• Aside from the urban wilderness-city paradise lectionary blog I update every week (though Reign of Christ notes still await), I mostly blog pictures these days but expect to circle back to writing soon.
• I'll be sure to join Kristin Taylor's next Porch Stories linkup—watch this space!
• I've declared 2020 my year of living local: fewer amazon purchases (I do almost no amazon these days, anyway, and along with hundreds of others I got kicked out of the vine program after six years); more fruits and veggies grown nearby—at least not further away than northern Mexico. When there's a choice? One-of-a-kind community owned restaurants and retail emporia. Etc.
• Stillness is my #Starword #OneWord for 2020. I need this one!
• Saturday January 11th evening dinner at family-owned Natural World Market & Café was an excellent reinforcement of my #LivingLocal2020 and #Stillness #StarWord / #OneWord themes for this calendar year.
• Pastor Reg retired from judicatory staff! Now he gets more time with grandkids and gets not to drive so much. The festive retirement party on Sunday January 12th {Bap-J} featured a few short memories from a few key people, a candle procession (I was a candle-bearer), an extremely slow and leisurely Holden Evening Prayer, good eats. I've long loved the entryway stained glass at the former First Church Glendale; admittedly these food pics are far from my best, but I wanted be able to say charcuterie, so I've included this nice array.
• The afternoon of Sunday January 19th marked another celebration of MLK Day—again at Trinity in Hawthorne.
• From the afternoon of Saturday 25th January, an everyday poppies event splendidly illustrates #LivingLocal2020. In addition, these multicolored poppies will be stellar design project additions.
Around the feast of the Epiphany, some churches prayerfully provide a word for that year to anyone who requests one. Like the heavenly stars the magi who visited Jesus at epiphany followed, the individual tracks the word throughout that calendar year by looking around for evidence of it, writing about it, talking it up, dreaming of it...
Thanks to the pdf Margaret Feinberg created and offered everyone, stillness will be the oneword or starword to guide me through 2020.
Previous words for my years have been:
2018 – freedom
2017 – faith
2016 – daring!
2015 – grace
• Porch Story host Kristin's month of November 2019
• As meteorological autumn ends, I'm linking to Emily P Freeman's blog
• desert spirit's fire! September 2019 highlights
• desert spirit's fire! October 2019 Features
• For November, Reboots Podcaster Tracy L Winchell offered a participatory 30 Days to Gratitude 2019; instead of Facebook updates like many do during November (I'm still on FB sabbatical) I tweeted several times a day. First gratitude was realizing though ideally I would have done an analog version in a notebook with a pretty cover because nothing compares to your ideas, thoughts, or drawings going from head to heart to hand to paper, it felt good to tweet to the world and to accompany some of those tweets with a picture.
• Did four fall weeks of intentional gratitude change my life? No—because I still need to work on moderating my constant habit of rationalizing what's going not badly because things always could be so much worse; and yes, because noticing and noting those things that form the micro-infrastructure of our days helped me acknowledge it's okay and it's necessary to keep doing so. Sensory stuff like colors, scents, tastes, flavors, and sounds can make the difference that lets you (me, anyone) keep on keepin' on. Fresh berries on my morning cereal; streaming music while I'm working; actually stopping to smell the roadside flowers; admiring a color palette I just created.
• The gratitude challenge also confirmed I need to find ways to make life changes that will lead to more participation in the greater good.
• Every week I download Creative Market's design asset freebies; with pictures from my camera, phone, or my artistic/design ventures always a major aspect of my monthly updates, I'm including my own photoshopped version of a fun camera from a Creative Market vendor.
• Another Saturday trip to the nearby Torrance Farmers Market! Their fruits and veggies always look soooo good... these peaches come from the previous peaches seller.
• For All Saints, church sponsored a Saturday evening showing of the movie COCO; our Sunday morning display included some cultural pieces from Latino/a culture.
• With judicatory office complex no longer having an on-campus school, the amazing kids' art I used to photograph no longer is there, but here's a lovely Wild Rose I might – or might not have noticed – during the days of Window Art.
• As a gift for being on the launch team for Brent Bill's latest book, Beauty, Truth, lIfe, and Love: Four Essentials for the Abundant Life, Brent sent me a hard copy of Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer, co-written with Jenny Isbell.
• The church's year of grace concluded with a celebration of the Reign of Christ. This interpretation of the cosmic Christ of Colossians 1:17 is one of my all-time faves of my own liturgical art.
• Lunch at Subway a few times a week has become a savory habit that reminds me whatever's going on or not, some sensory pleasure truly can improve the situation. I particularly love the fresh local veggies at all the LA area Subways, and I always add most of the salad bar to my sandwiches.
• My fifth Thanksgiving Day at church! Fifth Thanksgiving Day in LA! One of the families has amazing gardens of every kind—flowers, veggies, ornamental plants. Here's a sample of the table centerpieces created with succulents from their place.
• Beanie Baby Tom Turkey is one of my regular Thanksgiving blog illustrations.
• Theo Therapy Dog enjoyed dinner with us; his mom was flute and vocal soloist for before-dinner worship.
• Thanksgiving Table setting and dinner sampler
