Hiking the James River Heritage Trail in Downtown Lynchburg

God tripping with someone who has never been on one before, is a true trip when that person has just gotten his driver’s license. Eusebio Pires wanted to drive. Why not? His gas mileage on his Toyota Corolla was alot better than my Crown Vic’s!

He was great! Just a few weeks into driving, he did U-turns in the middle of downtown Lynchburg like a pro. Two of them.

We finally found a place to park near the James River Heritage Trail, unpacked our lunch of spicy chicken, diced potatoes, curried goat, grapes and cherries courtesy of Mahabuba whose party we visited earlier in the day and watched kayakers paddle lazily down the river.  If you had told me this God Trip would include delicious food from Bangladesh on a rock, I would never have believed you.  But Eusebio is from Mumbai, and it fit.

God trips never cease to amaze me, as I had wanted to go hiking, but didn’t mention it to Eusebio when he said he had never been to Lynchburg.  I wanted this to be his trip.  What did we end up doing? Can you believe Lynchburg has a wildlife paradise downtown along the river, and then up a creek near a beautiful mansion called Point of Honor once owned by the personal physician to Patrick Henry?  We crossed the creek with skyscrapers in view, turned right through a green tunnel of foliage to find the old railroad tunnel they told us about at the Visitor’s Center.  (The video there is done in fast forward and is one of the funniest introductions to a town I have ever seen.)

Sure enough, on our way, skyscrapers just up the escarpment, a small deer came out of the greenery and looked at us as if to say, “What are YOU doing here?”

Kayakers on the James from Percival Island where we had lunch

I want to go back to this fascinating town and take another look.  There is so much to see, and thanks Eusebio for the great hike!

Virgin God Trip

Today I am taking my friend, Eusebio on his first God Trip.  We met when Alan and I asked for a student at UVA to share Thanksgiving several years ago, and he has become a member of our family ever since.  His post-doc work at UVA is extraordinary in the field of ovarian cancer.

Eusebio Pires and Willow at my 70th birthday party

All we know today is that we are meeting in Charlottesville at 9:30  a.m.

All I know is that God trips are the ultimate in using our gift of free will. As Proverbs 16:9 states, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Will let you know where we end up.   Later. 

P.S.  Willow is my nickname (another story for another time)

Let Your Fingers Do the Walking – a short God Trip

 

Mr. Electric showed up in minutes

His name was Tommy Dudley and what he said in the Yellow Pages was true.

My sister had been out of town for a few days and when she returned she noticed the waterfall that cooled the water in her fish pond had stopped.  We had a heat index of 105 degrees yesterday, and her fish were hiding under a rock and the algae was growing.

“I will have to wait until Monday,” she said mournfully.  “My electrician can’t come until then.”

Remembering that old adage, “Let your fingers do the walking”, we looked in the Yellow Pages under Electrician, and there he was:  Mr. Electric.  His ad read, “Your Expectation: Immediate Response.”  She called him, and within half an hour he and his companion arrived in two vans, diagnosed the problem, (no, it wasn’t the chipmunk eating through the wires as we had thought), did a temporary fix until a new pump which had shorted could be purchased, and voila! Water falling.

What else did it say in their ad? “We have the power to make things better!”

You can believe it.  After all, it was a God Trip.

God Trip Rule: One door closes, another opens and sometimes you don’t even have to leave the house.

Lost and Found on a God Trip

OK, now I should not be surprised. 

When my daughter, Christine reached for her camera on the boat trip around Manhattan, May 10th, it was gone.  It had all  her family vacation pictures from Florida, Virginia and New York City and special ones of her visit with her best friend, Amy in Alexandria.   But as my friend, Kate always says, “God’s delays are not God’s denials.”   We both had faith it would show up some day.

So where did her camera go?   Read the email I received yesterday:

Hi!

I am emailing you because my mother found a hot pink camera in a taxi in NYC and
I found a picture of a computer with this website and recognized you! I’m sorry
for looking at the pictures, but I wanted to see if I could return the camera.

Please let me know where I can mail it to you. I live in Venezuela, but I can
send it to you during the weekend of June 18th because I will be flying to
Florida.

If it is not yours but you know who it belongs to, please let me know so I can
contact them

Thank you!

Alexandra

Yes.  Christine will get her camera back from someone in Venezuela and as God trips always go:  we have made a new friend.    Thank you, Alexandra.  You have a great Mom.   Maybe some day we can all meet in New York City.

Christine on the boat just before realizing her camera was missing out of her shorts pocket

 

“The greatest of all human needs is to feel connected.”      Darryl Kollman

God Tripping with Spicy Food

God trips invariably include food.  I mean the body needs its fuel, right?  One of the best kept secrets in deliciously prepared Slow Food can be found at the University of Virginia International Students’ sponsored cooking classes. They are open to the public and free.  But you will need to register (see link below).

Yesterday afternoon I gathered with about 25 international students at the Lorna Sundberg International Center with my friends, Eusebio, Ryan, and Mahabuba for India/Bangladesh spicy food, featuring something I have never eaten before: goat.   They called it mutton, but it was goat, from the Afghan Market in Charlottesville. Tender, spicy, tingly to the tongue, with a flavor all its own! And what people you will meet — Kate from Boston who taught with World Teach in China, Jennifer who was in the Peace Corps in Morocco, Eusebio from Mumbai who could open his own restaurant when he isn’t searching for the cure for ovarian cancer. Mahabuba from Bangladesh even sang her country’s songs with two of her countrywomen as the dishes were placed on the big diningroom table for all of us to savor.

Check out their website: http://www.virginia.edu/iso/ic/for upcoming programs. Next is French food, I believe. They are also on Facebook, University of Virginia Lorna Sundberg International Center.

Lorna Sundberg International Center

God Tripping usually includes delicious food, and this is the best, prepared in front of you, and you get to eat it too, meeting some very special people. It is a spiritual experience putting your feet under the table at 21 University Circle, Charlottesville, VA 22903.

God Trips are flexible when the ankle doesn’t flex

May 11, 2011

God trips don’t mean bad things don’t  happen.  It’s just that God trips help to put them in perspective.  Late Monday night as we were crossing the street to Macy’s famous department store next to our hotel, I twisted my ankle on broken pavement.  We picked up treatments for it, and I did the RICE thing. Rest. Ice. Compress. Elevate.  And ate my Stemplex from Simplexity Health.

The next morning, May 10^th, it really didn’t matter that my ankle was still not flexing as we changed our plans from visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to  opting for the Circle Line instead, the two hour boat trip from the Hudson River to the East River with plenty of time to take pictures of the Statue from the boat.  With a sprained ankle, it made sense to take taxis, buses and boats.

Rule #2 on God Trips:  Be Flexible.  I always thought if there were an 11^th commandment, that would be it.  When you run into a brick wall, you either scale it or turn another way. 

 

I felt as if  were in the Tower of Babel, the sounds of foreign languages ringing around u  American was being spoken with accents from the Dominican Republic to Nepal (our two taxi drivers).  On the boat, when it was time to take pictures of the Statue of Liberty, we saw the long lines we would have been in, had we chosen to visit there  instead.   We asked a friendly young man we had observed earlier to take our picture with Lady Liberty behind us.  He obliged and told us he was escorting a Korean born winner of the best Bloomingdales has to offer, around New York City as part of her prize. He was the manager of the Bloomingdales of Palo Alto, and I believe she was from San Francisco.  After our Macy’s experience, we told him, yes, the next time we were in Palo Alto, we would visit his store.  

The two hour Circle Tour was the perfect way to see Lady Liberty when one has a sprained ankle

 

Seventy years ago I was born in New York City, Lawrence Hospital in the Bronx.   I have now come full circle, but just visiting.  Had a delicious hotdog with sauerkraut on the Circle Line.  Now it’s time to return to Virginia but with bagels and lox in a box for lunch on the train.  I have to take some of NYC with me!

P.S.  By the way, the ankle is now OK.

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” – John Wesley

From Fast Train to Slow Food

We are in New York City!

And the smartest thing we did was get a hotel across from Penn Station, creatively named Hotel Pennsylvania.   The porter who delightfully escorted Christine and me from Fast Train to faster 7th Avenue, jaywalked us with luggage on cart directly across the 5 lanes of mostly cab traffic and within 45 minutes of arriving in New York, we were in our room.   Hungry.

Rule #1: When hotel concierge recommends local restaurant, he probably has a friend there.  We walked into the Niles Restaurant, TV’s blaring in a bar and decided on this God trip, this wasn’t where we needed to be.

Basic Rule to God Trips:  If it doesn’t feel right, it isn’t His will.  You see with God trips, you let whatever your concept of Higher Power  is, guide you.  My Higher Power is God, in Three Persons…yours is  whoever spiritually guides you.

We moved on. “I want someplace intimate,” Christine said.  And so we found it.  

The restaurant’s name is Biricchino, a Northern Italian Slow Food restaurant at 260 West 29th Street and we were the only people there, but we weren’t the only people there when we left, two hours later. 

To walk off the delicious slow food, we took the advice of Chelsea, our waitress

me and Christine on the High Line in NYC

to walk the High Line, a New York City park built on the tracks of the old “L” that runs from the Battery to Midtown.  Tulips, green grass, trees, a view of the Hudson River at sunset.  It doesn’t get much better than this.