The Ingredients

As I share this love poem for The Bride and Groom... 

... let it be a prayer offering and confirmation for the eternal bonds have been spoken into existence today.

The inspirational verse from God's word for this poem comes out of:

Mathew 5:6    Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.

THE INGREDIENTS:

Whilst romance draws us near
... and passions summon our heart's still farther

Today we witness
and celebrate
... a Love that glorifies
(besides The Bride)

Almighty God
... Our Father

For PaPa's hand
leads our walk
... each step in life IS numbered

Two lives
... presented

As a holy offering
... United

Intention:
... The Embodiment of Christ-likeness and Holy Spirit Power

Two faithful shepherds
... stewarding lives

Immersion Experience
... as a calling

His promise is
... for joy complete

Descends
... like manna falling

For His plan to heal
... reconciles those
Whose out-streched arms ... pulls others close

The ingredients for Life Abundant:
To only name a few:

- Desiree Maxine

- Nicole Renee

- Natilee Juliette

- Sara Marilyn

and a son,
- Brian Ascher
... now too

These Families
- once shaken
... and yes, stirred

Are now Blended
- Perfectly

For Our Creator
- Whom We Faithfully Serve

________________________________

Now as we raise our glasses in a toast for the Bride and Groom, I quote an amazing witness and Brother - Natchi Lazarus:

"Never forget that 50 percent of your wisdom comes from your spouse"

... pretty sure his wife told him that!

JZ UNLEASHED

A Families woe's
 - if left untold
may claim a
strangle hold

So better we
 - whom do
take heed
Surrender our sorrow
 - to Thee

And in doing so
we lift-up
 - our love for
Jimmy Z



A Son
A Brother
An Uncle
 - a Friend
Pure Love for us
 - had he

Yes, us!
"The Least of These"

THIS Humble
Servant heart's desire
 - was to
simply please



A Contractor
A Carpenter
 - his business
was a ministry

Transformed houses
 - into homes
while impacting lives
 -  for The Throne
James did so!
WILLINGLY



He shared His
Experience
Strength
And Hope
 
Helpfuly led
any newcomer
  - still struggling
to cope

and like his smile
  -  bursting forth
You'd learn to work it
  - 'cause of your WORTH

His personal investing
(in us)
was such a Blessing



And finally a Waterman
 - who's stoke today we honor
Taken too soon
 - yes?
Nor should we question our Heavenly Father

A decision made
 - at The Lane
To paddle or to hitch?

This proud man
 - followed God's
perfect plan
 - and never considered which

For Surfers know
 - when pushed
below
Up His Leash
 - we must climb
And as we cling
 - to The Vine
Through our Strife
God's hand
WILL
 - lift us to
Eternal Life



So like James
We should each
keep growing
 
In Christ likeness
 - as did he

And be certain
of your future
 - knowing
 
Jim has been
 - gracefully
set free

Ralph Steinlein Tribute

What is true in this life
- yes, we are promised strife...

Witness to - his brief - walk on earth
- to these words - today - lets each give birth
Like lyrics to sing
- to Ralph - my brother
- now running heavens wing

First, Props to His Parents:
Oom Hans much more than a dad
- my first coach
- a life mentor
- mad skills that man had!!!
And Tante Doreen, a loving mother of four
- graciously welcomed my presence
- with each knock at her door
   
Ralph was more than a brother
- or cousin
- or a teammate playing his role

Practice weekdays
Then Quakes games
on Saturday night

Stopping and scoring
(both girls,
 and some goals)
He always had my back in a fight

I introduce Ralph
- to his bride number one
- and Jana gave us Matthew
- their first born son 

Soon our lives came unwound
- for no fault
- or known cost
So how sweet to reclaim
- a friendship once lost
- to take up again
- where last we'd left off

Not only TalkNsoccer
- we compared, just - how - tough
- to raise sons' n daughters'

We stopped allowing miles
- to stand in the way
- and amidst trials
TOGETHER we'd face
- all that God threw at us

It is - now - His will
- for us NOT
- to just get by

Remember lessons taught?
Or are you still asking why?

Because character
- isn't forged by strife
Your formed by what's caught
- during challenges in life 


So to The Timberwolves and us Lions
- in your pack or our den
- claim victory when
- we compete EVERY TIME
- to honor the memory
of Coach Steinlein

Now let's head back
- and step out on the pitch
Where
- sweat
- spit
- dirt... and tears
- are all in the mix
And send balls heaven bound
... where Ralph roams the sticks 

TOWARD YOU

Dawn awakens
 Grey skies part
I seek a path
 Unto Your heart

Set upon a path to find
 Surrender from a labyrinth mind
Quieted now I strive to hear
 Your truth and will as I draw near

Toward You as my center
  No longer lost
Oriented now
  By the sight of Your cross

As my journey turns and I twist away
 By faith and grace God's work displayed
Certain only for this day
 Lead me in each step today
Let me hear You Lord - dare I pray
 
A lone carpenter's saw
  cuts my sin of past
A door now heard - suddenly open
 Through it I walk - at long last

Foot steps paced - now open stride
 heart beat pounds
His arms held wide
  In His Glory we'll reside

Let your LOVE for those un-known
 though our live's NOW be shown
Moved us from chaos toward content
 All shining jewels before Your throne


 - Composed at The Stone Labyrinth Walk, 1st Congressional Church San Jose

Examined Beauty - Art and Hospitality in Hidden Valley

On average twice a year, amidst the pine tree forests, rock strewn creeks and deep blue lakes of Middletown California we find sanctuary. A dormant volcano towering in a cobalt blue sky lends the backdrop to a natural canvas of expansive meadows punctuated with deer grazing lazily on golden and green grasses.

Relaxing on the front deck at Inez's home, away from the tumult and bustle of our urban existence I can reflect upon this design. Underlying the serenity of this composition potential energy gathers, patiently forming during a brief interlude. I'm at last able to recognize the beauty in God's gift, this present, while remaining mindful of the recurrent chaos symbolized by St. Helena's jagged ends outlined on the horizon.

Moving inside Inez's muraled art studio an awareness of her life-story unfolds. An ensemble of hints, clues and relics provide insight and lend reason. I begin deciphering the depth of her expression and the soulfulness of the pieces surrounding me. Amidst this clutter, as an intruder upon her safe haven I suddenly hear the truth - The Media is the Message. It's abundantly clear now; Inez the artist, mother and friend finds beauty in brokenness.

The skillful integration of discarded objects in her work may be driven by a lifetime of reclaimation and re-invention. Born into and inculturated to a lifestyle of privilege and opportunity Inez's recalls a youth filled with books, music and tennis and swim lessons in a colonial Dutch influenced Indonesia. Her idyllic plantation lifestyle was lost to the invasion, occupation and eventual institutionalization as a POW by the Japanese during WWII. Immigration to the US via The Hague, Netherlands encompassed a journey by sea, air and land across the globe that paved an appreciation for travel, art and adventure she nourishes daily.

You see, year after year an abandoned and battered chair may accumulate rust and cobwebs, unnoticed by antique hunters shopping for bargains. Yet to Inez, this piece has a potentiality that resonates at a frequency only she detects. "Teddy Bear Reading a Book" painted onto this long empty seat may entice a hyper-kinetic child to notice its vacancy, to possibly slow down. And by getting this little one to sit down long enough for even just one book, she's helped conjure up his next great adventure, if only in their still growing imagination.

Atop one as yet unfinished chair languishes a drab colored gourd. Oblong and misshapen, what initially is uninteresting and fallow blooms again under her direction. Streaking across it's surface is a disfiguring crack, like a facial scar it makes others turn away in disgust. Yet Inez allows this imperfection. She sees it lending structure to an opening and she bust it open even further. The hollowed interior, filled with nutrition consumed once long ago, may now give purchase to a diorama. Her graphic storyline beginning on the outer surface, concludes inside the gourd. Inez enables us to feed our conscious hunger for proportionality and symmetria into perpetuity.

Inez has a wisdom that allows the sum of the parts to become greater than the whole. Evidence comes from broken shards of tile, glinting with pain on impact. Pressed into service upon backerboard topped with glue the patternless fragments are given new measure and rhythm. Rendering ceramic, clay, glass and stone pixels from her palet the surface is transformed. Now seated at this backyard coffee table she transports you from suburbia to a seaside cafe near Montpellier France.

Inez moved to Hidden Valley Lake to reclaim independence from a life season as Wife, Manager, Mom. I now see how the conversion of a rustic mountain cabin integrates each unique chapter. Using the broad strokes of her life to create her Estate I now see how this home is simply an extension of her art.

Inez has a ceremonial Batik Wedding Sarong hanging from a traditional Indonesian teak hanger. It speaks to her ability to reclaim love late in life. She's availed herself to a man who grieved from loss. She's sought laughter and beauty to replace solitude and stillness. Adjacent walls and shelves display Delft Blauwe plates and tiles, expounding Dutch colloquialisms, verses of insight passed from generation on down.

And contrasting all of Inez's possessions are photographs. People framed to define a precise moment and emotion. These photos are of all of us broken people. Some, speaking personally, like myself - are more broken than others but each of us made whole again when gathered around her. Individuals who when re-assembled as a family certainly become greater than the sum of our parts. Individuals whom, when fed the delicious left-overs Inez has remade into comfort food become whole again. Made whole again by an woman who's love, beauty, laughter, passion and home define true artistry.