Daily Comic Feb 9

JANUARY

January was a nice month. Here are some photos of it.

It rained. A lot. Lightening struck Mt. Hermon and we lost power for a day.

Gus fell asleep on the bed.

The canary stopped multing. Don’t worry, he didn’t mult his head. He’s just sleeping.

He also started singing! Apparently he likes country music. Girl singers, to be exact.

Gus tried to fit in the scrabble box.

Then he fell asleep in it.

My car got tagged.

Don’t worry, it came off with all the dew. Apprently 7 cars got tagged on Mt. Hermon that night. But they didn’t get Daniel’s big white canvas of a truck. Maybe they ran out of orange.

 CLICK HERE

I participated in Hourly Comic Day again this year. For every hour of the day that you are awake on February 1st you document your life in a little comic. Some are pretty funny. Other people lead boring lives.

A few other exciting things in January that I don’t have pictures of:

I got a kiln! A friend’s kind mother gave me it. It’s a little one, that only fits on piece of pottery, but seriously, we’re in business now.

We got sick. And are still sick. Welcome, February.

I know that sometimes I can be overly romantic about things

THOUGHTS

1.

 I know that sometimes I can be overly romantic about things, but I really like the way people walk through doors. It is one of the most unassuming things people do, and how they do it tells you a lot. I work at a coffee shop and have a sideways view of the door, so usually I see the door open before the person comes in. Some people throw the door open and rush in, others didn’t realize the door was so heavy and falter, others open it but don’t come in because they’re waiting for someone. I like to guess how their day is going by how they open the door.

2.

I know that sometimes I can be overly romantic about things, but tonight I watched the sunset from the top of the mountain and it was divided by trees. On my left was the typical, deep orange and pink sunset, marking where the sun was, which I could see at one point on the trail. On the right was another park of the sunset, more a reflection of everything, pinks and blues and drippy white clouds that must have been raining, which I could see at a point further back on the trail. There was a bigger view of the latter, so I settled for watching the not-the-real-thing, which turned out to be better and more unique, I think. It popped into my head: “This is what you have been given.” Even though I wanted the big-deal-real-sunset, this is what I got to watch. And it was beautiful. I think God is like that, we only get to see glimpses of him. I think if we looked directly at him it would be too bright. I don’t think we’ll ever know everything about him in this life. But He is there. I also think life is like that. We are given certain things. Not that my life is bad, I was more thinking in terms in that I have a &@#*$&^ stuffy nose today, which was really bothering me. But it is what I have been given, or just plain what I have, given or not, so I must make do and not complain. It made me think of the chorus of this song “The Best I Have” by The Normals:

I sometimes hide behind my words 
Sometimes I’m round the corner from these songs
But words are only words
Like days are only days
And I’m nothing for just singing along
The air is hot in Florida
The rain is cold in Maine
The thaw is flooding Washington
And this all feels the same
But You’ve brought me to this place
where there’s nothing else but faith
And this is what I have been given
and I will make the best I can
There’s a joy we find in living
and a love that’s in Your hand
Cason’s always talking about the sky that covers Kansas
And I wish I could be under it today
I’m tired of all the spinning lies
Tired of all this killing time
Tired of always getting in the way
I wish I could conjure up a love song
Wish I could pray the way my friends do back home
Is there a part of You that I still don’t believe
‘Cause this is not what I thought I had been praying for
But this is what I have been given
and I will make the best I can
There’s a joy we find in living
and a love that’s in Your hand
Someday some girl will find my words beautiful
Someday some son will call me dad
Someday I won’t wake to find myself lying in another cold and lonely hotel bed
Someday I’ll trade in this guitar for a city of golden praise
Someday I won’t be here any longer
Someday
but this is what I have been given
And I will make the best I can
There’s a joy we find in living
And a love that’s in Your hand

As I read the lyrics, the song seems to be about reaching rock bottom, somewhat. Don’t worry, that’s not me at all right now! I love my life and every day is a blessing. But I like the chorus

but this is what I have been given
And I will make the best I can
There’s a joy we find in living
And a love that’s in Your hand

3.

I know that sometimes I can be overly romantic about things, but while I was watching the sunset on that mountain it reminded me running the trail up and down it every other morning last year. It was steep but it was worth it because you got an amazing sunrise. I remembered how when I first started working on the mountain, that area was full of huge invasive weeds, and we got the students to pull a lot of it. Then in the spring where the weeds were, the ferns grew instead! Then in the autumn the ferns faded and the rattlesnake grass grew. Now in the winter the rattlesnake grass died and there’s some plant I don’t know what it is taking its turn. In fact, I remembered when I was a camper and counselor at summer camp there and barely knew the trail existed right above camp at all. I remembered winter frost and walking through hail on the ground with snow on the far mountains. I remembered sweating up and down the hill in the heat of the sun with campers. I remembered hiking the trail in the dark so many times for nighthike, hearing leaves fall and birds rush away and who knows what else out there. I have seen 2 coyotes there, multiple hawks, rabbits, birds and insects. I remembered redoing parts of the trail with my coworkers to prevent erosion and allow regrowth. I remembered certain logs being whole when I first started working here 2 1/2 years ago that are now mostly shards and decay.

And I thought about how I have seen this mountain go through so many seasons, and lived here so long I know its trails inside out, and am still discovering things. It has become so endearing. I love this mountain because I have seen it through all its phases, because I have grown through phases along with it.

I wondered if that’s like people – the longer you know them and see them through all their phases, the more endearing they become to you. I am excited to see our marriage go through all its phases. (Don’t read into that too much – it’s not that I’m not endeared now, I most definately am in love – but I know that as you grow, your love grows and you love in different ways and that is good.) I am excited to see us, my friends, the places I live, life, through all its phases. But I am also content with where I am right now.

Some fill each with good rain

SOME FILL EACH WITH GOOD RAIN

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.

In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,

That “love” is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,

Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife

Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.

There are different welsl within us.
Some fill with each good rain,

Other are far, far too deep
For that.

-Hafiz (translation by Daniel Ladinsky)

Yesterday at work we talked about the creation account in Genesis and how the whole point is that God created – not how he did it, or how long it took, but that he did it. So when it says man was made in the image of God, it means man is creative by nature. Everyone is creative. Everyone creates things, whether art or music or books or numbers or the way they walk or the way they live or the ideas they think or the feelings they create in other people. Everyone creates, whether you think you are creative or not.

This creative nature is how we were made. But with sin in the world and all, we also has a sin nature. I think this is destruction, the opposite of creation – or so it seems. But destruction is actually creation, too, only with a negative impact and made by tearing things apart and hurting them. So there are these two forces: positive creation and negative creation. You can choose which one you do. But we will always make mistakes, which is why both are needed. To heal destruction you need creation. To heal hurt your need forgiveness. You heal pain you need love in action.

In this way we create world in and for others. At camp we create this image of what the ecosystems we live in are like for the kids. They know nothing coming here, and their world here is what we create for them, what we tell them about it. It is the same with everyone – you have an impact on them, so to some extent you help create their world, positively and negatively.

Of course, you also have control of how much you let others affect you, too. Most anything someone plants in you, you can choose to nurture it or kill it. If you let negativity manifest itself in you and you don’t stop it, it will grow out of control. If someone gives you some wise advice, you can act on it or kill it.

I am reflecting on this because the poem below reminded me of the conversation. I like it because it’s true. When I paint, every painting goes through several phases in which I am completely convinced it’s awful and will never turn out and I should just start over. But when I plug through it, the mistakes turn it into something better. I think many people are like that in anything the may do: if it’s looking awful, trash it and don’t give it time to get better. Although there are times when I agree, it is wise to not complete some project or perhaps you do need to completely start over, many things, I think, if you plug through, you learn from the mistakes and it turns out fine in the end. In fact, like certain Indian artisan crafts that intentionall include an imperfection, the imperfection is what proves it was made by a human.

THE VINTAGE MAN

The
Difference
Between a good artist
And a great one

Is:

The novice
Will often lay down his tool
Or brush

Then pick up an invisible clug
On the mind’s table

And helplessly smash the easels and
Jade.

Whereas the vintage man
No longer hurts himself or anyone

And keep one
Sculpting

Light.

-Hafiz

Maybe that is why God, in all his perfection and ability, leaves us to our own destructive creativeness. Because if you keep on scultping, you will work through it. You wil knead out the air bubbles and imperfections, you will sculpt out the flaws, you will burn out the impurities, and in the end, you never know how your clay is going to fire because it changes so much in the heat, but they all come out beautiful and unique and wonderful.

Oh, Reagen

“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”

 - Ronald Reagan

Some Humor

1.

Yesterday I saw a towtruck towing a towtruck.

2.

I learned in a kid’s crazy science book: Why is it easier to tell up from down than right from left? One theory is that up and down have gravity, so it’s more natural to know, which right and left doesn’t. Another theory is that your hands look a lot alike, while your head and feet don’t!

3.

From a book I just finished (which, by the way, it extremely  good and called “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”), between a boy and his father:  I stood on the bed, pointed my fingers at the fake stars, and screamed: “I changed the course of human history!” “That’s right.” “I changed the universe!” “You did.” “I’m God!” “You’re an athiest.” “I don’t exist!”

Quotes

A year ago for Christmas my mom gave me a daily quote calendar, and quite a few of them were so good I saved them. Here are a few:

 

“Life was meant to be lived and curiosity must be kept alive. One ust never, for whatever reason, turn one’s back on life.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

 

“Bringing a child into the house is the greatest act of hope there is.” -Louise Hart

 

“How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.” -William Shakespeare

 

“Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.” -Benjamin Franklin

 

“In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgement which aspires after excellence.” -Socrates

 

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”  -Henry van Dyke

 

“Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.” -Corita Kent

 

“The greatest gift we can five one another is rapt attention to one another’s existence.” -Sue Atchley Ebaugh

 

“You are not in charge of the universe; you are in charge of yourself.” -Arnold Bennet

 

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill

Understanding

The more I work at the church I grew up in and get to know the parents of people I grew up with, I am growing to have compassion on people equally while before I harbored like or dislike, because I am seeing so much that we are a product of our parents and that the same person who may annoy me so much is also a child who had no choice as to who their parents were.

DECEMBER

A number of things happened during the month of December:

I purchased spontaneously combustible paint pigment

   

Gus was cute:  

   

My brother-in-law-in-law made an amazing treehouse for our nephew for his birthday:  

  

I cooked Spanish paella for my parents for Christmas (spanish like “from Spain”, not spanish like “the clams and mussels speak in Spanish”):  

   

I got a canary for Christmas from my father-in-law (let’s hope my luck is better on this one):  

   

I also was included in the family traditions of PJ’s and extremely stuffed stockings. Now if he had fit the birdcage INTO the stocking, that would have been impressive, but also messy, so I understand it’s for the best he didn’t.

There was also the Cilker Clan Christmas. I think the dog is afraid of dad’s santa hat:

   

And Kiln Firing! Daniel’s neighbor has a kiln and fires pottery of his and friend’s every month or so, and this time Daniel and our friend Josh took a 6 hour shift. Sunrise:

   

The wood-fire kiln:

   

Stoking the fire:

   

And then you get these!

   

Daniel’s cool artistic photo:

   

For New Year’s we went to Dutch Flat. Where is that, you ask? Somewhere around Auburn. Also known as the Athens of California, Dutch Flat consists of about 80 people including Josh’s mother and dog. We spent the evening in her 1860’s Victorian House eating her Courdon Bleu cooking and playing Bang! This is the main street of Dutch Flat:

   

At Dutch Flat I learned that inflation has not been good for Zimbabwe:

   

And that bicycles make a nice fence:

   

And that there exists one peculiar club:

   

And that nothing happened there in 1897:

   

We called this the dragon house:

   

This is lover’s leap. It’s basically the Half Dome of Dutch Flat. Here Josh is telling us his story of falling down a slightly less steep cliff as a child. He held onto a root to save his life or something. The view was amazing:

   

A lot more happened, but I have no photos for it.

The End. At least, of 2009!

DAILY MOMENT OF ZEN

Before I start this train of thought, I want to say I just found out that the stop-animation film “The Santa Claus” is sung and told by Fred Astaire! Exciting. Who knew.

 

Moving on, what exactly is a Daily Moment of Zen? The title comes from The Daily Show, a late night show on cartoon network that we used to watch in college. The Daily Moment of Zen was something ridiculous that had been put in the news. It made no sense. Here is an example (you don’t need to watch the whole thing – I didn’t):

In my life, however, what I call Daily Moments of Zen are those moments that have nothing to do with anything and are absolutely useless. Yet it is these things that hold the world together, that are the glue in the normal flow of life.

My Children’s Lit teacher in Spain called them “cosas inutiles”: useless things. Like how children play or imagine, things that do nothing substantial for society, yet these are the realms in which they learn and grow and think about the world and enact possibilities. That year in Spain I went through a hard time figuring out where useless things fall into life. Being raised in a world of the American Work Ethic and Save The World Mentality, being in another country with a lot of free time where I could do nothing substantial for them because I couldn’t speak the language made me depressed (looking back there are flaws in that feeling).
 
I didn’t know where to fit this in with the idea that I should always be doing something productive. But it hit me one day when I heard my roomate and her boyfriend laughing: this is the reason that we live. It’s the little things, the cosas inutiles, that keep us going, that break up life with its surprisingness while holding it together with its interestingness.

If we didn’t have these moments of laughter or beauty, our life would be all work (of course, ultimately you want to find beauty and laughter IN our work, but we are human and tend towards extremes, those of extreme work and extreme play, so sometimes we need to be pulled out of our tunnel vision). It is the moments that take your breath away and when you breathe again you remember how good it is to be alive.

These are a few of my recent moments of zen:

Driving around the corner in the mountains and a clump of leaves suddely is blown from a tree like a blanket, the yellow leaves flipping and shimmering in the light against a background of dark shadow.

Driving around a curve in the freeway a flock of birds fly up from the median, their backs alternately reflect the sunlight like the ocean and their wings beat too fast to see. It reminds me of the leaves but backwards, falling up instead of down.

Driving over the summit on a rare snow day. That first sight of trees and road and building that are normally so familiar covered in a blanket of white is a like a dream: everything is similar but different. Everything is changed like a woman in makeup: enhanced so you notice certain feature more or that you normally wouldn’t at all, while at the same time you know the real person is still tucked underneath the cover.

Driving home to a cool song, a bug walking across the windshield, I feel like being nice and not throwing him out the window to be squished on a windshield. It is surreal. Then it starts to fly and I freak out and he lands on me and I try to bat him away and drive at the same time, as I open the window…(that moment of zen came to a quick end for both of us, perhaps the bug’s being more tragic).

The sunset.

Being held in Daniel’s arms.

Laughing for no reason.

Hearing a good song.

There are so many more. These are the moments that mean nothing and yet everything because they tie the day together. Sometimes I think they are the most important moments of my day precisely because they have nothing to do with it. They remind me that I am a vapor, here for split second, then gone, so why am I so worried about everything? When someone asks, What have you done today? Half the time I want to say, I turned the corner and I saw the leaves fall…