Happy Year of the Ox

Today is Chinese New Year, specifically the year of the ox. So, let me say to you--as we said when I was a kid--"Kong Hee Fatt Choy!" Happy New Year! If you prefer other dialects in Chinese, pick your favorite.

I was born in the year of the Ox, so I suppose the coming year should be auspicious for me. According to Wikipedia, the following is the description of people born in the Year of the Ox. For my own entertainment, as well as yours, I shall annotate.

The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. [Still looking for the prosperity part.] This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. [I suppose we'll know the relative truth of this when it's time for my eulogy.] As one might guess, such people are dependable [usually], calm [mostly], and modest [Does it disqualify me if I say I want to be the Queen of Everything?]. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient [Oh, I wish], tireless in their work [yep], and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint [enduring--yes; without complaint?--not a chance].

Ox people need peace and quiet to work through their ideas, and when they have set their mind on something it is hard for them to be convinced otherwise [oh dear, I think I've heard this before]. An Ox person has a very logical mind and is extremely systematic in whatever they do, though they have a tremendous imagination and an unparalleled appreciation for beauty [okay, the second half of that sentence starts to sound a bit more like me]. These people speak little [you've got to be kidding!] but are extremely intelligent [Ahem. Okay.]. When necessary, they are articulate and eloquent [I do, after all, keep a blog].

People born under the influence of the Ox are kind, caring souls, logical, positive, filled with common sense and with their feet firmly planted on the ground. [Mostly, I think that's a pretty good list.] Security is their main preoccupation in life, and they are prepared to toil long and hard in order to provide a warm, comfortable and stable nest for themselves and their families [can't say that's why I toil, but if it were threatened, I'd be there]. Strong-minded, stubborn, individualistic, the majority are highly intelligent individuals who don't take kindly to being told what to do [did someone slip in and take my photo as an illustration for this one?].... Behind this tenacious, laboring, and self-sacrificing exterior lies an active mind. [Does an active mind have to hide behind a hard-working exterior? Can't the two show up together?]

The Ox is not extravagant, and the thought of living off credit cards or being in debt makes them nervous. [Absolutely! I despise debt.] The possibility of taking a serious risk could cause the Ox sleepless nights.

Ox people are truthful and sincere, and the idea of wheeling and dealing in a competitive world is distasteful to them [True. I've always hated bargaining over merchandise, even though I grew up in a land where they do that.]. They are rarely driven by the prospect of financial gain [One exception: if I can earn more money to travel more, I'm there, waiting with with bright eyes for the extra job]. These people are always welcome because of their honesty and patience. They are reputed to be the most beautiful of face in the zodiac [?!] . They have many friends, who appreciate the fact that the Ox people are wary of new trends, although every now and then they can be encouraged to try something new [Oh, come on! We're not THAT stodgy!]. People born in the year of the Ox make wonderful parents and teachers of children [seems I entered the right profession; you'll have to ask my stepkids about the first part, which I'm still working on].

It is important to remember that the Ox people are sociable and relaxed when they feel secure, but occasionally a dark cloud looms over such people and they engage all the trials of the whole world and seek solutions for them [Sigh. How did they know that?].

Born of a Woman

My mom delivers a baby in Malaysia, 1972But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Gal. 4:4,5.

I consider the God of the Universe, paradoxically born of a woman. Have you ever stopped to consider what that means in down-to-earth terms? Would the God of the Universe have been aware of Himself at all times as he became human? I am full of questions:

How was it to have his cells divide and take their places, for his bulgey big head form over a polliwog body?
How was it to curl up into a fetal position inside that teenage girl?
How was it to grow fingernails and toenails while slowly floating and turning in the amniotic fluid?
How much did he kick as he got bigger and bigger? Did he ever get the hiccups in there?
What was it like to feel his tiny protective cocoon contract and get serious about expelling him into a literally cold, cruel world?
What was it like to be crushed and squeezed and pushed through that birth canal to the accompaniment of his mother's cries and groans?
Did he feel her terror as she delivered? Did he feel any of his own? How aware was he?
Whose hands greeted him as he emerged? Were they rough with calluses? Did they fumble at their task of receiving him?
What was it like to gulp that first lungful of the air that he had created?
What did that first cry sound like, and did the sound of his new little human voice shock him?
Was his little skull squished a bit by his passage, or his face flattened?
Was his skin blue when he emerged?
Did he thrust out his little feet and hands in protest at this violent entry into the world?
Who cut his cord?

Bro and I Travel the World: A Collage

All of this traveling we did as missionary kids was done, of course, with our parents. A huge thanks should go out to them from us for their willingness to follow their own curious noses in visiting other countries, and in cheerfully bringing us along in tow. They did not always meet up with easy times. For example, the cheery and interesting Egypt picture above doesn't show how the beggars drove my parents absolutely crazy! My memories are of the camel ride and an interesting venture into one of the pyramids, and of seeing the sphinx in real life--which is pretty amazing.
Here we are in Holland, which is my dad's home country. A boat trip along the waterways is always an interesting experience; we saw firsthand how the Dutch can wrest dry land out of the sea by virtue of some nifty engineering. In this picture, however, I was clearly more intrigued by the ice cream I was finishing.
London was really cool. I liked seeing Big Ben, which I'd seen before in my very favorite Richard Scarry book, Busy, Busy World. And I remember seeing Buckingham Palace and the crown jewels in the Tower of London. And I remember visiting a garden with lots of roses--was that Kew Gardens? My other memories of London come from subsequent trips, and begin to get all mixed together so that I don't remember what I saw on which visit.
We visited Australia because my uncle lives there. What a different world! This little wallaby was patient with us wanting to "pet a kangaroo," which of course we didn't get to do. Kangaroos are a bit big and unwieldy for kid petting activities. I remember being quite enchanted by the strange animals and flowers of Australia. It seemed like everything was unfamiliar there because it was so different.
And then there was the visit to my mom's friend in Hawaii. Here we are posing above Hanauma Bay. You can tell I loved playing dress-up, having appropriated my mom's friend's hat and sunglasses for the occasion. My brother was more interested in shooting rubber bands. Having grown up on a tropical island, I don't think we were all that impressed by the scenery. But I did like the muumuus and the fragrant leis.
This picture really doesn't show it, but one of the more unusual places we vacationed was Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Lake Toba has formed in an old volcano caldera, and still experiences earthquake activity. There's an interesting tribe there, the Bataks, who live in very distinctive houses with upcurved roofs that make them look like boat hulls. They're a musical people. My brother and I were more interested in playing with the boats, though. I may be wrong, but I think this was the very first time we were on a sailboat. Check out my very stylish swimsuit!
This trip took us Banff National Park in Canada. We hopped a tour on one of those glacier-mobiles and got to walk on ice--a very novel idea for two kids from the tropics. Check out my non ice-worthy footwear! As I recall, the glacier didn't hold our interest for very long. After you walk around on ice for three minutes you look around and wonder what else there is to do out there.
I'll end this post with a picture from Rome. I think this was during my 7th grade year. My mom took us via Rome on a short trip to the United States to visit her mother and brother. Everything in Rome was super-cool, in my book, from the spaghetti (loooooong noodles!) to the pizza (thicker crust than I'd ever seen) to the pantheon (a temple to all the gods with one big open eye in the top of the dome?) to the Vatican (opulence everywhere) with a view of the Pieta (really moving) and the glorious paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (pure wonder, even to my pre-teen, as yet uneducated artistic eyes).

Rome is where I learned that it's a good idea--if you're visiting a new city with limited time--to at least start with an overview tour with a guide. You get the best idea of the place with that, and then you can focus on spots you've identified as being worth more investigation.

Bro and I Travel the World: India

Can you see the little teeny-tiny family of four out there, posing in front of the Taj Mahal? That's us.

What I remember of our visit to India is hot, hot, hot temperatures, dust--there was a dust storm that blew through while we were at the Taj--, and strange smells. We were used to a land that smells like tropical breezes and Chinese food; India plays in my memory as the land of oppressive heat and the smell of curry. And massive old structures like the Red Fort (Delhi) and the Taj Mahal, which looked far grander and somewhat out of place from the typical structures that people in India live and work in.
I'm thinking my mom asked us to pose for this picture so she could get us with the reflecting pool on the grounds of the Taj, but the little Indian kids were so intrigued with our white skin and blond hair that my mom got more people than she bargained for in her picture. I can tell exactly what's going on in this picture: I've turned around to glare at the other children, hoping that will make them go away. Silly me! I should have known better.
In my memory we saw these signs on the way to the Taj Mahal (which was a long, hot, dusty taxi ride), but the clothing here tells me we had this picture taken in Kashmir. No matter. It's still India.

There was a huge family planning campaign under way with these billboards. We apparently posed with this one to prove we were the epitome of the perfect Indian family. Ahem! I'm not sure how that extra guy got in our picture, but it amuses me. And I'm thinking those nicely designed faces with the unibrows would amuse my stepkids!

India, as you might have noticed, was not my favorite country to visit. I think I should go back as an adult, as these are my only memories, skewed by time and whatever my interests and disinterests were way back then.

Bro and I Travel the World: Kashmir

During an idle time of paging through the family photo albums recently, it occurred to me to be amazed all over again at all the traveling my brother and I got to do as missionary kids. So I thought I'd do a little photo series--probably mostly for the sole entertainment of my brother and me--reviewing some of our adventures.

First stop on this little reminiscence: Kashmir, up in the northwestern highlands of India, a region split between Indian, Pakistani and Chinese rule.
Nowadays the state department strongly recommends that Americans not travel to Srinagar, the capital of the Indian-controlled region of Kashmir. Too much terrorist activity in the region. Back around 1970, though, we had no sense of danger as we visited the beautiful town by Lake Dal. We visited shops and I bought a papier mache box decorated with little pink roses, a box I still have. We stayed on one of the Victorian-era houseboats on Lake Dal, and took day trips into town, into the mountains, or via gondola to some of the beautiful gardens of the region.
I recall that as my mom was snapping pictures of us smelling snapdragons (Do snapdragons smell? I don't recall), just out of the picture being taken was a whole situation going on. There was a film crew filming a "love scene" in the gardens for a Bollywood production. I was quite intrigued, watching the couple do their melodramatic flirty thing.
As I mentioned, the way to travel on Lake Dal is via shikara (gondola). Each one is equipped with a bed where you lie like royalty under the curtained canopy as the rowers behind you put forth the effort to get you to wherever you wanted to go. You can tell I was quite pleased with the arrangement.
In fact, I was quite happy to sit for any length of time up in the front or on persian carpets and pretend I was a queen being ferried to her palace on the other side of the lake.
My brother, on the other hand, got bored. As you can see, the canopy made a good monkey swing. And in this picture with his tongue hanging out, he's rather reminiscent of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. I love this picture of my brother, particularly followed by this next one.
Eventually he'd had enough of the boring, easy life. He hopped over the back of the bed and joined the rowers for some real action, his blond hair gleaming in the sunshine. Much better!

La Paloma, in Tubac

Whenever we visit the Tucson area in Arizona, we can't resist a "field trip" to Tubac. Tubac is a touristy little town along the highway from Tucson to Nogales, Mexico. It began with a mission farm and ranch established in the late 1600s by a priest. As there was unrest in the area, the Spaniards eventually established a presidio, or fort, there to protect their colonists and mission. The rest of the town grew up around that presidio, which is now a state park preserving the history of the area.

The town is now a collection of galleries and curio shops, with a few restaurants and resort-wear shops thrown in among them. It provides a pleasant few hours walking around an poking one's nose into various shops, viewing the art, and picking up the occasional trinket or keepsake.
Whenever we visit Tubac we first head straight for the back of town, back by the presidio park. There's our favorite shop, La Paloma de Tubac. The store is full, inside and out, of imports from central and south America. And these are really nice things, carefully chosen. It's lucky that we usually fly down to Arizona, because when we drive we have more space to fill the car for the return trip with treasures from La Paloma.
Here are some of the pieces we saw on this visit. I try to be discreet in taking pictures in a shop like this, so there's a whole lot I didn't capture for this blog post. I tend to imagine myself being approached by the store owners--who are very gracious--asking why I'm taking so many pictures in their shop.

"Oh," I'd say. "I'm just collecting photos for a blog post."

Nope, I don't even want to try to explain that, or guess how they'd respond.
An interesting thought came to me, as I was taking in beautiful collections of ceramic work with geometric designs: I could buy one plate or bowl or vase and take it home, but part of the striking beauty of this wall of black-and-white pieces is summed up in the entire collection of them. One item alone expresses only a tiny piece of the creativity and expertise of the maker of these pieces.

I think there's an parable in there somewhere.
As I looked at this woven piece, I contemplated what was going on here. It's not the "storyteller" figure that is popular in the southwest. The people are all facing away from you. So is that the leader up in front? Are they going somewhere? Or are they watching a parade? If that's the case, the poor little kids in the back aren't getting to see much.
Outside, all along the front of La Paloma, there are beautiful pieces of outdoor pottery. If I had a southwestern-style home I'd love to have groupings of these pots on patios and beside doorsteps around the house. Instead I just feasted my eyes on the variety of color, designs and shapes.

Desert Museum: Flora and Minerals

I suppose, this being the first day of the new year, I should write something deep and reflective. But I return to so much of the deep, reflective and challenging as we fly back to the Northwest today, that I think I'll continue with some things that were delightful on our visit to the Desert Museum in Arizona. Beautiful sights and experiences should be savored and remembered a few times before getting tucked away on their shelf of memory.

As you can see, the desert here is definitely green. This was the thing that surprised me the most when I first visited this part of Arizona. No wonder people love to retire here. Not only is it sunny most of the time, but there are also colors in the surroundings that are soothing to the eyes.
One enjoyable stop on the tour of the Desert Museum was "the cave." One descends into a man-made cavern with tunnels and scenarios much like we visited at Kartchner Caverns last weekend. If you like squeezing through tight spaces, you can try an alternative route, more like the tunnels cavers squeeze through.
The cave tunnel leads down into a mineral room with displays of some of the products of the earth in the state of Arizona. There's so much color in everything!
I didn't know that gypsum grows as crystals, but here's a lovely sample.
And the blue in this rock: was it cobalt? That seems to be a favorite color for window casings in the southwest-style old buildings near here, balancing off the pink or beige color of the stucco.
Once our eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight again, there were lovely specimens of the flora to view. Looks like some birds made themselves at home in this saguaro cactus.
Although I hear it's a pest, I love taking pictures of the teddy bear cholla cactus. It's so softly fuzzy-looking, although it's not at all that way if you get close to it. You want to keep your distance from this plant, sometimes referred to as the "jumping cholla." Behind this one you'll see the long spindly "branches" of the ocotillo cactus, which produces some lovely little red blooms at a certain time of the year. What certain time? I don't know. I can tell you it's not at new year's time!
There's something about that saguaro cactus that just draws your eye to it, even though there's so much more to look at in this picture. I wonder if it's the human-like form of some of the saguaro cacti?
Arizona also has some lush places with trees, waterfalls and mountain pools. This is the habitat for the beaver, which you saw in the last post.
I don't know what this cactus is called. I was so enchanted by the star-like spine arrangement; I would have named it a "Christmas star" cactus.
On the way out of the Desert Museum you pass this unusual cactus. Is it a saguaro? I don't think so. But what was it? The club-like top of the plant, which was at least twice as tall as me, was curious and picturesque.
Here's one more look at the mountains and plants in this area. If you click on the picture, you'll see all the little straight saguaro cacti standing like soldiers on the mountainside. It really is cool.
Finally, these are my favorite plants I saw all day at the Desert Museum. They are octopus agave, and I loved their graceful, wavy lines. If I were a mural painter, these would be on our bedroom wall in a scene using the Arizona colors: copper blue-green, desert reds and the sky in early morning golds.