More Ramblings and Musings and Such

It's August and in southeast Texas that means humid, and hot and shitty all day long and the heat and shittiness continues into the evening hours. It just hangs there in the Texas air like a wet blanket soaked in hot water. Temps might just be in the 90's but with the heat index it feels like the 100's. The heat outside actually makes my skin feel like it's frying up in a pan sort of the way bacon fries up in a skillet. It's just plain and simple hot and shitty, good thing I'm Mexican; not too many others would be able to tolerate this.
Yesterday I took some time for me and took the bicycle up to the museum district in Houston. There are quite a few free musums like the Menil collection and the Contemporary Arts museum all within a few blocks radius of each other. The real meat of this little trip were the three chapels I like to visit, the Rothko chapel, the Byzantine frescoes chapel, and the chapel of St. Basil on the UST campus. The chapel of St. Basil even has a nice outdoor labrynith surrounded by rose gardens and crowned with three water fountains right next to it. It's a beautiful and prayerful oasis in the middle of Houston's hurly burly and always rushing city life. The chapel of St. Basil is topped off with a beautiful gold dome reminiscent of the domes in Jerusalem and the middle east. The exterior reiminds one of a white tent with the entrance folded back like the housing for the Ark of the Covenant must have been as the Israelites roamed in the desert during the exodus.
Inside, is a single cross shaped blue glass window on the western facing wall and, when the setting sun strikes the glass, an image of the cross is projected onto the eastern wall. It's a Roman Catholic university and this chapel has the Stations of the Cross cut into the wall, not mounted of carved, but cut into the wall so that as the light hits the individual stations the shadows form the images of Christ in His Passion. I've never seen anything like this before in any church I've visited. I've seen some beautiful carved marble Stations of the Cross and even life sized cast bronze ones at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Virgen Of San Juan in San Juan, Texas on a trail outdoors, but these are beautiful and all hidden away in a little chapel of a university in Houston, Texas. What other spiritual treasures this city must have?
The Rothko chapel, an all faiths chapel right next door to the UST campus and only a short walk away. This very simple and spiritual place has no affiliation with any one organized religion and yet is connected to the roots of all them. Want to feel the presence of God, go there. Just go in and sit silently as the Psalm says,"Be still and know that I am God." No images, no music, no reminders of any one faith yet all faith is there. When I enter into the place all I can initially hear is the roar of my spirit inside. The roar of everything else in my life connected to me. Then, like muddied water left to sit still, it eventually clears. My spirit finds a certain peace and calmness I'll only find when I'm alone in a church. It's eerie at first, we're not used to such silence, yet our spirits cry out for it. It's the space and the silence and the spiritual simplicity which makes this place appeal to me. Brought my wife there once and the first words out of her mouth were "How do you worship in here?"; this from a woman who reads her Bible daily, even twice daily.
Next door and across the street is the Byzantine frescoes chapel, this is an Eastern Orthydox Chapel I believe also designed by Mark Rothko, the artist who designed the aforementioned Rothko chapel. The jewel in the crown of this beautiful tiny place of prayer are the ancient frescoes of the angels and saints rescued from a chapel in Cyprus. These wonderful priceless masterpieces must be at least a thousand years old are beautifully restored. I'll arch my neck straight up and admire the work for so long my neck will begin to ache. The interior is laid out in the shape of a cross and is of black basalt or other stone, so watch as you step. It is dark inside and the frescoes in the ceiling seem to be the only light yet there are candles burning. Outside is a simple meditation garden surrounded by a high concrete wall which seems to block out the city outside. There is a small fountain flowing which actually runs under the chapel and out front into a pool. The simple meditative space has a single oak tree growing in the center. I love visiting here and on this trip, I took shelter here inside when a sudden thunderstorm blew up and the rain and the lightening fell. No sense in getting killed just to get some "me time" out unprotected on a bicycle. How the hell am I going to explain that to my wife?
I topped this trip off with a quick trip to the Contemporary Arts museum before heading home. This is something I need to get into to make a buck. How does one get together a bunch of junk and throw it together on the floor and call it art worthy to have a 250lb guard watch me as I admire it? I visit here and enjoy the art but mostly I'll enjoy watching the people who come in here and look at the art. They could call themselves modern art masterpieces.
The real sense of accomplishment for today was just taking some bamboo trimmings from outside the Rothko chapel and a trimming from an outdoor sculpture garden at a nearby art museum and planting them out. I've always admired bamboo and have wanted some in my garden for some time now. One has to be careful with this stuff because it's actually a grass and can get out of control if not tended to. It should make a nice screen in my backyard and maybe I'll plant some besides the railroad tracks to screen out the unsightly train. Only God knows and more to follow about that later.