Another Rainy Day

We don't get lot of rain in Santa Barbara, CA. And the temperature doesn't change that much. Indeed, the first year I lived here I wondered why the news stations had weather people. I joked that they could come and tape one report and show it every day and still be as accurate as any other weathercasters in the nation - "Fog in the morning that will burn off by 10:30, then sunny with a high about 70." I did learn that the fog isn't usually year round, there is a slight variation in the temperature from season to season, and we do get rain occasionally.

This year has been particularly rainy... and today it is rainy and cold (at least cold for here). We've had a couple of rainy days in a row and the natives are complaining about being depressed (they don't have a clue as to what seasonal affective disorder really is). I have to admit, that the weather here turns you into a weather wimp very quickly and I feel these few cloudy days too.

I also see the results. Just a little water and everything comes to life. The mountains are green. Mustard flowers cover the hillsides in bright yellow. Other flowers will follow soon.

All of this had me thinking about a poem Cheryl read in a funeral service the other day that essentially said that without grief, one can never know the real beauty of life. Without rain, there are no flowers...

a good song?

What makes a good song? I've been thinking about that question as I listen to the video of Tinashe playing mbira and singing Zambezi that is posted below.

I love the song - especially in this simple, stripped down version (he also has a full production version on Youtube). It begins like a simple love song... two people under a mango tree, enjoying one another and full of life. The musical tone doesn't change at all but the lyrics then carry us into a very different place as the soldiers come and the singer urges the beloved just to live. This gentle little song holds all of the joy and fear of life in three minutes.

So what makes a good song? It opens the heart in unexpected ways. It distills the important things of life into a few minutes. As a listener, I experience life in new ways. I may cry. I may be filled with joy. I will be a little richer and more whole because I have had a good song find its way into my life.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

beauty all around us if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear...

thanks to Fernando for pointing this out

beauty in small places

All too often I am too busy to pay attention to the small beauty all around me. Driving to Goleta, the hills are deep green now sprinkled with yellow mustard flowers and blue lupine. It is easy to drive past without being conscious of the beauty.

In our home, it is even more easy to miss the beauty. In December, I found a local artist named Kevin Loughran who makes the most wonderful, functional, pieces of art for a home. He is a gentle spirit who really does make the world a more beautiful place. In his words

In nonferrous metals I build long term solutions for living graciously in a plastic world. I have been forming, etching and patinating metals into art for the past 25 years. I like to take the mundane in everyday objects and pay respect to their marvelous functions. That is why I presently work in switch plates, doorbells, and dimmers; to honor the beauty of the small things in our lives.

I feel very good about the quality and sensibility of my work as an expression of my obsession to create beauty.

We're slowly replacing switch plates in our home with his work... as reminder of the beauty that is all around us if we only look.

This one is by our entryway


Thanks Kevin for bringing a little more beauty into our daily lives!

what is beautiful?

The other day I had coffee with Billy Calderwood and Chris Henson from the Coastal Housing Partnershipto talk about strategies for involvement of faith leaders in advocacy for affordable ad workforce housing Santa Barbara. It was a wide ranging conversation with laughter and cynicism, ideas and excitement. They're both great guys who are also bright and insightful so it was a good time.

In the course of the discussion Billy brought up an idea that struck me as important enough to steal and put on my blog. We talked about the contrast between the breathtaking physical beauty of the area and the ugly underside of selfishness and exclusion that is seen in some sections of the community. Billy then shared that people often think of Montecito - the most ritzy area where many celebrities live (Oprah has a $50 million + house there) - as being a "clean" place of great beauty. Many of the homes there are hidden behind huge fences or tall hedges and massive gates. Many are not even visible from the streets. Neighbors are isolated from one another. Class and social barriers are strictly followed. This neighborhood was compared with Isla Vista, the student ghetto near the university which also has a significant population of mostly poor Latinos. IV is densely populated. The apartment buildings are right on top of one another. There are too many cars and thousands of bicycles on the streets. It is noisy. You cannot live there without rubbing shoulders with others. People are on the street interacting. Weekends can be wild and wooly. When there are social issues, the students take to the streets in solidarity with the poor, calling for justice for those who are oppressed, working for care of the environment or ending of unnecessary wars.

So here is the question... which locale is more beautiful?