Special Time

One of the questions I get asked the most by my friends and famly is if
I miss living in the Desert and what what is it I miss he most? I alway have
the same answer for them, Yes I miss living in the Desert and the thing I miss
the most is the quiet and solitude that living in the Desert brings. Of course
there are friends who still live out there that I miss seeing but I keep in
contact with my close friend there, although so many of them have moved else where
now. It will be 10 years next month that I moved to Los Angeles.

I think by nature I am not a crowd person. In different times in my
life I have had to be in front of large crowds of people whether I was singing
or speaking or teaching. I can do it and I think I pull it off really well,
but deep down inside I do much better with a one on one encounter or a small
group. The hardest part of moving to Los Angeles was the huge amount of people
I had to deal with everyday. Just driving anywhere in the City, you have to
interact with large amounts of people at any given time!!

When I was getting settle in here in LA and I allowed myself to start
getting out into the City and learning my way around, I soon found that my
favorite time of day to be out in the City was very early in the morning,
sometimes just as the Sun was coming up, before the City started waking up
and getting noisey. On my drives to and from work, I have to totally cross
over to the other side of town. And on my drives I see alot of graffiti
art that comes up over night and is not going to be there very long before
either the City paints over it,or someone else paints over it so they can
put their Art there. I am not talking about taggers, I mean small stencil
art or sometimes small original pieces that someone had taken the time
to do. As I saw these on my drives,I would try and take mental note where they were,
and on the weekends, I would get up before the Sun and head out with my
camera to document them. This was like a hobby for me. It was during this
time of me being out really early morning that I realized that LA has a time
of solitude, kind of like I use to experience in the Desert. It is a quiet
still time, a short time mind you, but a time when everything in the City
seems still and quiet. I love this time of the day!

Then little by little the traffic starts up and more and more cars
are on the road and then people start arriving to work and opening up
all the little shops and stores and before you know it, the City is
awake and roaring along.

This morning, my number one goal was to sleep in. It is one of the
few Holidays I get where I work, I had already done anything and everything
I would need to do this weekend. So the only thing I had planned to do
today was #1 Sleep in as late as my body would let me and #2 catch
a nap in the afternoon!! Sounded like a plan to me.

But it seems like someone had a different plan in mind for my day!!
We only have one window in our bedroom and it faces East. In the distance
is a rather large hill, so the Sun has been up for awhile before it starts
peaking in our window. Every night during the Summer we sleep with the
window open and the blinds as high as they can go. I love the night breeze!!
Well this morning I woke up around 6am and nature was calling so
as I sat up on the edge of the bed before I got up, I glanced over my
shoulder out the window and I have to say my jaw dropped. At that
moment the rays of the Sun hit the clouds that were the sky and
they came alive. I knew right then my sleeping in was gonna
have to wait. After making a pit stop in the bathroom, I put on
some clothes and grabbed my camera and down our drive way I went.
There were so many morning clouds in the sky and the Sun was hitting different
ones at different angles. Some were lite up and some were still dark.
As I stood there watching my part of the world wake up, I seemed to be
totally engulfed by the quiet and solitude around me. I stood there
and listen to the quiet of the morning and watch as one by one the Sun's rays
woke up the clouds. It was such an awesome experience.

We live on a street that gets really busy at times but not this
morning, this was MY special morning and it was wonderful.

But all too soon, the neighborhood did start to wake up but not
before the sun was just coming up over the hill.

We all having special moments like this everyday. But we get too
busy and our head too full of thoughts and they
come and go and we never notice them. When I visit my friend PW in
Joshua Tree, I always get up early and stand in his front yard and
listen to the Sun rise out there in the Hight Desert. There is always
a lite breeze blowing across the Desert and the rays of the Sun
flash in the sky just before the Sun peaks over the Horizon.
I amost hold my breath just before it peaks over and as soon as
the first rays hit my face, the two Joshua Trees in his front yard
come alive with the birds that live in them. A new day starts
and the Nature world is rejoicing. We should take lesson from them,
and watch a Sun rise and rejoice in the beauty of a new day starting.
We need to be more aware of what is going on around us and watch for those
special moments, made just for each of us. If we did our lives
would be a richer and happier place!

later...

ps..I did go back to bed for a little bit when I went back inside and I ended
up taking 2 naps this afternoon...yes I was lazy today!!!