Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie.
I met you when I was the new kid in Grade 9. You sat across the row from me in Mr. Jaarsma’s homeroom class. We got to know each other over our four years of high school and, after we graduated, I decided I didn’t want to live without you. We dated, got married and had two amazing children.
It’s been twenty-three and half years since I met you, honey, and we’ve been married for seventeen and a half of them and I love you more now that I ever have.
I’m glad I’m yours.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
By the way, that’s a photo I took last night. It’s called “light-writing” and I just opened up the shutter with a remote shutter release in a dark basement and drew a couple of hearts with a flashlight.
Holding hands…aww…
I feel like it’s an affirmation of all that is good in the world when people find each other. I’ve recently been trying to focus on all that is positive and, when I can’t, at least look for positive solutions to things I want to complain about. I think I often focus on what is negative because it’s easier. Complaining is easy. Bitching about all that is bad in the world is easy.
Coming up with solutions is not easy.
Which is why seeing people holding hands makes me smile. When I hold my wife’s hand, I think of nothing else but what is good. I don’t criticize the world. I don’t complain about other people. I say silly things. I laugh. I smile. I feel affirmed and postive and…
I’ve got it! We should just all hold hands. World peace might be achievable, people! Hold hands with someone near you right now and tell me you don’t feel better about the world. I dare you!
The non-Christmas Christmas post.
With the house in disarray, Lego and clothes all over the place and the family all happily lazy, I figured I’d post something peaceful. This photo sums up the way I feel right now – placid.
Thanks, Christmas, for the peace that is existing in my house and heart right now.
Here’s my NOON hour food prep
I roasted a turkey today. My family was coming over and my parents are leaving in three days for Guatemala for six months. They started working there years ago and have formed their own missions organization, Love Guatemala, wherein they show love to people through meeting practical needs – housing, water filters, clinics. We (kind of) had Christmas today, as they’ll be away when Christmas actually occurs. I’ll miss them a lot, so it felt right to do a big family dinner. I made roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips, stuffing and gravy.
So, I roasted a turkey today. I like to cook and doing a turkey is fun. I know, that makes me weird. What you see above are the herbs that were combined with garlic and olive oil and then massaged into the bird, under the skin and then over. The oil adds a nice golden-ness to the turkey. The herbs are Italian parsley (I’m not sure what makes it Italian), thyme, rosemary, and sage. I love fresh herbs and the chopping is particularly satisfying. Something about wielding a big knife that appeals to the neanderthal in me.
Oh, and this week’s Photo Friday Challenge is “Noon“. Seeing as I was chopping these around noon in order to get the turkey ready for dinner, I thought this might meet the challenge.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Faces
We did not go to the Buddhist Temple this summer and I kind of miss these guys. The face above belongs to one of many statues depicting the “Lohans” of Buddhism. My kids love going to the temple and it’s a cool way to experience a culture outside our own. But there are lessons to be learned in a temple that go far beyond culture.
A couple of summers ago, when we took the kids to the temple in Steveston, BC for the first time, my son was doing his best to exercise self-control. He walked instead of running. He spoke quietly instead of excitedly shouting. He kept his hands behind his back. To this day, when I need him to exercise that same restraint, I say to him: “Ben. Buddhist Temple.” And that’s all he needs. Buddhist Temple.
Oh, and this week’s photo challenge is “Faces“.
A loving reminder
This is a little reminder from me to…me. It’s been a while since I senselessly bought flowers. By senselessly, I mean the part of my brain that is not part of the brain – the irrational part of the brain, is what I’m trying to say.
Yes, there are reasons why I love my wife. Yes, there are occasions to buy flowers. Yes, there are aesthetic reasons to purchase these aromatic and visually stimulating florae. But it’s time to do it for no reason whatever.
Because isn’t that what love is? A momentary stupidity in the face of all things logical that creates a blankness in the brain and a smile on the face? Well, it’s time to get stupid for love again.
Of course, me, the person for whom I might be gettin’ all stupid might read this, so maybe not tomorrow, or the next day, but soon. Soon.
Mind on the beach
Where I’m going to be in a week? At school, back at work for the next ten months.
Where I wish I was going in a week? Back to the sandy beach of the Oregon Coast.
I guess there’s always the lottery to make that come true. Or, another 21 years and then retirement.
C’mon lottery…
Weekly Photo Challenge, part two: Up (in the air)
When we bought the trampoline last summer, my son was at times curious about it, at times petrified. The most he would do was bounce and only when no one was on with him. This summer he seems to think that he’s Dick Grayson (the original Robin in the Batman comics) of the Flying Graysons. He’s gone from terrified to a holy terror on the trampoline.
As a kid, I never had a trampoline, so watching my own kids is full of terrifying excitement for me. I’m always curious to see what they’ll do next, with my thumbs ever-ready to phone 9-1-1.
Weekly Photo Challenge: UP!
The kids and I had a wonderful weekend, with a lot of activity. This is but one. It’s not the most beautiful photo from a technical standpoint, but it’s one of the most beautiful photos I’ve taken because it’s my daughter executing a possible broken neck over a sprinkler shooting through a trampoline. Not a great backdrop, nor is it in the best focus, but it’s fun.
Oh, and she’s UP.
I’m a geek! as if this is news…
These are my new shoes. I am very excited about my new shoes. Converse made my new shoes. Batman is on my new shoes. The Dark Knight. The World’s Greatest Detective. The Caped Crusader. The protector of Gotham City. My hero.
New shoes + Batman = greatest shoes ever. EVER!
Pinky: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge
This little beauty was sitting outside the local library, just waiting for me and my camera. I like flowers. I know that I’m a guy and that I’m supposed to buy flowers for my wife and not for myself. I’m supposed to be watching my wife grow the flowers in the garden, not be worried about how pretty everything looks.
But I’m a lover of flowers. Secretly, I love buying flowers for my wife because then I get to enjoy them as well.
I guess that’s not much of a secret anymore.
Beach + Children = fun parenting
This was the most fun aspect of camping in Oregon. My kids love the beach, the water, the sun so camping on the Oregon Coast is dead easy. We spent most of the days running in and out of the surf, lying on the sand, building sand castles and flinging floaty pieces of wood into the waves. There was no need for discipline. There was little need for parenting skills. The kids never fought as long as they were on the beach. It was awesome. I need to somehow move a beach into my house.
Walking on the beach was never so mystical
I will try to write as little as possible for this photo, as I feel it speaks volumes on its own.
It was shot on film, not digital, media.
It was shot on a camera that is thirty-five years old.
It was shot on the Oregon Coast, near Manzanita. It has not been touched by Photoshop; the only processing that occurred was at London Drugs Photo Center.
It has captured the mystical, magical, other-worldly aspect of the Oregon Coast and shows the main reason why my family will probably return to the coast for all of the foreseeable summer vacations.
Parenting takes love and courage
“In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck – and, of course, courage. ” – Bill Cosby
Above are my two beautiful children. I love them more than my own life. But they have spawned in me some complete confusion and inspired love. Let me give you a couple of examples:
1. When we were traveling to Oregon only a scant two weeks ago, my children made me so proud. The happily dealt with a full day of traveling, followed by five days of bliss. They got along. They saved small aquatic animals from death. They found utter joy in throwing a stick in the ocean, only to chase it down the beach, rescue it from the surf and throw it right back in. They comforted me when, in a fit of stupidity I thought I was younger than I am, I hurled myself into and over a railing, leaving a sizable dent in my shin. They were stupendous. And for a brief and amazing moment, I thought, “We’re amazing parents. We should write books.”
2. My children decided last night that they wanted to sleep in our basement in our original three-man tent. At 10:00, my wife found them lying in the tent with the lights out but their Nintendo DS’s fully engaged when they were supposed to be fast asleep. After a stern, but amused, talking-to, they went to sleep. At 2:00 in the morning, my daughter came upstairs to the living room, where my wife chose to sleep so she could “hear the children”, to inform my wife that she could not sleep. My wife made her way to the basement, where she slept in the tent on the floor so that the children could continue their adventure. This morning, after a dearth of sleep, my children proceeded to fight with each other at such a volume that even I could not ignore it. And for a brief and groggy moment, I thought, “What were we thinking when we thought we could be parents?”
In the span of two weeks I’ve gone from proud and maybe a little arrogant parent to a bewildered and short-fused parent. I love my children, but this parenting thing? Well, I can’t have one without the other.
The ’57 Olds…beautiful.
This is beauty in car form. This is the headlight of a 1957 Oldsmobile car. It makes me smile. The little rocket ships above the headlight on the fender make me smile even more. I’m sure that some salesman back in 1957 used the line that these little babies make the car more aerodynamic, but I’m also sure they do nothing but look cool.
I bought my car in 2004. As I drove it home, I thought I saw many other drivers driving the same car as I had just purchased. It turned out that they all looked the same, but were made by other manufacturers. They were all grey and boxy. No curves. No sex appeal.
The ’57 Olds? Tons of sexiness. The fenders. The chrome. The curve of the bumper. The people who designed this car wanted Marilyn Monroe in car form: lots of curves and big…uh… headlights. I think they succeeded.
Whose steps will you follow?
As my son walked across the sand in front of me, I wondered, “Who will he follow?” Will he follow his friends and not make his own decisions? Will he follow his parents into education? Will he put others before himself? Will he lead and not follow?
I think these are pretty universal conundrums faced by parents everywhere. I did not anticipate, before becoming a parent, that I would be that worried about how my children would turn out. But now that my daughter is ten going on fifteen and my son is seven and a perfect combination of anxiety and over-confidence, I think about these things. I think it was easier for me when I was their age because I was in the middle of it. My parents, however, must have thought the same things I am thinking about my own kids.
I guess I’ll continue to influence them as much as I can and hope for the best.
Would you save a starfish?
I teach student leadership. There’s a story that I tell my students when they start to feel a little down about how much impact they’re making in our school. It goes like this: Many starfish washed up on shore. A young boy started picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean. Someone saw what he was doing and told him that it was pointless, that there were too many to save, that it wouldn’t make a difference. Throwing another starfish into the sea, the little boy responded, “It makes a difference to this one.” I’m sure you’ve read this story before, or heard it told by someone who was encouraging you that your small efforts were making a difference. There are also many more elegant versions, but the idea is the same.
While I was watching my kids on the beach in Oregon, I watched my daughter, with all of her innocence and curiosity, trying to figure out what would happen to this little starfish as the tide went out. It left itself stranded in a tide pool and Hannah wandered over to me and asked, “Should I move it?” I told her it was up to her. She did and I hope that she’ll continue to make a difference in even the smallest creatures as she grows up.
Oregon Coast: a love story
I just got back from spending five days on the Oregon Coast. It is the second summer the Family B has visited the Oregon Coast and we’ve fallen in love with it. It is easily the most beautiful, natural area I’ve ever vacationed. The triptych above (just for you, Karina – triptych) shows you the area where we camped. The town of Manzanita is at the foot of Mount Neahkahnie (seen in the bottom right) and the beach extends out from the cliff-sides down to a spit of land that ends where the Nehalem River meets the ocean. Our campsite was about halfway down the beach you can see in the photo on the left.
We stayed in a yurt (Year-round Universal Recreational Tent) that was a five minute walk from the beach. The sand is soft and light and completely enveloped my foot as I walked in it. The ocean gently lapped at the beach all day and night and lulled me to sleep. There is virtually no light pollution, so I got to see all the stars I remembered from when I was a child. I nearly cried the first night I looked up and was met by billions of lights while being serenaded by the constant sound of waves crashing on the sand.
Playing with my kids on the beach and in the water tops the vacation cake. There’s nothing in the world like this.
I love this place.
Oh, and I was so in love with this place that I had to post today, even though it was the second post of the day. Whoo!
Black Beauty…or BEAST!
It’s a full frontal view of my K1000 – otherwise known as the Beast. It’s about twenty pounds and made of steel. Not really, but it is heavy and most of the parts are steel. It’s still got some old beauty and a retro feel to it that makes me love it. There’s no molded hand hold, no battery/auto rewind pack, no zoom lens. Just a prime lens (with a great aperture of f1.7) and a light meter that tells me if I have too much or too little. Beautiful.
WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Colorful
Easily the most colorful event I’ve attended within my own country (Canada is colorful, but not like a Guatemalan market) was the Indian wedding earlier this month. It was amazing. The bride, above, was a vision of beauty, but I loved seeing her brothers (? Cousins?) escort her through the temple. The red bandanas marked them as part of the bride’s side of the wedding. At my wedding, everyone just sat on one side of the church or the other to denote who they were with.
The late night post: Photo Friday’s all vertical today.
I went to Europe a couple of years ago and got to fulfill one of my architectural fantasy wishes: Sagrada Familia. I am amazed by this place. From the outside, the Nativity Facade, depicting the birth of Christ, looks like a giant, monstrous thing that may eat you if you stand too close to it. From the inside, the pillars that Gaudi (the architect, who died in 1926 before seeing his work finished) designed resemble giant trees. It’s not done, the construction I mean. In fact, the builders figure it should be done by 2026 – it was started back in 1882. If you have a chance to go see it, do.
The shot above is from one of the northeast spires. It is a dizzying height, but well worth the self-guided tour through the byzantine hallways and walkways and spiral staircases.
Love is so cute…
I visited the Alexandra Bridge on Sunday. It’s about a half-hour drive north of Hope and ten minutes from Hell’s Gate. And, yes, you read that correctly. British Columbia has some funny name places.
While photographing this suspension bridge, this couple came up and paused, nicely, and waited for me to take a photo. I informed them that they were never going to walk across this bridge if they were going to wait until I was done shooting this bridge. I also, in passing, that they could walk on as long as they were okay with being on my photoblog.
They were so cute. They were holding hands and being all googly over each other and making me a little jealous. My wife and I have been married for seventeen years. We have a ten year old daughter, who was accompanied on this trip by a friend from school, and a seven year old son. Marriage and kids are great. I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. But this couple, walking by themselves, holding hands and canoodling whenever they wanted, made me remember a time when I could grab my wife’s hand and not be joined on the other side by a sticky, melted ice cream covered hand.
It’s refreshing to see concern for others (weekly photo challenge)
I don’t know who this “Home Boy” is, but it’s nice to see that someone’s looking out for him. I mean, it could be a personal message from one tagger to another, letting the homeboy know that his bro knows he’s lonesome. It could be just an observation by an objective observer of the human condition.
On the other hand, it could be a lonesome home boy crying out to the world, letting everyone who sees this message know that he, the home boy, is lonesome.
I’m not sure what the point was, but someone felt a strong enough concern that the message had to be spray-painted on a wall. I feel encouraged.
For my wife: This goat’s for you, Hillie!
Every time we drive by a farm that has goats, my wife goes down the illusory path of nostalgia and regales the Family B with stories involving the two goats she had when she was little. She tells us about how her and her siblings called them “Peaches and Cream”, so when I was driving home two days ago, I noticed baby goats at a farm I pass on my commute home.
So, Hillie, here’s a couple of goats, just for you.
