Five Minute Friday :: Invest

• Five Minute Friday :: Invest Linkup

Because invest has an overwhelming variety of nuances, I'll mainly run with Kate's agricultural picture as today's prompt.

The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land,
a land with flowers streams and springs, valleys and hills,
a land of wheat and barley, vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of olive trees and honey.
Deuteronomy 8:7-8

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity,
for the land is mine;
you are but aliens and sojourners with me.
You shall grant redemption of all the land
of your possession.
Leviticus 25:23-24

It's all about the land. The dirt, sod, earth beneath our feet forms a heaven for us to live on. It's about investment and stewardship. You may remember the first humans received land as a gift and then as a task or a charge:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden
to tend and guard and care for it.
Genesis 2:15

Invest conveys a sense of a long time, something not fleeting or ephemeral. You know about investing in stocks or commodities, in an education, in a dream. Some of those involve a long stretch of time; some entail money; some are about human effort and initiative. Some investments are about all of the above. Creation care in general and farming in particular require legal tender, human grunt work and intellectual insight, and dream worthy results don't happen yesterday. Sometimes not even in a year or two. Have you heard, "We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors—we borrow it from our children?" I illustrated it as one of my designs for Earth Day 2010.

Those "children" or descendants are as long-range as Abraham's were. Way beyond grandkids and great nieces. We're talking a few centuries down the line, so they can look back and retrospectively love our investments, maybe be inspired and invest a bit or a lot themselves.

For sure God majorly invested in planet earth by creating land to last, and it's been around near-countless millennia. In Romans 8:19 the apostle Paul reminds us all creation waits for us humans to claim our divine image and start (or continue) to steward creation as lovingly as God would: "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God." As our Leviticus text insists, the land belongs to God. It's only on loan to us.

• Read the entire passage: Romans 8:18-23

It's about the land so we'll have food. So we'll have shelter and bigger buildings, too. So we'll have transportation, tools, and everything that's made from wood and minerals the land provides us. It's about the land because all creation – not solely human creatures – depends on land and human caretaking of the land in order to live, thrive, and flourish.

How have you invested? What have you invested? What will you invest next? Who do you have in mind as you look into the future?

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Five Minute Friday :: Prove

Family of Breads with legal reuse rights from pxhere

• Five Minute Friday :: Prove Linkup

You need to prove your dough before you put it in the oven to bake it into bread. Yeast ferments a lump of dough – the future loaf! – so it rises and expands in size; we sometimes call that leavening. The rising proofs the dough so it comes out of the oven as lovely appealing bread that actually acts like bread—it tastes great and nourishes us well.

Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all of the dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed for us. Because of this, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of goodness and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8

The Apostle Paul uses an analogy he hopes his listeners and readers will understand when he says malice and evil become a kind of leaven because they tend to spread easily, similar to the way a small amount of yeast will prove an entire loaf. Moving away from Paul's warning, it takes very little yeast to make a whole loaf rise and shine; as we celebrate the festival of resurrection; that's where we're going today as Easter people. The Holy Spirit of Life that raised Jesus from the dead also raises us to new life. We become yeasty leaven for society and for the church. We rise and we shine!

God gives us Broken Bread and Unbroken Word, as a friend in previous city's website proclaims. The loaf has been proven, baked into bread, blessed, broken, and given to us. The Word is part of the proof of God with us, God among us, God for us.

God calls us to live as salt of the earth. Light of the world. Leaven of society. You've probably experienced how a tiny packet of yeast makes its way through the loaf and proves the whole entire thing? Our lives function the same way. And just as you can add more yeast if it looks like your bread isn't rising, why not take along a companion to help increase the leavening?

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April 2025 Highlights

• Urban Wilderness City Paradise Lectionary Project for April

• Wednesday 02 April • Another Trip to Torrance. I collaged the Stained Glass Windows I thought to capture this time. Have I mentioned google AI makes some really good collages, and has different options for us to make our own?

• Monday 07 April • Ground cover daisies. I don't know how many pics I've taken of ground cover at commercial sites. It's always fun and lively and even encouraging.

• Thursday 17 April • Florist Shop Easter Flowers in a collage by google AI.

• Saturday 19 April • My first time back in town in four years. Here are snacks from the annual Holy Saturday Easter workday; with covid and other disruptions I'm not sure when my last one was.

• Sunday 20 April • Easter Day, the Festival of Resurrection, Queen of Feasts. Lunch on the lawn included Persian Food for the end of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

• Tuesday 22 April • doubles for Earth Day! I designed a poster for 2025 and my blog linked to six faves from previous years.

• Serendipitously, Earth Day also was the Fourth Tuesday Santa Monica Lunch Brunch I enjoyed for a second time. I collaged the lunch venue and some outside foliage.

Five Minute Friday :: Might

The gospel came to you not in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with conviction.
I Thessalonians 1:5
• Five Minute Friday :: Might Linkup

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
"This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
'Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts.'" Zechariah 4:6

Zerubbabel was supposed to oversee finishing rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple, but construction had slowed down and run into a glitch, as we might say. This passage reassures him that [human] resources aren't sufficient to accomplish God's work, or even to get anything done properly and completely. Cooperation and partnership between earth and heaven gets it finished, finished well, and – maybe most important – on God's timeline, not ours.

Our human power and might and effort and related gifts aren't wrong at all. After all, they are "gifts" or givens from God, and they're necessary for the ministries God calls us to. Our work in this world always partners with God's Spirit at the behest of God's call. Do you remember when Moses dialogued with God regarding "Moses, your people" or "God, your people," because it's always both/and?

Glitches in our lives happen because too often we humans try to do too much under our own steam, looking at our own clocks and calendars, too often not acknowledging the Spirit. Maybe we don't want to bother God with those smaller concerns when so much of civilization and creation needs so much healing, repair, and rebuilding?

Late December 2023 I determined to take a six month half year gap time, but as days went by and I assessed my situation, I realized a gap year made more sense. Now the chronology has spilled over a few more months into 2025, but signs and circumstances have made it clear it's finally time to move on. On God's timeline, not mine. And I anticipate more delays, possibly a roadblock or a few.

"Trust the process" has become such a cliché because that's how life works. Immerse yourself in the journey, savor each hour and each day. Ya know what? That's how humans learn and grow, how ideas develop, how dreams and visions become real. That's the way God engages us and gets things done. Not by human might, humanity's power, but by the Spirit that created the world, the Spirit that redeemed creation, the Spirit that calls us into a new creation.

Anyone who has despised the day of small beginnings
will rejoice to see the plumbline of the Lord's house
in Zerubbabel's hand. Zechariah 4:10a

Can you imagine teaching and preaching God's word without guidance from the HS? Can you imagine spreading the gospel, being the good news of God with us, God among us, without trusting in and waiting for promptings and instructions from the HS? The same holds true for every aspect of every moment of our lives. Think about it!

The gospel came to you not in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with conviction.
I Thessalonians 1:5

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Earth Day 2025

Our Power, Our Planet

From previous Earth Days:

• 2023 Invest In Our Planet

• 2020 50 Years :: #ClimateAction

• 2019 #ProtectOurSpecies

• 2018 #EndPlasticPollution

• 2015 #GreenCities

• 2008 Urban Oasis

Five Minute Friday :: Without

• Five Minute friday :: Without Linkup

• From Rolling Home by Eric Andersen

Truth, with all its far out schemes,
Lets time decide what it should mean;
It's not the time but just the dreams that die.
And sometimes when the room is still,
Time with so much truth to kill,
Leaves you by the window sill so tied
Without a wing, to take you high,
Without a clue to tell you why.

Chorus: But I don't know, I ain't been told,
Everybody wants a hand to hold.
They're so afraid of being old,
So scared of dying, so unknown
And so alone, rollin' home.

• Rolling Home lyrics

Time leaves us without any way to know why we're so alone and lonely, so afraid and scared (I didn't write to last week's scared prompt) of… everything, probably. But aging and dying are reasonable stand-ins for everything else we fear.

As songwriter musician Eric Andersen reminds us, time doesn't die, our times don't end. Well, our time on earth eventually does end, but while we're still here our options are open and generous. Endless? No, not for anyone. But somehow we sometimes lose those dreams. (Do you know how and why? Think about it!) Without a dream, we can't go far. Without a dream, we can't claim hope. Without our dreams, our days become routine, often bordering on unbearable.

Dreams energize us. Hitch your life to a star! Your own, your family's, your partner's, even the star-struck dreams and aspirations of the company you work for. Andersen says we're all alone, yet we're rolling home. Isn't homecoming our ultimate desire? A place of belonging, of safety, of overall well-being. A place that celebrates our dreams. A place with everything we need, a place without judgment, fear, loneliness, sorrow; a place and space without… fill in your fears.

Langston Hughes poetry reminds us (no, commands us):

Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken winged bird
that cannot fly.

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Draw A Bird Day 2025

Thanks to social media, I remembered the annual Draw A Bird Day that happens every April 8th. This is an old birds drawing I like a lot; I'm augmenting it here with its companion fish.

Five Minute Friday :: Persuade

• Five Minute Friday :: Persuade Linkup

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Nothing whatsoever can separate us from God's love and God's presence that is such a present to us. What about peeled pineapples? Just this afternoon one of my housemates made dinner for us and we finished with some fresh pineapple he'd diced into bite-size pieces.

Despite snow in western Canada and in some upper midwestern US states, in spite of chilly days here in LA, evidence of spring abounds in the northern hemisphere. If spring is here – because spring has sprung – winter must have visited, too. Aside from most people having at least a mild seasonal mood pattern; aside from shorter days-longer nights causing a bit of sadness for many; aside from fewer flowers and decreased greenery, less fresh fruit and veggies during the cooler months; our memories grow even shorter than the days, and we forget the glories of new life.

But did you know? Bright, colorful, spring flowers with their promise of even more splendid summer months for those of us with an endless estival love affair form only a hint of the reality; we could call it a type or a foreshadowing of the real thing.

The church has been observing Lent since early March. During Lent we follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to his trial, conviction, crucifixion, death, and burial. And on the third day? An empty grave and a risen Savior. Because nothing, no thing whatsoever, not even death, can keep us away from God's love in Jesus Christ. Not even bleak, cold, endless winter nights. Not even sweet peeled pineapple! I am persuaded!

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March 2025 • Around Town

• Early March Sunflower • 11022 Santa Monica Boulevard • Santa Monica Hummingbird at 1021 Pico Boulevard •

• In alphabetical order, this month I've pictured Gardena, Inglewood, Santa Monica, and West Los Angeles, and I've visited a few other neighborhoods.

• City Paradise / Urban Wilderness Lectionary for March covered Lent 1 through Lent 4.

• Wednesday 05 March
• two views of a gift sunflower

• Saturday 08 March
• a yellow rose and a balloon

• Sunday 16 March
• For the Second Sunday in Lent I visited St John's Gardena. Another circular time ranging from summer 2021 to Holy Week 2024 to now? Am I asking or am I saying?

• Tuesday 18 March
• Golden Poppies have been abloom since late February
• If you use google photos, you know they have some great user collage options, and they also make some for you in configurations you can't access. They captured these golden poppies in one of their best layouts.

• Thursday 20 March
• It's too long since I blogged blackberries. Prices have been right and they taste as good as ever.

• Sunday 23 March
• Nowruz, the 13-day long Persian New Year, along with some sidewalk art and the façade of 11022 Santa Monica Blvd I've pictured over the years. Lent 3 – Oculi – was another name for this day.

• Tuesday 25 March
• My first time at the monthly lunch at Mount Olive Santa Monica. I met some great people and loved the spaghetti dinner with desserts! I also got to introduce myself and offer the closing prayer. Win-win!

• Thursday 27 March
• At the Santa Monica Interfaith Council's Spring Luncheon I met some lovely and lively new to me people and gained some helpful spiritual insights. We met at the Pico Library in an outbuilding that had glass walls on three sides, and the lunch was full of my favorites.

• Almost eight years ago via the then newly completed Metro Expo line, I visited the Pico Branch Library with A and loved it then, too. So much seems to come back round. (Is that a "full circle?") July 2017 was the month of the (sixth and last) Reformation Roadtrip to San Luis Obispo that I referred to in our early February Five Minute Friday about noise.

• Pico Branch Library sign and trees, and a butterfly mural from further toward the ocean.

• Friday 28 March
• My fave Maple donuts again from the Asian-owned Amigo donut shop. This (obviously) is LA.

• Sunday 30 March
• West LA again for Lent 4. Google photos made this collage of my greenery and shrubbery pics.

Five Minute Friday :: Vacant

• Five Minute Friday :: Vacant LInkup

For a time in a previous life I managed rental properties. Though I actually was responsible for one 17-unit building (my header photo), I had a lot to do with the owner's other six or eight properties, particularly cleaning apartments when tenants left them vacant of human occupants. That experience plus seeing so many real estate signs announcing a vacant office building, retail space, or residential dwelling has me constantly connecting "vacant" and "vacancy" with bricks and mortar.

Vacant of human occupants is the usual expectation when you see an commercial or condo or other property up for rent, lease, or sale. But have you noticed many houses and apartments seem to be vacant or devoid of life? I mean life as in connecting to other people in your family or maybe housemates who rent or lease and stay there with you. Connecting emotionally, spiritually, and practically, too.

• How was your day?

• Do you want to make dinner together this week?

• I got avocados on sale! Let's create something good with them!

• I'd love your opinion on this client project I've been working on.

It often feels easier and for sure it's less threatening simply to co-exist in a space, pass each other coming and going, sit at opposite ends of the table without a word or even a smile or acknowledgement. It's easier to be a vacant presence than a lively, nurturing one.

A house, condo, apartment, or palace may physically contain a human or two or three, maybe a family of eight or ten, but is it vacant or is it occupied with people fully engaging each other's lives and supporting one another?

How about your family? Your roommates-housemates-flatmates? Even your workplace, whether it's a school, a retail, or other commercial space, do those walls, floors, and ceilings hold life and hope within them or is it vacant?

Think about it!

My top footer image is a house a couple streets over from the place I shared with a friend during my last year in Boston. I don't know who lived in the triple-decker I photographed, but I do know my friend and I had an easy-going, friendly, helpful relationship and that place definitely wasn't vacant.

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