feastly reflections, pt.1 - pre-déjà vu

such a great time at the Feast of St. Patrick's this past weekend...thought i would throw a couple posts on my reflections...

first up all the interesting connections pre-Feast that were kinda déjà vu-ish:

• the keck's. chaundra and i were really psyched to gather with everyone, especially the wonderful eric and beth keck and family!
• chili dogs. strong memories of playing at my Aunt Angie's house...and chili dogs and Graeter's ice cream
• norwood and my childhood. was talking to my dad the day before we headed to Cincinnati, and he was asking me about this thing that we were going to, and I told him about it and that it's in a part of Cincinnati that is called Norwood...to which he responded and said, "Norwood, well that should be old stomping grounds for you, remember when I used to take you and drop you off at Aunt Angie's place and then go to River Downs all day? Well, Aunt Angie lived in Norwood...you used to play there all the time when you were young..." that one is a serious case of pre-déjà vu...then we drove into the neighborhood and i was like: 'whoa...'
• family. so my aunt angie lived in Norwood, and her sons, cousin dick and cousin philip, went to high school there right off Reading Road...
• the reds. i grew up in Indianapolis, and at that time our local AAA baseball team - the Indians - were the farm club for the Cincinnati Reds...and so I saw Davey Concepcion and George Foster play AAA ball and then go on to be part of the Big Red Machine!!
• dave nixon! who was actually my first instructor in spiritual formation in autumn 2005 through VLI
• the geverdts. some of our best friends in Annapolis are from Cincinnati: Douglas and Gretchen Geverdt!
• kevin rains. i had been checking out kevin's blog and really felt a kindred spirit, especially when reading his post on being (bi)vocational...
• chris marshall. i had been reading chris' blog, and when i grow up i want to be a Kingdom revolutionary like chris!!
• mike and amber bishop. for a few years i have been blogging with mike and amber bishop at their blog The Mustard Seed. it was really great to finally connect in person with mike and amber and mark...they are really great
• rose. i have been following the exploits of rose madrid-swetman in india, and had to drop off my closest friend gerard francis januszewski at the airport before we left for cinicinnati to leave for a year-long sabbatical to india...i miss gerard francis. rose was really wonderful and passionate...more on her later.

so, those are my pre-Feast thoughts, connections and reflections...on Thursday, I'll post my post-Feast reflections....