S is for Santa Barbara

I had several thoughts about S-es -- like Sixty (my next birthday), Sarah (my beautiful daughter), Sister, Soul, Sacred, and so on. I finally settled on Santa Barbara "a lovely spot indeed on the coast by the sea," primarily because we just returned from a wedding there and the name has been constantly in front of me. It's a nice place to visit, as they say. Maybe if you're Oprah or Ellen you can live there, but the me-s of the world, not so.

Tom's daughter (another S -- Shannon) chose that location for her wedding and it was a beautiful spot for a wedding. Romantic and photogenic. I've been working on a project to commemorate the day. Here's a piece of it --



The funny thing is this page has a lot of depth to it up close. There are effects that I will never be able to duplicate, even if I want to. The reason being that this page was born of mistakes, one after another. It was repainted, blotted, swabbed, washed, fanned, cursed and then given one more chance.

I think there's a lesson in that.

R is for Revival

I grew up in the Baptist church and the big event of our summer was the church revival. I remember sitting outside on those summer evenings in folding chairs but I don't remember if it was because we didn't have air conditioning or because that's just what we did for a revival. What I remember most is that it was a week long series of singing, sermons and getting to see the cute boys I typically only got to see once a week. It was reviving something, but probably not what the Baptists had in mind.

In many ways, I wish a revival was still part of my summer routine. Not the church variety, but a revival of the spirit -- the concentration or focus of the spiritual self in a designated period of time. We all want to live fully but sometimes I think we just don't know how. That knowledge of how to live our lives lies deep within us -- I know it does -- the trick is somehow to release it -- or simply find it.

I think it may take a revival.