
Today as we remember Good Friday we think about the cross and the biggest blessing that God offered us, his son, who came to die for our redemption. Through his pain we get to live.
The great thing about this particular Jesus, at the LA cathedral, is that the architect purposefully made the cross low to the ground and accessible to the people. After service there is usually a line of people want to touch Jesus. It is moving to watch them lean against it, kneel by it, sob into it and embrace him in their pain in the most famous symbol of ultimate suffering.
Filed under: Photo Friday, Spiritual Formation
December 1, 2006 • 11:34 pm

Stillness… how often in life today do we stop and be still? Not often enough that’s for sure. I know I am so distracted by so many things. Yet it is only in the quiet that we can hear the still, small voice.
"Be still and know that I am God…" Ps. 46:10.
Filed under: Photo Friday, Spiritual Formation
November 23, 2006 • 11:40 pm

When Erika and I were in San Francisco for Jer’s wedding my Uncle Kev graciously loaned us his black Expedition to drive to Sonoma. Uncle Kev got this car with a lovely Jesus decal on the back.
Being the good Catholic that he is he thought it would be sacreligious to take it off. So now every time the Western sun filters through the back of his car Jesus reflects and dances on the dashboard. It’s kind of disconcerting to be driving down the freeway in the middle of a road rage fit and have Jesus all of the sudden show up.
When we arrived at the reception we stopped to take a picture with Jesus, when else would you get the chance?
Filed under: Friendshipping, Photo Friday
November 3, 2006 • 11:08 pm

The sunsets lately have been amazing. Look at that orange, isn’t it fantastic. I wanted to get to the ocean to see it but with daylight savings I think the sun set that day at 4:59. Gorgeous.
Filed under: Photo Friday
October 20, 2006 • 8:56 pm

Do you remember hot, humid, lazy summer days when the only remedy was the break out the hose and the slip-n-slide? Mikey and Jordy played out there for hours. Their biggest worry was who would get to go next – that is the joy and innocence of childhood.
Look at that face! Oh how I love and miss those boys.
Filed under: Photo Friday
October 13, 2006 • 9:01 pm

534 S. Broadway, home to the original Pantages Theatre.
In fact Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was mecca of vaudeville stages and then the talkies in the 1920s and 30s. Sadly most of the grandeur is gone and the former homes of the stars are now home to indoor swap meets, porn theatres and discount electronics.
I went on a walking tour of Broadway Theatres with the LA Conservancy last year and it’s so sad to see the state most of the remaining theatres are in. On the tour you get a chance to walk behind the cheap luggage, loud music and marked down perfume into the warehouse to see the old prosceniums, art deco walls, and balconies. You can see how amazing they were.
I get emotional about buildings like this in disrepair. Think about the time when people got dressed up to go to the movies, it was a major night out. Think about all the dates, night out without the kids and trips made to the big city for those theatres. See I am a building sentimentalist. I can’t help it.
Now there are also those that have been restored like the Los Angeles Theatre and Orpheum and they are spectacular. I have to say we don’t make theatres like that anymore.
Filed under: Living in LA LA Land, Photo Friday
October 6, 2006 • 9:26 pm

I took this picture at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA.
Filed under: Photo Friday
September 16, 2006 • 12:11 am

I love visiting the missions in CA. Here is a great photo of the interior of the chapel through the bright candlelight.
Filed under: Photo Friday
September 8, 2006 • 8:51 pm

This week’s topic for Photo Friday is boys. So of course my photo had to be of my nephews, my favorite boys on the planet. We took this picture a couple of years ago on one of my visits to Ohio. We make brownies together every time I’m there. Now that I think about it, the only part they really help with is the licking of the bowls. By the time we’re done the bowls are clean but their faces are covered in chocolate. I miss them terribly.
Filed under: Mi Familia, Photo Friday
September 1, 2006 • 9:05 pm

I love Frank Gehry. I’ve seen his buildings in Hollywood (Hollywood Bowl), Seattle (The Music Project building), Los Angeles (Walt Disney Concert Hall) and this one. My goal is to get to Spain to see the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
My friend, Jeff, an architect, says that his buildings don’t fit into their surroundings and are distracting. I think they add a sense of whimsy and imagination that challenges all existing design rules. Maybe I just like them because they’re stubborn, like me.
Filed under: Photo Friday
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