Lofbomm.com

We’re having another one of those busy couple of weeks that induces a bit of silence here at Lofbomm.com, but our buddy Tyler Kimbro just turned us on to this most fantastic performance that you might enjoy too. Wow. Thanks, Tyler. This guy is almost as talented as your little finger, my friend.

-A.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew-7SwLcHBg[/youtube]

Here’s Adam’s first, big lead role on “Surprise.” Watch his breathtaking performance as ‘Brooke’s Father.’ A shoo-in for an Emmy if they had them here in Korea. Be sure to check him out rocking a wee bit of Korean during the surreal strangeness at around 2:00 in part one.

Here is part one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_AB9eqOG5A[/youtube]

And here is part two:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lEEn9UYemc[/youtube]

Enjoy!

Here is a video Dad Rau shot during the festivities downtown at Jonggak. Note the countdown in Korean: Youk, Oh, Sa, Sam, Ee, Il, YAY!!!

It was a pretty spectacular way to ring in the new year. Mom and Dad kept marveling at the idea of allowing fireworks in the middle of the city. No security check points to get into this party, that’s for sure!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkJPw7zN62Q[/youtube]

-Adam & Jessica

I try to keep things on the light side for this blog, but sometimes life is heavy.  I didn’t know how to write about my grandpa’s passing and this on the same day, so here it is.

Adam’s dad collapsed yesterday (Sunday morning) at home and was taken to the hospital.  They discovered that he has blood clots in his lungs.  He’ll be in the hospital for a week now as they thin his blood to get rid of the clots.  This could have been fatal.

I mourn the loss of my Grandpa, but he was an old man.  He lived his life, and it is natural for old men to fade out.  But Adam’s dad is only sixty.  He hasn’t gotten to hug his grandkids yet or take them camping.  This has been a really strong reminder of how much we love and value him in our life.

Please keep Adam’s dad, Steve, in your thoughts and prayers.

-Jessica and Adam

This is simply amazing. You must watch it. Words cannot possibly do it justice. See if you don’t find your self humming this little ditty for days afterwards. Many thanks to the fine people of Japan for their continued commitment to educational ingenuity.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su68w4QZinM[/youtube]

Being the only child of two extremely loving and adoring parents, pride and self-inflation are perhaps some of my greatest struggles on the spiritual path. I’m not alone though, this is the last and deepest obstacle for all who walk on two feet in this world.

Seeing who we really are, and living in light of that reality, could be said to be the whole point of this human being thing that we are all doing.

I’m both comforted and challenged by these tremendously accurate and insightful words from Thomas Merton:

“€œIt is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him.”€

- from €New Seeds of Contemplation

-Adam

Here’s another fantastic quote from Father Thomas Keating that I thought was worth sharing with all of you:

“If we refuse to think of anything except what we are doing or the person that we are with, we develop the habit of being present to the present moment. In a way, the present moment becomes as sacred as being in church. Far better to be present to your duty if you are a bartender, than to be present in church and to be thinking about being in a bar. At least you are present to yourself when you are paying attention to what you are doing.

“Attention, then, is a way of doing what we are doing. It cracks the crust of the false self (our psychological awareness of daily life) in which we are the center of the universe while everything else is circling around our particular needs or desires. This is an illusion, but unfortunately it is the heritage we all bring with us from early life.”

Jessi hasn’t been inspired to write in the last week or so, and the blog was starting to look a little sad with only the daily del.icio.us links piling up, so I thought I should do my part and post something.

I’ve been reading some good books lately, so I guess I could share a bit about them. First, I read Father Thomas Keating’s book on contemplative prayer practice called, Open Mind, Open Heart. I finished that one last week and started in on another great book, Lost Christianity, by Jacob Needleman. Both books share a common thread of digging into the Christian tradition to reveal holistic, transformational disciplines and practices that have too often been overlooked in favor of intellectual and emotional development.

I’ve felt for a long time that part of the equation was lacking, and both of these authors do a good job of shedding light on what that other part might entail. Both argue that there is an inner dimension in man beyond thought and emotion — a dimension that is actually of primary importance in spiritual development — that can only be developed through silence and contemplative practice.

There is a time for cultivating the mind and the heart, absolutely. And, there is a time to set these highly limited faculties aside and open our whole, unmediated selves to resting in the presence and reality of God through the practices of centering and contemplative prayer. This, I believe was the psalmist’s experience captured in the words, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Keating highlights the deep value of developing the inner life beautifully on page 44 of Open Mind, Open Heart:

“We fail to believe that we are always with God and that He is part of every reality. The present moment, every object we see, our inmost nature are all rooted in Him. But we hesitate to believe this until personal experience gives us the confidence to believe in it. This involves the gradual development of intimacy with God. God constantly speaks to us through each other as well as from within. The interior experience of God’s presence activates our capacity to perceive Him in everything else — in people, in events, in nature. We may enjoy union with God in any experience of the external senses as well as in prayer.

“Contemplative prayer is a way of awakening to the reality in which we are immersed. We rarely think of the air we breathe, yet it is in us around us all the time. In similar fashion, the presence of God penetrates us, is all around us , us always embracing us. Our awareness, unfortunately, is not awake to that dimension of reality. The purpose of prayer, the sacraments, and spiritual disciplines is to awaken us.”

Isn’t that great stuff? I find the prospect of living in that sort of awareness very exciting, and I have found this approach has reinvigorated my spiritual life in a new way. I don’t really have a point to make here, per se, other than to share with you where my mind has been this week. Maybe I will share more with all of you sometime soon.

-Adam

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