Electronic Love...Happy New Year...

181...according to this blog publisher....since last year at this time...I only ever tried for about 100...
...when you write from the heart...you cannot count exactly....

Most folks on this date 12/31  recount the thanks and memories of the past year and swear to new promises...

...I just want to go sideways, my favorite angle, to spot some thoughts for you, my friends...

This year...all electronic from the heart of you to the heart of me....

I saw my first grandchildren, cannot believe I am there, but yes...and they are beautiful twins!
Many new students from various countries came to our college....we welcome with our heart and minds
An Olympic US female swimmer is about to break the records of how fast in water....
A friend of the family from former times stays close to my heart...
A US Marine combat woman came to our staff...with heart...
A young Canadian artist who spoke like an adult about her life and art...
A Professor who is realizing his own career destiny within our community..
A new friend from Rotterdam, who opens our minds to a global alliance...
A mom who lost her children in an accident won my passion to write...one year ago tonite!
An artist out there won my heart not with her voice, but with her silence....

New friends...they all came somehow electronically, then in sight, then in touch...if it was ever real, it was real in words then in continual messages that mean real things, like..." I care"...we all want it to lead on to meaningful time spent...

We look at the smallest things and see our world...out there so huge...
...now, we look at the largest things, and we see...and we love....
.....the smallest things, the hairpin lost...the key found...the grains of a picture...
......our hand..our written word...our scripture....

Everything I have written in this last amazing year...is about my love for many of you.
It is what keeps me alive and going strong...
There is a flame that burns and will only grow....
....as we go on now...our best will flow...
.....the source is within us
.......and out there in a place... we can only hope to know....

Happy New Year!
11:17pm San Diego time  12/31/10....it has been one of the best years of my life...
....thank you!
......I really do look forward to a great and strong cup of coffee and seeing that warm sun in the morning....

Little Passengers on the Ship of Friends...

Remember...the Ship of Friends is a place and time both here in our lives now and later on...
...it is where we seem to join a cruise for our lives...with those we love...our friends, family...and..
.....even those we might have loved...we are all together...it is a place of reunions...of belonging...
..... it is a place outside of time as we know it...but very real...it is here and now, and tomorrow..
...... it knows no person who is not ultimately welcome...it just takes love...
.......there are those on board who take care of us...those who test but love us...those who..
........pick us up at airports...who bake us apple pies....who stay up all night...
.........with laughs and cries....
.......it is our ultimate home...yet, we are embarking always on that cruise...that great ship....with love

I saw something today.  These stories just write themselves...I am just a messenger...

A place where there are homeless families.  Homeless children.  Many of us do not know this.

A little boy.  He said his name was Jeffrey, and that he is six years old.

He was hugging a younger girl, he said her name was Jennifer.  He said he loved her.  Let me explain....

She is apparently deaf from birth, cannot hear anything.  I asked Jeffrey how he communicates with her?
...He proudly showed me with his right hand, making the sign of a dog..."with my hands", he said.

Jeffrey was sitting behind Jennifer and hugging her just like a big husband would hug his wife from behind.
It was a huge hug of the ages.  Protecting her.  Taking care of her...

I said,  "Jeffrey, what did you say?"  He said,  "I love her.  She needs me to help her...she can't hear, you know...."  He looked at me like we were old friends...like...you know!

I should have known.  Six year olds can join with us all in love for each other...who ever said they cannot feel it like we do as "big people"!  We are all on the Ship of Friends...all who love each other....and take care and protect each other...

Imagine, just imagine....Jeffrey, sitting there with his hair all scruffed up, and a big smile, and a proud big brother tone...he just told me..."I love her"...and he will protect young Jennifer, four years old, who also knows...what love is....

We all know each other...on the Ship of Friends...it is ageless...we are all children!

Santa at the Speed of Love....Merry Christmas!

Malls this time of year are where the most amazing things are seen and heard.
Today, on Christmas Eve, I overheard a young daughter ask her Mom, as they waited in line...
      "Mommy, how can Santa reach all of our homes tonight?  All over the world...?"

I thought about this one, too, back when I waited in such lines...
...I always believed he would come to my house...
...but it seemed as I got older that there were such a lot of houses out there...
...those raindeer must get pretty tired, but, oh, well, he would always come...
...to my house...and this little daughter's as well...

The Mom was right to the point...she said,
..."It is like this...Santa flies faster than the speed of light...
....he flies at the speed of love!"

That was good enough for me.  Even today!

Angel-Spotting....

I remember a great film ("One Magic Christmas")years ago in which the star, Mary Steenbergen, played the role of a wife and mother who was so stressed at Christmas that she was delivered to meet a Christmas angel....and that meeting made all the difference....she came back to life, for herself and her family.

The angel was a stranger.  I guess they often are.

But, if there are angels out there, they are somehow more present at this season, when people need deliverance and help.  If we can believe in this, or something close, I believe we are strong.  If they really don't exist and are not out there, and we still believe, it seems it may just be one of the greatest errors we could make! 

I decided this year, I will tell some people if I think I have spotted an angel, and if it is them.  A few of my close friends have heard me say this, but it is between them and me.  It is not something that should be shared with all.  Angel-spotting is a very personal and private thing.  If you believe like me, and feel brave, and feel you see one, just try it...see how giving that gift is given and received.  It is like the sound of a raindrop on a flower petal....it is there, but it is so gentle. 

Sharing our deepest faith with a friend is sharing our soul....and there may not be a greater gift.

The Moment When You Feel at Home.....

I remember...
...when I was an exchange student in the Netherlands...for a year...
....more than halfway through the year....
.....I changed.

From that point on....I was never the same....I now see it in others...
...in all students who study abroad....

It is what unites us as brothers and sisters of a global family....

It was the point when I really felt at home with the Netherlands culture...
...when I spoke enough Dutch to get around and actually speak with people in their language...

It was when I still missed my own home and my family, but I felt loyalty to...
...the new friends and family I had in the new home country...
.....like a second country....you feel at home....you feel like you could represent it...
........and so different from the first times when it was all new...

We can never go back to "start"....we are changed....
....the rest of our life, when the new home country touches our lives in any way...
......we understand, we feel warmth...we feel we know that place
........and we want to return....

When we see ourselves as just renting space on this planet for the years of our life....
....we know we are truly at home where our life has put us...we have little choice....
.....except that we can return, we can choose to go back there, we can choose to love...
.......the places and people we have called home...

There is that magic point, that moment when you begin to feel at home again...

Winter Is Here...The Days are Getting Brighter!

On this day, it is officially winter.  Look outside, and you will hardly notice the difference...
between just yesterday and today....yet the days starting tomorrow will be longer again...
initially by seconds, then by mintes as we all approach summer and long days....

We all are riding this planet....renting space here....while we live and love and give back.

So, what is the difference between a star in the night....a bright star that shines through...
Or, a faint star, a spec of light up there...or a candle we hold in the night air...
Or, a faint hope deep inside that someone will live longer...
....that someone will get better....
......that someone will hear or see...

Bright star, faint light...
Candle in the night....

Hope not fear...
Faith so clear...

Winter is here...
Warmer sun is near...

Against the darkest night, we connect the dots of our life,
And find, we are not alone....

Soul to Soul....This Time of Year!

This Season is like no other....
We gather together with true friends and family...
...and we travel...do we travel!  Over hills and valleys....oceans...
....to be with each other....we enjoy how hard we work just to be together again....

We sing in churches...and our hearts sing when we see each other...friends and family...
...and when we even just think of each other....our mothers and fathers, and sisters and brothers...
....our workmates, our playmates...even we say "hi" in a better way than ever to complete strangers...
.....this season....

It is a chance we have now to pause and think...and wonder...
....who we do thank...and who we live for....

....and to think into the farthest corners of our world as we know it...
.....everyone has a universe we want to understand in our minds...
.....and we know, if we are honest....that we cannot....
.....and we may even ask forgiveness....
......for trying so hard...so hard to understand what we possibly cannot
........begin to understand...

The heart can see what the mind cannot begin to understand...
The soul can reach for what we cannot ever see....but we can feel....

In this Season, many of us try to understand and share what we see of our world....
...if we find a soul that listens, it is like we have found everything we could have ever hoped for....
.....like we have found someone like ourselves....someone just absolutely who understands..
......this crazy and wild universe....just like we understand it...

Maybe this Season has more of these special moments than any other time....
....I do know that if there are great forces of love and agents of those forces greater than us...
.....this time of year...
......they appear...

And we say,  "Seasons Greetings"...and we know it is the call of the ages and the soul...
...who has heard us...when our reach meets the touch we know from a long time ago....
.....our mother's first touch....when our soul was new in the world....
.......now, our voice is heard.

The Oath of Angels...

And then, there are some special ones...
....again, by invitation...
....no one signs up for this one by chance or by accident....
.....but those who do take the oath are....

....unafraid of the unknown...
....bold by instinct...
....willing to save lives, her, his, and there, and somewhere...
.... to give their life to save another....
.....to care for the few remaining tigers and pandas in the wild....
.....to give food for a dying mother and child....
.....willing to share mind, heart, soul....
......however young...however old...
......however. from the start timid, now, however bold...

....these are the utmost human agents...
... and, for all we know....!

.....walking among us...
....they have taken some oath...I could never put in words, exactly...
....except for those I see as angels....I will tell them what I believe...

....the true ones..I believe have the wisdom of the old but the fun of children..
....their love, their committment to art, and expression...
....of loving soul...their hands bear scars....of the artist in passion...
......of some deeper soul scars

That it would be a mission of life....
...a "career objective", to become an angel...
....there may be no greater job description...

This holiday season is visited by "angels"....and it is extremely important to point out that the major religions of the world all hold that there are special agents...angels..

That is for this writer, the special mission of this season...as always...

This Evening

Walked back to my hotel early evening in DC...
...across New Jersey Avenue...snow everywhere...

You know, I have seen the Eifel Tower lit up flashing in the night...
...the Arc de Triomphe...
...many majestc, lit-up-at-night national monuments...in great cities

....seeing the US Capital building in the night...
....lit-up in the dark night...
....I stopped in the street for a second...just to look at it again...
....it is...
.... amazing....

Not the Ordinary Flight

Yesterday, flying across America, the pilot sent his business card to million mile flyers...
I was impressed, wrote back, in fact, gave him one of my books...
...the book has a story about 'ultimate flight' as well as a story about a Captain...
....who cared enough to give his business card...

I took this as not the ordinary flight...
...not the ordinary Captain...

When we fly, we literally place our lives in the two hands of a Captain....
...like in life, so many minutes of the day....
.....we cannot possibly do everything...
.......how many times and moments do we place ourselves in others' hands...
.........in even the ordinary day...!

Some Rules for Joining the Ship of Friends...

See the earlier essay on "The Ship of Friends"

When anyone wants to join now or later...

They must...

...understand that we are all searching in life here and now...

...what particular badge we may wear, our nation, our ethnic, our face, our gender, does not matter...
....what does matter...
....for connections to others minds...
....for connections to others hearts...
....maybe on special occasions to reach out to someone's soul

...mind to mind...
...heart to heart...
...soul to soul....
,,,,some are short...some tall...

the Ship is a place for respect and love and friendship...
....and champions who set records for us all...
....and champions in life who strive, just sometimes, to survive...
....give evrthing, give all...

...we grow in these directions as we live...

...there will be some very special moments of life where human reach meets human touch....

...these and more are the rules for joining...

...sometimes by invitation....
...sometimes by our own search and action....

No one joins by accident....
...because on the Ship of Friends...
....there are no accidents....never, ever....

Looking Back....Looking Ahead...

The last year has been amazing....
One year ago, almost to the minute, I was enjoying tea with a good friend...
...and though I hope to one day see this friend again....it reminds me...
....we can never take anything for granted....like we usually think we will see our friends again...
.....but, we are not running the show....sometimes we may not...and we never knew it until it was too late....
.....thus, every minute we have, we need to treat it as if it may be the last....and hope....
......it may lead on to our next time with that friend....
Miles flown, bridges crossed, seeds sown...

Moments of 2010 flew by with lightening speed...
...some moments ground to a halt...there was ever a need

Connecting with the new...
Growing with the old...
Colors of blue, white, pink, green...
...and for all the best moments...gold...

This year was a year of gifts...
...like I never knew before...
.....someplaces, some faces, some things forever...
......that now I seem to exist just for...

But on now to the next time...
...I am given again the gift...
....with the energy to create
.....the purpose our spirits to lift...

2011 holds new things, people, places to call...
....graces to raise high and not let ever fall...

As we go forward we go with the many but not all
...some are fallen,some are lost, and some seem to fall...
.....they may return, they may come back...
.......it would be not what we can hope for...
........but we never forget the track...

The year past...a huge gift to this very day...
.....Just a dream that such a year ...
.......Could once again come this way...

We look ahead...we are grateful for what we are given....
...and forgive us for what we cannot begin to understand....
....however we may try.

Global Eyes....The Better To See You With...

We met about a year ago in Taiwan.  She is from Japan, Tokyo is home.
Educated in hospitality management in Japan, with a father in international trade...
... she wanted to see and learn more of the world...
Time spent in Canada learning English so well...
Then to Taiwan for several years to learn Chinese and China culture...

I was so impressed when we met...the spirit...the sense of culture...
Her Christmas card last year she signed, "Global Eyes"
We have stayed in touch.  Saw her a few weeks ago in Tokyo...she is back home now...
Hope to see her someday in San Diego...

Global Eyes.  When you have this experience and see the world...
...with global eyes...it is never the same...

We are never the same.  We meet someone with global eyes...
....they see the world with such a smile...they want to know cultures...they see them...
....we have global eyes when we want so much to do things like she has done...
....thanks, "Global Eyes", the better to see you with, and you see me!
....see you later on, and keep seeing it that way...
....we met by accident, didn't we...?  I have known you much longer than that...
....again, no accidents...

The Sea of Creativity......

Great news item!  Laura Ling is back!  She wandered into North Korea with a friend, was captured and nearly gave up.  Bill Clinton went in and brought them home...remember?  Now Laura, a media specialist and a very accomplished one, is restarting her career by creating a new television production which will feature major human stories and public interest.  Congratulations, Laura!

There is a larger story here.  I caught this news item, and was happy to see it, only because I scan the news daily from various sources.  In the last year, I have been swept up in new interest for me in the arts, creative arts and the world of artists.  I have been fascinated how they make it through their education, starting their craft, honing a market and a business.  It is for some of the most talented a huge and vast land of opportunity, and a land of difficult challenges, among them, just sometimes survival.

Laura is back, and she had a great start, and she is at it again....creating stories with real life, television journalism, true creative work.  But she is one of millions literally just in the United States, let alone the entire world, with the creative drive, the fire within, making a path...from her artist's soul to the soul of her truest audience, those who would love her work....

It is a vast sea of creativity.  It is like the sea....think for a minute...the oceans take up most of the planet Earth's surface.  We all live on the rest of it, though vast stretches are ice and cold and mountains where nobody can survive.  Billions of us on small patches, relatively, of the planet.  The seas are wide and deep and full of live....marine life beyond description....like the vast sea of human artistic creativity, there are forms and species which have not been catalogued or even seen....

It is a human sea of creative life.  It is the human spirit alive and well everywhere.  The young schoolgirl who can't wait to get up in the morning to draw or paint.  The young professional who dreams of having a week to herself to just paint...the photographer who wants to just photograph that artist at her love of work...the older one who paints what is in his heart...the man and woman who invest in art because they love what it represents....the museum walls filled with live work...the stage off Broadway with the new play that will rock the nation....a vast sea of beauty....so big, moving so fast...no one can keep up with but specs of accidental news, like seeing today that Laura Ling is back. 

As vast as the sea of creativity is, it can mean everything that life is worth living for when one person tells the artist that he loves her work.  In a single instant, the universe becomes real for the artist, and for the one who loves that art.  In a flash of words, a memory and a dream are created that last forever.  The vast and powerful sea of creativity is touched by one who creates and one who loves that creation.

There are no accidents out there...

The Ship of Friends...Forever!

The Ship of Friends is where we all meet at every level....
.....sooner or later....and in special times....

It is a mystical ship that sails the high seas of life...
It is a metaphor for a safe place where people can meet and be close together...
It is something that may be in our futures, both in this life and beyond...
It is a friendly place....it is a place in our minds, hearts and souls...
Heart to heart friends meet here...
Mind to mind...meet here
...Soul to soul meet here...

The ship is always departing, always arriving...
....it is safe in any storm....
....it sails with speed on open seas...
....and into the night with great light...
......it knows no specific form....

There is no fear on the ship....
....she holds all souls safely....

Lives touch on the ship.....
....like nowhere on land....
.....only on the life of seas....
......and the sea of life....extends her hand....

Her spirit is friendship, welcome....
....warm tea to newly on board...
......warm touches to those who want to move forward...

She waits for us all...
...we will be there....
....the fallen and the strong....
......yet life is there in our times...
........everyone is there in no harm....

Our souls reach out....
....her Captain hears the call..
......The Ship of Friends....
.........welcomes each and everyone of our souls...
.....as we stand for our life and the life for all....

It has friends for fun times...
...friends who seek their soul...
.....friends who want to give....
.......and friends who take all....

It has the most loving face....
....waiting for our kiss...
......just as we step on board....
.......we cannot miss....

The Ship of Friends is our life....
....we cannot miss her call....
......it's when we see her....
........that matters all...

The Ship of Friends....Human Bonding in the 21st Century

In earlier writing, I have described the Ship of Friends.

I now realize my next book is about just that....

...human bonding and connecting in our time...it is a rather precious thing....

....some of my writing since the recent book has been more to this point than earlier...

......everyone seems interested in relationships and the anatomy of love....and connecting points...

.......so let sail....

The Ship of Friends....

....we shall all meet there anyway....we might as well, join and get ready to sail....

.....for those friends already on the ship, ahoy....mates....!
......for new friends, get ready for the journey of your life....you are already underway....

Art is the Gift...for eons, for seconds....

When the artist finally completes the painting, the poem, the story, the framing of the photo...
...the song....the drama....the acting....it's over...

But only for that moment!

Its life goes on....people see it...read it...dream it...see themselves in it...
...there is life there, from the artist's soul to medium, to your eyes, to your soul....

It can live years, decades, centuries....forever....its light shines...
...on out into the far distant places....

Art is also the last dance of the evening....
...the last flight of the Captain...
...the one that had  the perfect landing....

It may be the act of love....the poem spoken in broken tongue from the unbroken heart...
...from the unbroken breath of the broken heart....
It may be the touch of the hand at the golden moment...
...when time is running out....when the touch is not ordinary touch....
....when it is maybe the last touch....ever....it becomes the touch from the soul....
....it may be the last art from that heart....

Early or late, small or large....the touch is the art....
....it is the gift of life...it can be the last gift of love....
....it is never lost....it is the gift from something greater than us...to us, through us...
....other things are lost...never art...it is our legacy...it is what we inherit, and what our children will inherit...
....it is our civilization...the best we know to give....
....voice, words, sounds, paint, lines, color...
....never random...
...the creative designs from beyond our hands and soul back from a deeper place out now into the
...universe of our world and our children....may it last long enough to inspire them, speak to their souls too...
...and ask of them the same....what can we do to give back the sunrise, the mountains, the flowers...
...it will be 'art' their answer, as it is ours, our ancestors and all of our fellow humanity to come....
....it is the only truly human language we speak....it is, after all, our gift...

How Do We Know When We Have Just Said 'Hello'...?

Surprise...
Someone just woke us up...

New....
Awake...
Like morning...in the middle of the afternoon...

Where did you come from?
Why are you here?

From the city
Far or near?

More to come...
Don't know where from...

But, it is unmistakeablely clear....
I can see and hear...

You now have no fear...
"hello'....from right in here....

Cold hands....
Warm them here...
Have no fear....

I touch your hand...
It's very clear....

We are here...

We just said, I think, 'Hello'...
Cold city, warm tea....
Come inside...
I'll sit with you...
...if you sit with me....

...'excuse me, if I may say..."
..."Hello"

We knew each other long ago....

How Do You Know When You Have Said 'Goodbye'...?

Mostly, it just happens....
Most of the time you don't know...at the time....
Ask yourself, when you have lost someone you miss, maybe to life, to love, to death....
And you never see them again....

The last time you see them, almost never, we know at that moment....
It hits just after, or maybe later....
We never had the chance to say 'goodbye'...

We would not have wanted to, anyway....
Not then....anyway, no way....

Goodbye is not something we humans like to celebrate....
Beginnings are better than endings....

Sometimes, we know it when it is 'Goodbye'...
It is up to us to say it first....

Both ways have happened to me....
There are none of them that I consider my best moments...

For today, maybe not forever, I choose...
"Hello' to a new friend is my choice of moments...
...always over 'Goodbye' to an old one....

In all cases, we do not run the show....
We do our best, as we know, as we love, each day, in every way....
Mistakes we may make...
When we are true to our heart and our best...and our friend...
There is never a 'Goodbye"....at stake...

Fifteen minutes with a true friend is good enough forever...