JoDee Luna's Blog, page 30

I’m In Love With Vietnam

I am in love. I am in love with a country, a place, a memory distant in time but fresh in my mind.

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I am in love with Saigon, and the busy mopeds that zoom by.

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The fear and anxiety every time I cross the street.

The little girl that reaches up and tells me to hold her.

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I am in love with Mui Ne and the fishing boats that wait near the shore.

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The sand dunes I slide down as the sun beats on my back.

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The six dollar hostel on the beach where I peer out to watch the sunset.

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I am in love with Nha Trang and the woman on the streets trying to sell me gum and cigarettes. Her persistence is both annoying and yet admirable.

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I am in love with Dalat. The jungle I trek through and the mosquitoes that nip at my skin. READ THE ENTIRE POST…

 

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Rusty Springs Highlight Tea Cups as Floral Centerpieces

If you’re a tea party lover and/or hostess, then these unique tea cup centerpieces with rusty springs will provide a fun way to create a unique centerpiece for your table. You can cut the bed coils out of an old mattress and set them in water. Place the coils outside and let the weather rust the springs. Then buy some garland, dry your own flowers, and peruse garage sales and antique stores for unique tea cups. Here’s some samples and a lesson on how to make a rusty spring centerpiece. Just switch the nest for a tea cup tied with a ribbon.

[image error]I call this centerpiece “Colonial Rusty Spring Teacup Floral.” I found the tea cup and saucer at an antique store during one of my treasure hunting adventures.

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Here’s an up-close photo of the centerpiece.

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And a side view…

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Here’s a double rusty spring centerpiece. Each of the centerpieces are created so you can change the tea cup and saucer featured. I found this tea cup at the Cayucos Antique Street Fair.

[image error]Here’s a close up of the centerpiece.

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This tea cup was a gift from my mother-in-law, Emma Luna. I showed her a photos of my rusty spring creations and she and Dad Luna went out hunting for supplies. They also found an old mattress and cut the bed coils out to send to me.

[image error]You can also use a votive instead of a tea cup. This is an antique votive I purchased at a street antique fair during a cousin’s weekend in Cayucos, California.

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Check out these other rusty spring floral centerpiece posts for more ideas:

Floral Centerpieces with Rusty Bed Coils
Floral Center Piece Craft Ideas
Spring into Spring
Just Make Stuff






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Give Me the Gift of Time

Recently, my brother-in-law and I shared our birthdays during the set up for my stepson and his fiancé’s wedding. Jason and Laura bought us a luscious chocolate cake, and everyone gathered around to sing “Happy birthday to you.”

My husband, children, and family were so concerned that my birthday received its due in the midst of the wedding preparations, and so they kept asking me what gifts I wanted.

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I didn’t feel at all concerned about gifts. As I age, my desire for gifts has changed. What I wanted for my birthday was to be with my family. They gave me the best gift of all—the gift of time.

 

Give me the gift of time…

 

a tiny tug on the ear

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Sweet wine sipping that says…

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I’m not rushing

A smile that melts away worry

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and radiates with, “Just being close to you is enough.”

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Slow dance steps

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Warm embraces

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Infectious laughter that is…

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a gift to be cherished

 

So my birthday unfolded into days of celebration, in the midst of Jason and Laura’s magical wedding.

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The next day, my family went wine tasting in Temecula, California.

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We savored being together…

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and I sipped every moment as if nectar from heaven.

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Thank you, precious family, for making my birthday so special.

 

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A Life of Adventure vs A Life of Stability

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

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Sometimes I wonder if I am a shell of my former self. With age has come the desire for security and often too, at times, a fear of the unknown.

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Every year, I packed my bags and ventured out, leaving behind everything that I had known and loved.

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The uncertainty of life felt more certain than anything else.

READ THE ENTIRE POST…

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New Painting: Because I Wished to Live Deliberately

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I went to the woods

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Because I wished to live deliberately

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To front only the essential facts of life

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And see if I could not learn

READ THE ENTIRE POST…

 

 

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Ambition: Slaying the Swine of Willfulness

Ambition struggles with restraints like a squealing pig strapped to the altar of reality. We’re just not that important in ways we want to be and extremely so in ways we never dreamed we’d be.

So we regularly have to slay our dreams of grandeur so we can live a life pleasing to our Creator.

Recently, a former neighbor reminded me of the time his pig got out and uprooted my father’s fence. Although now in his forties, he still had a sheepish look on his face as he shared. So the imagery of this pig’s destructive power was fresh in my mind when I wrote this post.

It’s difficult for me to detect when my ambition is productive and when it takes me off course because the course often changes.

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Take for instance my ambition as a writer. I dreamed of inspiring lots of adults to live more creative lives by selling lots of books, but instead I wrote success on the most unlikely souls of youth.

Just this past week, I’ve had two former students visit me to express their gratitude for believing in them, teaching them to read, and inspiring them to pursue college and career paths.

Both youth entered my literacy classes several years ago reading at second grade levels. Both didn’t seem to get what I tried to impart, as far as developing a vision for their lives. Yet both returned to thank me and let me know that they are applying for colleges and have careers in mind.

Of course I cried…like I always do when I witness a miracle. I also used these unexpected opportunities to realign my ambition that insists on running wild and uprooting my plans.

Yes, I regularly have to slay my aspirations on the altar of reality. And believe me when I say that my starry-eyed dreams of success do not die gracefully.

Often ambition empowers us to pursue our dreams; however, when God has a different direction in mind, this swine of wilfulness can uproot our lives.

I’m curious, have you ever had to kill your ambitions in order to let something of beauty and significance come forth?

 

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Qué Viva España! Remembering Spain with Love

[image error]I remember the fear, the excitement. I remember standing on the corner of the street with my suitcase in hand. Where do I go? What do I do? I remember wondering if I had made a mistake. Was this just another one of my rash decisions that I’d later regret? Should I have thought this out more? London was easy. They speak English there at least. My Spanish was horrible. I couldn’t even read the street signs.

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The summer after my freshmen year of college, I decided to study abroad in Madrid, Spain.

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It was the first time I traveled abroad by myself. It’s weird to think that it has almost been seven years since my time in Europe.

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I remember how wide-eyed and excited I first was to explore this new part of the world:

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I was eighteen years old. I had just arrived in Spain. I was broke, a little scared…but excited. READ THE ENTIRE POST…

 

 

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The God of my Own Design

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I believe there are scriptural absolutes. I’m also quite certain that my perspective on those absolutes is skewed at times.

Perhaps this is because I live in a politically correct world in which truth is strained through the sieve of human understanding until all of the uncomfortable chunks are removed and what’s left is more palatable.

And although I seek to love the Lord with all my heart, mind, and soul, often spiritual epiphanies disrupt my tendency to reframe His words in ways that I can swallow.

Not too hot. Not too cold…lukewarm, thank you.

Lately I’ve been wondering whether we humans’ tendency to re-write history also influences our faith. Like the old “Way We Were” song in the movie with Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford, “What’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget.”

So we linger in the scriptures that speak of love and grace and avoid those that call us to accountability. God becomes a sugar daddy instead of loving Father who, at times, corrects His children.

We sculpture the face of God over the visage of our humanity. And in doing so, believe we are acquitted.

I don’t know about you, but my challenge is to embrace humility—to admit that I have the potential to become self-deceived, errant, and off-course. When I embrace humility, I truly believe the words of Christ:

“16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you… He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. John 14:16-7, 26b

Just because I believe something is so, does not make it so. I often wonder whether I’ve created my own version of God. One that supports my rationalizations. Do you ever wonder about this?

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Life Cleanse

“I need a life cleanse.”

My sister’s words caught my attention. Our discussion had begun with the topic of juice cleanses to eliminate body toxins, and then we’d moved on to removing obstacles to our creativity. Both of us had found ourselves drowning in a sea of requests, events, and requirements.

We’d complained about the accumulated clutter in our art rooms, homes, and classrooms. So our conversation had transformed into a “Let’s do something about this,” mode when Gina sighed and said, “I need a life cleanse.” [image error] I’ve thought about her words ever since because her expression provided me with a name for my recent life theme of cleaning out:

Body Cleanse

I’ve started to transform the way I eat. Part of this new nutritional plan includes body cleanses, plant-based protein powder, and healthy eating. This is a difficult cleanse for me to do because I’m from an Italian family that enjoys our pasta, desserts, and indulgences.

House Cleanse

My husband and I are going through one section of our home every weekend to purge possessions. We recently tackled the garage and now every time I walk in there, I feel a sense of openness and freedom. My only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner. I’ve also cleaned out my closet and dresser, our shed, and my kitchen cupboards. What a liberating feeling a house cleanse can give you.

Career Cleanse

After twelve years in the classroom, I applied for a position as a Middle School Instructional Specialist. I’ve taught professional development courses before and felt like it was time to transition into assisting teachers full time. So after I got the job, I stayed after school every day for two weeks to sort and sift through twelve years of teaching materials. I’ve thrown away, given away, and packed up more paraphernalia than I could have ever conceived possible.

Time Cleanse

Of all these cleanses, the time cleanse is by far the most challenging. I’ve had to analyze family, friend, and career requests in order to prioritize. Each one of these categories is difficult to be subjective about because they form an important part of who I am. When I decided to have more “me time,” I had to tell others no. Sometimes feelings got hurt and explanations were required. Yet before I did a time cleanse, I found myself feeling overwhelmed. [image error]

Cleanse Tips

So in light of the fact that I’m in the cleanse mode, I’ve decided to pass on a few tips to help you with your cleanses:

Tackle cleanses in chunks—decide on an area you will cleanse and schedule it. For example, “I’m going to clean out my bathroom drawers this weekend,” as opposed to, “I’m going to clean out my entire home this weekend.”
Remember that creativity often wanes when you’re in cleanse mode. Don’t get freaked out by your lack of ideas and impetus to innovate.
Think “more or less” not “either or.” You might have to meet with your friends a little less often so you can make time to paint. You’re not abandoning them, but just stretching your visits out a bit more.
I’ve found a slow transitional approach easier in terms of body cleanses. I added more raw foods, whole grains, and lean protein as I diminished my sugar and starch intake.

Remember, the desire to cleanse seems to precede personal expansion. We must remove before we can explore. If you desire to clean out, go with it while the motivation is there. I guarantee something new and wonderful will fill in those empty places and spaces.

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Trusting in the Creative Process

I snapped this photo at my brother’s recent retirement party after hearing my daughter call to me:

“Mom, Mom! Look, he’s resting his hand on mine.” Elya giggled.

The photo op proved irresistible.

Trust.

What a perfect picture of this abstract concept.

When creativity does not flow readily, I need to rest my hand in the palm of the one who created the universe. Like the waves of the sea, inspiration rises and crests, and then recedes, leaving me wiggling my artistic toes in the wet sands of uninspired moments.

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In these times of nothingness, I’ve learned to continue to take care of myself until the next epiphany appears.

Yes, the creative process is mysterious—like an elusive lover hiding in the shadows. We sense inspiration is close by and yet our canvas remains as blank as our thoughts.

But we can be assured of this, ideas will return, once again, and we’ll wonder why we found it so difficult to trust in the midst of our artistic sunsets.

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