Kettles and Branches. Foxholes. Queen Sheba Declares.

The Water is in the Kettle and heating. From my view out the kitchen window I can see that Orofino the Golden Lab has been dragging large tree branches around the backyard again. It feels like a good time to write. 

When I was very young growing up in Orleans, California I experienced several earthquakes. Once in the middle of the night I woke up in the middle of a earthquake. I woke up, got up from my bed and stood in the door frame. I was told that door frames are the strongest places to stand when inside a building in a earthquake. My Parents came out of their room and had to pull my hand away from my brace on the door frame. They were trying to get to my sisters in the same room behind me. I can remember the odd feeling of being a hindrances to my parents as I wouldn't move out of the door way. It was reported last year while I was living in Portland, that Portland Oregon is long overdue for another earthquake. I examined the building I was working in and I took note of the foundations beams that held the building up. I was playing the hero in my mind that if anything was to happen I was going to lead all my coworkers to the foundation beams and save us all from harm. I am amazed at how a environment can change, when all around is shaking. When your car becomes your temporary house on the side of the road. When a umbrella becomes roof over your head in a rain storm. When a single blanket gives itself to three people freezing at a sporting event. They are but little foxholes in life. I don't mean this to be so cryptic, but thinking of Fox holes leads me to say Fox's have holes and Birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to rest His head.

I keep being asked if I am happy in my current job. I am not sure why that needs to be a question or what could be changed if a disagreement was to be brought up. It is often times that I view work as a unmovable mountain that we all take our places upon to work and labor and make our keep. This morning in my reading I read about King Solomon's visit from the Queen Sheba. She had heard of Solomon's wisdom and came to place it to the test. At the end of it all, Queen Sheba declares, your servants are happy and your people are happy. I have heard it said the sign of a wise person is not being able to separate himself by his knowledge, but to be able to take the complex nature of his knowledge and to describe it simply. Queen Sheba describes Solomon wisdom as this, “ Even your servants are happy working for you.”

Far north and Easter.

I spent the long Easter weekend with friends, up in the Far north. It was hard not to be in awe of God and his creation, being surrounded by New Zealand's west coast rugged beauty! It was so awesome to be around amazing people and scenery at easter. I was challenged, inspired and well rested by the end of the trip.

I have no insights right now to write on, or profound thoughts....ha! But I made this video from snippets I took while we drove up 90 mile beach up to the very top of New Zealand (Cape Reinga) and thought I could show it here. The backing track is called 'You and I' by Avalanche City. I hope its ok guys?

Grounds for Control. The Steel Handed Stingray Hook. Hurts to Laugh.

I was told that in Customer Sales a potential customer must have at least ten interactions with his intended item of interest before they will commit to purchasing this. Translating this for a Sales Person means they must give the Customer multiple opportunity to purchase their item of interest. I am currently making my decisions as to what book I will read next. I have a few in my possession, but I have been approached by two others and have been hearing about them as though I was in a small gift shop with a anxious owner. I enjoy trying to track the path by which these books came into my circle of influences. Book one, I can distinctly recall the guy from Ground Kontrol in front of me at Tiny's coffee shop, telling his friend he bought his brother a first audition. It was last week that I was sent a text message encouraging me to read Book One.

Book two, has less human involvement and more media control. The Author's name was first dropped in the movie Tron. I heard the name of the author, but did not know what he had written. So I felt embarrassed that I was unsure of what the reference meant inside of the movie. On my Kindle the author's face is proudly displayed with a powerful beard. I entertained the thought that the power lies in the beard. Both books have come into my life in their odd ways. Both have different routes that my emotions will be lead on. I am not sure what will come of Ten Opportunities till Ownership.

In the book “Peter and Wendy”, James Hook debates the issue of Good Form. You can remember this phrase being spoken out by Dustin Hoffman in the 1991 movie “Hook”, with Robin Willliams as a adult version of Peter Pan. In the original book our only true step inside the mind of Captain Hook was his personal debate of the issue of Good Form, which is directly opposed to Bad Form. There were wonderful ideas that he himself debated personally to try and to create a life style of Good Form in his own life. Since James Hook was a Pirate it is safe to say that Form does attach itself to Morals. Design demands that Form follows Function. Captain Hook was jealous of Smee his ship hand, when all the children including the Lost Boys played with Smee's glasses and pulled at his beard and talked to him sweetly. Smee possessed Good Form unknowingly and it brought children in and made them love him without a pinpoint merit as to why. If Form follow Function, Smee life must have made the entertainment of children a possibility. But not so much as children alone, but the entertainment of new incoming thought aside from his own. As Captain, Jas. Hook can look to no others for his source of confidence lest his confider aids a mutiny against him. What a wonderful question to ask oneself, if I hold my words in for fear of a mutiny, or make way for child like thought. 

“Each heart knows its own sadness, but no one can share its joy.” Proverbs 14:10

How do we find bonds of connection, How do we begin friendships, how do we create conversation in grocery stores. Can I be so bold as to say we do so over grief. Joy is the hardest moment to give away, but sadness we can agree on. In Robert Heinlein “ Stranger in a Strange Land.” Michael makes a convincing argument that we laugh in place of feeling pain. He argues that a person slips and falls and we laugh. The idea of laughing at someone else tragedy is sickening, but it is a everyday occurrence. A expression of Sadness or Ill Feelings. I was amazed at work the other day how quickly a conversation over customer and worker interaction created a long chain of story upon story of Ill Feelings. In Customer Service I was told that a Customer who has experienced a store that he or she was impressed with, will tell 4 to 5 people of the outstanding service they received and experienced. A Customer who has a bad occurrence with tell ten people about the Ill or Sad Experience. But it is my belief that Joy presses forward, but Sadness sits down to think of the past. Going forward in joy still may be a little lonely.

Life without Lips.

A couple of weeks ago I got news that one of my best friends Lippy is being deported back to the Uk within the month. It is such a shock. She has been revising her visa application for a few months now, and it has been a massive ordeal for her. I never in a million years thought it would end up like this.

Kind of makes me not want to be friends with anyone from anywhere other than NZ because it's to painful to let them go! But of course that is crazy, and it would be such an insular protected life!!

I feel selfish thinking about what my life is going to be like without her. It's going to be so strange and I will miss her sooooo much. Lippy is such a generous, joyful, playful friend. One that you just want to be around because they give you life. It makes me wonder since this has all come around so quickly, have I been a good friend in return. Have I shown her enough love, have I given her enough of my time? It also makes me think to enjoy where you are, when you are there and make the most of the moments you have with people.

I am trying these days to have a balanced life. To not spend too much time at work (I have a tendency to be a workaholic) , to spend more time with friends and family.

Give Me a Book. Friend Potential. Save Honey Bee.

I was given a book a while back by a man I whom I barely knew. I was working as a Barista at the time, and he was a customer from time to time. I am sure that he could hear most of my conversations that I would have with people from the counter. One day he arrived at the coffee shop and gave me a book. The act of giving someone a book is a wonderful thing. It is a hard decision because the book is as though your most trusted friend and now you have decided to set it up on a blind date with a complete stranger. I recommend that you give it away and do not ask for it back. Unless you are willing to give away your most trusted information it most likely will not return to you in the same form as loaning it in a tenant like fashion.

I had heard that a young man had gotten his bike stolen. I found myself in conversation with him and I said, “ I am sorry to hear about your bike.” He expressed that he was not sure what he was going to do about the situation. It was his main sources of transportation to work. In some defense of the situation, I don't think walking is out of the question, but we were dealing in social goods and so I didn't say that. I told him that I would keep my eye out for a bike that was for sale. I had never had a conversation with this boy before, other than asking him for a cup of coffee at the sales register. I noticed a change in him in our conversation. I noticed a potential. A potential for friendship.

On my walk today I saw a Honey Bee. The day had made a turn from bright and sunny to dark clouds and wind. The Honey Bee was sitting on a fence waiting to die. Walking by I felt bad that I had nothing to offer him to save his life. Honey Bee's only travel with enough sustenance to sustain their current trip. Searcher Honey Bee locate Flowers for their Pollen. They return to the Hive and give a description of where the Flowers are. The Retriever Bee is than given the amount of food need for him to make the trip there and back. If you ever find a Honey Bee sitting quietly all by its lonesome it is not because it is waiting to jump on you and sting you. It is because the Kid got lost, blown off course, or just ran into problems along the way. He has exhausted his food supply and has no strength to fly home. Truth be told you can save a Honey Bee who is dying. Go get him honey, drop a little in front of his face and than watch carefully for his tongue to eat it up. Its a pretty wonderful experiences, especially when he flies away. I encourage everyone to try and save a Honey Bee at least once in your life.

Excellent Thought. Inventors. Yesterday is not Today.

Sitting here with a cup of coffee. What will you think about today that will be wonderful and what will you think of today that will be excellent? I started making a list in the middle of last month of ten great things I wanted to think about that day. Each day the list was new. I tried to think of what I had written down the day previous so that I could finish the thought. Thoughts turn into Actions. I wrote down that I want tell my friends how much I care about them. And in the course of that day I stopped myself to write a letter and mailed it to them. 

I heard a story of a great inventor that was being interviewed by a journalist in regards to what his secret was to success. The Inventor said that he thinks for a hour a day. The journalist was a bit confused at this. The inventor described that early on in his career he would take ten minute breaks to dream about possibility's and over the course of many years he has now build himself up to the ability to do it once a day for a hour. For one hour to dream in the physical of the intangible and to have your thoughts take actions to change it. 

Our last greatest victory will prohibit us from our next greatest victory. If I assume a false confidence in starting a new painting because my last painting was so awesome, I will most likely kill myself on the new project because it doesn't have the same power as the first project. All art is a process of pain, not that the pain cannot be celebrated. I was in need of a personal boast of self confidence yesterday, but instead a friend told me to get my life back to the drawing board and work harder today that I did yesterday.

Arsenic in the Water. The Hidden Kiss. "A" for Effort

After fixing the flat tire on my bike today I went for a ride. I began riding the Green Belt Path that is a paved trail that goes along side the river in Downtown Boise. If you ride the whole trail, you can ride up to the Rivers Dam. So I road up to the Dam, called Lucky Peak. Cute name if your life is not dependent upon the Dam security being, “ Lucky”. I stopped to get water at a resting area along the way. The drinking fountain was turned off, so I ran into the bathroom to put my head under the sink. Posted on the counter was a warning that read, “ Do not Drink the Water, trace amounts of Arsenic has been found in the water” I didn't read the whole note, it was very long, I only stopped and walked out once I read the word Arsenic. Trace amounts of Arsenic seems terribly out of place in a rest area on a bike path in route to a Dam. When I think of Arsenic, I think of that Cary Grant movie, “Arsenic and Lace” a film about a man in fear of his wife poisoning him. I just think that if that woman was going to poison her husband, she should put his poison in his evening soup or afternoon coffee, not my rest area water fountain! I finished my ride to the dam and came back to find a Mango Salesman on the corner. I bought a mango ate it like it was life itself and washed my face and beard off in the river. End of story.

I just started reading “Peter and Wendy” the first audition of Peter Pan. I am not sure how the title of Peter and Wendy turned into the story of Peter Pan. I have only just begun to read it, but already I am blown away by the dramatic differences of what I have known of Peter Pan. The story already has made a silent commentary about the relationship between Man and Woman, Husband and Wife. Wendy's Mother is described as the gem of the Household, the Father a man who is set off by his lack of authority with his children. The Mother is said to have a hidden Kiss in the corner of her mouth, and at times you can see it exposed when she is at her height of joy. Still her husband has no knowledge of the Kiss, and only Wendy has the true knowledge of it. There seems to be a odd tension between Wendy knowing her Mothers relationship with her Father and than contrasting that with Wendy's affections for Peter the Boy who can come into all of the children dreams. Peter's access to the children is not just through the window, but it is through a dream like state possessed by children. 

Art combined with effort. Effort will triumph over artwork. The bases for this idea comes from a story I read in a favorite book of mine, “ Art and Fear” A class room of ceramic students were divided into two groups. The first group was told that there grade in the class would come from the teacher literally weighing all of their work and giving them a grade based upon a sufficient weight of clay worked into shapes. The second group was told that they would be graded on excellence, and that they were only required to turn a few pieces that were than to display the true excellence of their work. At the end of the year a examination was done of all the works. It was noted that the students who were required to produce large quantity's of work increased their ability by the process of trial and error and taught themselves refining skills. The students who judged themselves on excellence lost much favor, because they spent most of their time in slow process of development. Hurry up and make your mistakes so that you can become better.