desert spirit's fire!

Reformation 2026

2026-10-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

In the year 1620 in the month of July, in Leiden, the Netherlands, Pastor John Robinson addressed pilgrims on their way to London to board the Mayflower so they could sail across the Big Pond to the New World. Pastor Robinson observed, "Lutherans have little interest in anything other than what Martin Luther saw. Calvinists aren't interested beyond whatever God revealed to John Calvin. But I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth from his holy word."

More than 200 years later, George Rawson wrote a hymn based on those words:

We limit not the truth of God
to our poor reach of mind
by notions of our day and sect,
crude, partial, and confined.
No, let a new and better hope
within our hearts be stirred
the Lord hath yet more light and truth
to break forth from his word. Amen.

• Jeremiah 31:31-34

Grace to you and peace from God who dwells in the midst of the city [Psalm 46:5], God, whose word runs swiftly [Psalm 147:15]. Amen!

The festival of Reformation is a celebration particularly for the church as we reclaim our identity in the Holy Spirit as a people of the book.

Martin Luther famously saw God as lover of the world in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God in, with, and under almost every passage of the Old and New Testaments. The scriptures showed Luther a God of mercy, love, forgiveness, grace, and compassion.

Scripture never says God's word became a book. Not even a book made up of 66 books! Scripture itself tells us the word became flesh, a human person who walked, talked, lived among us.

Red is our color for festivals of the Spirit Pentecost and Reformation. Red symbolizes fire! Fire burns, sears, purifies, and destroys. We need fire to create a good meal, to bake a loaf of bread. Living in wildfire country we've learned some seeds need to be broken open by fire in order to germinate and grow so a new world will begin in the ashes of the old. Fire is one of our symbols for the Holy Spirit.

On Reformation the church reclaims its identity as a people of the book in the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture brings us at least two other narratives of God's people in a similar situation. Maybe you know of more?

• Good King Josiah in 2 Kings 22 after the priests discovered the Book of the Law in the Temple.

• After the return from Babylonian exile, priest and scribe Ezra and governor Nehemiah read the Book of the Law at the Water Gate, as recorded in Nehemiah 8.

When we hear the word "law" in scripture it usually means the ten words or commandments of the Sinai Covenant. In an informal sense we often identity "law" with the five books of the Pentateuch from Genesis through Deuteronomy, but the Pentateuch as we know it didn't happen until after the return to Jerusalem after the exile.

Lutheran theology often contrasts law and gospel, sometimes referring to the bitterness of the law and the sweetness of the gospel. The law, the ten words or commandments, actually are gifts of grace, but because we find them impossible to do, they become bitter and need the redemption of the gospel.

God gave the exodus desert wanderers the working papers for their lives together after they'd been freed from slavery in Egypt. They'd learn to live together in community, journey together into the future, and keep their freedom despite being surrounded by (centuries of) empires.

Today's focus scripture is from the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah, familiar with kings, family with God. God spoke these words through Jeremiah during the exile in Babylon. The people were gone from the bounty of the land of promise. They were away from the temple they'd mistakenly believed was God's main residence. In fact, the temple had been destroyed.

Through Jeremiah God promises a new covenant, a new way of being. A thread of covenant runs through the witness of scripture. Covenant is God's particular way of coming together with humanity and with creation. If you're in a marriage or a committed relationship, it's probably a covenant. Your church membership is a covenant. But God covenants differently because we're not equal partners with God.

Jeremiah announces the new covenant won't be like the old one that the people broke because they couldn't keep it.

In Exodus 19:8 we hear the people promise, "All the words the Lord has spoken we will do." But they didn't because they couldn't. We may promise to do all the words God speaks, but we don't because we can't.

The new covenant will be written on our hearts. In Hebrew biology, the heart is the seat of our will, intent, and resolve, rather than emotions as we think of heart.

On Reformation we reclaim our identity as a people of book—as people doing the word. Reverencing God by serving our neighbors, whether human, animal, or other aspects of creation.

When the worship is over and the service begins, will the world see God's love for the world in, with, and under our actions, words, and attitudes? Will the word again become flesh in us? Will we reveal more light and more truth?

Today Jesus again invites us to the Table of Grace. In Matthew's account of Jesus' last supper, Jesus tells us the bread is his body—we are what we eat. Jesus says the cup is the blood of the New Covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The past is gone. The past is over and finished. Now we can move into the future. Amen? Amen!

Five Minute Friday :: Approach

2026-10-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Approach Linkup

It's always the approach to the next new thing. Or maybe the approach to my current destination. Train tracks, railroad depots, Mass Pike and other interstates, a lonesome song from past times to remind me not to look back but to try to approach the future God will show me when I get there.

How can I approach something if I don't know where it is? What it is? Isn't it often true that aspects of life approach us first, almost as a tryout to see if we'll respond? Or show any interest? That's not what I had in mind. My fervent prayers asked for a different particular but – ya know – this one feels comfortable and even approaches "just right" for my current needs and situation.

"Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight." I've ridden plenty of kilometers on plenty of Eurail stock, but somehow North American trains carry a greater sense of yearning and nostalgia for me. In the USA I've had at least my share of north shore and south shore of Boston commuter train rides and San Diego Los Angeles Amtrak trips, though I've only read about more major excursions. Latish night driving alongside train tracks north to south in both California and Utah are poignant memories, but more than anything it's the train whistle that tears at my heart and causes tears to cascade down my cheeks.

Where what who do I need to approach today? Is there a person I want to approach? A new activity to approach and discover? A new city? Please Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight. Where. Is. Home?

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Five Minute Friday :: Abandon

2026-10-15T22:37:34.028-07:00

My photograph of tulips from Easter 2025 edited by Grok on twitter
• Five Minute Friday :: Abandon Linkup

Like an abandoned dwelling place or a dream too extravagant to keep believing, the life I expected to continue in a recognizable form suddenly was no more. I say "suddenly" except I have no clue when or where it happened. I still can't fathom what happened. I kept on keeping on as usual, somehow not comprehending "insanity is expecting different results from the same behaviors." Evidently I kept chasing a way of being in the world that had abandoned me, because I was too stubborn to admit to anything other than a brief intermission. Dramatic? Yes, and you can't change what you don't admit.

Life hadn't become simpler. It had become smaller. I was lost. Abandoned. I'd expected the rhythms of my days to continue—or return, but now I know they were gone.

I need to figure out how to rebuild the last place and the last time my world made sense to me. I need to try to find a way out of the silence and the stillness. Do you think a therapist or a life coach could help? I'd planned to start spiritual direction, and I've reached out about it, but it can't begin with my current life-work schedule.

How do you count all those years of new mornings without a purpose during the day? Yet I still wait upon the life that disappeared.

I keep trying to replicate the way it was before my world ended. No wonder I hanker for Y2K! For life with a pulse and a rhythm. Chaotic, purposeful, meaningful. Messy and healing.

As I exist in the space between what I knew and what I don't dare hope for, the silence sometimes feels accusatory. On the other hand, sometimes the silence is wide and spacious and almost welcoming.

Is there a new shape to my life? One that embraces, doesn't abandon?

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LACMA Tuesday

2026-10-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

LACMA has several new exhibits; here are highlights from my Tuesday day off outing.

Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudo & NUNO featured large format textiles and several videos that showed the production process. Given the bright energy of so much contemporary Japanese design, I was surprised the colors, textures, and patterns were so bland I'd banish them from my wardrobe and living spaces, but the descriptions and the environmental stewardship involved were good to know about.

These pics are from the on-site retail shop that was beautifully arranged and had a few offerings I might enjoy, after all.

Home of the Future, 1925-1985: Designing Domestic Utopias

brought together everything: design; engineering; culture; history; imagination, life. And it had a sub-show, The Kitchen and its Discontents. I don't know if that was disCONtents or disconTENTS. All of it was North American and Western European.

They had real examples of various home furnishings from the represented decades (more chairs than anyone could count), some small scale model houses, about a dozen short videos, and they admitted the kitchen hasn't become more automated but everything we do in the kitchen has become more complicated. You've likely seen or used some of the older kitchen appliances and phones, entertainment objects like record players, CRT televisions, and transistor radios. I had to add in the radio because I had a couple of cool ones I still miss.

I'll close with three posters. This one is from the USA's Rural Electrification Administration that I need to read more about.

General Electric Tomorrowland Carousel of Progress

Danish artist Aage Sikker-Hansen (1897-1955) declares the kitchen Denmark's biggest workplace, repositioniung domestic work as a professional pursuit. Circa 1950s

Five Minute Friday :: Comfortable

2026-10-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Comfortable Linkup

Sweater weather already has arrived in most of the Global North; it soon will be sweater weather here in Southern California. Kate's cozy knit illustration is exactly what I love about dressing for winter. As much fun as bright sundresses and retro preppy shorts can be (can you tell I'm trying to stay stuck in Y2K?), even when it's not business attire, even when it's for everyday errands or casual classroom wear, even when you haven't been shopping on High Street or finding high end thrift store surprises, cool weather clothes feel and look more classy, better quality.

If I wondered what to say about comfortable, did that intro just decide for me? Maybe not.

As adults with a degree of agency – a concept that's become popular recently – speaking for myself, of course, many of us still spend too much time caught up in longings to feel more comfortable about ourselves, our abilities, our decisions. Today's sunshine didn't last long enough and in addition, it's almost fall back time. I finished the project on time, the client seemed happy, but I could have included certain details. After lunch I found out the restaurant on the other corner had a better special just for today. Those minutiae keep leading to discomfort and discontent and I keep forgetting where I might find real comfort, a.k.a. The Bigger Picture.

I'm comfortably at home at the beach and in the city. The weekly Sunday assembly partly – or better – gets who I am. They like my art, enjoy my musical offerings, appreciate my theology. All that leads to some level of comfort.

Last Sunday after worship, our seminarian met with a few of us as part of the preparation for his first ever sermon that I understand will happen on Advent 2. The scripture he chose was Acts 17:22-28—the apostle Paul addressing the Athenians at the Areopagus.

He beautifully explained about God with us, God among us, God within us. Paul's audience heard:

²⁴"The God who made the world and everything in it…²⁷…is not far from each one of us. ²⁸For 'in him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your own poets have said, for we, too, are God's offsetting."

Isn't that a keystone passage when we seek to become comfortable? It works almost every time!

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Blessing of the Animals 2022

2026-10-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

Blessing of the Animals 2019

2026-10-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Blessing of the Animals 2018

2026-10-01T22:34:28.120-07:00

Blessing of the Animals 2017

2026-10-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

Blessing of the Animals 2026

2026-10-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

Season of Creation

For a long time I designed every year for the Season of Creation. For a long time that liturgical emphasis paralleled the 3-year Revised Common Lectionary with scriptures related to the RCL's featured evangelist: Matthew (Spirit series), Mark (Word series), or Luke (Wisdom series). After a while the Season of Creation website formally moved away from the 3-year RCL-related Sundays, though many churches still observe them.

Season of Creation began in the Lutheran Church of Australia; the Uniting Church in Australia (affiliated with the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council) has the Season of Creation dot com website; Roman Catholics maintain season of creation dot org. The World Council of Churches makes note of it every year, as do many other church bodies and traditions worldwide.

The Lutheran Church of Australia offers resources based on this year's Living Water theme.

Blessing of the Animals

After four creation-focused September Sundays, churches and sometimes other organization often have a public Blessing of the Animals on the First Sunday in October, or close to the October 4th feast of St Francis of Assisi. This year the first Sunday is October 4th! Though I've included a critter blessing in several of my monthly rundowns, I haven't blogged my designs separately. I'm starting with the banner I designed for this year, 2026.

Five Minute Friday :: Sight

2026-10-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Sight Linkup

There's physical eyesight, there's insight, and there's a kind of vision beyond conventional ways of seeing. Regarding the eyes many of us thankfully have to see with, a few years ago during a spate of local temblors, southern California Earthquake Lady and composer Lucy Jones reminded everyone to keep your eyeglasses within easy reach beside your bed in case you needed to evacuate in the middle of the night. Because without vision you'll be lost.

Because without vision you'll be lost. The sight outside of everyday perception that lets us see beyond the mundane, that allows us to trust something better, bigger, more magical and kinder is possible. Vision that believes and acts upon the promise of scripture there's a new world coming. A world where wars have ended, everyone matters, and no one is hungry. Vision that claims us so we act upon God's call for justice and peace. Without that kind of vision the world is lost. Are you listening, are you seeing? Do you trust Isaiah's vision of swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks? Do you trust God's call and summons to you? Do you dream the vision will be fulfilled?

PS Regarding physical eyesight – with or without glasses or contacts – I really really enjoy taking pictures when I go places. (You can search this blog for my mostly photographic end of month rundowns.) However, with my hyperfocus on getting good shots I sometimes don't see the bigger picture. On that always there other hand, the intensity of my attempts to see often reveals details other people miss. And then when I look at the actual picture, I notice even more! How about you? What's your photographic vision? What's your vision for a redeemed world?

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The Broad Yoko Ono and MOCA

2026-09-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

• Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind at The Broad Museum ends on Sunday 11 September, so it was time to experience it for this week's Tuesday outing.

• 1960-2016 were the dates for Add Colour Refugee Boat that was part of the Yoko exhibit, but people had kept adding blue to the walls, the floor, and the boat, so somewhere I need to learn more of its history.

• Because The Broad is expanding they'd closed some of the usual galleries. I'll end this Broad section with a pair of industrial photographs by Thomas Struth.

• Semi Submersible Drilling Rig, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard on Geoje Island, South Korea, 2007

• Neutral Buoyancy Lab, Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston, Texas, USA, 2017

• After leaving The Broad, I crossed the street for:

• In These Times: Recent Acquisitions at MOCA

• Silverlake Hillside, 2025 • Hilary Pecis

• Dick Tracy Variation (empty speech), #1, 2015 • John Sparagana

• Abolish ICE • Andrea Bowers, 2018

• The Ogre's Wife, 2022 • Christina Forrer

• Secret Circle, 1990-1991 • Viola Frey

• Z.E.E.P. series, 1969-1970 • Sir Eduardo Paolozzi

• Only details from Numbers and Trees, Tanzania Series 1, Baobab Ogiek, 2024 by Charles Gaines because I couldn't capture the whole thing and it's too hard to describe, but it was elegant and unusual.

• Subway Tuna Tuesday

• Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf exterior and a Hazelnut Frappe

Five Minute Friday :: Brief

2026-09-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dreams from Summer 2000
The days and the summer nights
Berries from the brambles and the vines
Yearning for a future still not yet
Recalling how to dream…

• Five Minute Friday :: Brief Linkup

Let's go with brief in the sense of short. A brief meeting. A brief scripture commentary. A quick conversation. Kate wrote about the passage of time—that's something all of us know related to both loss and anticipation.

What more can I say? I fully trusted it was a brief intermission between the life I'd known and a similar life that soon would come by way. If you'd asked me then as in my grandma's expression "way back when," how would I have defined brief? That's easy! I'll quote what I said to a friend who since has gone on to glory. After she expressed concern about my future and wondered how it might happen in the wake of a string of unanticipated events I replied, "I'm not worried at all. Before I turn around – no, before I blink – my life will be full again."

Wrong!

My header collage is Dreams from Summer 2000. Twenty-six years ago. Not a brief stretch of time in any human's life. Sometimes I ask myself what I'd tell someone else in a similar situation.

As I've told people in person and online, I go through most days with a combination of optimism, hope, and denial. A facebook friend observed there's a fine line between hope and denial. Ya think so? And though I keep observing no one can change what they don't acknowledge, I don't admit to much of any loss or pain for even a brief moment.

I'd tell someone else to get mad. Feel the pain. Let the anger hurt the way it's supposed to. Those were serious betrayals. Add up the months and the years and the decades. List all of the lost expectations. Yearn again for a future still not yet. Put yourself back then and start over again. Amen? Amen!

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Getty Center Gardens

2026-09-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

Despite many recent visits to the Getty Center, I hadn't spent time in the gardens since Before Covid (BC). This past Tuesday that changed; here's some of the beauty.

Five Minute Friday :: Responsible

2026-09-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Responsible Linkup

Somewhere I read, over-responsibility is neurosis; irresponsibility is character disorder. Most people can't avoid being some of both at one time or another.

I'll start by asking "Is neurosis still a concept?" Whether or not most contemporary clinicians use the word neurosis, most of us have an excellent idea of what it means. I'll admit I tend toward the over-responsible side, and I have a sneaking suspicion most women probably do. Only last week in our Approve FMF I admitted to being a people-pleaser—again, more women than not, I suspect. So why not make this yet another in my Life Stuff category? No, I don't think so. Not this time.

Let's look at responsible from the perspective of being responsive. Responding to the needs of others, especially those in our immediate circle. Responding to the needs of creation. On occasion being an (over)responsible steward of planet earth. I try to live as green and as minimally as my current living arrangement allows; I know several people who get very high marks for their level of creation care. I have one friend in particular whose stewardship of this planet is so extraordinary it's a case of "I have no words." I'm always in awe of the example she sets. And related to my opening statement, I'd say she occasionally gets excessive (over-responsible?) in some aspects of earth care.

Riffing on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's gospel, I designed the Salt, Leaven, LIght header illustration. As a creation lover and especially given my passion for cities and The City, I try to look around for situations than need a bit of seasoning in order to be appealing. A hint of yeast to grow into what they could be. A blaze of light to reveal goodness and possibility.

In what areas of life do you excel in being responsible? Is there one where you're overly so? How about a wonderfully balanced just right without going over or under? Do you have one? I wonder if I do!

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Five Minute Friday :: Approve

2026-09-10T22:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Approve Linkup

This prompt fits a classic Pauline trope that directs us to the source of grace and the proper place to seek approval:

"Am I now seeking human approval or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I wouldn't be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10

Like many others, I can be quite a people pleaser. (And quite the iconoclast.) The reasons are complicated. Part of it is I've worked hard to achieve high levels of skill, and I don't want anyone to question my expertise, especially if they have no knowledge of that field of endeavor.

But doing something in public for the public like a piano performance, a design project, a Sunday sermon, are more distant and almost abstract than some other areas where a person seeks approval.

Consider when someone gives you a job or a task, whether or not it's part of your paid employment, whether or not it's for public consumption—and public approval. When someone tasks you, either you already have a relationship with them, or you may aspire to relate to them or their company. It could be a boss, a client (also a kind of boss because they'll be paying you if all turns out well), a job interviewer asking you to demonstrate your abilities in software X or solve sample problem Y. It could be a spouse or a sibling or another relative. In sum, any time you're doing anything that propels you into approval-seeking mode, it's not simply about you. It's about them, too. And my wanting approval is about a possible fracture in a current relationship, or maybe it's about a new relationship that won't happen if my performance isn't the best ever.

My scripture from Galatians directs us outside of and beyond all those humans whose approval we think we need. It sends us to the source of the gifts, to the Spirit that inspires our actions and our expertise. The Spirit that gathers the community and relates us to the people we believe are worth pleasing. The apostle Paul asks if we want "God's approval." And what does he tell us about pleasing people?

Think about that.

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June Wayne at LACMA

2026-09-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Looking at LACMA from Wilshire Blvd on Sunday, 29 January 2017

Intro

September 8th being the second Tuesday of the month might mean a visit to LACMA, the internationally renowned art museum whose name is an everyday noun in this town. But I'd already seen the current exhibitions and my two tries at viewing some of the Geffen Gallery that opened last spring had overwhelmed me.

Therefore? Because there were several new things to see at the Getty, that's where I headed. As usual, when my Metro bus got close to Wilshire and Westwood where I'd catch one to Brentwood and beyond (Van Nuys, Sylmar, generic San Fernando Valley), I went to the Getty website to book my arrival time. I always wait because by then I know my ETA within 20 minutes or so. But the Getty was closed for the day! My best guess is because Mondays usually are dark, this week they took Tuesday for maintenance and cleaning because Monday was Labor Day and a federal holiday. I'm excited about next week at the Getty, so stay tuned to this blog.

Therefore? I turned around and headed back to LACMA with a plan to find a wall of ocean-themed lithographs I'd loved my last time at the Geffen Galleries and that for an unknown reason I hadn't even written down the name of the artist. Strange, because I'd made a mental note of their location relative to the elevator and then I left for the day.

After getting off the eastbound Metro bus I booked my LACMA visit, crossed the street to check in, and headed upstairs in the new gallery. it took a while, but I found the ocean art.

June Wayne

What a discovery! June Wayne (1918-2011) is the artist's name, and she achieved near-legendary status in LA. She founded Tamarind Workshop, the first ever for fine art lithography; Citrus Editions, Gemini G.E.I., and Self Help Graphics followed in Tamarind's wake. Tamarind now belongs to the University of New Mexico with the tagline Where lithography lives. You can see some of June's art on Tamarind, and here's her website. You can learn more at her extensive wikipedia and she has an Instagram.

Demented Tidal Wave II, 1972
Lithograph printed by William Law III

Seventh Wave II, 1971
Lithograph printed by David Trowbridge

Tidal Wave, 1974
Lithograph printed by Edward Hamilton

Tidal Wave, 1972
Lithograph printed by William Law III

Black Tidal Wave, 1973
Lithograph printed by John Maggio

White Tidal Wave II, 1972
Lithograph printed by William Law III

Outro

Do you realize (of course you do) we don't try to sample every dish and flavor on any restaurant menu because our appetite and our budgets make it impossible? Whether it's a rock concert or a symphonic feast, linear time limits how much music we take in at once. So why did I imagine needing to sprint through the Geffen Galleries and see almost everything, when I could pick and choose a certain section or era or style or artist?

Five Minute Friday :: Boundary

2026-09-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Boundary Linkup

Intro
Even when their basic polity or governance is local or congregational, mainline church bodies all have denominational judicatories with names like synod, conference, presbytery, district, diocese; one of their functions is to provide oversight and accountability to the local church. My recent experience has been when a judicatory offers boundaries training for pastors and other church leaders, they usually invite everyone with interest in the topic to attend because setting boundaries is a vital aspect of mental wellness.

In any organization or business, when they hear the word "boundaries" people often think sex and money, but those are areas a person knows they're violating if they cross a boundary or border. They're usually aware of even minor transgressions of those boundaries. Sometimes we need to spell out boundaries for other parts of our lives, especially if things have gotten to feel chaotic or unbalanced.

Boundaries
Did you notice Kate's illustration for today is a fence? The American poet Robert Frost told us "good fences make good neighbors" in his Mending Wall.

Everyone needs to be concerned about setting boundaries in relationships with other people, with hobbies and recreational activities, appetites of various kinds, time, social media, and everything else every day. The need for some boundaries can be subtle.

I'm considering essential boundaries for my basic physical well-being. Ideally that happens before exploring those outside myself, but like everyone, I need to begin where I already am. There may be some boundaries it would be wise to modify or change, new ones at least to experiment with. I might plan to:

• Not settle for less sleep than I need to get through the day.
• Do my best to enjoy more fruits and veggies every day. Typically I do that almost without thinking, but where I currently live it's a major challenge I need to get intentional about.
• Stay better hydrated with water.
• Since I don't go to a gym, walk at least one mile at least every other day for the exercise and for the sunlight. Preferably morning, but if it doesn't happen early in the day, don't use that as a reason not to do it at all.

It's not about getting and maintaining a compulsive, unbendable, micro-disciplined schedule. It's about establishing structure and boundaries in sleep, nutrition, and exercise that then can wiggle and bend some to accommodate friends, family, career, volunteer work, social obligations, recreation, and unexpected situations that all typically include other people who sometimes make their own demands I need to consider.

How are you thinking and acting about boundaries these days?

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Port of Los Angeles

2026-09-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

The Port of Los Angeles was my destination for this week's Tuesday day off. More specifically, the area tourists and regular people can visit that's south of the nitty gritty of the 24/7 working container port. Did you know the Port of LA and the Port of Long Beach are twins? And by the way, passenger cruise ships also sail out of the Ports of LA and Long Beach. The eight day Mexican Riviera cruise I took in 2010 was out of Long Beach.

I sort of have a "thing" about container ports, shipping, hauling, and rail transport, and the part all of them play in the supply chain. I follow a dozen container ports on Twitter and I get the Port of Amsterdam's newsletters. One of my best ever long ago memories was trying to stay awake most of the night in a hostel right beside a working section of the Port of Hamburg. It was so exciting and glamorous!

Although I planned Tuesday knowing the battleship Iowa and the Maritime Museum both were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (I trust this won't be my forever schedule), I'd hoped to take a harbor boat cruise. Advertised at $15 for close to an hour around the bay, it sounded like a don't miss it activity. It turned out they needed to have enough people sign up before they sailed, so I decided not to wait around this time.

I'd gone south to the city of San Pedro that's the skinny strip of land where the Port of LA resides because I believed there was a fancy commercial strip some distance away from the major port activity, but that's another "as it turned out" because it had been razed and they were in the process of building a new, improved, exciting mile long row of shops and restaurants.

Apparently I looked dazed, because a harbor police officer approached me in front of the closed museum and asked if I was lost. Yes, I was! She told me what was going on and said there was a brand new Starbucks about a mile away at the end of the currently empty new development. Close to the end of the promenade, it was a beautiful small store, with a lot of outside seating, so I got my favorite large hazelnut frappuccino with whipped cream.

And on the way – of course on the way back in the opposite direction, too – there were two schooners moored in the water. I looked closely and I knew one of them had to be American Pride, one of my favorites from the Labor Day weekend San Diego annual Festival of Sail. I don't know why seeing her there surprised me; probably because I hadn't remembered American Pride is the official tall ship of the city of Long Beach.

I had to search "two mast schooner beside American Pride in San Pedro" and it was the Swift of Ipswich. Yes! named after the north shore town of Ipswich Massachusetts of fried clams fame.

Despite no museum, cruise, or shopping strip, it was a wonderful day along the bay.

I'm ending with an American Pride trilogy from San Diego Festival of Sail 2013 and 2014. The one on the right is one of my best captures of American Pride in full red sail.

Five Minute Friday :: Here

2026-08-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Here Linkup

1 God is here! As we your people
meet to offer praise and prayer,
may we find in fuller measure
what it is in Christ we share.
Here, as in the world around us,
all our varied skills and arts
wait the coming of your Spirit
into open minds and hearts.

2 Here are symbols to remind us
of our lifelong need of grace;
here are table, font, and pulpit,
here the cross has central place.
Here in honesty of preaching,
here in silence as in speech,
here in newness and renewal
God the Spirit comes to each.

• words by Fred Pratt Green, ©1979, Hope Publishing Co.
• music, Abbot's Leigh, Cyril V Taylor ©1942, renewed ©1970, Hope Publishing Co.

Do you know this hymn? It's one of my favorites to lead from organ or piano and a favorite to sing when someone else leads it well. Do you know the promise of this song? God is here. With references to God's assembled, Spirit-filled people and God's presence in the sacraments, in scripture, and in preaching, it's especially appropriate as the gathering song for worship.

Scripture tells us Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of God. [Mark 16:19] As Martin Luther explains, God's right hand, God's sovereignty, is everywhere, therefore Christ is present not simply right here, but everywhere—though in a special way "for you, for me, for each of us" [1 corinthians 11:24] in the Savior's particular presence in the Lord's Supper.

We start and continue worship aware of God's presence here within the gathered assembly. Does that remind us to look for God elsewhere, because if God is here in this place, God may be there in our next here, in every right "here" where we find ourselves and others find us?

Do you remember the promise of God's life in us here in the world?

On the day of Pentecost the gathered people received the indwelling Spirit of Life [Acts 2:1-18]. Because at baptism each of us receives the Spirit, in our daily walk in the world we are the Body of the Crucified and Risen Christ here on earth. [1 Corinthians 3:16]

Being in God's presence during worship is an important "here" place to be, but in many ways it's a model, a rehearsal, and a reminder that God is right here – and right now – wherever we are.

What places are your favorite heres? # # #

Five Minute Friday :: Half

2026-08-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

• Five Minute Friday :: Half Linkup

The song "It's Getting Better" by the late Cass Elliot is about a love match, but it can be true of any aspect of life:

Once I believed that when love came to me
It would come with rockets, bells and poetry
But with me and you it just started quietly and grew
And it's not hard to see
That it isn't half of what it's going to turn out to be

Sometimes grief and loss and unmet expectations overwhelm me. Does that happen to you? But I love love love mornings! The morning light, breakfast with berries that doesn't happen year round but this is summer, and an imagination-fueled prospectus of what the day may hold – even when it's a routine everyday – gets me smiling. Isn't it about grace, surprise, serendipity and unexpected joys?

If you know me at all you know I love summer. Sunshine, warmth, city sidewalks, urban beaches, and ocean breezes. But maybe even better, if summer's here, my major new year is on the way—check out my opening image.

I've written about my several new years:

• The first Sunday of Advent
• January 1 of a new calendar year
• My late January birthday

all of which make solid opportunities for new starts. But probably like many others, late summer is my main new year, my primary new beginning. Memories of a new academic year ranging from kindergarten through a series of graduate and professional schools energize my hope; there's nothing halfway like it.

Schools around here began again on Wednesday, August 12. Something about that date doesn't feel half as exciting and fulfilling as when I was coming up and school started the Thursday after Labor Day.

I opened with a song about human expectations that romantic love will arrive with bells, whistles, and songs (sometimes it does), along with the reality that love in any kind of relationship frequently sneaks up on both persons and almost imperceptibly becomes deeper, wider, and stronger. When you look back you can see all the increments along the way, including the halfway mark.

The morning of every day. The dawn of a new school year (how poetic of me). Don't all of those start less than halfway and grow into more than we ever thought could be?

Did you know:
"In order to be considered half as good
a woman must be twice as good.
Luckily that is not difficult."
# # #

https://whatsyourgrief.com/grieving-an-online-friend-cybergrief/

Natural History Museum :: Butterflies + Orcas

2026-08-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

Ads for the Butterfly Pavilion at the Natural History Museum kept popping up online and all over town. For a while Tuesdays were the museum's day off, which meant I couldn't go there on my Tuesday day off. With summer the schedule switched, so two special exhibits at the NHM became my museum visit of the week.

Such serendipity because the Butterflies close this coming Sunday! As the poster announcement explains, visitors got 30 minutes with the lovely insects. The enclosure was extravagantly planted to attract and feed the twenty-some butterfly varieties in all life stages. Although there was no formal commentary, several staff members were there to answer questions.

After the Butterflies I ventured into Orcas: Our Shared Future; it was visually beautiful and scientifically detailed. For me the expressive orca-influenced art was the highlight. Most of the art was by indigenous artists – Pacific Northwest Coast First Nation peoples – and I didn't try for more than a few impressions. I also avoided displays that had a violence warning label.

Five Minute Friday :: Disrupt

2026-08-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Monday at Vacation Bible School 2014
ready to collect backpacks
for Community Christian Service Center's
annual back to school initiative.

• Five Minute Friday :: Disrupt Linkup

Kate's story intrigued me and because it was familiar, I decided to piggyback on it!

Intro:

When I still was in Previous City, the place I was living needed mold remediation. In their process the contractors decided to disrupt my bedroom instead of my landlady/housemate's art studio per her request, which created awkward entry and exit from my room. (Her studio was bedroom 3 in a 3 bedroom house).

Part 1:

For the mold exit week, we found a hotel with a good deal for pets, so we took P's small dog and my two cats there. It meant two humans and three pets in a regular size hotel room. And you know what? That disruption for everyone worked out fine for all of us.

It was August and Vacation Bible School week; with the church some distance away from the hotel because of our pet-related lodging needs, every morning I traveled to VBS during rush hour. That trip was a relatively minor change or disruption from when I lived around the corner from the church and could walk there in less than five minutes, but the less familiar scenery energized me—maybe by disrupting my usual expectations and routines?

Part 2:

Because getting the mold out meant a major structural disruption of ripping out a wall, my friend decided it would be a perfect time to update the second floor bathroom that had some mostly age-related concerns and that – like at Kate's house – was the only full bath.

Back in the Tierrasanta/ Holy Land neighborhood the week after our hotel stay that also was the week after VBS, since the mold people had left, the bathroom contractors were able to start. Did I mention it was August?

Because August is hot in Southern California, one (you, me, any person) had best not skimp on showers. So? We arranged with two different neighbors to shower at their house. Two households so as not to disrupt only one every day.

Outro:

You may be expecting to hear about another disruption, but the new bathroom with a working shower finally happened, so that's the end of this week's Five Minute Friday.

Since then the church's senior pastor has retired, his kids now are adults, and the church has a new fellowship hall. Since then I've moved north to Los Angeles.

I've enjoyed reminiscing because it showed me what might be possible again. And now? It likely will take a few more disruptions before my days are full again. Thanks for reading!

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Shift

2026-08-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

If anyone has the world's goods
and sees his brother in need
yet closes his heart against him
how does God's love abide in him?
1 john 3:17
• Five Minute Friday :: Shift Linkup

My first impulse was shifting from one musical mode or key to another, shifting gears in a vehicle (did you know I loathe, despise, and abhor automatic transmissions?), changing styles, switching activities, changing your mind about something, an attitude shift. Then I read Kate's blog about work shifts! Of course! Although unlike her son, I've never worked third shift, in a past life I knew someone (RIP) who had. He explained a special kind of person loves third shift, often for all their lives.

To continue the employment topic, I can tell you working second shift isn't nearly as bad as I'd imagined. Without a doubt it's partly my gratitude for a job, almost any job, and for the most part I like the job. My fave work schedule is odd irregular days, preferably with a couple of split shifts during the week (unusual, I know). If work needs to be Monday through Friday days, 7 to 3 fits best, though in real life I've worked those hours only two separate summers.

When I was a lot younger I worked five jobs seven days a week and loved it; I'd like to figure out something like that again. Because some of those jobs had fluid hours, I averaged 35 to 40 hours each week, almost never more than 45. That was so good because I had large chunks of time off most days.

Having said that, shifting from one job to another might be on the horizon for some of us. What does a major shift like that entail?

My header art asks how God's love can abide in someone who doesn't love their sister or brother? God's love wants to abide, to make a home – an abode – in us.

We have passed out of death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. 1 John 3:14

The Greek means to pass over, to change, to depart, to move. Death to life is a very big shift! # # #

July 2026

2026-07-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

If you've been following this blog or my days in general, you probably know my current between lives work situation gives me one day off each week, so I do my best to make Tuesdays interesting and momentous with an activity like a museum visit. Here's the rundown for July.

• Tuesday 07 July

This didn't count as momentous, but I enjoyed hanging out at the Century City Mall. In an unusual configuration, you enter from the Santa Monica Boulevard sidewalk (there's also an attached parkade), and once you're inside the mall two floors of shops, department stores, and eateries open up.

Unlike many shopping centers, this one is alive, well, and a cool place to chill. It's larger and not as upscale as The Grove, and it's slightly less plebeian than shopping centers like Culver City that's also a Westfield. The LA Westside neighborhood of Century City claims pride of place in between the municipality of Beverly Hills and the Westwood hood where UCLA resides.

Because there was a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf I had to have a hazelnut frappe; did you know CB&TL does hazelnut much better than anywhere else?

With Subway's current meal of the day rotation featuring Tuna on Tuesdays, you know what I got.

• Tuesday14 July

• Village Square at LACMA.

• Tuesday 21 July

• Getty Center again because they had some new exhibits I intended to view, but instead of visiting them I sat around various spots inside and out and took some pictures.

• Tuesday 28 July

Again this time, I didn't write a separate blog for the last Tuesday of the month. I went back to the Getty and into the Research Institute building where I visited Lost, Found, Returned about the provenance of a particular drawing and Stendahl's World—Marketing Ancient Mexico and Modern Art in Los Angeles. I'd seen the word "provenance" before, but I didn't know the meaning. Provenance is where something originates (pro+venire=comes from), along with its journey if it has one beyond place of birth. In many ways tracing provenance is like tracking the title trail for a real property—especially legal aspects of both.

I don't link to the exhibitions on museum websites because they'll be gone as soon as the art in question is gone, but I strongly encourage you to check out Earl L. Stendahl's acquisitions, exhibitions, and sales, particularly when he got into Mesoamerican art and artifacts that became a trend and a status symbol. Everything wasn't genuine, and he left devastation behind at the excavation sites.

Wikipedia says, "He sold Mexican and Central American antiquities that were often stolen, looted, or assembled from disparate fragments. Often sold to Hollywood collectors, to museums, and even department stores." To think it happened during the century we just left!