Father Patrick Desbois

“The book (The Holocaust by Bullets) is meant so that people know … that a genocide is simply people killing people,” Desbois said. “My book is also an act of prevention of future acts of genocide.”

Written in 2008, this story was the mission of a priest, to give voice to the witnesses and victims of the Ukrainian holocaust. Father Patrick Desbois worked tirelessly to uncover the truth behind the deaths of 1.5 million Jews.

We lived there,

for a moment;

a turbulent, terrible

wonderful

moment.

We lived

at the edge of time

as driving rains

moved us to higher ground.

eventually…

We survived spills

and hooks

and rough waters,

rising.

The ugly duckling;

the lonely black Swan

should have been a warning.

Instead he made us laugh,

for a moment.

GONE

Are the doodles the day away. Far more intelligent are the little ones

Who work at scribbles all day

Daydream inspired Art.

A teacher’s performance

wasted on a classroom of

Man Ray, duChamp or Miro

Warhol wannabies

Scratching their number twos

Across an otherwise

Boldly Blank college ruled sheet

The squiggles and the scrawls

Deciphered tell tales

Of buck bronte and more

Or less.

Beneath the patchwork quilt
Of the tin roofs
Arte es universal
Arte es natural
Muted rainbows
emptied pots filled
With the tears of motherless children
Men battle green for a place to call home
Blues blanket the boys and girls
Seeking shelter in a little classroom
There the air is brown
Splattered with hues of yellows and gold
A single ray of white dust
Dances from heaven
And moves to the sea
From this painful earth
On these broken faces
Arte is universal
Arte es natural
Callejones, passageways
Where dreams fall deaf on
Broken glass and cobblestone

As a child I never imagined that there would be the invention of a handheld device that would make reading a current magazine article possible, let alone paying for a book to be downloaded onto an electronic reader. But then along came the e-reader and Sony, Android, Nook and Kindle. 

Last year I purchased the Amazon Kindle for my husband for Christmas. I thought it would be a phase. But I was wrong. Kindle goes everywhere he does including into the bathroom.

For twelve months he has cajoled and begged me to spend some time with Kindle. I resisted until last night. It took a brilliant little short story by Dr. Joseph Bottum, essayist, poet, and religious scholar to tempt me. And engage me he did with “Dakota Christmas” that my husband was able to download for me for under a dollar.

Book reviewer Wendy Smith wrote this of “Dakota Christmas” 

A memoir of childhood Christmases on the South Dakota plains. Joseph Bottum’s “Dakota Christmas” is an instant Christmas classic. In this beautifully written account of the mad joys and wild emotions of Christmas for children, Bottum captures the universal spirit of the season even while he recounts his memories with a sharp particularity that brings them alive for readers. “Her hair was the same thin shade of gray  as the weather-beaten pickets of the fence around her frozen garden,” he writes of one chance Christmas encounter. “She had a way with horses, and she was alone on Christmas Eve. There is little in my life I regret as much as that I would not stay for just one cookie, just one cup of tea.”                   

 

While I enjoyed the short story, nothing can replace a book that you can curl up with next to the fire.

There is a photograph in an album somewhere. I can see it so clearly as if I am holding it in my hand. My son, bright, wide eyes and an enormous smile, as he looked up at the largest living animal on the planet. At the age of two he’d flown on a plane, but he could not imagine the grandeur of that experience. However, coming “face to face” with the elephant and waiting in line for our very first ride was an exhilarating moment in time.

I remember that day as if it happened yesterday.

The Santa Ana Zoo, the place you made that very first trip a quarter of a century ago, will no longer offer elephant rides to visitors. Thousands of people enjoyed the rides each year and in the twenty-five years of offering rides at the Zoo there was never a single safety incident involving the elephant rides.

However, we cannot be too safe or adhere to too many rules. There has been a recent safety policy change by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that our little Santa Ana Zoo must adhere to in order to remain accredited.

Hold on to your memories, son, they’re all that’s left you… That and the children’s book you loved so well, Babar! Hold on.

Enter winter. Long days, longer nights. Christmas awaits. A tree illuminates with memories. Surround me with the comfort of books and the warmth of words.

I love traveling by internet, meeting new people and being exposed to uses for objects that make my heart skip a beat. Recently a midwestern modern-day bohemian woman who happens to be a writer  introduced me to an artistic approach to displaying books. This delightful tree shaped bookshelf by designer Shawn Soh named “The Tree Bookshelf”, sets up several loving tree branches for kids and adults to stack up their most treasured literature. A wonderful design that recalls nature and cultivates a love for reading! Further investigation into this functional and funky product  suggests that it forgoes the use of wood for a more eco-friendly option, steel, which boasts durability and can be recycled! Imagine yourself plucking a book from the shelf and resting beneath the branch. Quite clever. 

You have been taken down.

You are broken.

Burdened by overwhelming sin; hope is last.

A heart filled with forgiveness withheld darkens your days.

Ponder the forest. What happens when a tree is cut down?  Can you expect them to grow again?

The answer may be as mysterious as answering the question: when can I expect God to come into my life and give me the answer I want to a prayer? Yes, Some trees grow a new branch or stem. But many can’t.  Others never grow as well as they had, even with a mass of old roots to feed them. Many trees need those leaves or needles to live, to complete their cycle and it’s just too much for them to push out new growth. Often they will have some new growth which gives out in a few years. You have seen it before. Some trees sprout lots of little trees all around their trunk like a halo and do okay that way. It really depends on a miracle and on the type of tree.  According to Job 14:7, “At least there is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.”