Today Noella and I hit the town. First we went to Liberty to Martinali's Cafe. It's an adorable little place, with delicious food and wonderful prices. It's in the same building as a great furniture store and a little quilting shop. If you have the opportunity to check it out you should. High tea is only $12.50! Just make sure you call in advance for it.

Next it was off to Parkville to the Jazz, Blues and Arts Riverjam. I had never been to Parkville, but I will definitely go back. They had the cutest little shops, wonderful trails along the Missouri River, good pizza and the best chocolate truffle I think I've ever had. The music wasn't very good, but the art...especially the jewelry was beautiful.

While we were looking at art we met a guy named Eric, who was selling his paintings. He was definitely trying to communicate something with his art (which isn't all that common at festivals like this), but I'm not the most discerning person when it comes to art, so we both began to ask him questions about what he was trying to say. He told us that he believed that all knowledge was shared in the universe-it was only a matter of tapping into it. This statement was the beginning of a long conversation about his spiritual beliefs. We talked to him for quite a while about absolutes, can there really be a gray area, God's love, etc etc etc. Both Noella and I were praying that the Holy Spirit would show up...but He didn't. At least it seemed to both of us that He didn't. We both knew that it didn't matter what we said to Eric...unless God showed up nothing was going to happen. We left hoping that some sort of deposit of God's light had happened. We prayed for him...and that's it. I'm never sure how to resolve these situations in my heart. I hope that this situation was a divine set-up. I hope that it planted seeds of God's love in Eric's heart. I wish that there had been at least a hint of something going on inside of him...but there wasn't. This is situation definitely gives me motivation to pray.