Pentecost Walk in Tacoma

My walking project is small potatoes compared to Tom Demaree's. Tom and his friends have walked 6,000 miles across the length and breadth of the United States, praying for our country as they go. Now Tom and his friend Kevin Roberts are going to specific cities across our nation and walking with the concerned citizens in each location. On October 21st they came to Tacoma.
Tom and Kevin lead what they call a Pentecost Walk. You can read about it at www.pentecostwalk.org. I was asked to design the route for the Tacoma walk, so I included our beautiful Wright Park, as well as Tacoma General Hospital and other points of historic and civic interest. Tom stopped the parade on the northern border of Wright Park to exhort the pastors who were among the 70 (or so) walkers.
We couldn't have planned better weather for the Pentecost Walk. It was a glorious day and our route included lots of fall color.
Autumn is a metaphor for death, but there was a wonderful sense of life among the people who walked with us this day.

Love, Snow and Nightfall

Love, snow and nightfall cover a multitude of sins. Tacoma is overall a beautiful city, but even the gritty parts are pretty at night. Crisp autumn nights are allowing me to grap some night shots. Here's a couple of our tall buildings downtown with freeway ramps along the right border of the photo. On the horizontal footbridge crossing the bottom third of the photo, you can see the two glass sculptures that stand like giant glowing swizzle sticks above the 15th st. offramp.
Zooming out a little allows you to see the permanent outdoor display cases of Chihuly glass sculptures on the east (right) end of the footbridge. (Please click on the photo to expand it.) You can also now see the glow of Pacific Ave. on the left. Thanks in part to the University of Washington Tacoma campus across Pacific Ave. from the Historical Museum (the domed building of the old Union Station), and an array of upscale restaurants, the streets of downtown Tacoma have come back to life in recent years.

As in other big cities, there are districts of Tacoma that never sleep. Here you see the steam rising from the industrial flats between downtown Tacoma and NE Tacoma on the far horizon.

Then there's our distinctive wooden event dome, glowing like a flying saucer in its ring of spotlights.

And here's what the new bridge construction looks like at night. Instead of raw concrete and iron rebar you see a string of pearls.

Linked Destinies

Nope. I didn't take these photos, but I knew you'd like them. My friend Sherry Lorentzen sent them to me. The new Narrows Bridge is actually further along than shown here; it's now getting its road bed installed.

I'm grateful that the road-widening on both approaches to the bridges is nearing completion, because the traffic is finally starting to flow a little more smoothly on Hwy 16. That's the highway that connects Tacoma to the Washington peninsula and to the beautiful city of Gig Harbor. I teach in Gig Harbor every Wednesday night, and as I spend time on the peninsula side of our bridge, I have a growing awareness of the intangible links between the communities of Gig Harbor and Tacoma. I believe that our two communities are going to become an increasing blessing to each other.

Well, Hello, Dahlia! Reprise

My Master Gardener tells me that I'm the only person she knows who says, "Doll-yuhs." She says, "Dowl-yuhs." I asked our friend Kevin from Yorkshire which way he pronounced the flower name. He said, "Day-leahs."

Well, whichever way you say it, it still doesn't smell like a rose, but it is a dramatic bloom. I couldn't resist these two on N 51st St. today.

May Your Soul Prosper

I've been walking through some upscale neighborhoods lately, around N Parkview Ln and N Lexington. I've seen some gorgeous houses, many with a Puget Sound view. I particularly liked the stylish entry of the house pictured above.

As I walk in our wealthier neighborhoods, I pray an inverted version of 3 John 1:2. In the first century, Christians generally had a vibrant faith but often faced economic and physical hardship. Therefore, the apostle John prayed that his friend, Gaius, would "prosper and be in health, just as your soul prospers." In other words, John prayed that his friend would be as healthy physically and economically as he was spiritually. Today, in our culture we tend to be more prosperous externally than we are internally. Therefore, I pray for my wealthy neighbors that their soul may prosper, even as they are doing well physically and financially.