2005 : A Closing
Beloved Friends and Family,
We would like to first extend our warmest wishes to all as you enter into this auspicious new year. The one now past has likely brought many of us love, regret, joy, sorrow, life, and maybe even death. And yet we can always count on time to blossom the first spring flower, year after year. Max Frisch once said, “Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.” We’d like to take a few moments and share with you just how our lives have unfolded through the past rotation of the cosmos.
Over the summer, June 8th to be exact, Johnathan hit the grand ol’ age of One. His party was filled with many bubbles, some of which looked like creatures out of The Abyss! The leaps of development that he’s made since then are astounding. While on a visit with our Uncle Mike and Aunt Sandy, Djai began taking his first few wobbly steps. As of late, he’s turned those little kickers into quite the dancing spectacle. He’s also begun to use a small array of ASL signs to communicate with us when words just don’t suffice. Seeing the young with their insatiable thirst for knowledge should serve as a model for us all. Children truly are born a sponge; waiting patiently to sop up their environments blessings (and everything learned is a blessing). He is also attending weekly groups at our community library where they engage in reading, crafts, songs, and games. He’s becoming quite the social butterfly, unlike his parents!
Shae has also been a busy wife, mother, artist, and many other talents. She is a woman of many hats… er durags. She has been slowly building an inventory of photographic art, applying cut photographs in various tessellations and kaleidoscopic designs on tables and in frames. Eventually, she’d like to open up a booth at one of the local weekend artisan markets in Vancouver or Portland. Beyond photography, she also painted a few Sesame Street characters for Johnathan’s room and was commissioned to decorate several cakes for friends and neighbors. Keep any eye out for her up and coming website to hit the ‘net from an ISP near you!
Personally, I’m enjoying all aspects of life, as often as I can. Work is challenging, frustrating, and rewarding. School is the same and I love every second of it. I’ve been on the Clark College debate team for the past two quarters and am having an absolute blast with it. It’s the single-handedly most fun and most stress that I’ve ever been under. An intellectual sport? In a few months Shae and I will be traveling to Prague for eight days while our team competes at the 2006 International Forensics Association Invitational. It will be the trip of a lifetime, and we’ll look forward to sharing the memories with everyone on our return.
In closing, we’d like to wish everyone the best in the year that is upon us. May we all experience life in all its’ richness and fullness. We’ll leave you with a word from Sophocles, “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”
Yours,
Ben, Shae, & Djai Cecka
http://www.ben-shae.com