My Holiday Survival Guide - On the Art of Sharing Joy

There are times to be happy and times to be happier, the holidays are made for that. You can be happy and celebrate if you have enough time to do that. If not everything becomes a dreadful drag, annoying to the max. So, how to survive holidays without stressing out about it?

my favorite star

for my Christmas tree

handmade by Ania

First, limit the number of events, gifts, projects. If you do not finish something, do not worry. You can always do it next year. I send Christmas cards by mail, still, because I like it. I start addressing them from different end of the alphabet each year, in this way if I run out of time and do not send some cards one year, I'm sure to send it the next year, I'll do more than half each time... That's the virtue of moderation...

a wine-red planet

filled with surprises inside - 

a pomegranate

Second, enjoy the moment. Holidays are for taking time OFF projects and work, and we managed to convert them into MORE work. So let's reverse the trend and from time to time just do nothing. Buy fewer, less expensive, more engaging gifts. Like books, or favorite movie classics, or board games...
Spend time outside, go to the park, work in the garden, or take that book you were going to give away for Christmas but just could not stop yourself from reading and lie down on a blanket in your backyard or sit on your favorite chair on your balcony, and enjoy!  That's the virtue of wisdom or prudence..

bright red and green 

for December, for July - 

joy in the garden

Third, be always grateful and kind. So you had that fender bender in the Christmas tree parking lot? Are you going to get mad and start yelling at the other party, or are you going to wish them Merry Christmas anyway?  Are you going to cut off someone in traffic because you have to be everywhere first, or are you going to drive more carefully, listening to your favorite Christmas carols, and singing along to your heart delight? So what if you are five minutes late? OK, an hour is a problem, but then you have to leave much, much earlier.  That's the virtue of gratitude with kindness.

like a pomegranate

we are seeds tightly packed

onto our planet

Fourth rule is about sharing. And what about the unwanted gifts, those ugly sweaters, or ridiculous decorations you have no room for? Say thanks, appreciate the intention, and send good thoughts to the misguided giver, and then... give it to someone else who might like it, or donate it to a charity. You'd be surprised how many charities would like some extra Christmas decorations or ugly sweaters, especially those dealing with the homeless. The most important thing is the intention of sharing and celebrating together. The joy of Christmas... That's the virtue of generosity...

And when you make your gifts or bring things to a holiday gathering, remember it is all about time and effort and intention, and not at all about money. I remember a lovely Tibetan tale about the Emperor who ha donkey ears and his barber's mom, who saved the boy's life by baking sweet-scented cookies made of milk, rice flower, and the full power of her motherly love... The Emperor was so moved by them that he relented and allowed the barber to live, even though he killed all other ones, out of fear that they would have exposed his ridiculous secret. On one level, we all have our own donkey ears, our ugly secrets. On another, we all know how to bake cookies filled with love...

a kiss a day

makes sorrow go away

twice as fast

Fifth Holiday Survival Rule is about writing and giving. Write something positive and nice about someone and give it to them. I do it every year at work, write 30 or more cards with personal messages to my co-workers I share most of my daylight hours with. They are happy to eat a Lindt chocolate and read their card, with  smiles on their faces. Yet their joy does not compare with the joy I feel when I think of all these good wishes for all these good people - every time I write "may your year be full of health, happiness, prosperity and peace" I feel a bit lighter... That's one reason why I do it. It makes me feel better, be better.  That's the virtue of service.

inside is outside 

red seeds on top of Pavlova -

my daughter's gift

That's the real antidote of stressing out whether the gifts are elegant enough, the wrapping is perfect enough, the cake is decorated well enough, the house is spotless, and the parties' guest list most fashionable and distinguished... Just give the gifts of appreciation and love to all those around you and by the very act of giving, you will receive so much joy in return.

Today, I picked photos of pomegranates from my garden to illustrate this post, even though the pomegranates are all eaten, by me, squirrels, and birds, and the trees barren, even the golden leaves have fallen off. The pomegranate is the fruit of love and abundance: all these delicious little fruits packed so tightly inside! Like humans and other living sentient beings on our planet. So tightly, we cannot help by adjust our rough corners to others next to us...and love them as we love ourselves!

red fruit gone

pomegranate turns  pure gold -

 timeless riches

Finally, Christmas holiday is placed on the calendar near the Winter Solstice, when the days stop becoming shorter and nights longer, and after the longest night, the Earth becomes brighter and brighter every day... In the Northern hemisphere, at last. So it is a celebration of the victory of Light over Darkness, the victory of Love over Lack of Love... the Victory of Victory of the Great Cosmic Victory, and on, ad infinitum....

Bright Sun above , its radiance all around me

Bright Sun within, awakened by its touch

I breathe the Light, my heart sings of its brilliance

My mind my body dance in endless Light.

My days are full of peace, pure radiant beauty

Bright Sun above, my joy, my love, my light. 

How can you turn towards Light, when you are too busy to breathe? Or so it seems with under the avalanche of so many "to-dos" every day... Here are some simple meditations on Light inside you an Light around you that you do not have to memorize, read in their entirety, but simply imagine. Imagination works! It will clear the space around you, clear your mind, and clear your heart... Ready? Get going!

Imagine, A Poem of Light

Are you an apple? Or maybe a ripe seed 
inside an apple of light - so you are snug
and safe in the core of a torus of light rays?
You are wrapped in white light, dazzling 
rays flowing around, from your crown into 
toes, enveloping you in a bright cocoon 
of magnetic lines, with six-winged angels 
on all sides, gladly watching over you...

Are you, perhaps, a fountain? 
Your heart, a spring of goodness.
Liquid light overflows all over you. 
Your heart-beat marks a smooth rhythm 
of the gentle pulse of the heart fountain. 
This light is the miracle you forget about 
every day, oblivious, while your blood carries 
your heart-light into every cell of the body.

Not a fountain? Then, a star, maybe? 
Or two stars. The larger one brightly shines
on your chest, its rays straight and dazzling.
Multicolored sparkles dance in brightness.
Another star glows on your forehead, 
as new and radiant as your heart star.
Here you are: a rainbow of light  
still shining - shining - shining - 

(c) Maja Trochimczyk, 2018

a sunburst 

and a pink umbrella

all made of light

compete with red leaves

for my attention

Imagination and meditation are very important. There are only two forces in the entire cosmos - love that connects everything and fear that destroys everything. Or Love an Lack. So you have to turn to love and cut yourself off from fear. "I revoke, or cancel all contracts and agreements wtih the dark, for the dark, all in the present, future and the past. I dedicate my life to the service of love and light." Now, everything is pure, bright, radiant divine love. So be it and so it is.

You could then bring this brightness to everyone you know. In the "Loving Kindness Meditation" you open your heart to send prayers and good wishes out for all beings. I found it on Stillness in the Storm blog:

"Beginning with yourself you say: May I be well, May I be happy, May I be at peace. Then you move onto friends and family members, repeating the phrases  (May you be well, May you be happy, May you be at peace), while visualising your loved ones. Finally you move onto someone you are having difficulties with, bring them into your mind and repeat the heartfelt prayers that they be well, happy and at peace. You can also use Loving Kindness Meditation to pray for groups of people, animals, or the whole world." Easy, non?

Time for a Christmas poem, then. With all the things to do this year, I finally wrote a new Christmas poem, but I'm also reproducing here a favorite from the past.

like the red thread

in the hand-embroidered sign -

love is everything

Christmas  is Love

Did you know that Christmas
Is love, love, love, only love 
To be shared and cherished?
When baking together, hands
Covered in flour, fingertips
Sweetened with chopped figs 
Or purple from peeling beets
For the barszcz, the Wigilia staple,
While the honeyed voice of 
Nat King Cole asks us to have 
Ourselves a merry, little Christmas.

Love means sharing a laugh 
At the antics of the dog that runs 
In circles on the lawn, so happy 
To be free without leash, orders to 
Sit, roll, be still, obey the master. 
Love is a quiet moment thinking
How to write the warmest wishes
To send far away, so far, this year
So that only kindest feelings
Are captured in words that glisten 
With happiness and affection.

Merry Christmas!!!

(c) 2018 by Maja Trochimczyk

Merry Christmas to all! 

Happy New Year 2019! 

"Grateful Conversations" - A Poetry Anthology with Self-Portraits by Friends

Maja Trochimczyk with Dana Gioia and Grateful Conversations. Photo by Dawn Jenkins

"Grateful Conversations" - the newest anthology I edited with Kathi Stafford for Moonrise Press (2018) - contains poems by nine writers - calling themselves the Westside Women Writers due to the location of the founding members. The poets include Millicent Borges Accardi, Madeleine S. Butcher, Georgia Jones Davis, Lois P. Jones, Susan Rogers, Kathi Stafford, Sonya Sabanac, Ambika Talwar and Maja Trochimczyk.  This month, the anthology has seen its first public readings.  

Maja Trochimczyk with "Grateful Conversations" and Robin Coste-Lewis, Photo by Dawn Jenkins

The very first appearance of this anthology in public was during the "Gathering of California's Poets Laureate" - an event hosted by Dana Gioia, organized by the California Arts Council and held on October 6, 2018 at the McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga.  I read my poem "In Morning Light" (which is also posted on Moonrise Press blog). I also presented copies of the anthology to Dana Gioia, California Poet Laureate and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Robin Coste Lewis, Los Angeles Poet Laureate, and Anne Bown-Crawford, Executive Director of the California Arts Council. The reading was filmed so hopefully the book will make it into the documentary about Poets Laureate.

Stage and audience at McGroarty Arts Center

McGroarty's house, all lit up!

From Dana Gioia and Arts Council

From State Senator Anthony Portantino, also a poet.

The first public presentation of the "Grateful Conversations" anthology was supposed to take place on Sunday, October 7, 2018 at 5 p.m. at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse, in La Canada.  Seven poets  presented their work (Lois P. Jones, Susan Rogers, Madeleine S. Butcher, Maja Trochimczyk, Kathi Stafford, Ambika Talwar and Sonya Sabanac) but all poets will be  represented, as work by Georgia Jones-Davis and the group's founder Millicent Borges Accardi was also read.

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski.

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

Lucyna Przasnyski who took photos for this reading, is from Krakow, and her mother was born in the same city of Baranowicze, now in Belarus, then in Poland as my mother. She was particularly touched by my memorial poem for my mom, "On eating a donut at a Krakow airport" so I'll reproduce it here:

Donuts and pastries at an airport in Krakow
Photo (C) 2012 by Maja Trochimczyk

On Eating a Donut at the Kraków Airport

I am moved to tears by the taste of a donut

Polish donut at a Kraków airport

Puffy, oval, brown yeast ball with sticky white icing

of lukier, dotted with candied orange peel

And the aroma of the rose confiture, a delight

I found in a café with a pretentious English name

One “Morning Coffee” in an ancient city of a hundred

Kawiarnias – alive with the dark fragrance of kawa

That black powder looted from the Turkish army

After the victory of Polish cavalry ended the siege of Vienna

Ah, forgotten stories, secrets, tastes of my childhood

My mom’s lessons how to properly peel an orange

Cook slices in syrup, add just enough vodka to the dough

To keep grease away… I bite into the soft, white flesh

My eyes fill with tears I had swallowed

When I walked into her antique-filled condo

And I saw her - frail, dove-white, forgetful

A shadow of the boisterous woman I feared

She ruled over her family with iron resolve

And made perfect donuts with rosehips and orange

I cry over my donut on this cloudy morning

Grey Polish skies open to let sunrays through

A dazzling hole in heaven, like the triangular eye

Of the Trinity resting on a stack of puffy clouds

On the ceiling of the Baroque church on Skałka

The nation’s shrine with gold angels on sandstone walls

It saw generations pass on their pilgrimage

To the agate-columned altar and the eye of infinity

This Divine Eye looks at me from beyond

when I bite into the teary saltiness of my donut  

Sweet Polish donut at a Kraków airport –

Full, round donut as it should be 

(C) 2013 by Maja Trochimczyk

http://chopinwithcherries.blogspot.com/2013/01/did-chopin-like-donuts.html

It is a fascinating experience to be a member of a writing group. Sometimes pleasant, sometimes harrowing, it is all up to the poets to be kind or harsh with each other.  The following poem was just written before the most recent workshop, and has been revised as a result of poets' comments. A line "teeming with life" was too hackneyed, the dedication caused too many questions so it was removed. 

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

For my "Self-Portrait" section I changed poems several times. The final solution was to write a new one ("In Morning Light") that became the closing poem of the anthology, due to its location. The poem was inspired by the quirks of the calendar in 2008. the Valentine's Day on Ash Wednesday, Annunciation on Palm Sunday, and Easter on April Fool's Day. No kidding. The other poems were selected to reflect my thoughts on our group, writing, my background from Poland, my inspirations and beliefs, a condensed portrait of my life in a couple of poems. I think it works. Some romantic, some nostalgic, some spiritual - the poems cover the gamut of my experience.  Two poems about writing, two poems about nostalgia for lost Poland, two poems about the history of Poland, one love poem, and two spiritual poems, one for public group performance and one to reflect about:

• Definition: Writing, 234
• In Millicent’s World, 236
• An Ode of the Lost, 237
• On Eating a Donut at the Kraków Airport, 239
• Shambhala, 241
• The Lady with an Ermine, 243 (also posted on Mary Evans Poems and Pictures)
• On Divine Comedy and Ice Cream, 245
• Repeat after Me, 247
• In Morning Light, 249

Photo by Lucyna Przasnyski

Here's the introduction to my self-portrait in "Grateful Conversations" - so much to be grateful about! 

Why, Write?
My self-introduction as a poet on my website opens with a statement: “Poetry is a way of life and a shortcut to the sublime...” An avid reader of poetry since my Polish childhood, I started writing in English after I emigrated to Canada and lost the ground under my feet — my family, language, culture... Yet, my loss became my gain, when I created a new family, found a new language, and discovered a new culture to contribute to in this New World of English. Indeed, to quote my old essay, “the flexibility, richness and focus of this language never cease to amaze me!” Writing in English is also helpful in creating a new identity: it is all “persona” writing as I try on my different poetic hats, and look in the mirror of words to see if I’m an Exile or a Queen.

 Since 1995, I have kept a personal poetic journal and gave all sorts of poems to my friends. I like illustrating them with my photographs, taken mostly in my garden and neighborhood of Southern California. In 2006, I decided to share my work at public readings and in publications, .I continued to write short poems, in a genre I called “freeway poetry” — composed in my head while commuting, and committed to paper upon arrival.  In 2010, I was selected to serve as the Sixth Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga; it still is my favorite title and I continue volunteering to promote poetry in my neighborhood, organize readings, and publish.

In the same year, thanks to the poetry anthology that I edited to celebrate Chopin’s bicentennial, Chopin with Cherries, I met Millicent, Kathi, and Georgia who all submitted beautiful work  for this romantic anthology.  Joining the WWW group was the next logical next step. We have shared our poetic discoveries and fascinations ever since; we have helped each other grow. Having to bring a new poem each month was sometimes a challenge, but mostly a joy of sharing and learning.

Personally, I never considered poetry a “career.” I‘m already a musicologist (Ph.D.)  and a grant writer; I do not need to make poetry into a job! Thus, I have avoided competitions and conferences, and initially wrote only for myself. Meanwhile, I discovered that having a roomful of people wait with bated breath for my next word was and is completely addictive. And the shortest way to finding myself in front of such an awe-struck audience is to workshop my poems with really talented poets.

In the following selections from 20 years of poetry-writing, I included self-portraits as an émigré, daughter, and lover, and a poem I wrote for Millicent, grateful for her charming and eccentric home with a rustic patio - daffodils in the spring, red-white-and-blue lanterns in the summer, and gold leaves in the autumn. Include in  my self-portrait a “responsorial” poem from my Into Light book of spiritually inspired verse and incantations. Over the years, I wrote a lot of dirges and plaints; in this book, I gathered my positive, inspirational poems. It is time to think of what I’ll leave behind and those types of poems are my little treasures to be shared with children and friends.

For me, poetry writing truly is about “Grateful Conversations” — with myself, with my friends, with the world… I am deeply thankful for the ten years and many hours of conversing with Westside Women Writers!"

  

~ Maja Trochimczyk

Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

The bulk of the book is dedicated to workshops - including one that I organized at the Norton Simon Museum. We wrote about the Mulberry Tree and it was magnificent! We also wrote about an ancient sculpture of the harpist from the Getty villa and many other topics, so you need to read the book to find out what's there. 

You can explore the anthology's poems and find out about the poets on Moonrise Press Blog http://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2018/06/sample-poems-from-grateful.html

The paperback is available from Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/Grateful-Conversations-Anthology-Maja-Trochimczyk/dp/1945938226

The ebook with color photos is available from kobo.com
https://www.kobo.com/my/en/ebook/grateful-conversations-a-poetry-anthology


You can read the editors' introduction with the table of contents on Moonrise Press Blog http://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2018/05/grateful-conversations-poetry-anthology.html

Planetary Church of Plants? How to Create a New Religion

I'm so glad and so grateful to be alive here and now, on this planet where crickets sing all around me, on my patio at sunset, in my living room at midnight.  Our planet is so vibrant, so green. No wonder, green is the color of the heart chakra, the emerald of love.

Isn't it fascinating to just wake up one day and look around and say:"yes, that's right, everything is just right..."?  It takes a while to get to this point - that's why the happiest people are those over 70, who retired and can just enjoy life in their gardens, while the least happy are those juggling jobs, careers, relationships, children, and survival in their 30s and 40s.  Instead of watching TV, Netflix, or browsing Facebook -"who said what about whom?" who cares? - I like sitting on the patio and listening to the multiple patterns and rhythms of the crickets all around me.  Summer evenings are full of delight. Noon, too, filled with hundreds of bees gathering nectar in my myrtle tree; this, to me is the sound of life, all these bees...

So what do I think about when listening to the crickets? How about making up a new religion? A Planetary Church of Plants? I share the invention of this name with a friend. Not sure I'll ever have it registered and incorporated, but I'll certainly attend its services whenever I feel like it. I created a catechism of sorts for it, too, a set of core ideas worthy of consideration and application in daily life. But before getting to those ideas, let us enjoy the mountains:

Blue Sierra 

oh, to float into blue distance
a dream of weightlessness,
knowledge of nothing but the air
in the lungs, air carrying the limbs
from cloud to cloud into being,
into tranquility, into peace

all made of water, we live
in the Cloud of Unknowing
we breathe a shroud
surrounding the mystical
peaks of the Ancient One
that will not be known
nor understood fully

we have to, we must fly
higher, we must grow wings,
strain in childish hope
that we’ll find brilliance
hidden beyond the bluest
blue of infinity, of time

(c) 2008, first published in Miriam's Iris: Angels in the Garden

How to Create a New Religion

My new religion is my own way of connecting to All that Is, I AM, the Source, the One.  I've read tons and tons of inspirational and spiritual books, and came to the conclusion that everyone is right. And everyone is wrong, too, at the same time.  The basics are to be universally shared and accepted but many religions hide them instead and ask to be paid for the secret.

ONE, as Spinoza discovered, God cannot be outside of this world since God is infinite. Therefore, as Apostle Paul wrote "we live, we breathe, we move, we are in God that is everywhere.

TWO, We are all one -all connected to the One in two ways - our eternal spark of life, the spirit, the Soul, and second - our bodies that are made of matter and are constantly being renewed and remade from new particles, food, energy, air, water - all that endlessly cycles through us.

THREE, Here things are getting complicated - we each have our own Higher Selves - the timeless entities that remains "in the spirit" while we live through one re-incarnation after another, learn one lesson after another. This Higher Self is made of eternal Light and connected to the physical body by a silver cord, or a link of subtle energy. Have I seen it? No. Why would I believe in it? Why not? I've been told to believe in my Guardian Angel already, so why not make this Angel my own self?

FOUR, Reincarnation, karma, and the laws of One, of Love, Forgiveness, and "as above so below" are real and our purpose here is to learn to Love and to collect those moments of Love, like beads of a diamond necklace.

FIVE, physical death is the end of one lesson, a gateway to rest and a prelude to return, first back to the Source for a respite - we go there if we do not have ties that bind and are free of karma. If we are on the right path, there is no spiritual death, in spirit, or soul, we are infinite, endless.

SIX, we come back for another lesson, another lifetime if a) we are slow learners and need to stay one more time in the same grade of the Earth school, b) we do a wrong thing and have to undo it by repeating the experience, and c) we are perfect already and all-loving, but we want to help others.

SEVEN, we are not alone, the universe is full of beings - humans like us and those who are from higher dimensions, more advanced in the school of Love. Some of them are full of loving kindness, but others are not.

EIGHT, the way out and up is to learn to love, be thankful, grateful, kind, peaceful, creative, joyous, and of service to others. Service is important, for how else can we prove we love, if we do not serve?

NINE, the way forward is to focus on Light (some of the entities and beings live in darkness and want to turn us also away from the path of Light) so we focus and analyse and improve ourselves and follow the path of ascension. This is done effortlessly, without striving. This means literally becoming lighter - freeing ourselves of attachments, and consequences of negative experiences and emotions. Only those with feather-light -heart can come in to the Divine Presence. Others have to go back and do it over again. Ancient Egyptians knew it already. Why have we forgotten?

TEN, All life - from rocks, sand, soil, mountains, through trees, animals, birds, insects, stars, oceans, and galaxies has a spark of life within. We are all one. Thus, killing sentient life for food is not acceptable. Killing and harming others, especially sentient beings is not acceptable. It does not come from Love, it is not Love, and it does not lead to greater Love, so it is spiritually useless. Thus, we do not eat meat.

ELEVEN, Meditation is a daily delight - mantras, prayers, chants, all help, but the focus is on finding Light, God, the Divine within - and on being aware of one's own energetic body and of the energy flows in and around us. This means also awareness of ways of protecting our own spiritual space. And noticing the presence of other entities or beings, sometimes kind and helpful but at other times willing to invade our space. So this means clearing the air, so to speak. Wrapping ourselves in our own cocoon of white light.

TWELVE, Therefore, the best way forward and up is to follow the "Golden Rule" (treat others as  you want to be treated) as well as basic rules of "Love Everyone, Respect Everything" coupled with the Hawaiian code of conduct: "Sorry, Forgive, Thank, Love" (Ho'oponopono) and the Native American Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz:
1) Be Impeccable with your Word,
2) Do not Take Anything Personally,
3) Do not Make Assumptions, and
4) Always Do Your Best.

Now, that my TWELVE has split into four parts, or twelve again, if counting each step, it is time to stop. Things are becoming too complicated.

Everyone knows those rules, anyway. Ancient Egyptians wrote out the Golden Rule as "Now this is the command: Do to the doer to make him do" (Goddess Ma'at), and in a negative form as "That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another."  In ancient Indian Mahabharata, the rule is described as a lesson to the king: "by self-control and by making dharma (right conduct) your main focus, treat others as you treat yourself."  In ancient Greece, the emphasis was on not doing the wrong thing: "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." – Thales. In Judaism, Leviticus (19:18) has the following verse: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD." Finally, in Christianity, the Golden Rule took the form of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (words of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31).

Knowing the words is not an issue. Doing the right thing all the time - now, that's a real challenge!
We can learn to be patient and kind from the trees.

A Tree Epiphany 

                          ~for Kristin Sabo who found the whale of a tree

I want the solid serenity of trees
the sighs of their boughs in the wind 
roots reaching to the core of the earth

an oak perhaps,or a grand plane tree
thatmajestic one in Descanso Gardens
a whale of the tree, floating on waves of air

or maybe that regal eucalyptus 
with multicolored bark - a canvas for centuries
shedding memories of droughts and storms

or liquid amber, oh my liquid amber
melting gold and bronze at my feet
nourishing the roots, seeds, new leaves

Wait for the sleeping earth to awaken 
the boughs sigh in the northern wind
the roots reach deeper, still deeper 

I adore the trembling of birches in the breeze, 
whispering:quiet, quiet, now listen –before 
leaves fall, bare branches shiver in the snow

an apple tree, comely and fruitful
in an abandoned orchard by the crossroads
shylyoffers gifts to all passers-by

I want the serenity of trees 
to fill my heart with their sighs, with their 
whispers, with their sleep.

Now that we've seen the whale of a tree - the Plane Tree in Descanso Gardens - let's make life simple. Let's go to the beach and enjoy building sand castles to be washed away by the ocean waves.