Long ago, in a land far far away…Nah. Jk.
It wasn’t that long ago, or that far away.
During the Victorian-era in Britain (1837-1901) lovers spoke the Language of Flowers.
Ironically enough… I learned about the Language of Flowers from a Japanese amime show called Sailor Moon.
Yeah…
Anyway, the Language of Flowers was used to send coded messages using, wait for it… flowers.
Different blossoms in various arrangements carried special meanings.
For example:
It is always important to keep up certain traditions, family memoirs that mean something personal and connect you with those who have passed or those that are far away.
Today I cooked my Grandmas recipe for an Easter nest. In no way is the recipe extravagant or different but to me it really means something.
I was taught this recipe at the age of 3. With my pull up stool giving me a little height, but not enough for my eyes to meet the counter, I would help her as much as I could in the kitchen. When I would arrive at their house I would run into the secret cupboard retrieve the stool and run into the kitchen readily awaiting my grandma’s presence to bake our Easter nests together.
As I grew taller and could reach the counter on my own the stool grew dusty but never did the recipe in my mind of the famous Easter nest. Yearly we would bake this same recipe together; it was our tradition, until I moved away.
Last year I made the nest all the way in California but it was not the same without her there. This year I will do the same. Although in many ways it makes me sad, this ritual is a joyous motion that honors my grandmother in England and connects us through a single recipe, despite the distance. This is a recipe I will pass on to my children and one day make with my grandchildren to connect to my Grandmother wherever she may be, passing on the love that I feel for her to them through our Easter nests.
This picture says it all.
I love my dad.
I don’t know any other immense, bottomless love.
During times of difficulty, he has been my rock and laid out the foundations for a secure home.
The only thing that scares me is how old my father is.
I mean, I am in no form ashamed of his age. My dad is 80 and he hasn’t failed to love me for a single day.
However, I do get worried.
Sometimes, when he does certain things, I feel a little tug on my heart.
For example, his once steady and strong hands tremble. His fingers move very slow and systematically.
He cannot stand for over 20 minutes at a time.
His sight is slowly slipping away; He can’t drive after the sun begins to set.
He gets sick more often. My father, man who hadn’t caught a cold in so many years, finally caught one this year and he is still trying to recover.
I know these are all natural, especially for someone so elderly. However, he is my father, and I can’t help but get a little sad to see him slowing down.
However, none of these symptoms of old age make me love him any less. Although I have been attending a boarding school 2 hours away from home for the past 5 years of my life and I don’t talk to him nearly as much as I should, he still remains number 1 in my heart, my blessing from God.
I hope that everybody gets to experience such a love. It is overwhelming and wonderful. It motivates you and places you on the right path. It lifts you up and betters you. It moves you without words. It is so powerful and definitely one of the greatest emotions God has given to his people.
My father allowed me to be the person I want to be. When I am older, I want to be able to give the same selfless, unconditional love to my children.
I love you dad, always. I will continue to try to be the best me I can. Hope your cold goes away soon!
One of the greatest inventions has been put into use this past month.
Sprinkles, my favorite cupcake store of all time, has opened up a 24-hr/ 7 day a week cupcake ATM. That way (if any of you have seen or experienced the lines at a Sprinkles Cupcake store), you don’t have to wait for 20-30 minutes just for your share of red velvet or black and white.
This invention is great for two reasons: efficiency and novelty. People are drawn to it because they do not have to spend too much time waiting in line. Working men and women alike can pick it up with a swipe of their card.
It is also a new and exciting way to approach such a simple dessert. I personally wouldn’t want to spend too much time in a line. However, my biggest reason behind checking out the cupcake ATM is just for the heck of it.
Besides, its fun! There is a little camera that follows the mechanical arm inside the ATM that leads you to the cupcake and follows it on its journey out into your welcoming hands.
This next break, I welcome everybody to check it out! The closest one to Ojai Valley School is in Beverly Hills:
This weekend, my Mom came down all the way from Santa Cruz to see me and take me out for the weekend. I was counting down the days until I could see her, and when she finally got here, it was the best feeling ever.
Each day, whether it is on purpose or not, I think about my family. My mom, dad, brother, and sister. All of them cross my mind at some point during the day. Even if we are fighting or haven’t talked in a while, I always think about them no matter what.
Before I came to this school, I guess I never realized the importance of family. I took them for granted more than I even like to admit and I did not pay them enough respect. But being away from them for so long has lead me to truly appreciate all of my family in every single way.
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All of the things my parents have done, whether they have been good or bad in my perspective, have been for me, my sister, and my brother. Looking back, I cannot say I would have had them do anything differently. Of course, in some of those moments, I thought I absolutely hated them because of some decisions that were made or rules that were enforced. Some punishment seemed like the end of the world. But my parents had a much different perspective than me, of course – they did things that they believed would be best in the long run rather than short-term.
Time spent apart from my family was, at first, something that I really enjoyed. And to some extent, I still enjoy it. But a larger part of me realizes that in the past years, I have not spent time with them the way that I should have. I spent more time complaining about what we didn’t do and things that didn’t go my way that I have not cherished the memories with them.
And, even though friends can be considered to some people family as well, there are only those few people related to you by blood that are truly of the utmost important. No matter who you spend the majority of your time with, or who has been the most prominent guiding figure throughout your life, family is the root of your existence. Family is the reason that you are on this earth. Family should be the most important thing in each and everyone’s life. They are the people that have made you who you are.
I will never take them for granted again.
Who knows how much longer we have left?
Sunday is traditionally a family day, a day of rest, good food and relaxing. A day that includes some sort of walk or exercise and family bonding.
I woke up, ate breakfast and as my family travelled to the farmers market to gather provisions of fresh fruit and veg for the week, I sat studiously doing my homework. Traditionally on one of these days lunch consists of a pub lunch, but as I now live in America the steak and ale pie and chips had to be constituted with a panini from Ojai’s delicious, Papa Lennon’s.
After eating some delicious food my family and I travelled up the 33 to Rose falls. Here we followed the short trailhead to the magnificent falls, nature at its finest.
After a period of time we travelled onwards to White Rocks where we admired the view from the roadside. After a long day we travelled back into town stopping for a handmade pastry and coffee at the artsy Ojai cafe, Bohemia. We travelled home, as the sun set, preparing ourselves for the feast that would be cooked by my mother.
Now I am looking forward to a night in front of the fire with a good film and a cup of hot cocoa and a big slice of chocolate cake, after I have stuffed myself with dinner that is.
What a relaxing, ideal Sunday.
It’s happened.
The unthinkable.
My sisters are coming into the end of their pre-teen years.
Or is that “tween” years…?
I really hate the word tween so let’s just stick with pre-teen.
Today my little sisters turned 12.
I met them 12 years ago in the San Diego International Airport, five minutes after they came off the plane from Guatemala.
They are twins.
Identical opposites.
One is right-handed and likes English.
The other is left-handed and likes Math.
One is an amazing artist.
The other is a technology whiz.
My little sisters, Clara and Celeste, are twelve years old today.
They were born in the year of the Dragon. Personally, I think that’s the coolest Chinese Zodiac animal in our family (I’m a rat, so…).
I literally have the coolest sisters ever.
They know I love Doctor Who so they sent me a little email…
For Christmas, they gave me lip gloss inside a plastic hamburger, a Pikachu t-shirt and a tiny dolphin pillow-pet.
For my birthday, they got me shea butter-infused fuzzy socks, Pink Chiffon and Paris Amour lotions from Bath and Body Works, and MADE ME A TARDIS!!!!
Love you little sises!
Your Feet
“When I cannot look at your face
I look at your feet.Your feet of arched bone,
your hard little feet.…But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me.”
I love this poem because it can describe anybody that is special to you. Friend, family, boyfriend, or girlfriend.
My mother has always told me that your feet are the doorways to your well-being. If it is flu season, and your feet are bare, you are welcoming the sickness into your body.
I’ve always wondered why she said that. I mean, I could understand why she would advise me to take good care of my hands or perhaps my head, but my feet?
I figured that it was because we use them everyday to walk, to sprint, to skip, to tiptoe, to dance, to keep a rhythm. And since we use them so often, it is crucial that we take care of them.
But this poem took my perspective to another level. Your feet carries you from place to place.
It is not how often you use them or how you use them that make them so special but where they bring you and who you will meet.
That is why my mother stresses me to take care of my feet.
My feet have brought me so far these past 18 years. They brought me up and down mountains and through my life’s pinnacles and pitfalls.
It’s quite funny because my feet used to be my biggest source of self-consciousness. I hated them. I hated the way they looked. I especially hated that because of 4 years of soccer and track, I have two black toenails.
But now, I kind of admire them for where they have taken me. It is almost as if I have a strange respect for them.
Now, as I am going to college, it is time to let my feet take me wherever they choose to go. OH and the places I will see! The people I will meet!
Life is remarkable.
I think that in this world people take animals for granted way too much. Animals are what keep us fed,and are what keep us interested in the possibilities out around the earth. But most importantly, animals are what keep the earth in check.
Wild animals are not meant to be in cages or confined to a small area but they are and it breaks my heart to see the animals inside a zoo who shouldn’t even be in the weather that they are in. Animals are like humans, they take care of their young, feed their young, and would do anything to protect their young.
It is unbelievable to me when people make it a huge deal about being attacked by a mama bear with cubs in the wild when those people should have never been there in the first place. The people are the ones intruding. If a bear was to come in to someones house and go into your kids room and be standing near just to get a “closer look” you would kill it without thinking because your kid could be in danger but when people are “getting a closer look” on some cubs and they get attacked the bear is the one who should be killed…? that makes no sense to me. 
Animals aren’t infinite, that has been made very clear by the california state bear, which is on the california flag but was killed off and is extinct. Bravo humans, bravo. 
One day we will all pay for neglecting the fact that we NEED animals. even if it’s just because we need a hug…
Hopefully we can just learn instead of decimating the animal populations of the world but by the looks of things, that is looking like it will never happen.
Last week the baseball team traveled through the windy road up the 33. It was a long drive up to Maricopa, CA to play against a school but the team made it up there and came out victorious. As a photographer I took it as an opportunity to take pictures of the team playing their sport, and that I did.
People might think that it is only standing in one place and pointing a camera but the truth is that if you take photography seriously you won’t just stand in one place, you will walk around like a mad man or mad woman trying to find the perfect shot and then moving on to find the next one.
While I was taking this photo..
I came up with the idea to take this next photo, I saw that the catcher was standing in pure dirt and his glove was getting all dusty, then it came to me. A ball hit his glove and dust blew out of his glove as if it was smoke, it looked awesome!
This is what I love about taking pictures! The fact that I can capture moments that we only see and forget without a camera. It is truly a great feeling to catch moments like these.
What do you think about the photo?
OVS Journalism Blog 
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