Shades of My Childhood

When I was a little girl, Love Field, the Dallas airport, had a lovely restaurant. Almost every Sunday we would go after church and have lunch and watch the airplanes arrive and depart. I was too little to know why exactly. Maybe the food was really good. Maybe I was so little that it was a way to entertain me while the grown ups ate. Maybe it was because the aviation industry was so new during the 1940s that planes were a delight and amazement to the adults as well. And maybe, just maybe, it was the escalators that took us up the restaurant level and brought us back down again. They were the first in Dallas I think although again I was too young to know that for a fact. I just remember loving them. 

The planes we watched were propeller propelled DC3s. I had flown on one when I was 9 months old, carrying me and my family from Dallas to Atlanta to Greensboro NC to visit my grandmother. Even with that trip under their belts, my parents still enjoyed the planes and of course the food at the restaurant. 

Today Dean and I were in Truckee at a little business center next to the airport where there is a very nice little deli. We decided to have lunch there. And so we sat at a table next to the glass wall and watched the commuter planes arrive and depart. Sleek, jet powered, they came and went much to our sophisticated enjoyment while we ate our wraps and reminisced. 

Thirty-six Shades of Green

Before there were computers, painting apps and Pixar to create amazing color cartoons, there were people. People who sat at desks and colored in the the backgrounds of movies like Snow White and Cinderella. In the early days of Disneyland, there was a studio of some of these artists at the park and you could stand on a moving sidewalk and glide past the studio, looking down at the people at work through huge sound proof glass walls. As I drifted by, I particularly noticed a woman whose job it was to paint green. We moved slowly enough that I was able to count her 36 little jars of green paint: so dark as to be almost black down to so light as to be almost white - and every possible variation of green in between. 

I thought of her a lot today, first as I started on this mandala knowing there would be shades of green involved. And then as I actually started, I was so excited with my idea for the colors that my first strokes were too fast and I messed up a little. What meticulous work she must have done, creating a real looking forest in cartoon form. She could never move too fast. The tips of the pine needles were yellow against the darker greens of the shadowy forest just like around my deck. So many shades of green. All applied with care and precision ~ and, unlike me and my mandala, she never saw the whole unless she went to the movie. 

Not Me Any More!

 I have always been an early riser. Usually up with the sun but up before the sun in the winter. When I was in my 30s and 40s, I would hop out of bed at 6 and was meeting Anne for a 3-mile walk at 6:30. Energy galore. After all, it was morning. Not so any more. 

The other day Dean and I walked the loop from 8 to 9 and it was lovely. In the process, Dean said if I wanted to do that from 7 to 8 we could every day and then I could go on to gym for other exercises. That sounded lovely and I was ready!! Until it came time to do it this morning. I slept really well last night and woke comfortably at 6 ~ and didn’t want to pop out of bed. I just wanted to lie there and enjoy the feel of the bed. Then when I did get up, I didn’t want to hurry. Dress, unload the dishwasher, feed the dog, have breakfast, sit at my computer with my cup of tea. Be ready to go by eight. Whether that somewhere will be gym only, hike only, or a combination, who knows right now? 

What I do know is: popping out of bed is not my idea of fun anymore. I will give into the energy age allows me and rise in a more stately fashion before heading for gym or the hiking trail. It’s all ok. 

A Good Change of Heart

I’ve been thinking about Daddy a lot these days with all the conversation about race and the need for conversation about race. I think being born and raised in Maryland was good for Daddy in that regard. He may have been against integration early on but he changed his mind for whatever reason and that was good both for him, me, TCU and the Petroleum Club in Dallas. Someone said to me that Daddy changed his mind because he knew integration was coming and where he had influence, he wanted it to happen easily and lawfully. Maybe so - ok, what’s wrong with that. Because of his stance, TCU was integrated. Because of his stance, The Petroleum Club in Dallas was integrated. And I don’t believe it was just his mind that changed. I believe his heart did as well. I remember saying that he needed to work to allow women into the main dining room at the Petroleum Club. “ Don’t rush me, Susan. I just got blacks admitted to the membership. Give me a breather before I start on the women.” He got there too though. A change of mind and heart is a good thing and should not be questioned too closely if it proves in action and not just word to be an honest change. 

Thoughts While Coloring

How interesting. I had a really nice meditation ready in my head because the mandala I colored was all connected branches and I kept thinking of Jesus saying “I am the vine and you are the branches.” I do believe he is speaking a universal truth no matter what our personal belief ~ we come from the Divine and remain connected to it. He does go on to say that we have to stay connected through him so if I am going to be true to scripture, I can’t really just have him say “I am the vine and you are the branches.” On the other hand, he does say that and I do believe we are connected to the Divine. Just as the piece of apple pie doesn’t suddenly become cherry when it is cut from the whole, neither do we become lesser when we are born. We come from the Divine and we continue to hold that spark of the Divine within us all our lives. No matter how many weeds entangle us, no matter how broken we become, we are Divine and we should recognize that in each other.Maybe, more especially,  we should recognize that in ourselves.

New Interest - or Hobby - or Something

I'm not sure how "new" the hobby or interest is. I have after all been coloring inside the lines since I was three. This is adult coloring though. During Citizenship Week, we went to a book store and a couple of art stores and voila! There was a book of mandalas to color. I have created mandalas. I have colored mandalas. Never have I seen a mandala coloring book ~ and there it was ~ and it was crying out to me "you want me! You want me!" For some reason it was absolutely essential that I have the book and pens with which to color in the wonderful designs.

This first one was little (a quarter page) and created on the long plane ride home. If you look closely, you can see the times the ride got bumpy or we hit an air pocket. Nevertheless, I knew I had found my fun for a while. 

Although I am not creating the mandala itself, I am having a wonderful time deciding and applying colors. Sometimes the activity becomes meditative. Other times, it is coloring. It can go fast or slow. I can know instantly what it will look like or need to do one color at a time and then let it sit while I do other things before returning in a knowing mood.

This one even got named: Incan Sun Burst

This is one that went slowly. After I had done the red, I thought of leaving it.

Then I added the green and yellow and thought of leaving it.

It finally ended up complete and I am very pleased.

I have learned to be patient with them. I have been reminded of my creative process: give it time, breathe, it will come. I am thoroughly enjoying my time spent coloring. I am always amazed at what emerges from the pens I pick up. 

I Pledge Allegiance

I have been wondering how to approach this particular blog. I am very aware that my last several blogs and FaceBook posts have been about Citizenship Week and how proud we are of David and what a big deal his becoming a citizen is. This of course has led to the praising of the country. Which has led to the strong awareness that all is not well with this country nor has it been from the beginning.

People who were already living here and who for the most part were nice to the first Europeans who arrived were eventually treated horrendously, moved out of their lands, made to learn a language not their own and treated as “less than”. Slavery thrived and the resulting racism is rampant today as the recent massacre  in South Carolina proves. Political parties are more divided than ever and to differ has come to mean being divisive. Personal attacks rather than debating the issues has become the norm of our political process. 

And so we face the dilemma. While we complain about our government and talk about how bad things are in this country, 881 people on one day last week said, we have worked and strived and been through an FBI check because we want to become citizens of the United States. Why in the world would they do that?

With his permission, I quote the newest citizen I know:

I find that people are indeed very interested in the history of their country and are often surprised to discover it. It is an amazing history that was very nearly, not. Of course call it good timing, an overextended monarchy or even that Twitter had unexpectedly gone down during that time in the 1770s, delaying intelligence, and thus things had surely lined up to favor our intrepid rebels.

I am honored to be among the newest of immigrants, rogues and rebels, to be considered a Patriot at home.

Registering to vote will indeed be my first official act as a full citizen. I have listened to many great ideas from the various political camps and some that are not so interesting which I think just poorly considered. My values lean toward local sourcing with smaller very diverse industry for healthy economies and heavy leveraging of local labor resources. 

Ideology is easier with; equitable access, liberty with personal responsibility for that liberty and protection of the standards that were provided by our founding thinkers. Those things that were and are still necessary for a successful and long lived union.

Thank you, David! May we continue to be aware of our shortcomings and strive to become even better than we were. 

David registers to vote within minutes of taking the Oath of Citizenship