• July 2025 :: Back in Koreatown
Sunday, August 31, 2025
August and Summer 2025
• July 2025 :: Back in Koreatown
Friday, August 29, 2025
Five Minute Friday :: Behind
Behind can be left back there instead of taking or bringing it with me.
Behind is not up to date.
Not here and now.
Not at work, at the appointment, or where I'm supposed to be because I'm behind in time. I'm late.
Behind in achievement. Staying a grade behind in school so I can catch up and won't be behind any more.
Behind is in back of something else and often hidden from sight.
My header is tangelos in Carla's Tucson yard. Carla left us behind when she went on to glory not long ago.That means I've left Tucson and Arizona behind for now. The Sonoran desert claimed my heart long ago, so you know I'll go back because I can't let it stay behind forever.
Which aspect of Behind will I write to today? One of loss, of what's become past, of what's not with me any more. For a long time that was a common feature in this blog, but at some point I sort of gave up. I stopped the questions and the laments. The left behind past was an ongoing topic; part of my consternation was the many new stories starting to be written and then erased. How many times did I say, "this next thing will work," and then it didn't?
I never intended to leave those people, jobs, ministries, activities, pleasures and delights behind in the past. I trusted I was taking them with me to the next place that would add to them and enhance them. Those losses happened at the core of my identity, at the foundation of my expectations. Does that sound like an entry in a middle school journal? Somewhat. But those middle school kids often are at a happy point in which they haven't left visceral emotions and opinions behind. They don't know that adulting means not expressing themselves in such graphic dramatic terms.
What's your take on "behind" today?
Friday, August 22, 2025
Five Minute Friday :; Opposite
I love how Kate's two kids who intuitively know each other so well have opposite habits and living styles.
Opposite sometimes connotes different in almost every way. Can't be reconciled. Opposing political parties. Your baseball team and mine (if they're different ones).
Hot dry days. Cold snowy nights.
My celebrate header and sprouts footer show opposites in art and design.
Opposites are essential to good design.
Light colors. Dark colors.
Tiny elements. Huge ones.
Smooth edges. Ragged edges.
Calm and dynamic colors.
Bold slab serif type. Elegant script fonts.
A call to action. A suggestion of repose.
When you combine them well, opposites join together into a splendid whole.
Saturday, August 09, 2025
Five Minute Friday :: Accumulate
what's an apt illustration for accumulate? Clutter piled high? Stacks of cartons and crates ready to go from one dwelling place to the next one? Books in every inch of a bookcase? A series of diplomas and certificates from kindergarten to post-doc?
And Jesus said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Luke 12:15
This comes after he warns about coveting "stuff" or possessions; a grass is greener, keeping up with what you think other people own or have. Covetousness and greed are far different from desiring basic comfort.
life doesn't consist in the abundance of things. Stuff. Possessions. Or maybe that's belongings?
Psychologist Erik Erikson said to lose the sum of one's possessions is to lose evidence of who one is. Identity crisis! Ever had one? Of course we need physical objects. Many people delight in their collections. But the recent spate of decluttering and organizing articles and books reminds us how collections and collecting can accumulate to such an extent they impede life rather than enhance it.
We hear about the wisdom of accumulating memories rather than stacking up material objects we may not have space for and may not need on any level. That wise advice to grandparents also applies to parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and unrelated family friends. To everyone.
Give your grands, your own kids, your nieces and nephews, coworkers' kids, your Little Brothers—Little Sisters experiences rather than things. It's a perfect time for a shout-out to the Big Brothers–Big Sisters program because being a Big Sister or Big Brother will create incomparable experiences and endless memories for everyone.
A trip to the park or a nearby beach. An afternoon downtown with lunch and a museum. Bake cookies or bread together. Plant a garden and harvest the veggies, pick the flowers. Make dinner and serve it proudly. Take pictures of everything, of course. Accumulate experiences. Accumulate memories of your experiences.
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