MOCA

Last Tuesday featured a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles because neither my friend nor I had been there. Our destination was the current exhibit, Diary of Flowers: Artists and their Worlds:

The exhibition features work in all media across different geographies, cultures, and periods, by artists including Belkis Ayón, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Mona Hatoum, Candice Lin, Annette Messeger, Wangechi Mutu, Lucas Samaras, Mohammed Sami, Tunga, and Haegue Yang, as well as a gallery dedicated to Nan Goldin.

Despite imagining I'd carefully taken a picture of each artwork description, because I didn't organize everything correctly, a few of these pictures present as "untitled." This learning experience taught me to write down titles and descriptions in the future.

But first! My first ever experience in a Waymo! Have you heard of these self-driving Jaguars? They're not everywhere yet, but I think LA is one of the biggest markets and I see more and more of them every day.

No title because I didn't write it down

Howl by Wangechi Mutu, 2006

Autorretrato Ciego by Abraham Cruzvillegas, 2007-2008

Sky Cathedral, Southern Mountain, by Louise Nevelson, 1959

Lunch Break!

Disney Hall because this area is art and music central

Special of the Day Chicken Teriyaki at Subway

Back to MOCA

Resurrección by Belkis Ayón, 1998

These extracts from the larger photograph also are "Untitled" because the description ran out even though I got the correct one. My capture of the entire artwork turned out completely turquoise.

A concluding stroll through the gift shop

Five Minute Friday :: Snow

My multimedia In Winters Past begins my snow blog
because it features piles of snow.

• Five Minute Friday :: Snow Linkup at Andrew's Place

I've been in southern California since early in this century; now that we've started Q2 of the twenty-first century, I think I'll stay in LA. An intro to admitting we don't get snow at this elevation, but I've experienced a lot of it at different times of my life.

You may have heard how people in regions that get a lot of snow have many many words to describe the different types of snow.

What does "snow" evoke in my imagination?

The hush during and immediately after a snowfall, before life has fully resumed and before the city has many of its snowplows out in motion.

It's a similar feeling when the snow stops falling and the sun decides to shine.

In a previous life I substitute taught for the Boston Public Schools for an academic year. Given that Boston is one of those cities with frequent weather, Boston schools sometimes call snow days when the driving is rough and dangerous and passenger cars, trucks, and buses would interfere with snow removal.

Though we got paid per diem, I still loved a snow day because (1) I could stay home and cozy in my small urban apartment and/or (2) when the snow stopped falling, I could go outside and play in the snow or maybe go to the mall if the roads were clear. Because New England snow tends to be the wet heavy kind that's back breaking and heart attack inducing to shovel, I'm grateful I never had to clear more than digging my vehicle out from any windrows the plows had created.

Later on when I lived in Utah with its many recreational ski resorts and The Greatest Snow on Earth, I managed the apartment building I lived in (and helped out with the owner's other properties). That meant if I woke up to snow I had to go out right away and shovel the sidewalk so it wouldn't ice over. The landlord bought me an ergonomic shovel and even though I'm not exactly big and heavy, clearing the sidewalk was easy because the snow was light and powdery.

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December 2025 Highlights

• My December header is the Season's Greeting sled Heather painted and I decorated each year with slightly different arrangements of seasonal greenery. I haven't had a place for it the past few years; this one is from a previous place.

• Early December brunch in Santa Monica

• First Trip in a long time to the Getty Center

• Christmas Decorations at The Grove

• First Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Hazelnut Frappe (the only affordable anything at The Grove) in forever. They're still the best!

• Fierce! The Story of Cats at the Natural History Museum

• A quote from Titus for Christmas Eve and semi-bilingual (much more English than español) Eucharist at Saint Mary's Mariposa—a two minute walk away.

Five Minute Friday :: Stable

When all things were wrapped in deep silence,
and night in her swift course was half spent,
your almighty Word, O Lord,
leapt down from your throne in heaven.
Wisdom 18:14-15

• Five Minute Friday :: Stable Linkup at Andrew's Place

Into the old RSV Bible I used and wrote in for a long time, I copied a list of life guidelines I found somewhere. Each was a situational symbol derived from scripture, followed by its meaning as God acts in our lives. When I find them they'll be great to blog, but right now I only can remember the Mark of the Stable and the Mark of the Empty Tomb.

The Mark of the Stable means? Begin where God says! Begin at the very start as a helpless vulnerable infant like Jesus? Yes, but let's also begin every day, every new endeavor, each new relationship and opportunity where God says, which is? On your current longitude and latitude and amidst the social, familial, and occupational places you find yourself right now.

When we study and begin to learn the histories of God's people, we often recognize similarities in our own walk by faith. Like Moses, like jacob-Israel, like Amos. Like Jesus' mother Mary/Miriam and like Jesus himself. Like the newly birthed church we know from Luke's book of Acts.

So God in a recent dream has inspired you to prepare to teach high school in the inner city or in the rural outback; maybe open a bakery and train people who already love to bake into professional expertise; possibly offer your accounting skills to non-profit organizations for a great price.

You don't and you can't start that new morning on the other side of your state or province. Or on the other side of your city or town. The bold startup eventually may take you elsewhere, or to a series of other places, but you begin it here and now.

Andrew loves to feature quotes from well-known people. I'll end this week with one from Gian-Carlo Menotti's one-act opera, Ahmal and the Night Visitors: The child who will do all these wonderful things is the infant who starts out in the manger in a stable in Bethlehem. Where will you start out to do all the wonderful things God calls you to?

The child we seek holds the seas and the winds on his palm.
The child we seek has the moon and the stars at his feet.
Before him, the eagle is gentle the lion is meek.

On love, on love alone will he build his kingdom…
His might will not be built on your toil.
Swifter than lightning he will soon walk among us.
He will bring us new life and receive our death.
And the keys to his city belong to the poor.

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Nativity 2025

For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all.
Titus 2:11

Fierce!

This afternoon I went to Fierce! the comprehensive story of cats at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Although I took a whole lot of pictures, the exhibit wasn't bright and light, so most of the pictures have a flash scar, which means I'm not including them.

As a bonus surprise, I captured a great group of pictures and information about P-22, so I'll put those together as a separate post later this week.

An Extraordinary Egg

• An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni on Powells

• Website for the book's author and Caldecott Winner Leo Lionni, 1910-1999

Assumptions, mistaken identity, and what else? Through whimsical painterly illustrations and a more than credible narrative, three frog friends adventure together and get to know a creature from another species. Marilyn thinks she knows everything, even if it's only the words and she's not sure what a word refers to. August frog goes along for the adventure, while Jessica loves to reach out and discover what's new and trending.

If someone (Marilyn) calls the big pebble a chicken egg, whatever hatches from the egg must be a chicken and once a chicken, always a chicken, even if someone (like the parent who laid the egg that hatched) calls it an alligator. That's how life works.

Does it matter? The name usually matters to the critter, the human, to the group that first imagined and then created whatever it was. Is "a rose by any other name" still a rose? If you call an alligator a chicken does it become a chicken? No, it doesn't become a chicken. However, the egg starts out being called a chicken and for the three frog friends, it ends as a chicken, even after the alligator's mother calls it her "sweet little alligator." I did call this story "a more than credible narrative."

My cultural anthropology instructor told us about three baseball umpires. The rookie umpire announced, "I call them as I see them." The umpire with more experience said, "I call them as they are." The long-time veteran umpire insisted, "They are what I call them."

Do you remember "define your terms" when you were – or still are – writing a certain kind of paper? It's about everyone being on the same page so each person knows what the other is referring to. Chicken or alligator or…?


Dragonfly Books

It took a long search, but after I visited the rhc books dot com I found on the back cover in tiny print, I discovered this particular Dragonfly Books series is a Random House imprint.

Inside the back cover tells us:

Dragonfly Books introduce children to the pleasures of caring about and sharing books. With Dragonfly Books, children will discover talented artists and writers and the worlds they have created, ranging from first concept books to read-together stories to books for newly independent readers.

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03 Thanks

What's something I want to thank myself for enduring or growing this year?

Intro

During fall 2024 I attended a workshop with journaling mentor and coach Joelle. You can follow her substack at Reconnect and Befriend; her Instagram is Reconnect and Befriend Coach.

To help conclude this year (that wraps up a quarter of the twenty-first century), Joelle's recent substack offered three questions – with three lively illustrations – to answer as we anticipate a bright 2026. This third reflection is about thanks or thanking.


What's something I want to thank myself for enduring or growing this year?

On the way to Thanksgiving Dinner, each of us shared what we were especially thankful for. What had been. What we anticipated might be. On Thanksgiving Day, everyone was thankful for shelter. For enough food, even when or if it always wasn't elite and deluxe and decadent. We had gratitude for each other, for whatever semblance of community was happening. Thanks for some employment—even jobs that weren't too terrible.

I'm almost always happy to look back in time to discover how far I've come by faith and by grace. Astonished that God goes to my future and waits for me there.

Many individuals end most days with a gratitude list, but Joelle suggests thanks with a different focus. It's about where I've been, what I've been through, how I may have changed as a result.

During 2025, what did I endure or go through? Joelle didn't specify, but those words sound like hardships more than they sound like things working out or a series of unexpected surprises. Most years most people experience at least a few difficulties and disappointments.

I had a few. More than discrete instances I can name, it's more that I didn't find my coveted long term housing. Didn't get more opportunities I wanted and needed. I want to blame myself because I barely reached out or tried to connect, and that's a factor, but hundreds and thousands of attempts to connect already hadn't budded, let alone flowered or borne fruit.

When I was formally studying music performance and later on when I was performing, I'd learn the notes to a new piece of music and practice it to a certain level that wasn't quite public performance ready. Then I'd let it rest for a while before returning to it a few months later.

Is resting what I did with my hopes, dreams, wants, needs, and expectations during the past twelve months? I think it was! For that I'm super thankful. It had to have been Spirit Inspired, because on my own I wouldn't have thought of doing that. I'll call that a time of "enduring." I hope it led to some growing I haven't yet discovered or discerned.

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