So last Wednesday night Kim and I tore apart our apartment, readying it for the bug-sprayer. We had been informed that they were spraying every house in our complex for bugs and you had to take everything out of cabinets/shelves/closet floors. So we did this, and if you can imagine in our small place, it fills much of the floor space and other sitting areas! Well...Thursday the bug people didn't come - and when I checked our handout, it said he was coming on March 1st...this Thursday!
Which means...all week long it's been very hard to do anything in the house and I'm feeling quite discombubalated (I have no idea how to spell that...as many times as I've said it this is the first spelling attempt!) One plus point there is it's really encouraged me to find outside activities or invite myself over to other people's places!
There also seems as if there are a million things going on in my life too! Work has been keeping me very busy (and tired) from teaching 4 days a week. Stuff is happening with pulling together people interested in working against trafficking and prostitution. I've been doing art. I've had some good snippets of time with friends and neighbors. Some highlights from the past couple weeks were: scrubbing my entire bathroom with bleach, spending a "perfect day" with Kim (we have these every so often...try to fit our favorite things in a day and just really enjoy it,) creating some really fun little paintings on top of old book pages, meeting with the LA Street Productions art group, hiking up at Mt. Baldy with my friend James, taking a statistics test, and enjoying Sunday worship at a cool new church I've been going to follwed by great lunch with my friend Anna.
This coming weekend I'll be taking my neices, Madison and Alyssa up towards Big Bear - I'm very excited! We're going to stay at the place I always went to for church camp - so it should be really cool to be in that place with them, I think we'll have some great times!
Wednesday, February 28
Sunday, February 18
joy via [_] dancing
Wow, so it’s been two weeks…I’m a slacker! Life is good. I’m loving teaching my classes. Things are a-movin’. The weather is beautiful. I’ve regained some artistic flair.
Here’s something I began to write last Saturday night…settle in for this one, because it’s a convergence of a few thoughts – I hope you’ll be able to gather some of them…
I was in Pasadena tonight (last weekend)...up in the hills. I was at something very fimilar to me…a square dance (technically, a Contra dance) and during the break I stepped outside to cool off. While taking in the wonderfully yummy smelling air (of woods and a tinge of rain) and enjoying the dark, quiet night...I realized that this was a completely foreign activity that my neighbors would never even dream of much less experience.
Let me back-track. Since moving to LA things have been quite different in my life. Lately I've been wrestling with the tension of doing as my neighbors do or doing as I've always done. Not that there's anything wrong with what I've always done...but I've entered into this neighborhood with the intent of being involved with the people here. And for involvement to happen there needs to be mutuality.
So I guess what I'm trying to do is re-shift parts of my life. Some people would think this odd. Why not just go on in what I know? Why move from the white-majority, isolated suburbia that I know to the unknown immigrant, crowded city here? Why make art with kids instead of attend a gallery opening? Why hang around prostitutes instead of hipsters? I’ve had to remind myself of my reasons for sticking with the unfamiliar. I want to be involved here. And that will take me becoming more familiar with those things that are familiar to my neighbors here. Thus the tension felt on my part - and a bit of loneliness too.
Back to the square dance. It’s a familiar activity to me…and definitely NOT a familiar activity to my neighbors. I was utterly enjoying myself. And that moment during the break when I paused- and felt the joy in my body from moving, the connectedness to community from interacting with others, the solace of a quiet moonlit night, and the pleasure of the smelling clean air - part of my heart became saddened...because I know how infrequent (if ever) my neighbors get to enjoy something like this. The ability to release all thoughts and be pleased on so many different levels is such a gift.
People in my neighborhood are overburdened by a myriad number of things. Square dancing is a luxury. A simple evening that I would have once taken for granted – I’m now looking at in an entirely different way. First of all, it’s a luxury to be able to move and enjoy your body. When working long hours of back-breaking work or when dealing with untreated medical issues – it’s impossible to enjoy your body like this. Secondly, community interaction isn’t a given. People in the inner city, although crowded amongst many people, can be the most isolated from each other. And thirdly, enjoying quiet and nature is a luxury unknown to someone enclosed within the invisible walls that border a ghetto.
And so…while I’m trying to learn the balance between integration and personal well-being – I’m thankful for the amplification of joys that I’m lucky enough to experience. When I first moved to the city I found life there. And I guess that’s why I’m still here…I find life in the city, I find life doing art with kids, I find life hanging around prostitutes.
My world is/was/will be so different then the world of my neighbors. I may be living here with my neighbors and building relationships and learning alot. But when it comes down to it, I don't know what it's like to deal with the things they've dealt with. Things like fleeing a home country never to return, being separated from family, working minimum wage (or worse) jobs, etc, etc. And in contrast - they couldn't even imagine why a 28 year old is single with no children. They couldn't imagine square dancing. But I hope, sometime, that in our intermingling we can build upon each others joys and experiences. Perhaps I’ll never get my neighbors square dancing (that would be a sight!) but I hope I can be an encouragement for experiencing those joys that square dancing brings me.
…and [you] are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…1peter1:8
Here’s something I began to write last Saturday night…settle in for this one, because it’s a convergence of a few thoughts – I hope you’ll be able to gather some of them…
I was in Pasadena tonight (last weekend)...up in the hills. I was at something very fimilar to me…a square dance (technically, a Contra dance) and during the break I stepped outside to cool off. While taking in the wonderfully yummy smelling air (of woods and a tinge of rain) and enjoying the dark, quiet night...I realized that this was a completely foreign activity that my neighbors would never even dream of much less experience.
Let me back-track. Since moving to LA things have been quite different in my life. Lately I've been wrestling with the tension of doing as my neighbors do or doing as I've always done. Not that there's anything wrong with what I've always done...but I've entered into this neighborhood with the intent of being involved with the people here. And for involvement to happen there needs to be mutuality.
So I guess what I'm trying to do is re-shift parts of my life. Some people would think this odd. Why not just go on in what I know? Why move from the white-majority, isolated suburbia that I know to the unknown immigrant, crowded city here? Why make art with kids instead of attend a gallery opening? Why hang around prostitutes instead of hipsters? I’ve had to remind myself of my reasons for sticking with the unfamiliar. I want to be involved here. And that will take me becoming more familiar with those things that are familiar to my neighbors here. Thus the tension felt on my part - and a bit of loneliness too.
Back to the square dance. It’s a familiar activity to me…and definitely NOT a familiar activity to my neighbors. I was utterly enjoying myself. And that moment during the break when I paused- and felt the joy in my body from moving, the connectedness to community from interacting with others, the solace of a quiet moonlit night, and the pleasure of the smelling clean air - part of my heart became saddened...because I know how infrequent (if ever) my neighbors get to enjoy something like this. The ability to release all thoughts and be pleased on so many different levels is such a gift.
People in my neighborhood are overburdened by a myriad number of things. Square dancing is a luxury. A simple evening that I would have once taken for granted – I’m now looking at in an entirely different way. First of all, it’s a luxury to be able to move and enjoy your body. When working long hours of back-breaking work or when dealing with untreated medical issues – it’s impossible to enjoy your body like this. Secondly, community interaction isn’t a given. People in the inner city, although crowded amongst many people, can be the most isolated from each other. And thirdly, enjoying quiet and nature is a luxury unknown to someone enclosed within the invisible walls that border a ghetto.
And so…while I’m trying to learn the balance between integration and personal well-being – I’m thankful for the amplification of joys that I’m lucky enough to experience. When I first moved to the city I found life there. And I guess that’s why I’m still here…I find life in the city, I find life doing art with kids, I find life hanging around prostitutes.
My world is/was/will be so different then the world of my neighbors. I may be living here with my neighbors and building relationships and learning alot. But when it comes down to it, I don't know what it's like to deal with the things they've dealt with. Things like fleeing a home country never to return, being separated from family, working minimum wage (or worse) jobs, etc, etc. And in contrast - they couldn't even imagine why a 28 year old is single with no children. They couldn't imagine square dancing. But I hope, sometime, that in our intermingling we can build upon each others joys and experiences. Perhaps I’ll never get my neighbors square dancing (that would be a sight!) but I hope I can be an encouragement for experiencing those joys that square dancing brings me.
…and [you] are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…1peter1:8
Monday, February 5
check out my booklist...
I'm very proud of expanding my blog to include reviews on the books I'm reading. You'll now notice that by clicking on any of the titles under "booklist 2007" you'll be taken to another page with my thoughts and favorite quotes on that book...yay! ...Just another way to get into this head of mine ;)
Sunday, February 4
a fabulous weekend
It's been such a great weekend I'm reluctant to go to bed this Sunday night :)
Saturday began earlier then I would have liked, as I needed to take Kim to the airport...but as that put me near to the beach, I turned it into a good excuse to take a beautiful jog. And do that I did. I was amused at the many "jogging groups" I came across...from groups as small as 4 and as big as 25+! After jogging I took some time to dig my bare feet into the sand...and play in the water too (which was surprisingly not very cold...this weekend was very warm and sunny.)
After coming back home, I headed out again...this time on a bikeride downtown. I've been wanting to check out this place called Clifton's Cafeteria. (Above is a vintage postcard of the inside dining area...it still looks the exactly the same) This place was A-mazing! It's like nothing in there has changed since the 40's or earlier. They still are cafeteria style in the cutest way. And it's just like some sort of alternate universe. Being on Broadway...none of the hipster's have found it out supposedly, which was delightfully refreshing. It also has a really neat history of caring for people and feeding the hungry and such. And if you write to them, they'll send you a free souvenier (see website: www.cliftonscafeteria.com)!
So that experience combined with a nice bikeride around downtown and through the neighborhood - all in beautiful sunshine-y weather was quite nice. I came home to neighbor kids wanting to play and I suggested we color. After making fresh squeezed lemonade together we ended up having a little drawing lesson which was awesome. And Anthony, who had never seen my paintings, later requested that he show them to his cousin who arrived. His cousin, who's only about 7 had lots of observations to make interpretting one of my paintings...which was really exciting for me to hear. Sometimes its so refreshing how kids are so open with their observations and thoughts.
Today I got to spend some time with friends and go to church and watch the superbowl. You don't think 3 girls would settle in for the long-haul with the game...but we did and it was very fun. I have to say I was really disappointed with Chicago's quarterback! The Bear's had really excited me with the opening touchdown...but they just didn't follow through.
This week I'm supposed to be in classes 4 days, but we'll see if that happens, one of the teacher's is kinda flaky.
Saturday began earlier then I would have liked, as I needed to take Kim to the airport...but as that put me near to the beach, I turned it into a good excuse to take a beautiful jog. And do that I did. I was amused at the many "jogging groups" I came across...from groups as small as 4 and as big as 25+! After jogging I took some time to dig my bare feet into the sand...and play in the water too (which was surprisingly not very cold...this weekend was very warm and sunny.)
After coming back home, I headed out again...this time on a bikeride downtown. I've been wanting to check out this place called Clifton's Cafeteria. (Above is a vintage postcard of the inside dining area...it still looks the exactly the same) This place was A-mazing! It's like nothing in there has changed since the 40's or earlier. They still are cafeteria style in the cutest way. And it's just like some sort of alternate universe. Being on Broadway...none of the hipster's have found it out supposedly, which was delightfully refreshing. It also has a really neat history of caring for people and feeding the hungry and such. And if you write to them, they'll send you a free souvenier (see website: www.cliftonscafeteria.com)!
So that experience combined with a nice bikeride around downtown and through the neighborhood - all in beautiful sunshine-y weather was quite nice. I came home to neighbor kids wanting to play and I suggested we color. After making fresh squeezed lemonade together we ended up having a little drawing lesson which was awesome. And Anthony, who had never seen my paintings, later requested that he show them to his cousin who arrived. His cousin, who's only about 7 had lots of observations to make interpretting one of my paintings...which was really exciting for me to hear. Sometimes its so refreshing how kids are so open with their observations and thoughts.
Today I got to spend some time with friends and go to church and watch the superbowl. You don't think 3 girls would settle in for the long-haul with the game...but we did and it was very fun. I have to say I was really disappointed with Chicago's quarterback! The Bear's had really excited me with the opening touchdown...but they just didn't follow through.
This week I'm supposed to be in classes 4 days, but we'll see if that happens, one of the teacher's is kinda flaky.
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