October 2020 :: Covid Continues

• I'll start with this month's Urban Wilderness-City Paradise Sunday School lessons. October had 5 Sundays, so 5 lessons this time—including specials for Jubilee Weekend, Reformation, and All Saints.


• The first full moon for October was a Harvest Moon.


• Church hosted a virtual Blessing of the Animals on the First Sunday of October. Roxy always gets into weird poses when she sees camera or phone and knows I want a cute picture, so we used this old one.


• It's true I wanted a reason to blog this picture here; it's also truth that regular stores and farmer's market still have sweet juicy watermelons. "Simply Living" picks up my theme of Living Local for 2020.


• For the most part I blog berries every month during berry season. Blueberries and Blackberries both have been plentiful, yummy, and not too expensive. This picture's a companion to September's Strawberries in a box.


• Eight months into covid tide, and getting to West LA a few times has felt good. Characteristic October foliage and power lines created an urban scene on October 18th.


• A friend in Previous City connected me with the newish professional networking site Alignable that's much smaller scale than LinkedIn. They noticed I was an artist, and even emailed to ask if I offered Art Classes! They then created very appropriate text for my ad, and I popped this painting into the ad. Despite the pandemic I'd already been seeking to lead a few art classes or workshops… serendipitous.

• The LA Dodgers won the World Series!!! This is Dodgers Nation!!! Because I couldn't find a good picture with reuse rights, instead I'm writing in their current Dodger Blue.


• Paraphrase of Psalm 46:1-2 for Reformation 2020 reads, "God is our shelter and our strength—always there for us in troubling times. Therefore we will not fear." Martin Luther more or less based his famous hymn "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" on Psalm 46.


• And a second full moon in the same month, making the Hunter Moon on Halloween also a Blue Moon. My FB page still is online but currently not active, so I didn't design anything for Halloween this year.

Reformation 2020

"God is our shelter and our strength–always there for us in troubling times.
Therefore we will not fear." Psalm 46:1-2

Never Always Sometimes :: Adi Alsaid

• Never Always Soemtimes by Adi Alsaid on Amazon

I excitedly picked up Never Always Sometimes because I loved Adi Alsaid's style of writing and narrative in his North of Happy. In some ways Never Always Sometimes disappointed me; for the first half of the book action was close to static, character portrayal somewhat fuzzy, too. Premise of the story is how Dave and Julia as they're about to enter high school make a list of all the high school clichés they plan to avoid being and refrain from doing. Then, of course, we hear about them checking off list items through the end of their senior year at San Luis Obispo High.

Whatever the era, Julia, Dave, and then Gretchen exemplify teens defining themselves by being like all the others or by not being like all those appearance-behavior clichés. Details of days in the lives of high schoolers in affluent southern California suburbia aside, author Alsaid brings in depth with Dave's reflections over his mom's death, Julia's devastation as she realizes her endlessly roaming biological mom won't ever be a real part of her life, yet she easily acknowledges that her adoptive dads love fiercely and love well.

As us ancient people ("ancient" would include the author and anyone more than a few years post-HS graduation) have learned, assuming you've found your life partner when you're in your teens feels silly to anyone who has acquired a few years, so I felt immense relief that the book didn't end with anyone considerably themselves permanently paired with someone else. In fact the conclusion redeemed the rest because it left the reader with no idea of what might come next or within the next decade or so.

Although I'll reiterate my sorrow that the writing in Never Always Sometimes lacked the magic I found in North of Happy, I'm happy Alsaid avoided conventional clichés and didn't fall into his own, either.

• My Amazon Review: Real Life Teen Drama

Finding God in the Verbs :: Brent Bill & Jenny Isbell

Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer by J. Brent Bill and Jenny Isbell – on Amazon

I've enjoyed all of Brent's books, but the ones that directly engage the reader's connections with God are his best! Although it's not in a traditional workbook format, this colorfully covered book he co-authored with Jenny Isball is full of simple exercises or activities a reader can work through in order to connect more intimately with God. As I tried a few of the suggestions I wrote in a spiral bound notebook; that's been my style for other spiritual and general self-help books, though there's no reason not to make notes on the pages of the book instead of or in addition to.

Finding God in the Verbs is altogether very well done yet in a rare way that doesn't often happen in printed – or on-screen – media. I easily can imagine the Good Book's psalmists approaching their prayers and songs that have become part of both Hebrew and Christian canons in the diverse ways the authors suggest.

Brent and Jenny include sample scriptures, prayer examples, and contemporary real-life incidents. I love the chapter titles! The bright splashy cover would look excellent alongside your scriptures; it would be a good reminder routinely and randomly to add some of these ways of Discovering God in the Verbs to your daily devotional times. You'll probably appreciate the endnotes, too.