chrysanthemum pu-er

chrysanthemum is one of those teas that you give as gifts and for delightful gatherings.  pu-er, you have with dim sum or anything chinese, really... or mexican!  it's a heavy-duty tea, which cuts through sour tensions and awkward pauses.  you gotta appreciate the juxtaposition.

one day soon, i'll be so very very overjoyed by how misery has been turned into reproducing blessings.  do you love the christianese or what?  there just doesn't seem to be a better way to state my anticipation.

so shinobu baba is one of my favourite artists.  i found his work in nagasaki last month and just fell in love.  i'm not often smitten with landscapes and i could never never paint one.  yak.  i'm awful.  i do organic stuff, mostly.  however baba's presentation of simple streets and everyday experiences are like that of a child's.  buildings and clouds seem to be made of the same matter and light has substance and a presence as round drops of color. 

but there are almost never any people in his scenes.  well, the 'scapes themselves have enough movement, drama, and whimsy for there not to have any animals in them at all, but sometimes they make me a bit sad.  they're like beautiful masks, hiding... nothing, because there's nothing to hide... because there exists nothing.... nobody.

plum oolong

soothing oaky-ness, the front man for a bold plum aroma.  passive aggressiveness in flavor.

i had a staff meeting at harlem place cafe, a little hide-away in downtown l.a. that's nestled in between some buildings.  they've got this prohibition era inspired attitude about them.  whom?  i dunno.  the people who run it?

anyway, we'll be having our january show there so yay for us.

you know when you expose an inner portion of yourself and those to whom you revealed it slash it with a knife?  well, i found something that'd make anyone wish that that was what was happening:  when someone doesn't respond.

mission for the rest of this year:  learn the lesson of the plum oolong.

apricot rum

steamy aroma of tangy fruit danced in the space before me as i fought hard to keep my voice quiet in a capsule of a room today.

i would be misrepresenting the subject if i did not address disappointment in the discourse of relationships.  is that what this has become?  a blog about relationships?  oh God, i'd rather be forced to watch "harry potter" movies, back-to-back for a week.

and please forgive the following writer's taboo:  hahahaha!

cold barley

when i first moved to the states from korea when i was 6, i saw americans drinking clear water and thought, "ew, gross.  americans are dirty.  they drink washing water."  i had never drunk regular water in korea.  barley tea was for drinking.  clear water was for washing.

so today is christmas eve.  one of my favourite days of the year.

a friend and i went to christmas service at our church's new campus (kind of like a "branch").  i've been excited about this new church plant and excited to get to know our new pastor.  he's different from many of the other pastors at my church.  he shares openly and often about how God speaks to him and he seems to feel free to express his worship and the using of his spiritual gifts in more open ways than most of the other pastors at my church.  ok... i'll be flat about it--he's a lot more charismatic than the rest.  that's more clear, yes?

i was excited about that because his seemed to be closer to my style of worship.

here's a question... has anyone else noticed that, often, the more charismatic groups of believers seem to experience God's presence and power a great deal, but express and live out His love less than other groups?

kukicha

organic green tea.  roasted tea twigs and stems from japan.  very mild earthy quality... almost briny.  so different from how i thought it would taste.

i had tea and soup with an old friend today.  hmm, that's very strange to say.  he's actually a former student of the campus mission organization with whom i used to be on staff.  being from an asian culture, describing him as a friend is bizarre.  like addressing your professor father as "professor" in public.  almost a little gross?

what is it with asians?  why do 40 year olds look like 20 year olds?  and why do they treat you like you're a child if you're remotely younger than they are?

we touched on that between our sips of tomato basil bisque.

where does one draw the line between what i feel comfortable portraying about myself and what others prefer to view in order to perceive the proper elements of myself?  for a creative person who lacks that natural ability to sense social nuances, this is becoming a life-long quest.

nagasaki matcha latte

there's a crackling as the hot water is poured over the powder.  and soon, green froth floats above a soothing elixir of potent flavor.

i recently took a trip to nagasaki, japan.  it's what my church calls a PEACE trip.