It’s amazing what a difference a week can make. We have just returned from a month of good times and beautiful weather in New York, New Jersey and the Caribbean – three of the places now devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
One of the gorgeous coastal towns in NJ where we stayed, Cape May, is under water, the Caribbean suffered many deaths, and New York, the city that never sleeps, was blacked out and a shadow of the thriving metropolis we had enjoyed so recently.
Our trip was full of family highlights – swimming in the beautiful Bahamas, Spiderman and The Warhorse on Broadway (definitely worth seeing again when it hits Australia next year), Central Park Zoo, Disneyworld and Legoland. It has been sobering to see the images on the news this week as nature went postal on the east coast of the USA.
While we are so grateful to have dodged a meteorological bullet, my heart goes out for close friends and strangers alike who have been hit so hard by this disaster. When everything seems hopeless, Psalm 121 encourages us to lift our eyes up to the source of our hope. I have always found God was nearest when life was darkest.
SHOUT-OUT NUMBER 1
I’m bit of a Star Wars tragic, so news this week that George Lucas had beefed up his retirement package by a cool $4 billion in selling out to Disney initially had me concerned for the future of the franchise. That was until a friend Gary Wright reminded me how truly terrible the last three movies were (with the possible exception of Episode 3), so, surely, the only way is up from here. As well as being a fellow aficionado on all things ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’ Gary is also fine artist (he did the cover of my book You Vs World) and whipped up this masterpiece overnight.
SHOUT OUT NUMBER 2
Very proud of my wife Ann, who had just over 1 million people visit her combined blog (www.howtocookthat.net) and YouTube channel in October. There’s a whole lot of cake lovers out there!
