Five months in.

We are five months into 2008 How are your resolutions going? Or did ya back out and do the "I won't make any resolutions resolution"? I have, in the past few years started committing to annual resolutions that progress gradually through the year. For 2007 I decided to 1) try and get my weight down to 155 by July 7th, my 40th birthday (didn't quite make it, 160 was the best I could do), 2) run 1000 miles (finished with 1034, for a life total of around 16,735 (yes I keep track, it's a geek runner thing (wait...how many parentheses go here...))), and 3) read the entire Bible (got it). It was a good year. This year, since I am writing more, I have decided to stick with reading one "real" book per month. So far I am a bit ahead of schedule having read "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortensen, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder, "The Shack" by William P. Young, "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri, "Deadline" by Randy Alcorn, and "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebeow. Now I am reading "The Sacred Romance" by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge. On to happines...http://www.newsweek.com/id/96107 I was chatting with a good friend the other night about nice people, hope, happines, and family. He found it interesting, as Raina Kelly discovered, people who have Faith are happier than those who don't. Faith in God, family, hope for the future, and a world view that helps and includes others, unlike the folks in Moldova. I guess that would be tagged onto my 2008 reading resoultion: to be happier by deepening my faith. Now for a story: Poho and the Burning house in CA When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade my folks sponsored a Cambodian couple. For some reason only the husband was staying with us. I think I found out years later he came ahead of her to establish a job and find a place to live. I didn’t understand why this man who barely spoke English was staying in my room and I had to sleep in the living room. Poho was interesting to the point of being a scary unknown to me. In the morning he would wake and do funny slow dancing stuff, waving his arms and bending over while he would breathe kinda loud. I remember peaking through the cracked door and watching him, how odd. No one I knew did this. He was different so I was frightened. He stayed with us until he found work and could support his family and bring them over. It was only a couple months. During his visit with us an amazing event unfolded next door. The group of young people living next door to us was friendly and mostly kept to themselves until the night their house caught fire. I remember being woken up by mom and taken outside in case a spark caught our house on fire. The dry hot Southern California summer cultivated perfect conditions for a fire, everything was bone dry. We had experienced a series of Santa Anna winds blowing from the deserts. These winds quickly parched all the grass in the vacant lot down the street and heated the blacktop at the school yard, softening the soles of our shoes and making it hard to run and play. Our roof was a perfect place for a wandering spark to light. Dad was funny looking as he sprayed the roof and side of the house with the hose, jumping to reach and soak every part. This was the first time I can remember seeing him scared. He was frantic. The flames inside the neighbor’s house were visible through the dark smoke in the windows. I kept trying to get a better look but mom would hold me back. All the people came running out and the rest of the neighborhood supplied blankets and clothes. I could hear the wood creaking and breaking and glass shattering as if the house was screaming in pain. Black smoke rose violently from the house and blocked our view the peaceful twinkling stars. The fire ate the house from the inside out. Soon the roof gave to the hungry flames and collapsed in thundering defeat. The heat rushed from the house and slammed into our bewildered faces. I had to turn away to escape it. Now the fire celebrated its victory, by throwing two-by-fours into the sky, big ones. At least they were big to my 8 year old eyes. It amazed me, and freaked out Poho. I remember him standing frozen in the orange glow of the fire’s heat just staring, right at the fire. What was going through his mind? What thoughts and memories froze this man? I was young and knew nothing of the Vietnam War or the political unrest that part of the world was enduring. But now I wonder, “What images were passing through Poho’s mind that night?” And was he more scared than I? The fire burned through the night, contained by a crew of firefighters, and the neighborhood smelled like burnt wood and plastic for days. Life continued and we went back to our normal summer kid stuff, peaking over the fence every now and then to look at the pile of burnt house parts. One day Amy, my little sister, was playing in the side yard with a friend. Two sweet little girls just being kids in the side yard, unaware of the huge rattlesnake under the trash can lid inches from them. You see, the neighbors collected snakes, and what is a good snake collection without poisonous snakes, big poisonous snakes. Well this was some collection of snakes, and a few escaped the fire. Amy and her friend somehow disturbed the creature and it let them know with its normal warning, rattling its tail. It must have been loud because the two of them didn’t touch the ground until they were safe on the couch in the living room. These two little girls found the first of many deadly snakes wandering about on Palmbark Street. I remember watching at least three being caught, but I head about more. Maybe the number grew with the stories, don’t know. I wonder what Poho thought about the snakes? Tony