Ran out the door of the studio last night as all of our staff was celebrating, and the last of the Christmas clientele were departing.

There was a young man standing on the steps outside trying to read all the signage we have up, which in spite of 4 pages of copy, pretty much says “We cannot and will not make you do anything, but our lovely Govt has other plans. Welcome to our studio”.

I looked at him and asked if I could help him.

Him: “I was just wondering if it was alright if I could come in?”

Me: “Of course!”

The polite young man thanked me, and I watched as one of the staff peeled off the celebration, greeted him, and I heard her say: “Welcome, I can help you with whatever you need.”

Ten minutes later I was down at the beach chasing weather, and threw a lot of my tools at the sunset, collecting some remarkable motion picture, time lapse and stills.

My wife came down and met me, long after sunset, and we watched what seemed like a forever afterglow.

She said this.

“You know that young man you spoke with who came in, as you left?”

“Yep”

“His name was Emmanuel.” (The word as translated from the Greek based Biblical text, means God with us)

True story.

Today is my 65th Birthday. My Mom tripped on the steps of a Catholic Church in Milwaukee Wisconsin this day in 1955, on her way to midnight mass. I was born at 6 am. The first born child of what would become a brood of six, to a young Hawaiian veteran there on the GI Bill studying Electrical Engineering, and his Yugoslav wife, whose parents were emigres.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever should believe on Him, would be saved. An ongoing theme in my life from my first breath, obviously.

Merry Christmas all!