Lemme tell you… this has been the longest day of the year in more ways than one! It’s been fantastic, overall, but… definitely long.

We all know that June 21st (or thereabouts) is the longest day of the year, in terms of sunlight, I suppose. That’s the day the sun comes up the earliest and sets the latest. The first day of summer. The summer solstice. Well, I think this particular June 21st, I took that to the extreme.

Yesterday began at 6:30am with my alarm clock going off a few times before I actually knew what time, or even what day it was. It had already been a long week by Wednesday morning (all week I had been a day ahead of myself, cause I guess I packed an extra day in there somewhere). So, though disoriented, I knew I had to get up and get to work since the day was to end early in order to watch a World Cup match with some friends.

I left the house at 8am, after getting a decent amount of work done in the first hour in the office. Wednesday morning, I play basketball with at least one other guy usually. Sometimes two. It’s a fun way to get the heart pumping. Sometimes it’s just me, so I have invented a game that is challenging, fun, and definitely keeps me moving. Today, I had to play that game. My friend did not show up, so it was just me. I ran hard till 8:30am, then headed home.

Cleaning up, showering up, back to work, Bible with the boys, other random things, and I finally got back in the office a little before 10:00am. Nice. We’re still on a good pace. Now, since the days are all blurring together, I don’t recall if it was Tuesday or Wednesday, but one day I lost most of the day to minor tech support calls. It might have been Wednesday because when we left at about 2:45, I knew I would be coming back to the office, for lack of actual accomplishments that morning. I was right. I would have to come back.

So, we headed to the Jones home for some Argentina soccer and food! Laura made empanadas and I made bread, which made awesome little steak sandwiches called “Lomitos”. Nice. We had a great time! It was fun to hang out in the early afternoon. We laid both girls down for naps, and tried to get into the game. OK, first, I’m not all that knowledgeable about soccer… so, not the biggest fan. Second, what in the world?!? That game was like the quintessential lifeless soccer match. It was the reason no one in America watches soccer! (Sorry, Laura…) 🙂 A 0-0 tie. About 3 chances for a goal (COMBINED) the whole game. It was definitely not as exciting as Argentina’s previous SIX-0 drubbing only one game before. Hopefully the next games we get to see will have a little more action… 🙂

We left there about 5pm or so, and headed for Walmart. Time to pick up some baby supplies mostly. Before Walmart though, I ask, “Hey… can we stop by LaBarge Media … I would like to drop this off.” Jen agreed, and said she could feed the baby while I went in. All good. Got to hang with “Uncle” Dave for a bit. That was fun. We never get to see them much anymore…

So, after a brief visit, and a baby refueling, we figured it was time to hit Walmart! We did… and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the store. All was going fairly well, actually, and we were fascinated to be heading home around 6:15pm or so. We had lunch around 3:30 that day… so we weren’t even really that hungry. What were we going to do???

Well, on the way, I remembered our friends the VanGorders have a little girl who plays softball on Mondays and Wednesdays. “Wanna do that?” I ask Jen. “Sure!” she replies. So, I call them up… turns out the season ended the week prior, “but hey… just come on over to our house!” “Wanna do that?” I ask Jen, “Sure!” she replies. So it’s off to the VanGorders we go.

After more than an hour of swingset fun, baseball tossing, kiddie-pool splashing and sliding, and various other backyard frivolities, we headed for our home. It was after 8pm now. A more normal Campbell family evening time. As we pull in our driveway, we see our neighbors (as well as their other neighbors) chatting on their front porch. Pulling into our spot, we spot more friends out back! It’s a regular party! So, we get out and chat for a while… nice to hook up with friends.

So, after chatting for a time, it was time to get the kids some dinner. Perhaps it was around 8:30 or 8:45 by now. Jen takes the kids in, I get all the stuff in the back of the van. On my second trip to the van to get the rest, I remembered something I wanted to show our friends who were just leaving. So, I take a quick trip to the front yard and see yet another friend we have not seen in a long while… Mrs. Schoenfelder! She’s chatting with our neighbors, so I said hello real quick, and as I was about to head inside, the entire Nichols family (a family of 6) is walking across the street to our house!!!

What in the world?!?! 🙂

We figured out that including a phone call earlier in the day from friends we haven’t seen in a long time, we got to “hang out” with people from EIGHT families that we would not ordinarily hang out with. Whoa! What a social day! 🙂

So that was fun, and left me super charged. I like people. I like being with our friends. So, that was nice. Meanwhile, it’s after nine, and the kids are still trying to finish the quick dinner we put together, while we chat / hang out with the Nichols family. After everything quieted down, it was well past 10pm, and Jen & I get a little quiet time together. We did watch a Star Trek episode, too. A season-ending cliff-hanger!!! So, we have to wait till Netflix sends the other disc to get the rest of the story!!! Argh!!

Well, it was 11:30 or so, and Jen was ready for bed. Me too… but I knew I had lots more work to do. Do I go to sleep now, while tired, and get up early the next day? Or, do I stay up – knowing I will wake up as I get into the work again – and get the stuff done tonight? I couldn’t choose, but kind of by accident I woke myself up enough that I went upstairs to give it a try. Still tired, I came down again for some food and drink. Found it. Consumed it. Started waking up. Played one game of Tecmo Super Bowl (Bills ROUTED Tampa Bay, 51-0. Nice!) Now I was awake!

About 1:00am, I head up to the office, ready to go. I knew what I had to do, so I started getting to it. But, I had email to go through, and some other things to prepare, so by 1:30 I was ready to go. Things started falling together quickly, so I was definitely awake again. That was good! I got everything done that I wanted to (mostly, I guess) by… 5:00am. 🙂 Ha! Another all nighter!!! IT WAS STARTING TO GET LIGHT WHEN I WENT TO BED AT 5:15!!!!!!!!!!

Now that’s a long day…

But wait!!! It gets better!!!!!!!!

TODAY, I got up around 8:30 or so… then at 9… finally got out of bed shortly after 9, and headed for the shower. I felt kinda weird, but knew I had to get the day started. The kids would be up soon. So… today has gone pretty much as a normal day, except it kinda feels like yesterday still. This was just one reallly long Wednesday. Really long.

It’s late, but not too late now. I plan to GO TO BED. 🙂

THAT, is how my longest day of the year has gone so far in 2006.

It’s here! Life In The Rearview Mirror is now available for purchase through iUniverse.com. Within a week or so, it will be available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, or you can request a copy at many local brick and mortar stores. I will be receiving my copies in about a week, so look for the new GregsHead.net bookstore to be open sometime in early July… featuring copies of all of my books.

(How weird is it to say “all of my books”?)

Well, if you like to be the first one in the pool, you can order a copy today, and you might even get it before I do!

There is a Browse Before You Buy feature at iUniverse, too… as well as a super cool Adobe eBook format for only $6.00! You can download the whole book as a PDF. Neato. Then you’d definitely have it before me!

Well, just had to share the news! More to come…

As of yesterday, my second book this year (third overall) was submitted to the printer. (This book will be printed in a traditional fashion, where many copies are made up front.) It has certainly been a lot of work to get here, but I am very excited about this book. It is basically the story of the past two years of our life… transitioning out of the traditional model of “church” into a daily relationship with Jesus, living as part of the Church he is building. It has been an amazing journey for us, and I am excited to share it in this way.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who reads this site. It is collected writings I have posted here, along with some clarifications, and condensing, and additions… all in one place. It will challenge you, but I hope it will also inspire you as we have been inspired – to really live in our daily relationship with Father. It’s what he has called us to… not to serve him (as servants) but to follow him, do life with him (as friends).

Perhaps I will post more here later, as the book becomes available next month… you’ll be able to purchase it through this website. I may even offer a free PDF download, just because I don’t want money to stop people from reading this book. But the book (because of the printing method I chose) will only be $10. (Probably $9.95, since that looks nicer…) 🙂

More to come… just wanted to let you know! 🙂

(NOTE: Click the cover to view a screen capture of the entire cover. The white lines are just guides… ignore those.) 🙂

I think this stuff is neat. It’s a little QT video of computer animated concepts of how we’ll get back to the moon. (And then back to Earth!)

(Note: It’s especially fun with a good sub woofer…)

This flag flies on E. Main St. in the middle of the village of Palmyra, NY

Apple continues their Get a Mac ad campaign with three new ads put up on their website. Perhaps you have seen them (or will) on TV… but regardless, they are definitely worth the click! Click the link above to watch all of the ads! (There are 9 total now)

New Ads are:
Out of the Box
Touché
Work vs. Home

A couple weeks ago, now, we were visiting some old friends at their home in the Buffalo area. We all went to Bible college together, and three of us even went to high school and earlier schools together. We go way back. 🙂 We’ve stayed in touch through the years, though over greater distances, so when they moved back to Buffalo last year, we were looking forward to getting together more often.

We have much in common. We both home school our children, we like rooting for Buffalo teams (on this occasion, it was the Sabres), even our parents are all good friends. And recently, we have been on a similar path spiritually… away from the insitutional church that we have always known. That transition, though wonderful, and definitely led by our Father, can definitely be scary, in a way. It’s leaving all that is familiar. It can also be alienating to all of the people (especially our families) who we have known from and are still heavily integrated into that structure. That alienation can be disconcerting, and just plain lonely.

With that in mind, I was looking forward to chatting with them about how they were doing with life “out of the box”. I thought it would be good to chat about what things were difficult for them, which were amazingly better, and just in general we could chat about all the issues that Jen & I deal with through our transition, that it would seem they would be dealing with also. What happened, however, was far greater in retrospect.

When we arrived, the kids were playing out on the new swingset, freshly constructed the day before. Our kids wanted to join of course, so out they went. We adults were putting the finishing touches on our Memorial Day picnic dinner, and just catching up as we did. We talked about home schooling, our kids, our jobs, the neighbors, swing sets, friends, Sabres, and more. All of the things that made up our everyday life. All the while I kept looking for the best time to chat about “life outside of the box”. But oddly… everytime I thought to interject that topic, it felt contrived.

But how could it? It’s defintely a big part of my thinking, and I figure it is of theirs as well. You don’t change such a major part of what you have always known and not think about it. And for the most part, we don’t know other people going through the same transition nearby us, so it was a great opportunity to talk through some of the struggles, along with the great parts.

Why did it feel so contrived to bring up anything relating to that then?

I finally did get to chat with my friend briefly near the very end of our visit. It was good. Glad that we did. But it was super brief, and in the context of the evening (along with my presumption of how it was going to go) it was almost an after-thought.

In the pseudo-silence on the trip home I thought about all this. I talked about it with Jen. I told her how I had anticipated chatting about life outside the church-box, and how I was puzzled that it never seemed to fit. And then a light went on. I realized that it was true. It doesn’t fit!

Instead of enjoying sharing our everyday lives, as we were doing (and as I reference as a main focus of life “outside of the box” when talking with folks who are “inside of the box”) I was wanting to talk about this imaginary divide. Inside vs. Outside. Ha! It seems so simple and clear to me now, but I really had not grasped this until that evening. For so long I have been thinking we were “outside the box”, but perhaps by dwelling in that realm, we are still “inside the box”?

We draw these imaginary lines, and then play the games created by those imaginary boundaries. We say who is in, and who is out, and how to interact with both. When we were on the inside, it was important to (in whatever way possible) coax those on the outside to cross the line, and join the fun. Now we are on the “outside”, and often I will think about the stuff that I don’t like about life on the inside, or how I wish that folks on the inside could just experience the freedom of life on the oustide.

But why must I play by those rules?

Instead, perhaps I should just eliminate the lines all together? I know that I can not deny their existence. Other folks do a good enough job drawing up lines that they are inevitably going to surface in various relationships. But, what if I just lived as though I had no lines? People could just be people, not “inside the box” or “outside the box”. I think I learned that night that I was still playing the lines game. The reality of the evening was great! We were sharing life together as believers and friends. Talking about everyday life with God… not about any systems or lines we have created. But about the reality of our Father in the stuff we do every day.

God continues to open my eyes to the greatness of life in him. I have only known a small, limited piece before now. And I imagine I am only on the proverbial “tip of the ice berg”. He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. I am often reminded of that. And awed by that.

I am so looking forward to the rest of the journey. Transcending the lines.

Today marks an anniversary of sorts. June 9th, 1996 was the first Sunday that I began working with the Church of Christ at Victor. That was what brought me to Rochester, NY along with my former college roommate and his wife. Fresh out of college and ready to tackle the world!

So much has happened since then, and much has been chronicled on these pages. And though many spots have been difficult, I really wouldn’t change anything about the past 10 years of my life lived in the greater Rochester, New York area. 🙂

The one thing I thought was really interesting was that I believe this is now the longest that I have lived in one place. (Not one house, as I have had several residences since living here, and three since we’ve been married. But one general region.) I lived in Springfield, OH till I was 8 years old, then in Caracas, Venezuela for the next three years, then in Clarence, NY till I graduated high school in 1992. Then East Lansing, MI, Clarence again, and Cincinnati, OH during my four college years. And now, Rochester area since 1996. (We’ve been in Palmyra since 2001.)

I do move around…

So, kinda fun to celebrate markers in life. I think today is one for me. 🙂

Well, it took me most of the night, but I finished making the corrections to the first proof I received from iUniverse, and we’re in the home stretch for the first book, Life In The Rearview Mirror: Reflections On Life Lived! A final proof should be back to me sometime next week, and then it will go to print! Yippee!! 🙂

This book will again be $14.95 since iUniverse sets the price. Sorry about that… wish it could be cheaper. I will get some copies up front, so I will be selling those via this website at a reduced rate. Stay tuned for details on that.

I plan to finish the Here’s The Church book this weekend also and get that submitted to the publisher (a different place… so the book will be cheaper!) by Monday. It’s starting to get exciting! 🙂

I was thinking tonight:

    “I think there will never be and end
             To the money we could always spend…”