Highlights from the week:
Family gifts and new bike donations for Christmas at work.
Christmas lights in Emmy’s neighborhood.
Holiday celebration with piñatas and musical chairs (I got to play too in the adult version!)
Going for a walk after the rain and seeing raindrops on roses
Checking out an exhibit on abstract art from the 60s & 70s at the Bedford Gallery. Not my favorite, but a few interesting pieces.
Seeing art and costumes made from recycled Southwest Airlines seat leather!
Southwest fight attendant asking ‘Did someone drop this?’ while holding a flight card. Of course everyone looked up and he said ‘Now that I have your attention, let’s go over the safety features of the aircraft’ Very smart!
Murals on my morning walks in downtown LA.
Fun with fellow JNE commissioners and staff.
Enjoying trees that are still in full blazing fall colors
Digging out my gratitude journals and reading from some from 2010!
Yummy lunch and Sing-Along Messiah with Emmy. Meeting someone who had also lived in New Zealand and singing Silent Night in 3 different languages (English, Spanish and German)
Listening to a great podcast episode about the life-changing power of daily walks and learning about the Mary Oliver poem Why I Wake Early. YES!!
Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
