Happy Birthday baby girl. I love you to the moon and back! I hope that this is your best year yet.
Maybe the universe isn’t really testing you.
Maybe it’s giving you an opportunity to practice who you say you are.
Lately
Right about now.
Dominican Republic
It’s hard to put into words what spending a week in the Domincan Republic has meant to me. 22 people went down to build a houseand with a lot of blood, literally, sweat and tears, we were able to help change a families life. Being able to experience this the week before Christmas, puts the meaning of the holiday really into perspective. My buddy Wes organized the trip with the Palm Beach boys and girl lacrosse teams, this is something that they have done for a number of years. It was my first ever mission trip and to say it was a life changing experience, was an understatement. We were able to see the need there and get a first hand look at what the organization is doing to help the community of Los Alcarizos.
I was thrilled to be able to share this experience with Jack and I will definitely be going back. The plan is to build 6 more houses over the next few years.
Mardi Gras World
Went to the Warehouse Education and Research Council annual conference and got to do a tour of Mardi Gras World. Such a cool place
Wine country
Spent last weekend in California. Made a little visit to Sanoma and watched the niners lose to the Chiefs.
2021
So, I did some things this year and I am really looking forward to what 2022 has in store.
“We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.”
“When everything is uncertain, everything that is important becomes clear”
“Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it”
“if there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having”
Mt. Tamalpais, Mill Valley
Sunrise
“I’ve always liked the time before dawn because there’s no one around to remind me who I’m supposed to be so it’s easier to remember who I am.”
This week at Sunrise in Lavallette.
beginnings
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. // Thoreau
This starts a new series of abstracts called Beginnings. I have been in a creative funk for a while and am starting to get back into a groove spending time capturing the sunrise in Lavallette this fall.
San Francisco
Spent Labor Day in San Francisco with my son. Took a few walks, went to Alcatraz, hiked in the Marin Highlands. Went to a party with the 49ers. Pretty good weekend all in all.
San Antonio
Spent the week in San Antonio at a conference for work. I have to say that the BBQ here is the best I have ever had.
Blessings
to breathe in the ocean breeze
to watch the leaves bloom on the trees
to walk with you, hand in hand
Demons
Here’s Linn Ullmann, in an interview with Vogue, on her father Ingmar Bergman:
My father was a very disciplined and punctual man; it was a prerequisite for his creativity. There was a time for everything: for work, for talk, for solitude, for rest. No matter what time you get out of bed, go for a walk and then work, he’d say, because the demons hate it when you get out of bed, demons hate fresh air. So when I make up excuses not to work, I hear his voice in my head: Get up, get out, go to your work.
Yet another reason to get out of bed and take a walk.
Nola
June, 2021
“...Go because it’s crazy, borderline dysfunctional, permissive, shabby, alcoholic and crazy--- and because it looks like nowhere else” // Anthony Bourdain
Hayden and I took a trip to New Orleans this summer. We saw some incredible live music, ate some great food, drank some good drinks and watched a whole bunch of people. We also drove out to Baton Rouge and saw LSU and Mike the tiger. Sadly, we didn’t run into Coach O.
All in all, a nice little road trip to add to the collection.
Graduation
June, 2021
On to the next chapter Hudson.
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver
