Misson Accomplished

We are finished. We worked 12 hours today to make sure that the condo for our client was ready for occupancy and beautiful. Our client was very pleased with the result of our hard work. Hooray. I must now go to bed. I am looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow and then celebrating the end…

Pat’s Story: An Eye-Opener

Last Saturday at the St. Thomas the Apostle Breakfast Club, which caters to those who can’t afford a hot breakfast – meaning the poor and homeless – I struck up a conversation with one of our regulars, a woman named Pat. Normally, I don’t probe into our patron’s situations. I don’t want to pry and…

An Unusual Treat: Korean Spa, Naked and All

Today, daughter Elizabeth and I went to a Korean spa. This was my birthday present from Liz (back in January) and we resolved that it was time to carve out a few hours in both of our busy schedules to go and indulge ourselves with this experience. My only issue – I don’t know how…

Grandbaby Visit

Tomorrow little Luna is coming for a visit. Ray and I have been looking forward to seeing our little granddaughter all week long. She is joining us at the homeless breakfast, then coming home with us for the day. We might even take her to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) for just a little…

A Travel Day Up the Coast

We have just returned from Santa Barbara by way of Ojai. For those of you who don’t know, Ojai is 25 miles south of Santa Barbara and 12 miles east of Ventura. We spent part of the day organizing our storage bins in Ojai – a tough job that was helped by the sunny/breezy/not too…

Binge-Watching Admission

Okay, I have to admit it. Ray and I have started binge-watching the television show, Parenthood. We must have watched 5 episodes yesterday on our day off. That meant staying up to 12:30 am to watch “just one more.” The series which went from 2010 – 2015 is about the Braverman family, which is composed…

Resting

Ray and I worked today, but not quite as hard as usual. After all the activity over the past while, it felt good to just relax a bit and do only what absolutely needed to be done. Holy Week alone could have prompted a need for rest. As an acolyte, I was only one of…

Good Friday

Here is a painting from Caravaggio on the entombment of Jesus. Quite beautiful and a fitting meditation for today.

Maundy Thursday

I have just returned from church this evening. This is the beginning of the highest of holy times in the Christian world. Here is a painting I find inspiring to mediate on. Paolo Versonese – Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane

Flexibility…

I have just concluded one of those days that had about twenty different moving parts, ranging from packing up packages for eBay to communicating with my students for an online flash fiction class I’m teaching to having a big meeting with the contractor regarding a renovation project we are overseeing to having another meeting with…