Cloudbursts at Sunrise

Pin It I awoke this morning to a daybreak saturated in pictorial cloud character; gray and puffy cauliflower blossoms, like clumps of cottonwood fluff caught in the wind clustered around the rising inclines of Mount Timpanogos—heaps of whipped cream upon a vanilla mountain. Rich, buttery sunlight inked its way over the slopes like caramel topping slathered over a savory dessert.

Even being caught on my early-morning commute behind a slowly moving yellow school bus couldn’t damper my day for - with windows down - the freshly mown grass glistened with the early-morning dew, coating the very air I drove through with the early flesh of summer.

The music playing became the moment.

What a truly glorious day.

Unicorn Wishes

Pin It
Explanation?

Well, it was about a year ago that I was sitting at my friend’s house; we were out on the front porch enjoying the cool, evening air. It wasn’t long before one of their kids came out and started whining about something—I really don’t really remember what. I finally turned to this young man and said, “Maybe a herd of unicorns will come running down the street and make all your wishes come true.” There it was, like magic.

Brilliant.

This phrase ran itself though my head many times over the ensuing months; however, it wasn’t until sometime later that I was at my school’s Scholastic Book Fair that the full potential of that statement came to me. It came when I saw a group of my students ogling over the posters of kittens, puppies, and horses with the cheesy phrases and well-wishes.

“I could make one of those…” I thought to myself. And like magic, I did.

So I present you today with a full-resolution version of this poster which can be printed…well, poster-sized. Simply click on the photo above and when the full-sized version pops up (I need to warn you…it’s huge), right-click and save.

By the way, if you post this photo on your blog, then the herd of magical unicorns will come running down your street to grant you all of your wishes, too.* Let's see just how many people can be touched by Unicorn Wishes...


*Magical unicorns not available in all areas. And yes, that horn is so real.

Connecting

Pin It I feel inspired to write this night falls on the city.

I hadn’t planned on doing so; in fact, I hadn’t planned on doing much of anything other than watching a few online episodes of Pushing Daisies via Hulu. However, for some reason I began to experience a connection of sorts with the world at large as dusk settled over the remnants of the day.

Funny, really.

It wasn’t too long ago that I happened to stumble across a video entitled, “Where the Hell is Matt?” from Mindy’s blog which I had watched, and found myself drawn into. Mostly it was from observing this young man and the extraordinary way in which he connected with the world through a simple and sublime act.

Truthfully.

I found myself thinking about that video again this evening and I looked it up. I watched. I smiled. I felt connected yet again.



It causes one to wonder—to question really—why it is that we can find it so hard to connect with those who are living right next door, and yet we can quite easily unearth that bonding link with those whom we’ve never before met.

To this wonderment I have no answer, but instead throw this unrequited question out into the cosmic void this evening…and to all of you out there whom I’ve never met—but were I ever to connect in this fashion—I would certainly hope that you would come and play a part.

Goodnight.

Searching for…

Pin It In music lies power.

Emotion.

Realism.

I sit here in Washington Square Park in the late afternoon with my iPod. I love this park. It’s the location where one of my all-time favorite movies was filmed: Searching for Bobby Fischer.

When I first entered the grounds, I was changing up my playlist to listen to something a little bit different—I wanted something a little less…sonorous; after all, I was leaving the bustling streets and thoroughfares. This is when the thought occurred to me: why shouldn’t I listen to the soundtrack for one of my most treasured movies? One which had had some major scenes filmed right here?

As I called up the soundtrack by James Horner, I approached the men playing chess at the permanently-set tables. The familiar notes began to play, and as I watched the well-known landscape and scenes before me, I found myself completely blown away.

This park is suddenly no longer just a place to me; it now carries a whole other dimension to it; like sunlight so someone who’s been trapped inside all day, like a drowning man’s first gasp of cool, fresh oxygen into hungered lungs.

It is as if I am more here than I really am. This is one of the most powerful moments I have experienced while out here on this trip. Even now as I write this, the pigeons move about my feet, the sunlight patterns the ground and chess boards, and the players watch over their matches intently as their hands fly to their clocks and pieces. During this entire process the projector plays the film—not only in my head, but all around me

It.is.magical.

I am the movie.

This is life.

I find that as I write all of these things down that this moment is elusive, it refuses to be penned down with words—I try to find the right phrases and expressions which will describe what this is and how it feels, but they are slow in coming.

I could live this moment forever.