Chilly Morning: Aliso Beach

This morning
I watched a pelican
waiting a few feet above
the waves
then diving down
headfirst with intention
to snatch up breakfast in its beak.
Followed by a prayer skyward,
simultaneously
giving thanks
swallowing the meal waiting in the beak pocket.

A little time to ride the
wave of contemplation.
Just floating there.
Then that mighty thrust of its wings
to lift up above the waves
again into the air.
The creatures on the ocean -
so beautifully functional.
Reflectors of our creator's intention.

(Last week I went to a womens retreat near the beach. I woke up early for some solo beach time on Sunday and saw this.)

the two nephews

Curtis Michael, my second nephew, was born just an hour after I arrived in Kentucky from L.A. on Wednesday evening. He came a few days early and the process was much faster than expected! I got here just in time to take Wesley, the two year old, from the hospital out to dinner. We didn't expect to have dinner end with a call from John Mark telling us the baby was already here!
I've spent most of my time with this two year old cutie. (Here he is in his lion suit from Halloween that he asks to wear almost daily.) He's saying so much, repeats the craziest things, and cracks me up.

Veteran's Day Prayer

On this day, we remember the peace accord that brought the First World War to a close. And as we honor and thank military veterans around the world for their service, we also remember those who have suffered great physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage as a result of such service, and we pray for their restoration. Moreover, we yearn for that day when swords will be beaten into plowshares, and we will make war no more. May it come to pass, Lord, and soon.

(From Sojourners)

Over the Rhine. I'm in love with you again.

Colin and I went to see Over the Rhine on Saturday night at the Largo. They were amazing, as usual. The trio that opened for them - Katie Herzig - was also amazing (and you can download her acoustic album here until the 15th for free!).

I've gone to see Over the Rhine three times now and each time I am more in love with them and their music. This time it was even better to get to share it with my love. As we were leaving, I heard the girl behind me say on the phone to a friend "If you want to know me, you have got to appreciate Over the Rhine" and Colin said "You didn't tell me they were so good live!"

They even played our song (the song that Colin proposed to me with) as one of the encore songs, which sweetened the deal a whole lot.

Halloween...just a few weeks overdue

It was Colin's idea to be cowboy and cowgirl on Halloween. He got boots and a hat from Goodwill. I got a $5 hat from H&M and everything else was not so much a costume but my natural Texan self. I was happy that we got to carve a pumpkin and do a little trick or treating with Colin's college friends and their 2 year old. Then we went to a party down the block. They had decorated every square inch of their house for Halloween and had two tables full of spooky treats!

Wendell Berry is my hero

Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" from The Country of Marriage

copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry

found here