I woke up this morning to this beautiful smoky sunrise.
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Everywhere I look, I can see beauty. Even in the most mundane places, if I gaze long enough, I can find the Beautiful peaking around the corner. Then there are other times that is hits you so hard, that it is undeniable. Below are a few photos I have taken on my wanderings. If you click them they are big enough to use as a nice background on your desk top. Enjoy.  Santa Rosa Valley Produce  I love my the view from my frontyard!  Sunset ebb-n-flow at Pirate's Cove.
Here is a lovely poem/blessing called Beannacht that I recited at the end of Dad’s memorial service.
On the day when
the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. And when your eyes
freeze behind the gray window and the ghost of loss gets in to you, may a flock of colors, indigo, red, green, and azure blue come to awaken in you a meadow of delight. When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you, may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours, may the fluency of the ocean be yours, may the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life. ~ John O’Donohue ~
So, my son is trying to get out of 8th grade… I mean pass his history class so he does not have to repeat. So, for his final project he made a little video presentation. We are hoping that Mr. Rice has a sense of humor … Enjoy Where have your thoughts taken you today? What is it that motivates you to do what you do? How do we accomplish anything in life? What beautiful think have you meditated on? How has God revealed something in your life?
Later on in the talk he says that there was a beautiful young woman who lived her life by leading with her beauty… but with regard to her ability to have an intelligent conversation he said, “If there was a thought in her head, it would be in the loneliest place on earth.” LOL… How true that can sometimes be. I often have too much going on in my life and my brain just shuts down. It is like an old manual typewriter that has had a child press all of the keys at the same time, and not a single keystroke can hit the paper, because they are all jammed up in a cluster. I sometimes have clusters of thought, ideas that I wonder about. It can take a while to sort it all out, but in the end, something rises to the surface and becomes dominate. I am finding that I enjoy being pushed by a deadline. I am motivated by constant pressure to produce. I thrive in a fast paced world where there are many things going on at the same time. I may not be able to multi-task and give my attention to more than one thing at a time, but I like to have a lot of options. I also enjoy solitude when I can get it because it gives my mind an often needed break. It also provides a space for me to have those thoughts that can shape me… to hear from the creator and open my imagination to possibilities. As a creator, I am glad to know that we were created in God’s Image (Imago Dei) and have an endless stream of possibilities for creating today’s horizon. Do you know your future? Perhaps… What are you thinking right now? In his book “The Everyday Work of Art, Awakening the Extraordinary” Eric Booth opens Chapter 1 with this…
Wow, what a great hook for an opening paragraph. I just put this book on my “Wish List”. I already have over a dozen books on my “to-be-read” bookshelf that I have already purchased. In my daily search for the Beautiful, I have been reading a more poetry, watching the long shadows move along the ground, looking at back-lit leaves on spring trees and gazing at post-dusk satellites that float overhead in star strewn space. Watch out for the Beautiful! You will welcome the surprise it brings. Here is a short poem by my (I-never-met-the-man-but-I-miss-him-dearly) friend John O’Donohue…
So, what are you reading or seeing that inspires you to be watchful for the Beautiful?
So, here is the very first early sketch of a new painting. This is the 4th of my “Face of Love” series. After drawing it with pencil, I began to do a wash of burnt umber and walnut oil. I will not be able to get back to it until Sunday night. This will be called “I was Thirsty” and is going to be my hope that through it, I will raise the funds necessary to build a well in a waterless village in Africa. I am inspired by the hundreds of churches that are conspiring together this Advent Season to provide funds to allow Living Water to build hundreds of new wells around the world. This is from the Advent Conspiracy website… “Drilling a fresh water well is a relatively inexpensive, yet permanent solution to this epidemic… Solving this water problem once and for all will cost about $10 billion. Not bad considering Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas last year. Our hope is that, by celebrating Christ in a new way at Christmas, the church can serve as the leading movement behind ending the water crisis once and for all.” I know a few more churches this year that are involved in this effort. I am joining in with this new painting. I will be spreading the word throu this blog, and in due time, through art shows. Now to get back to painting … which will be difficult during this time of year. but I will work on it as much as I can. Soon, I will also be adding a new “Faces of Love” page to display each of the paintings in the series together. John O’donohue tells us about “thresholds”…
By-the-way, at exactly 4:59pm (PST) On Friday June 20th, 2008, the tilt of the Earth’s axis will be oriented directly towards the Sun, causing the Sun to reach its northernmost extreme. The name solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, its apparent movement north comes to a standstill. The term solstice can also be used in a wider sense, as the day that such a passage happens. The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons…they start or separate the seasons… On Friday afternoon, I will be with my good friend Dr. Chip at the beach. We will celebrate the passage into a new season together. We must think of something significant to mark this with. Perhaps a single malt dripped on the earth, and raised to the sun in celebration of passages, thresholds and moving through them. Perhaps it will be a painting that will be our memorial. The thing about our moving through the valley of the shadow of death, is that we know that we are going THROUGH, and it is not the place to stay for long. Seeing that there is shadow in this valley, we know that we are surrounded by light… the Light of the world, that on Friday, will cause the sun to stand still for us, unfolding the beauty of life that shines before us. Postscript… It would be exactly a year from this post (June 18, 2009) that I would suddenly receive that phone call that my father was dying. Suddenly I was standing in a different world. Now, months after his passing, the standing is a bit easier and the Light continues to surround. I am still crossing that threshold, that line in the sand… the line of loss. While listening to an interview with Neil Diamond (who’s recent album went #1) They played a clip of a new song. I don’t know why, but I found this very funny… I’ve looked But I found My head is full of images of beauty and wonder as I listen to John O’Donohue. I hold my friends dear to my side in life and friendship, and I want to share the following interview with you that we may talk about this approach to seeing life and beauty and God in each other. John O’Donohue was an Irish poet and philosopher beloved for his book Anam Cara — Gaelic for “soul friend” — and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling and a defining aspect of God. He was interviewed on Speaking of Faith. When you have an hour (make the time) to listen… go to http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/john_odonahue/ to hear this safari of beauty… or » Download (mp3, 53:05) Here is a quote from the interview…
Please make time to download this to your iPod and listen as you walk along the beach, or at the edge of a forest, or at dusk in your own backyard. When you do, let me know and let’s have a cup together to reflect on it. At the least… feel free to make a comment below. -Peace, Rich |
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John O'Donohue reads Beannacht: 
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