Canada Day, "here comes the bride," and another art fail

Saturday, July 1 CANADA DAY 2023

A core difference between Canadians and Americans is visible this weekend.

My Canadian friends reply to my "Happy Canada Day" post: "Oh yeah, That's today. Thanks for reminding me." Will they call a few friends over to sit around, have a barbecue, watch a game, or go camping? Maybe. The observance is casual. For most, it's just a long weekend.

Meanwhile, many American friends have been thinking about the 4th of July (America Day) for a while. They'll go to a parade with family if they're in a small town. They've purchased decor, planned parties, and invited friends or neighbors to come around.

The Fourth is a big deal, even in Seattle where summer rarely arrives until July 6. According to meteorologists, around the second week of July, Alaskan air warms up enough to stop dropping rain on the West Coast.

-- I'm rambling.

After a one-mile walk, it's time for breakfast. Many old houses on the hill have been converted to restaurants or businesses, like Miss Bee. We walk on empty streets. By afternoon, the streets are clogged and every parking lot is full.

The bride prefers a long aisle so she and her friends turn the hall around to face the old stage.

I encourage her to be the center of attention (i.e. to set the keyboard off the main stage), to space the chairs 4 tiles apart so people can come and go, and to relax and have fun if she can.

Saturday

It's the wedding day! The celebration with family and friends goes off without a glitch.

I get to pray a blessing at the start of the ceremony. The day is a beautiful reminder of wholeness, of love, and God's blessing on the marriage of a man and a woman.

 After, we hang around to chat. The attendants and bridal couple take lots of pictures, including some fun and goofy ones.

While the beautiful bride and the handsome groom exchange vows, a group of 11 volunteers prepares crafts in the IESB office. They teach English and hang out with village kids every Saturday and are using a weekend off to plan ahead. It looks like a tornado has blown through while they assemble the crafts.

W spends a few hours Friday moving equipment and the sound system for the wedding. Before the ceremony, he has to re-plug cords. Yikes people: please don't unplug and move cords because, strung another way, they look better in photos.. W runs the sound and when the ceremony is over, returns the media components to the Sunday layout.

W and I catch a fast meal at Maxi's. The server brings a typical sauce ratio: a few ketchup packets and lots of sambal (hot sauce). We head home to change and back to the hall to clean up.

Our three helpers arrive after noon to wash windows, walls, and floors. I explain what I want done - with a checklist. "Call me when you think you're done," I remind them. Inspection before payment.

They clean the chairs and wipe down the ceiling fans - oh oh those haven't been done for a while - the dirt flies! Once they're done with the hall and stairs, they head for the toilets. It takes 6 hours and they're tired by the time evening falls.

The office will wait for them next Tuesday. Those bookshelves and windowsills are dusty, the corners are full of mouse poop, and the windows are opaque with dirt. I haven't worked in there for a while, obviously.

Eki drops by to spend the night - he's off to English Village tomorrow. EV is an English language immersion program - fun, good company, and fast progress in learning English from native speakers. About 6 p.m., Eki and I walk over to the hall to rescue W with supper at Miss Bee.

After a delicious meal and a pleasant walk home, W starts hours of work on subtitles. Without those, internationals struggle to understand each other's accents.

Sunday

We're back at the hall about 7:00 a.m. to set up the Gathering. Nice - the hall is sparkling clean. Titik has worked her creative wonders on flowers again. (This is a 2'- / 70cm-wide pot.)

David and Georgina are today's speakers. Their message from Matthew 20 encourages us to listen for the voice of God. However, they note that we can't demand results for our efforts. Especially, they remind us that God rarely chooses people who are exceptional, talented, or strong. Most often, He chooses the weak and helpless to accomplish his purposes.

Afterward, we commission David and Georgina for work abroad and affirm baptism for another friend.

Fennelin's birthday is today. She's invited friends to a homemade lunch at their place. We're spoiled with warm just-baked bread (woohoo, Wolter!), tomato soup, salad, and more.

It's delightful to watch "the littles" run around. IESB has 6 boys in the under-3 age group (no little girls yet!) The toddlers and babies explore the house and amuse us with their antics. They love Falk's toys, especially the climbing unit and slide Wolter built for his son.

We get home in time for a mango delivery. DrH has also ordered some for her household, so we walk over with Eki to deliver them to her house.

On the Porch, three young women are playing games, relax, and chat until almost nightfall. Once Eki leaves, W and I read and putter. We make it an early night and sleep soundly.

Monday

W's knees are sore from all that kneeling (media equipment moves) so I walk alone. The dogs give me the stink-eye at being left behind. I note what's happened to a tiny seller's shed that popped up a few years ago. It's gradually expanded into a neat and tidy store for snacks and fruit. The family's home is a room or two behind the open-walled shop at the busy intersection.

After a few online calls, I walk to the hall to pack away things left behind after the wedding.

Back home, I pick up my brushes for the first time in a month. This cave painting has been sitting for 2 years without any progress beyond putting some gold lines on the bottom. That taught me nothing but I quit before I ruined it. I have no direction in mind beyond: squeeze some paint and grab a brush.

I pick up a tube of yellow ochre and a 1" housepainting brush, squeezing shapes straight from the tube onto the canvas. Oh brother. I forgot to get water. I wet the brush in an almost-empty cup of tea and clean the paint off it onto the canvas.

As I return the ochre to the basket, I grab a tube of dark sap green. Maybe I can scale back the cave? I squeeze some drops and lines onto the canvas and swish it around with the brush. The cave disappears and she's there. I'm frustrated - not another face!

I leave her alone. I wash the brushes and call it a day (or my 5 minutes.) 

I need an art class on landscapes or another subject. The same thing happened in April when I laid the base to paint a field. It sat around for a few months because I wasn't sure about the next step.

When I mixed white, yellow, and red on the canvas, it became ... flesh-colored?

With a few lines from an illustration marker, she said, "Here I am." She's still looks my way, propped on a shelf in my office.

Whenever I notice, I shake my head at her: "What are you doing here?"

Grrr. I'd prefer to get back to botanical painting but I don't have the patience to sit for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.

All through high school, I sketched faces in my algebra and science notebooks. Our parents never cared about grades. Mom and Dad shrugged and signed the report cards as long as my brothers and I brought home As and Bs and occasional C+s.  So none of us made much of an effort.

Algebra and science sometimes meant a quick cram for tests the night before. The classes were utterly boring if they weren't about plants, animals, or or shapes. Yay for biology and geometry, which I loved. (However, my geometry notebook was for writing bad poems rather than sketching. Won the annual poetry prize for those. Who knew.)

Maybe I need to get those high school women out of my fingers, before moving on?

Read more:

*Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. Psalm 89:15

*The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes. Psalm 119:54

*In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12

Moravian Prayer: Teacher, your laws are easy to understand but hard for us to live up to—to treat others better than we treat ourselves and to love you most of all. We are trying. Help us to do better. Amen.