11 days and counting!

As summer bursts to life in Seattle, I'm bursting to start the adventure. . . but at the same time its always nice to get a taste of lovely summer and take some "practice" trips to Vancouver BC and Spokane.

After three visits to the Eastside of Vancouver BC, where poverty, drugs, despair and homelessness appear literally around every corner, it was shocking to visit my friend who lives in the middle of downtown in a highrise in an obviously very affluent area. It gave a better picture to the entire reality of the place and at the same time heightened my sense of the great disparity within the city and the real need for some sort of miracle for these people. Miracles do happen though.

I should know, I guess. For two years, I have fought against blurry vision and goopy, burning eyes, which made it impossible to wear contact lenses for more than an hour or two (hence the fact that I wore glasses everyday). The eye doctor said it was "Tygesons" disease (basically that meant no one knows what caused it nor how to cure it). On Sunday, I visited a friend in Burlington at a place called Tierra Nueva. During the evening service we took communion and the pastor asked if anyone had physical pain. A few of us raised our hands. As he and his wife gave communion, they prayed for my eyes to be healed. Let's just say that for the last three days I have been able see clearly and painlessly with contact lenses for 12-14 hours a a time and even got to go swimming with them in! I haven't even touched my glasses except to put them in the case. Everyday, I sort of wait for the pain to start to let me know that they need to come out, but it never does! I'm starting to believe that this is really for good. It's like a big bottle of freedom dumped over my head . . . and I love being able to live without the limitations and pain of the disease constantly hanging over my head. This might be hard to really believe and a bit crazy, but totally real. I hope that anyone who reads this and experiences physical pain is also healed!

One other gift that comes from being able to see clearly with contacts is that it widens the range of what I can do with photography and had an amazing night photographing downtown Bellevue last night (see the pics on the blog!)