Sunday, May 13, 2012

On Place and Words

I'm at Mom's house up north, sitting
in her office, using a laptop bestowed
By the techiest sibling. It
Features no photo ap with which
I'm familiar;
So my strivings to ponder Mom's
Life and her living
Will
Have to post
Bare of pictures.

If our day and
My week of fix-it moments here
Were not all but predetermined,
I would imerse my heart and mind
and seive-full words
around
This place,
These times,
Those times now gone,
And Mum.

So, as she sleeps away her
Post Mass moments
To
Ready for a luncheon later,
I breath deep lungfuls of River air,
Field a call or two from
Loved Ones in my other world,

Then hurry to contrive some way
To understand this houseful
Of
Matrefacts.
On walls,
In closets, pantry, and
Garage;

They may as well be monuments to
Kitchen chairs and talking.
Essential hubs of motherhood.
This Place. Her Words.

One makes room for two.

One makes room for you.

How did I do with that
Brief window of time
When it was my turn?
I missed so many places,
So many words,
Omissions one could only see in hindsight,

But I resolve
To keep my sight
Full forward.
Prayerful
That by ones
Each generation follow,
At Christ's bidding, with
More excellence
Than preceding mothers could;

Compose.
Direct,
Conduct,
Rehearse. 

Devising ears for perfect phrasing
That,
When Christ returns,
Our symphony of family might
Be readyful
Of perfect praise and
Worship.

Or,
Will I be satisfied to sit,
A spectator
Of others' opuses.

My mom was but one canary,
Yet by singing, we might rise
Toward harmony with Him Who Calls

The Tune.

Time to go. No rewrites or proofing. Just a wish
that all my children and their cousins could
convene
Before the cross,
Agreed...




10/24/12: And here's the pic I'd liked to have posted back then, plus a few more:




Where her Dad emerged and worked. El Reno/Kingfisher, OK.


Sharing the photo of her Uncle Rob's famous painting




Saturday, May 5, 2012

Ode to Creativity, Designers, and YWH

It was only right, on yesterday's 61st annual National Day of Prayer, to maintain a bedrock understanding of where Goodness comes from.  Not like the lesson doesn't beg for review every time I wind my way north on Baldwin Avenue, awestruck at the simple beauty of the mountains looming over San Gabriel Valley. If God declared everything He created to be "good," then beauty, by extension is fundamentally good. Everything beautiful is good, and everything good comes from the creative genius of the Creator, YWH.

On that annual day of prayerfully observing God's faithfulness and my need to respond to it, landscape designers and plant artists set up their wares at the L.A. County Arbo's "GROW Festival" garden show. The place was a teeming hive of electric creativity and adrenaline pounding energy.  I mean, huge piles of sand and pavers and granite and stone and bricks just flew off their pallets into an array of displays that you'd guess had been there for decades.

Surrounded by such beautiful beauty, designing designers and artful artistry, the question begs: where do these ingenious people get their ingenious ideas? I am bound by all I know of the loving Creator God to ascribe all the credit to our having been made in His image; and that befuddling concept that each one of us receives His "good gifts."  Just that some of us just get a few less than others...

How cool, if, by virtue of proximity, some wee little bit of it could rub off on me?





















Crazy art installations were everywhere, too,  but my dirty gloves and ocd weeding prevented a thoroughgoing camera exploration. Even so, just gazing at these few images affords such a surge.  The artist inside is waking up.