Gift

Each day is a gift and gratitude. I am just a grain of sand in this vast universe rich in splendor.
We can be noble in the midst of struggles and pain. Endurance can make us strong.
We all possess the gift of imagination which can make our lives soar to the heavens. We are free to wander, wonder and contemplate.
Time is a matter of proportion and balance.

There are nights, dawn and wide landscapes. There are no reasons for boredom and despair.

Charlie Brown

I remember I always love Peanuts-Charlie Brown. I was a college student about 50 years ago when I first read Peanuts and Charlie Brown. Simple and original.It is one of the secrets of happiness-to develop simplicity and be original.

Family values

Today after mass,our daughter and her family came to our house and my wife prepares the breakfast. We do this almost every Sunday. Today we spent the whole day together. My daughter cut my hair after breakfast. This is my minimalist contribution. My daughter is not even a barber. Later in the evening we invited a friend of ours to go with us to have dinner at a favorite Mexican restaurant.

Our son and his family go to Sunday mass in the afternoon and come to our house and have dinner with us which my wife prepares or I prepare.

Time is divided to different activities. Family activities has the heaviest value.

In times of need

Some people are more fortunate than others. For the last 5 days we spent our time in the Santa's Helpers.There was tremendous generosity in donations of materials and time to help the less privileged people in our community. Certainly every day they need help but especially during the Christmas season to celebrate Christmas just like everybody else.

Any help we can extend to the less fortunate people is significant.We can extend our hands to them as a family.

Psalm 8

'When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son
of man, that thou visitest him?

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and thou hast crowned him with glory and honour..."

What have I done in my life that I deserve this honor? What should I do in return?
That I have to meditate on.

Spiritual Exercises

Yesterday I got the book-Thirty Days by Paul Mariani, a poet and essayist, and not a monk. It is a memoir of a 30-day Jesuit directed silent retreat using the Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as a guide. I thought that before Christmas it might a good spiritual reading and learn something about myself. Christmas celebration has plenty of noise on trivial self-giving.

I will update my progress and post some insights that I can discern.

Never too late

Today, Cheri and I attended a reception of one our friends who has an exhibits of his paintings in the city library. Greg retired 5 years ago and decided to to attended art classes in painting. He started with acrylics and settled down on water soluble oil paintings.

He has not had any previous art training before.It took him about 6 months, he said, before he had an idea of what he was doing.He paints beautiful landscapes with a delicate touch.The strokes look clean and there are no hesitations. He paints daily and about 3-4 hours a day and mostly indoors.

He is a good example of learning a new skill at a later age in life. Human brain is pliable and accepts changes late in life.

One doesn't have to wait for someone to tell him or her that he/she should start going. Socrates tries to learn how to play the flute on the eve of his death.

Fascination

Our grandchildren love to play with the Russian nesting doll,matryoshka. They seem to be fascinated by the almost endless dolls inside the dolls.They take them out then put them back again.

Fascination in the simplest of things, a gift I have to acquire again.

Taking time

When I took art appreciation class in the community college I wrote my final essay on Mondrian. Studying his progression as an artist I appreciated painting just with primary colors or geometric patterns of different colors.

I was particularly impressed when I saw cubism by Picasso and Braque. Cutting a form to pieces and putting the parts together again is very clever, an imaginative leap.

The art classes opened my eyes to a different way of looking at objects, to take time to look and be aware of my surroundings.

Random Thoughts

He or she starts training when very young. The sommelier tastes everything even if it means a frozen tongue. It's no wonder she/he knows the terroir.

Minimalism is the buzz word these days. I don't exactly practice it although I have my daughter cut my hair. She is not even a barber.

Be kind. Even the angels are not perfect.

Be creative. I think of the sheep grazing under the solar panels in our local community college.