'I can see clearly now the rain is gone'
Ah, a relief from the rain. This is a photo from Friday night, marking our first break in the deluge here in Dallas. Things are still sodden and we have a large variety of mushrooms in our yard. The weather is very comfortable now, nothing like the dry and hot of 2006. Fortunately we live at one of the highest elevations in the Dallas / Forth Worth area and have been spared the flooding.

This weekend we drove to Fair Park in Dallas to see the exhibit of Ancient Treasures of the Holy Land. I see it's in Dallas until July 28. You can see archaeological finds of the Bible lands and hear stories associated with them. I noted the evolution of pottery, how items such as lamps became smaller and more elaborately decorated. The displays were great, but the stories were worth listening to and made the experience more cohesive.

We had a close call last night. A huge storm with hurricane force winds ripped through central and northern Texas, with gusts over 85 mph. Our corner of south Dallas was not spared and many trees were either uprooted, split or snapped. This morning we noticed a cedar tree that split in two and nearly smashed our neighbor's roof. Hopefully we'll have electricity by this evening. At least we have candles for tonight. Our mobile home is fine, just a few chairs blown over. Even our newly planted flowers made it through in good shape.

This Saturday some of us drove to the Heritage Park in Downtown Dallas to hear professional storytellers bend our ears. We enjoyed listening to their stories, some personal, some memorized, some rhyming, some ghost stories and some passed on through the network of other storytellers. In fact we were asked to share our own stories. What a treat! My favorite story of the afternoon? I think it was a toss up between why someone left a promising career as a lawyer to become a school teacher, and a rhyming story on what to eat. By the way, we're researching storytelling and how it relates to Bible translation. See our other blog called Blogim Stori.