no pics just yet for y’all (hey Nashvegas!) I was going to take some earlier today and then figured you might not be real excited to look at rooms full of cardboard boxes!

New things we are learning to be thankful for:
-the QUIET! It is so peaceful out here…we are surrounded by empty lots full of trees and blackberry bushes…at night we can sometimes hear the shipping yards, but other than that its quiet…
-the breeze! Our apartment was so warm…3rd floor with little air movement…here we have these great windows and being on the top of a hill, well the breeze is quite lovely.
-S-P-A-C-E....a little space is good when a married couple works from home together 24/7...*grin*
-green LIFE! Our yard is a real wreck…next summer will be surely be full of digging and leveling and replanting…but still its GREEN! There are plants everywhere and grass and roses…its making us both feel so at home and alive again…(the gift and influence of nature)
-our little reading nook! We don’t currently have a couch so the living space kinda feels like an old coffee shop with its hundreds and hundreds of stacked books and mismatched chairs and paintings and plants. Love it.
-our location…we live a hop, skip, and a jump from 3 parks and a golf course and tennis courts and two really cool coffee houses (uptown espresso and the shack!)…West Seattle is 5 minutes from downtown and a few more from the airport but it feels so much more like a community than a city…lovin’ it.

Shawn said a couple of days ago while we were both sitting in the reading nook and drinking coffee and talking “I have a feeling this place is going to be good for us”. Agreed.

One should really limit the amount of noise in their life and increase the nature.

[abrupt change of top #2]

The only problem is now that we both really want a dog…(I know I have never been an animal person, but here I am now wanting a dog. Marriage does crazy things to you. -

http://images.google.com/images?q=Vizsla&hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest -

that’s the kind of dog we want…to me, it looks kinda like Shawn :) I want to get a girl and name her Lucy after the Narnia series. Shawn: “no way.”

[a.c.t. #3]

So, I am still plowing through the book about enchantment. The author was talking about the importance of how you furnish and decorate your home…he was saying there’s great value in having items in your home that were created by hands and not machinery because it adds to the magic of a place when things are created and unique rather than simply just one of many falling off the assembly line. I have been thinking a lot about that as we put together our home. I want it to be a place filled with mystery…a place warm and inviting…a place with a certain spirit about it. I think the best way to do that is to pray over your home…makes me think of a Watermark chorus that says “Jesus, come and walk the halls of this house” (by the way, Christy Nockels voice is unreal). The other way- a close second, inextricably tied to the first - is to BE people who are mysterious, warm and spirited. But then, I do think there is something to the careful placement and choosing of furnishings and art….

Which brings me to the Goodwill. We love the Goodwill…Value Village…all of those massive thrift stores. Three of the chairs in our living room came from such places as well as many other items throughout the house. There is something almost magical about thrift stores…something about digging through piles of junk to find little treasures. Its an adventure…everything is old and needs some fixing, but it has a quality you can’t create in something new- history and story. You might think, “c’mon, kate, you are romanticizing this” – and maybe I am. I don’t mind being a romantic though. In fact, as I get older and (prayerfully) wiser, I sincerely hope that I will become more romantic and that life will become enshrouded with mystery for me…I hope wonder and awe and adventure crowd out my over-analyzing and practical parts.

Ahh…but I digress. (I love side notes- have you noticed this? Side note: I had a teacher who said that all the time “I digress” and I loved her- Mrs. Hempstead- she also wore a blazer every single day...a different one everyday at that.)

So we went to Goodwill today and found some treasures. I have pictures of a few of them so I could share them with you. (see above post)

-First we found a French press…it’s a cool coffee maker…I had never used one until today, but this is how it works: you grind the beans (but not too much) and pour them in the bottom of the glass and then fill with boiling water. You let sit with the press on top for at least 4 minutes, depending on how strong you like it, and then you push the press all the way down. Very cool. And handy since out coffee maker isn’t working…we suspect I forgot to turn it off one day- oops! I think part of marriage for Shawn is finding out how to live with someone who is accident-prone. (the mugs pictured we found today too…39 cents a piece!)

-then we found this fun old childhood item: an old-school gumball machine! It’s a little bit broken but Shawn is going to fix it for me…I couldn’t pass it up for $2…and for those of you who plan to come to fall tour shows (which will soon be up on the website) we are going to take it on the road! We are going to set it up on the table and put one ‘special’ gumball in every night…and whoever gets the special one, gets something of their choosing from the merch table as well as their picture with Shawn and the gumball machine on the website! (see how inspiring old, used stuff can be?!?!)

-and lastly, we found this cool painting. It was in a terrible frame, so at first Shawn wasn’t so sure…this picture really doesn’t do it justice…but we busted it out of its frame, re-framed it, and hung it on the wall and it came alive. Its an old oil painting of a city street and you can kind of make out the street car and some people and a lamp post and then near the top it looks almost abstract…but anyway I love it. It’s a great treasure.

Yeah- super long…I haven’t posted in a few days- some catching up to do- sorry this is so long. I will post tomorrow and answer the questions I received about “Missing the Forest for the Trees” as well as “Defense”

Love ya…do some treasure hunting – its good for the soul!

kate