Is it magic?

This feels like magic. The ground is freshly turned, weeds pulled, clumps pulverized. I drag a shallow trough in the soil, then another one parallel, but twelve inches away. Like the package tells me to do.

I open the bag and stare down at the seeds. Miniscule, like something I would see in a spice jar. Scattered over a salad or sprinkled into a soup. These little specs will stretch into carrots?

The package tells me these coloured carrots were grown and eaten in Europe and Asia 1,000 years ago. Red, purple, white and yellow. The drawing on the front looks like a mistake, the creative colouring of a child who thinks orange is too ordinary for a carrot.

I carefully pour the seeds into the troughs, wondering if I'm doing it right. There's too many, it seems to me. The package tells me I should space the seeds one inch apart, but I'm lazy. I'll thin them out later, I decide.

The package is my teacher. It tells me what to expect from these tiny seeds and how to ensure that they reach their full potential. Someone has discovered when they are expected to emerge and when their growth will have reached its climax. So I blindly trust the package.

As I fill in the troughs with soil, shutting the seeds off from the sun, I feel like I am participating in a great show of magic. Tiny seeds hidden in the soil will have, in "65-75 days", transformed themselves into crunchy, colourful carrots.

If it wasn't written on the package, my supernatural gift of skepticism would scoff at the idea. But I have decided to trust the writer, trust the inherent promise. And see if it's true. It's not attempted magic after all, I decide, but an act of faith.

Faith that I'm not wasting my time. That something will come of this careful staging of anticipated growth. Faith that what I'm doing will someday bear tangible results.

I stand up and stare down at the ground. Nothing but dirt lies before me. A narrow strip of bare soil. An empty package gripped by earthy fingers is the only sign that anything out of the ordinary has just occurred in that patch of garden.

The Seeds of Spring

Thirty little seeds placed carefully in a row while a curious yellow lab watches... I count each one before I gently push them down with my finger, just a single inch into the damp soil, then pat some soil on top. Like I'm tucking them into bed.

I'm stretching my faith to its limits with this exercise in early Spring gardening. Waiting for plants to push through the shell of the earth and stretch to the sun is agonizing. Veiled progress tries my patience. I've been known to rip open the ground and scratch through the soil, looking for the seeds that refused to meet my expectations. Ruining any chance for the germination of new life.

This year I will plant and I will wait. I will protect, I will nurture, I will watch. I will wait. And when they are ready they will crack their shells and inch upwards. And one morning, when I am tired of waiting, I will be rewarded for my patience. And I will begin to imagine the pods of peas that will one day hang from the vines.

Is this the story of the Creator as He looks at me? Planting, waiting, hoping, believing. Nurturing, waiting. For growth. For fruit.

U2's Magnificent Claw

I saw this photo from an article in the Belfast Telegraph and my anticipation started anew for the upcoming U2 concert in Toronto. When you need cranes to set up your stage, you know it's big.

'Course, I've never been to a concert of this magnitude before. Roxette in the early 90s was probably the extent of my experience, unless you consider the Bare Naked Ladies worth mentioning. B.J. Thomas anyone?

The Irish Times has an article on the number of international fans arriving in Dublin for U2's three "home" concerts. Between 10,000 to 20,000 foreigners are expected at each concert. What a thrill that would be.

"Aaron Sams (36), from Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, arrived in Dublin yesterday morning from New York.

"'The flight was packed with U2 fans. There was a woman on stand-by for two days just looking to get to Dublin for the concerts.'

"He has seen U2 31 times, '32 if you include the rehearsal in Barcelona', including the last series of concerts the band played in Croke Park on the Vertigo tour.

"'If it is anything like the 2005 experience it will be worth it,' he said.

"The excitement among fans and the band is mutual. On U2’s official website, the Edge said the only way to describe the atmosphere at homecoming concerts is 'metaphysical peaks.'

"'If you ask any U2 fan anywhere in the world, the place they want to see the band is always Dublin. A lot of times when we do play Dublin there is a magic that happens that doesn’t occur anywhere else.'”

Bono said the rehearsals for their Dublin concerts had been going well.

"'We were rehearsing in Barcelona, Paris, Milan and Amsterdam,' he joked. 'The main event will go even better.'”

Moon messages of peace

"Man has reached out and touched the tranquil moon. May that high accomplishment allow man to rediscover the Earth and find peace there." Pierre Elliott Trudeau, prime minister of Canada

--one of the 73 messages of peace on a tiny silicon disk that astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deposited on the Moon on July 20, 1969. (Telegraph article)

The silicon disk was left underneath the US flag which Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted on the Moon's surface.

How do you live a fearless life?

Max Lucado is a writer that for me sometimes borders on the syrupy, but his poetic, gentle approach is often the right way to get across an important message. Deeper truths lie beneath the easy words.

I saw this new release (Sept/09) advertised on Facebook and the topic caught my attention. As Believers, fear shouldn't be a problem--you'd think. Backed by the Creator, nothing should worry us. Nothing should paralyze us. Nothing should make us shrink into the corner. "Fear not" should be our motto. We should be full of courage and worried about nothing.

But in reality we deal with fear all the time. I found Don Miller's comment interesting...it speaks to my category of fear: taking a risk.

"If there is an emotion that leads to a life of boredom, it's fear. Consider this book a pep speech in the corner during a boxing match. It's you against all your imagination can throw at you. Thanks Max for giving us the courage to actually live!" - Don Miller, best-selling author of Blue Like Jazz

From Publisher's Weekly:
"Lucado, called by some 'America’s pastor,' offers his faithful base a timely primer on living fearlessly. The author, whose sales exceed 65 million books, provides those within the Christian faith (and without) an inspirational can-do appropriate for the turbulent times Americans are facing. Citing key common fears—violence, overwhelming challenges, sickness and other worst-case scenarios—Lucado offers welcome wisdom about those solely internal battles individuals face daily.

"People are afraid their lives don’t matter; they’re afraid of disappointing God; they’re afraid of an afterlife; and they’re even afraid God is not real, Lucado says. Skillful as a surgeon, he discerns and identifies the cancer of fear that touches every human being, and with like precision speaks healing words that cut right to the heart. While there exists no fast fix or simple cure for the fear-bound individual, Lucado’s tempered counsel and faith-driven remedies will offer day-by-day spiritual medicine of the most potent kind." (Sept.)

Look for it in stores in September.

Michael Jackson's hair on fire (1984)

I'm sure this will be everywhere shortly, but if you're interested in seeing the moment when Michael's journey took a sharp turn for the worse, check out this video on US Weekly's website. (Don't worry, it's not disturbing footage...just bizarre.)

It's "exclusive, never-before-seen footage" of Michael Jackson's Pepsi commercial accident, filmed in L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 27, 1984. On the sixth take, his hair caught on fire.

"He was never the same after the accident, reports the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands today.

"To relieve the second and third-degree burns on his scalp and body (and later to help him tolerate multiple surgeries on the scorched spot on his head), Jackson was prescribed several medications -- which kicked off his addiction to painkillers and obsession with plastic surgery, multiple sources tell Us."

GM's Transforming Cars

It's only fitting that I feature GM vehicles today, on the day they pull out of bankruptcy after only 40 days in the pit. Here's hoping they can get their act together and become a brand we can be proud of again. Rumour has it they'll be changing their name and/or logo, possibly moving it from blue to green. Hopefully they'll do a lot more than that.

If you've seen Transformers 2 and wondered about GM's Chevrolet cars featured in it (as I did), here is what they were....

2010 Camaro (Bumblebee) - already seen on the road
2011 Volt (Jolt) - much anticipated electric car
2012 Spark (Skids and Mudflap) - a mini coming to the U.S. in 2011 (pictured above)

The car I was most curious about was one that looked like a souped up Corvette. I looked it up and sure enough, that's pretty much what it is. The Chevrolet Corvette Centennial Concept (Sideswipe) is influenced by the design of the original Stingray Race Car, which was introduced in the year 1959. It supposedly is not on track to be produced but that's also what they said about the new Camaro, so who knows. The link above has a video review of the concept car.

Here are some videos related to the Camaro's appearance in the movie.