Something So Simple

Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, "A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born." In meditating on this, I speed towards my awakening discovering myself as complex as I am simple.

Meeting strangers can be fun. It can be taxing. Fortunately, I love meeting new strangers. How odd, though, that I've known this stranger my whole life. He's an old friend, really. A kind and easy-go-lucky guy that seemingly gets along with everyone. What's there not to like? Lots, I'm sure. Lots.

As I very well know, however, "gratitude changes the pangs of memory into tranquil joy" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer). I am greatly comforted in discovering the profound truth in that statement.

It's good to concentrate on more than the surface--to behold the depth, breadth, and height of the reality of our seemingly-mundane encounters; for the truth is: they are not mundane at all. With that approach in mind, I am called to love, and in loving to see and to behold, making connections and cultivating a growing sense of awe and mystery in the depth of my own being (and hopefully in that of others, as well).

To those that want to hold to this notion, I implore you to daily look deeply into the complex created fullness that is displayed in human beings in all their marvelous diversity. Do not discount each other when your way of experiencing life is different than that of someone else. As the ancient mystics put it: ubi amor, ibi oculus (roughly, "where there is love, there is seeing").

I close with another quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery: "What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." To the stranger at the well: It's nice to meet you. Again.

Finding time to rant and my love affair with the Northeast

So the idea of starting this blog was just to have an outlet to share what's on my mind. The problem is that there's so very much on my mind and so very little time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, in this case). Discipline, obviously, is needed to remain faithful to this task. So let's just say that I intend to be more disciplined (in this arena, at least).

What's on my mind today? How much I miss the East Coast. It's April and it's still cold here (I'm writing this from Rhode Island) and Los Angeles is sunny and warm; but the people, the culture, the friends and family ... that is what I miss. To be sure, I do miss the change of seasons; after all, autumn in New York??? Beautiful, right?

I suppose that I just took it all for granted (I did), and perhaps, if I move back there, I'd take it all for granted once again. So maybe it's best that my family and I stay out West and just visit the East Coast from time to time.

Until this Easter weekend, I've not ever been to the state of Rhode Island. I must say, it's very nice. Would definitely come back here again. So peaceful here in Middletown nearby the water. A good place to be in many respects; one of them being for the food. Spicy quahogs, Rhode Island chowder, lobster for $7 a pound? Come on. Gotta love it.

One of the reasons I think I'm enjoying being here so much is because of the contrast of just staying in midtown Manhattan for more than a week. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to going back there tomorrow. I'll be staying on 51st Street this time, across from Rockafeller Plaza. Pretty sweet.

Cuisine in Manhattan is killer, too. Has L.A. beat by a mile. Can't wait to sample some more great fare. Until then ...