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...