REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Back in Sync in Redondo Beach

I got home from Washington on Tuesday night and so far I have not been able to get back to my art. In fact, I feel a little bit like this octopus and I don't even go back to paid work until August 4. Lots of odds and ends we all have to accomplish when we're traveling seem to make time speed by.

By the way, this is an octopus sculpture in the Port Angeles, WA harbor. He has fascinated me for the past few years. I'm trying to take photos every day at home just like I do when I travel.

A LIST OF REDONDOWRITER STUFF IS GRATEFUL FOR

• I came home to a very happy dog, dear Cookie. She was cared for by my family; at least one of them slept over every night.  

• The So Cal weather is spectacular, but I've had little time so far to bask in it.   

• I completed my Mac Users Group newsletter (SBAMUG) and sent it on to the proofreader. That's always a load off my shoulders. I'm using Mac's Pages for this newsletter and love the application.

• I've completed all my laundry, grocery shopped, returned several phone calls, opened mail, paid bills, run errands, read e-mail, and am finally posting this extremely mundane post to Sacred Ordinary. But, almost everything is sacred ordinary to me these days. 

• I drove to the Hilton Hotel at the Anaheim Convention Center this afternoon to visit a friend who is attending the Episcopal Annual Convention. It was good to reconnect--and there was Disneyland right next door. Have a good trip home, Ann.   

• The freeway was open at 1:30 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. when I returned home.   

• I will have time tomorrow to do some art. Hooray! And I promise to visit your blogs more regularly now that I am home again. 

Goodbye Washington, For Now

I am writing this post from Tully's Coffee at Gate A9 in SEATAC Airport. My flight to L.A. leaves in 45 minutes. I always leave Washington with such mixed emotions, but I am so ready to hug and kiss my daughter who is picking me up at LAX, and then Cookie. Tomorrow I'll be by to kiss Henry and Fritz and their parents.

Speaking of kissing, when my sis Betty and I kissed goodbye this morning when the shuttle came, we both had tears in our eyes. How I wish we lived closer together, but what a champ she is at 85 years old. 

More later on Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA, where my sis and I spent a few hours yesterday. Lordy, lordy. What an incredible experience that was! 

Time for a quick pee and off to my gate. L.A., here I come.

De-Briefing an Art Workshop I Will Never Forget

This weekend I couldn't stop thinking about sacred ordinary and how it is a lifestyle many embrace. My weekend art buddies and their creations were classic examples of sacred ordinary. My art workshop is over this Sunday morning and I'm hanging in the commons where there is Internet until the witching hour when the stores in Port Townsend open. I have a favorite jewelry supply place I like to visit. In a few hours I'll head back to Tumwater to tell my sister about my adventures, which are a mystery to her. Why would anybody want to play in paint all weekend? 

Tracy Moore took this photo of me struggling at my workspace, but enjoying it all immensely. My hand-bound journal I made is 20 pages long and though I worked on nine pages, I never totally completed one. But, I learned dozens of techniques I had not learned before and can hardly wait to get home to continue creating. I longed for some of my own supplies which I do have in abundance at home. 

These are two of the pages that Teesha Moore, one of our teachers, worked on herself all weekend. She and her husband Tracy periodically gave brief technique presentations and then we would go back and practice. They provided all our supplies and we were able to experiment with all kinds of pencils, pens, oil pastels, air brushing, and photo altering supplies. 

Here is a close up of another work-shopper I took close up. She's got a style that is more akin to my own. On a workshop like this, the important thing, however, is to learn the techniques and style of the teacher and when you get home, you can adapt it to your own. 

And then there was the field trip into Port Townsend to the Akamai Art and Glass Supply where most of us bought a lot of supplies to take home. I live in a big city where you can buy almost anything, but this store was absolutely unique--and I got several referrals to places in L.A. to get "stuff"--should more be needed. My suitcase is going home considerably heavier than it was when I came to Port Townsend last Thursday. Yes, it was a sacred ordinary weekend and I'm praying for a safe journey to Tumwater in the rain. I wonder what movie my sis has picked out for us tonight?

Grandma's Last Night With Her Boys

It's hard to believe I've been here six days, but tonight is my last night with Joe, Laura, Zach and Arlo. I just read Zach his two stories and he is fast asleep in "our bed." It was drizzly all day, but we bundled up late this afternoon and went to the harbor for the Wednesday night concert complete with a pick-up picnic from Safeway. 

I will probably not see this part of the family for several months except by webcam, but my iPhoto has about 200 photos stored. I put them on a flash drive and am downloading them into Laura's computer before I go to bed myself. 

Tomorrow I drive to Port Townsend for my art workshop and probably won't have Internet access unless I go into town to a coffee shop. I thought I would catch up on so many computer projects these past six days, but tried to stay away from the computer and be with family as much as I could. I have barely even written in my hand-written journal. 

I'm just so filled with gratitude!

A Quick Check-in from Port Angeles, WA

This is Lake Dawn, right outside the Hurricane Ridge gate to Olympic National Park. I have posted photos of the lake for the past five years as my eldest son's home is built by it. This shot was about 7:30 p.m. tonight. My grandson Zach and I watched a man canoeing and I listened to birds calling back and forth. Grandson Arlo had already gone to sleep. I believe that I live in an idyllic place in Redondo Beach, but each time I visit, summer, spring or even winter, I am awe-struck with the beauty of the place. I'm a Southern California woman but how lucky can you get to visit such a gorgeous place and be with the people I love so much. 

And back home, Cookie is being well taken care of by the team of Christy and Lorenzo--and she is doing great in my absence. 

So the Gods Shake Us From Our Sleep -- Mary Oliver

Gratitude comes in many forms, but almost always it is about the little things we simply take for granted.

For instance, who would think that watching an 85-year-old woman playing a slot machine in a casino would seem so sacred? But, it did to me yesterday. I know there are cultural stereotypes about elderly people frequenting the casinos, but when it is my sister doing it, it tickles me to the tips of my toes. Her late husband loved Vegas and Reno and she was a good egg and went right along with him all those years. Not a gambler by nature, she limits herself to $20 a visit about four times a year--on a penny machine at a local Indian casino. She drove us there, we had a humongous buffet, and then spent a lot of time together at home chatting--and watching yet another movie. Gran Torino. 

My mind immediately turned to Mary Oliver this morning. Being on vacation and undistracted by "have tos" at home and work, make me appreciate everything so acutely. Here's Mary Oliver telling it like it is. 

Gratitude

What did you notice?

 The dew snail;

the low-flying sparrow;

the bat, on the wind, in the dark;

big-chested geese, in the V of sleekest performance;

the soft toad, patient in the hot sand;

the sweet-hungry ants;

the uproar of mice in the empty house;

the tin music of the cricket’s body;

the blouse of the goldenrod.

 What did you hear?

 The thrush greeting the morning;

the little bluebirds in their hot box;

the salty talk of the wren,

then the deep cup of the hour of silence.

What did you admire?

The oaks, letting down their dark and hairy fruit;

the carrot, rising in its elongated waist;

the onion, sheet after sheet, curved inward to the

    pale green wand;

at the end of summer the brassy dust, the almost liquid

    beauty of the flowers;

then the ferns, scrawned black by the frost.

 What astonished you?

 The swallows making their dip and turn over the water.

 What would you like to see again?

 My dog: her energy and exuberance, her willingness,

    her language beyond all nimbleness of tongue, her

    recklessness, her loyalty, her sweetness, her

    sturdy legs, her curled black lip, her snap.

 What was most tender?

 Queen Anne’s lace, with its parsnip root;

the everlasting in its bonnets of wool;

the kinks and turns of the tupelo’s body;

the tall, blank banks of sand;

the clam, clamped down.

 What was most wonderful?

 The sea, and its wide shoulders;

the sea and its triangles;

the sea lying back on its long athlete’s spine.

 What did you think was happening?

The green breast of the hummingbird;

the eye of the pond;

the wet face of the lily;

the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak;

the red tulip of the fox’s mouth;

the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve

  of the first snow—

--so the gods shake us from our sleep.

Terranea Resort: A Must When in Southern California

Generally speaking, luxury properties don’t particularly attract me, but I went to the brand-new Terranea Resort on Palos Verdes Peninsula for lunch today and I’m glowing still. I’ll even go so far as to say that if you are planning a trip to Southern California, visiting this exquisite place should be included on your list of “must sees.” Though I’m posting some of my own photos, if you have the time, link to the site and go through the photo and video galleries. They are also booking the $300 rooms in the hotel for $150 through the end of June and cheap as I am, I’d book a room in a heartbeat if I didn’t already live here.

Their PR blurb says, “Secluded on California's Palos Verdes Peninsula, on the western edge of the continental shelf, Terranea is a timeless, world-class resort and spa with a rare collection of Legacy Estates in a remarkable setting. Here the world recedes behind you in a coastal preserve protected by the highest environmental and design standards of the State of California. Internationally respected experts in hospitality, community design, and conservation have come together to make Terranea Southern California's most celebrated and special resort environment.”

All of us old timers in the South Bay remember this property as the home of Marineland of the Pacific from 1954 to 1987. Sea World purchased it and abruptly moved everything to San Diego. My eldest son actually worked in the dolphin tank there when he was young. The property sat empty until Terranea began to develop it several years ago. The trails there remained open once Marineland left and that was primarily what I went there for. Terranea officially opened just a few weekends ago but at the last minute the City of Rancho Palos Verdes had to loan the resort $8 million to make that happen. The city took a risk, but I personally think it was a good one.

What impressed me today about the resort is that it is built and decorated simply but classically. The "living room" off the main entrance was so homey that I could have stayed there indefinitely. The staff is the friendliest I've personally ever encountered in a resort setting. To be honest, though it definitely is a commercial endeavor, the whole space felt light, airy--and sacred. There were many people in the restaurants and on the grounds, but there was absolutely nothing pretentious about the space or the people. They were dressed California casual and there were a lot of families with kids.

My friend Betty is the one who suggested we have lunch here today. She lives very near and had already visited once. She took this photo of me in the garden. She is a wonderful woman who was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times for many years and was one of my journalism teachers when I went back to college in the late 1970s. We've recently reconnected and have so many things in common. 

A very nice employee took this photo of the two of us together; he volunteered without us even asking. Incidentally, should you visit Terranea, you can make a day of it as the Pt. Vicente Lighthouse and Interpretive Center, the Wayfarers Chapel, and Abalone Cove are nearby. 

Throughout the resort property there are beautiful flower arrangements that remind me so much of the work of Mrs. Kenju at the Imagine What I'm Leaving Out blog. Her work and what I saw at Terranea are simple, exquisite, classy. The hotel also features art work by local artists throughout the property. We were told that the Lunada Bay Room is hung with the artwork of the Portuguese Bend Artists Colony. That room is open on Sundays so we didn't get to see it, but I know the work of these plein air artists and it's world class. 

After lunch, we walked by the row of "fancy" cars that are always parked right outside the entrance of classy hotels and Betty stopped to ponder what this plate was saying. I never figured it out, but she did. Can you decipher what it says? 

Some Waters Have Miraculous Powers

"Water unceasingly changes shapes and transforms itself. It is thus a model out of which everything can be born. Water, consequently, becomes a symbol of fertility that can be found in all the myths and all the religions. Beings and things are born of water. Water also possesses medicinal virtues. Some waters are recognized miraculous powers capable of healing the bodies." 

    -- Brit at Earth Day Network

This is the fountain at Farnham Martin’s Park in Palos Verdes Estates next to the Malaga Cove Library. It is the setting for the summer concert series and wedding photo shoots are common here. Sometimes when I leave the library I like to just sit by the fountain and listen to it gurgle.

Today was my last official work day for six weeks and I am sorely in need of some water that will heal my inertia and negative attitude. I'm burned out, so tonight I spent a few hours with my journal, laptop, and lots of colored pencils. I wrote, doodled, dreamed, vented. 

I made lists of things I want to do in the next six weeks, and two of the weeks will be spent in Tumwater, WA and Pt. Angeles, WA with family. That leaves four weeks, but what am I moaning about? Even when I work, I supposedly work 20 hours per week. 

I finally began to write my list of gratitudes and I am so blessed in so many ways. I just forget sometimes. That reminds me. My dear nephew Ted brought back two vials of water for me from the Holy Land last year. One is from the Jordan River and the other is from the Sea of Galilee. I think dipping into them is very apropos on this night of life review. 

Update on Cookie

Cookie was back on her Cushings meds at half dose for a month and last week she began to get sick again and she had been doing so well. The vet stopped the meds and now Cookie has her appetite back and isn't vomiting et al, so obviously she can't tolerate the meds.

He thinks maybe it is Addisons instead of Cushings. All I know is that today she is great again except for the creakiness of old age. What to do next? We'll see what he says, but I'm inclined to leave her off the meds for the summer entirely so we can both have decent vacations.

This is my friend Lori, a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, who had a layover in L.A. tonight. She was my roomie for 2 1/2 years in the late 1990s, when I got Cookie as a young pup. Lori wasn't married then but she is now and has an adorable 3-year-old daughter Abby. She lives in Toledo, OH.

I picked Lori up at the airport, we had dinner and then she came to visit "Cookie Monster," her pet name for Cookie--and Cookie remembered her.

She has to be up at 4 a.m. for her morning flight so I delivered her back to her hotel.

Here is Lori with her baby Abbigail. What a great evening we had. I've always considered Lori "one of my kids."

Some Peopl Have Real Proble

Today I attended the 60 year reunion for graduates of the school I work for and it gave me a lot of food for thought. It was also a delightful experience. Part of today's festivities was a campus tour and the school is very different now than it was in 1948 and 1949. At the end we visited the old dining halls (still the cafeteria and a common meeting room) and the Upper School art show was still hanging. I've got a glare on this photo, but I studied it for a long time. If you click on it, the photo will embiggen so you can see some of the images the students placed.