Mixed Moss

Today I went to the zoo with Melissa Miller, a girl who works at the community center where the south branch of the cafe is located, and her husband Matt who comes in for coffee every morning. I was happy about that because a) I wanted to go to the zoo, b) they are nice, decent sort of people who kind of remind me of my relatives on my Dad’s side of the family, and c) I’ve been look for a way to build a relationship with Melissa outside of work, because she’s not a Christian but I can tell she’s close. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not a “project,” but I would like the chance to plant some seeds. And it wasn’t my suggestion at all; she and Matt were discussing plans to go while I was nearby and they said to each other, “well she should go with us,” and asked me to go. So it was not like I was pushing anything on them; it all flowed naturally out of just living and working together, doing what we do and sharing our lives as we do it. I love it.

We had so much fun. We saw all kind of animals. My favorite were the bottle nosed dolphins, the california sea lions, mexican gray wolves, the incan terns, and of course the magellanic penguins. The last two were in the same enclosure, it was so fun to see them! The penguins were swimming and diving and tumbing over each other into the water. They are my favorite animals! They are quirky and amusing and playful and all dressed up and ready to go– you could take them anywhere! I’m think about making one my date for the next formal I go to. Here are some pictures in case you want to see what they look like: (http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/magell.html) The terns were so amusing too! They would jump up off of a rock into the air and hover and then swoop down and poke their beak and face and chest down about three or four inches into the water and catch and eat little tiny fish and shrimp. And they had clownishly colorful faces! You can see pictures of them here: http://www.northrup.org/photos/inca-tern/.

We also went on a really nice little hike through the woods along a lake– they are adjacent to the Cook County Forest Preserve– and saw some cool water birds and three deer: two does and a fawn so young he still had his little white spots! I loved it. I always feel so much more satisfied with my life and more connected to God when I’ve been able to slow down and spend time with his creations in nature, especially trees. I had a whole day of that today, and I feel wonderful.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2004 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.