A Rare Experience With A Baby

A friend of mine posted the following on their Facebook account, which is something we don't get to enjoy very often:

"just experienced a baby fall asleep in my arms..."

An "Incredibly Beautiful" Baby

To be honest, I don't often think newborns are very cute; it seems they're often a bit misshapen and funny-looking.  Ultrasound pictures are even more strange: they're like some caricature of a person... unreal and alien.

It turns out I'm not the only one: a good friend of mine admitted he usually feels the same when he sees babies.  However, he told me this because he and his wife had just gone in for an ultrasound, and he was actually touched when he saw the baby and its heartbeat.  He found it to be incredibly beautiful.


I may never know that experience, but I'm convinced there's something special about it.

Diamonds in the Rough of Reality-TV

Got inspiration from a very unexpected source tonight: the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance". They're showing the best and the worst of the tryouts, which is usually either wildly comical or very impressive, but tonight there were two stories that were tremendously uplifting.

The first was a heavyset girl who danced extremely well despite her size. Unfortunately, she only made it one level in the competition and the judges were very honest about her career prospects, but they were very encouraging and even touched by her work.

The second was a young man from a bad neighborhood who admitted to being mocked when he first pursued a career in dance, but he's made the best of it and he did a fabulous job. As part of the story they interviewed his father, who admitted to being skeptical at first, but who whole-heartedly supports his son... and the rewards were obvious.

A Random Act for Olivia

Last Friday we stopped at a convenience store with Olivia and Ellia, and after paying the guy behind the counter asked how I was related to the girls. After saying I'm their dad, he said he liked Olivia so he wanted to buy her a drink. He told her (and Ella) to get one of their frozen drinks, on him. I asked him why and he only said it was because he liked Olivia; I'm guessing it's because he recognized that she was handicapped and he wanted to give her something nice. Well, that was definitely very unexpectedly kind. Of course, neither Olivia nor Ella thought much of it and didn't adequately appreciate it. Too bad. You don't see that too often.

Yet Another Funeral

I attended a funeral yesterday.  I don't have much to say about it... all I have to say is that I saw genuine emotion in action, and that was cool.  We were fortunate to hear from some very talented speakers and musicians. In the end, though, it was the tenderness in people's eyes and voices that made it such a soulful experience.

A Talk by Miss Utah 2007 Heather Anderson

This is a classic case of an event which transcends words. I only wish I could adequately describe Heather's sunny and honest personality, or her obvious ease with kids, or the expert way she told her stories. Suffice it to say that it was a great pleasure to watch her draw the kids close to her and leave an impression on us all regarding the danger of drugs. Listen to her if you get the chance.

Thanks, Heather.

A Place of Silent, Intense Peace

Yesterday I went into a local Repartee Gallery to drop off a picture to get framed. The contrast was amazing: outside was a busy parking lot with talkative groups headed into the surrounding restaurants; inside was a refuge where art students were silently focused on their drawings. It startled me to find about 8 people in there, sitting in various positions around the room, so I stopped for a second at the threshold and some of them glanced up at me. Down to my left was someone sitting on the floor rather than in a chair; it was Nicole, my neighbor. We said "hi," and she pointed out her mother, another one of my long-time neighbors. They were all sitting quietly, each person doing a pencil drawing of a green pepper. The atmosphere was remarkable: it was a large room with fine art filling the walls, where a group of people all sat in silence, every one intensely focused on their creations.

It reminded me of a temple, one where every attendee was applying their full power of concentration, working independently but on much the same task. The word "reverent" even came to mind.

After respecfully breaking their silence and finishing my business, I walked out... but I paused outside the door, where there was a small fountain in the shape of a man cradling a huge fish in both hands and pouring water out its mouth. I savored that grand feeling of peace for another few seconds before continuing the rest of my chores.