Monday, 8/16/10 - Here. Now.

This space is not a diary, it is a sketch book.

My life is wonderful but nothing that would interest anyone but me. Except for the things that make you stop...

... and wonder.

Since today was one of those days, I will tell you about it. Tomorrow we can return to more interesting things like what happens when science experiments go bad or what it feels like to live large.



Today's events started in 1994 when I met a man named Louis Ateek.

One of the first things Lou said to me - it may have even preceded "hello" - was that my Grandfather was watching out for me.

Wow! That was powerful! I hadn't really known my maternal grandfather- he died when I was young - and here was a total stranger telling me that he was watching out for me.

Lou's next comment floored me. He told me that I shouldn't be surprised that my grandfather was watching out for me because he had always wanted to move from the cold up north down to Florida where it was warm.

My mother always said that her father would have lived much longer had he moved to Florida.

Lou barely knew me and could have known none of this.

The reason that I was thinking of Lou was that I stumbled across a deck of ABOUKRA cards that he gave me.

Aboukra is the Arabic word for "tomorrow" and the purple box of cards says:

ABOUKRA
Reveals Your Future
Amazing In It's Accuracy
Leaves You Fascinated


I opened the box today, read the directions (it has been 15 years since I have used them), and used the procedure to determine my future.

Each of the cards contains two "disclosures", printed in opposite directions. You go through a process to narrow the deck down to three cards. The disclosures that are right-side-up are the ones that pertain to you.

One of my cards was blank (I told you my life was not all that exciting). Another told of the benefits of releasing grudges. I thought about this one for a long time because I can think of no grudges that I am holding onto.

I will tell you the third disclosure in a moment.

Since I hadn't spoken with Lou since 1996 or 1997 I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find him online.

He wasn't on facebook so I tried Google. And there he was. Listed on the Find A Grave site. Turns out that he died back in 1998.

It was late enough in the afternoon for me to brave the heat so I packed up my camera, jumped on the bike and headed for the trail.

Most times I head south on the trail. Today, for no particular reason, I decided to head north.

Along the trail are two churches within a block of each other. There were interesting cloud formations behind their steeples and I decided that on the return trip I would stop and photograph them.

I continued north, stopped for a drink of water and to take a couple of photographs.



I then headed south stopping at the first church and photographing the steeple and the clouds behind it



then onto the next church.




As I was finishing, a woman rode up on her bike and commented about taking pictures. She stopped and we talked about how beautiful the area is and she mentioned that she likes the view from the bridge and has gotten some very nice images from there.

The conversation did what conversations always do: it wound around and slithered this way and that way until I found myself looking at a book of raw-food photography that she had just published.

And it was amazing!

Her name is Sioux Hart. She is an artist and the book she was showing me contained photographs of raw food recipes that she wrote, prepared, designed then photographed. You can see her work at http://gallery.me.com/sioux.hart

We exchanged email and website addresses and pedaled off in opposite directions.

Things that struck me about our meeting:

1. I had decided not to bike today then changed my mind


2. I normally head south on the trail and today went north


3. As I stepped out of the house to start my ride I stopped to photograph a gecko that is there every day


4. I wave to everyone I pass but rarely have a conversation with anyone


5. The process of photographing the churches took less than 3 minutes


6. Had I lingered at any point or skipped anything, we would have waved but never spoken

I remember a conversation with Lou about always being where you are supposed to be. It seemed that Sioux Hart and I were supposed to meet.

As I rode home I remembered the third disclosure from ABOUKRA. It said that over the next 52 days I would meet people that would be significant in my life and that I would have good reasons to consider myself lucky.

I certainly didn't need ABOUKRA to tell me that I am a lucky man but it seemed very odd to me that having just read this disclosure I should run into Sioux Hart, a phenomenal artist with a wealth of experience to share.

Fifty one more days ...