Why I blog

Oliver Do
Oct 20
20 min read

Updated: Nov 7

To share my joy, meaning and purpose of creating real 3-D space on a flat pictorial surface w colors forms & movements and putting my physical body in space in Nature on land and/or in water in case some day my children and recently born niece might be interested as well as anyone else.

The Buddhist's devotional path that I was raised by my mother in Viet Nam had no concept of sharing similar to the engagement path until I learned from Thầy that intentional sharing can reduce suffering for the one who shares and also for the one who listens. The blog was created before the existence of the intelligence being who is now capable of reading all the pages in a single pass which amuses me a great deal by the text it is able to generate per below. In a way similar to what Thầy had done for me and given me w such deep understandings

Comet' explanation

You are viewing the blog page for Paintings of Dzu Do. This section of your site includes recent personal reflections on painting and swimming, blending your artistic process with your experience in nature—especially through ocean swimming.

Here’s what your blog expresses:

Why I Paint: You describe finding a space to observe nature and letting your feelings flow into your art, becoming one with your surroundings.
Torrey Pines October 13, 2025: You reflect on encouragement from a friend and compare the uncertainties of starting a painting to entering the ocean, emphasizing trusting in the process and finding joy when you are grounded in the earth.
Torrey Pines October 10, 2025: You discuss painting with an open heart by abandoning conscious thought, trusting subconscious feelings, and mention swimming with an open heart, including insights gained from your smart goggles about stroke technique.
Frank’s October 6, 2026 and Frank’s September 29, 2025: These posts connect abstraction in music and art, drawing inspiration from both.
Torrey Pines September 30, 2025: You make connections between warming up in swimming and gradually building momentum in creative pursuits.

Your posts often weave together painting, swimming, nature, and mindfulness, portraying creativity as a process connected to physical experience and emotional openness, trusting both preparation and instinct, and integrating technological feedback (like your smart goggles) for both swimming and self-expression

Here is a deeper look at the posts and themes on your Paintings of Dzu Do blog:

Why I paint: You describe how painting helps you merge with nature—sky, water, air, and land. The act of painting becomes a meditation, letting your feelings flow into your brushwork so you can just “be”.dzudo
Torrey Pines October 13, 2025: You compare the creative process to entering the ocean—facing self-doubt until you make your first brush mark or step into the cold water. Your friend Brigitte’s encouragement helps you recognize confidence in nature. You stress quieting your mind, grounding yourself in preparation and intention, and ultimately finding joy in the process.dzudo
Torrey Pines October 10, 2025: You reflect on open-hearted painting by abandoning direct observation, trusting subconscious feelings, and embracing accidental mark-making inspired by Cézanne. You connect this to swimming, noting how your smart goggles suggested keeping a longer stroke for better technique—“open your heart more to the sky”.dzudo
Frank’s October 6, 2026: After Frank’s art class, you listen to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman,” connecting the musical abstraction in the opening riff to the joys of expressing abstraction in visual art.dzudo
Torrey Pines September 30, 2025: You see a parallel between swimming and art—needing a warm-up for both before momentum builds. Your goggles remind you that patience and gradual pacing are key.dzudo
Frank’s September 29, 2025: You revisit drawing the human figure, inspired by Hans Hofmann’s reminder that “the figure is Nature.” This is tied to rediscovering wide-eyed innocence and returning to fundamental artistic experiences.dzudo

Your posts are organized into categories:

Memories, Journeys, Journal, Daily

Each entry interlaces swimming, painting, music, and mindfulness, showing how your art blog is a diary of personal growth, technical insights (like from FORM goggles), encouragement, and the beauty of combining disciplines

Here is a much deeper and broader overview of your Paintings of Dzu Do blog:

Latest Posts and Reflections

Lunch w Jay: Nostalgic moments about connections, creativity, and receiving wisdom from friends past and present.dzudo
Why I paint: Your personal philosophy of painting—finding unity in nature, letting feelings flow into the brush, and using art as meditation.dzudo
Torrey Pines October entries: Touching on self-doubt, confidence, creativity, and swimming as metaphor for artistic process.dzudo+1
Frank’s October 6, 2026: Music “abstraction” (Santana’s Black Magic Woman) ties into painting with feeling and letting go.dzudo
Black Beach, Seabreeze Farms, La Fonda, and other locations provide inspiration, sometimes blending travel or swim experiences with artistic insight.dzudo+2

Categories and Themes:

Memory:
- Time: Reflecting on time’s passage through the lens of a war child refugee and family.dzudo
- The Vibrations Within and Without: How movement and embodiment relate to art and personal history.dzudo
Journeys:
- Includes broader travel, museum visits, academic or art-study moments, and spiritual journeys.dzudo+1
Journal:
- Incremental Improvement: Progress in swimming, breaking time barriers, and lessons of the journey.dzudo
- Meeting friends, training, reconnecting history across art and life.
Daily:
- Regular swimming and painting reflections, seasonal and milestone updates, everyday inspirations and discoveries.
- Personal growth moments: Home path, various beaches, DeerPark, spiritual learning, family stories, wrestling with self-expression and mortality.dzudo+2

Additional Notable Themes:

Integration of Swimming and Art: Swimming is not just physical but an emotional and creative resource informing your artistic process.
Use of Technology: Smart goggles yield insights on technique, pacing, and self-care, paralleling lessons learned in painting.
Family and History: Frequent references to memories, heritage, and lessons learned as a refugee and immigrant, blending cultural reflection and gratitude.
Mentors and Friends: Recurrent thanks to teachers, friends, and artist figures (Frank, Brigitte, etc.) for ongoing inspiration and growth.

Style: Your diary is poetic, philosophical, and consistently interlaces art, movement, and reflection. Posts range back several years, tracking not only your artistic evolution but the larger journey of life—its uncertainties, beauty, and meaning. Each entry is part of a larger mosaic of memory, growth, and creative exploration.dzudo+5

If you need even more detail about specific posts, categories, or a certain time frame, just specify which themes or entries interest you!

Your blog reaches even further, with dozens of posts covering art, swimming, memory, travel, and self-growth across several years. Here are more highlights and themes from the deeper archive:

Personal Growth & Journeys

A Place to Paint: Documenting the search for a space of inspiration—finding an analog to Central Park after months, underscoring how environment and movement ignite creativity.dzudo
Liberation of the Physical: Moments when swimming feels like painting and vice versa, showing the fluidity between disciplines.dzudo
Next Journey: Late-night reflections after swim practice, anticipation mixed with introspection, representing ongoing personal journeys.dzudo

Family, Memory, and Identity

Time – A New Epilogue: Reflections on being a former war child refugee, intergenerational dialogues with your daughter, and the echo of trauma and resilience.dzudo
My Mothers – Final Resting Places: Touching stories about parents, loss, and longing, shaped by both Vietnamese legend and the American journey.dzudo+1
Home is Where the Heart Is: Early days as an immigrant, shifting perspectives, and the evolution of identity in a new land.dzudo

Art, Culture, Spirituality

VNese Retreat at DeerPark: Safe space to feel, grieve, and heal during a Vietnamese retreat, themed around Buddhist teachings.dzudo
Lessons from Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh: Recurrent insights inspired by the Buddhist master and spiritual teacher, present in DeerPark reflections.dzudo+2

Reflection, Nature, and the Everyday

Walking on the Home Path: Rediscovering and savoring ordinary routines and spaces after absence—how home and belonging are continually redefined.dzudo
Problems to Solve: Observing and learning from daily life, San Diego’s fog, and nature’s unpredictability.dzudo
Why I Swim?: Looking at the world from above Del Mar beach, meditation on why you return to the ocean day after day.dzudo
Saturday South Orange, SeaBreeze, Del Mar, La Jolla Posts: Frequent, location-based reflections about the interplay of weather, mood, water, and artistic yearning.

Art Process & Teaching

Cézanne and Pissaro; Frank Entries: Documenting mentorship, art instruction, and the impact of great artists and teachers on your process.dzudo+1
Black and White Exercise: Passing down abstract expressionist exercises—a tradition of sharing and learning across generations.dzudo
A Doodling Journey: Inviting critique as a path to deeper discovery and creative growth.dzudo

Philosophy, Mortality, and Letting Go

Monday South Orange 12/12/2022: Meditations on mortality, impermanence, and the idea that our physical body is “rented,” not owned.dzudo
Finding Essence: Wrestling with the complexity of heartfelt expression and the subtlety of genuine marks in art and life.dzudo

Miscellaneous

You also include:
- Notes on movies, sports, and moments with friends.
- Milestone events (birthdays, New Year, anniversaries).
- Reflections on technology and art feedback (e.g., insights from FORM goggles or swim apps).

Summary:Your blog is a richly layered, ongoing chronicle of growth, remembrance, healing, and creative risk—blending painting, swimming, memory, and spirituality. It’s about seeking meaning in both the everyday and the extraordinary, learning from both ancient wisdom and modern technology, and forging unity in body, mind, and spirit across the landscapes of art and life.dzudo+9

Here are even more highlights and themes from your blog, reaching into older entries and recurring motifs:

Resilience & Overcoming Challenges

Incremental Improvement: Celebrating breakthroughs, like swimming faster than 1 minute, recognizing that consistent effort and tiny steps lead to big progress.dzudo
SeaBreeze Farms Entries: Notes from early morning swims, setbacks from poor conditions, and quick recovery—the parallel between physical and emotional resilience is strong.dzudo+2

Ritual and Reflection at Landmarks

La Fonda September 1 2025: Documenting crossing the border and confronting what it means to see boundaries up close; a theme of traversing internal and external borders recurs.dzudo
Del Mar and Là Jolla Posts: Capturing the essence of coastal life—light, surf, painting outdoors, and letting the day’s character shape your art.

Spiritual Inquiry

The Raft is Not the Shore: Reflections on Buddhist–Christian understanding, quoting wisdom texts, and finding spiritual bridges in your artistic practice.dzudo
DeerPark Series: “Home” is not just a place—DeerPark becomes a spiritual anchor for meditation, memory, and belonging. Retreats and regular visits provide moments for deep self-inquiry.dzudo+4

Transmission, Teaching & Mentorship

Black and White Exercise: Recalls the tradition of passing down abstract skills, recognizing your place in a lineage of artists.dzudo
Lunch w Jay & Frank: Strong gratitude for mentors and the invisible chain connecting you to masters and peers, tracing how insights and tradition travel through generations.dzudo+1

Intimate Family Moments

Isabelle’s Sweet 16 / Time – Epilogue: Recurrent reflections on family, growth, time’s passage, and honoring intergenerational memory.dzudo+1
My Mother and Father Final Resting Places: Deeply personal recounting of roots and resting places, blending Vietnamese myth with American experience.dzudo

Philosophy & Life Lessons

Liberation of the Physical / Finding Unity: Drawing out the concept that physical action (swimming, movement) can liberate the self and unify the mind, heart, and body.dzudo+1
Finding Essence: Wrestling with authenticity in art—and life—balancing the simple and the complex, seeking the genuine within each mark.dzudo

Miscellaneous Reflections

Movie/Book Reviews: Occasional references to films (Three Days of the Jackal, The Conversation, The Banshees of Inisherin) and lessons gleaned from art, cinema, and literature.dzudo+1
Celebrations & Rituals: Reflections on Lunar New Year (Tết), holidays, showing the role of ritual in marking time and connecting to heritage.dzudo+1
Sports & Technique: Tennis, swimming technique, and the joy of improvement—using both tradition and technology (like swim apps or FORM goggles) for self-betterment.dzudo+2

Recurring Themes Tied Together:

Unity of Movement and Creativity: Swimming, painting, and walking are all ways to connect with nature and reveal the self.
Family and Memory: The story of your life as an immigrant, refugee, parent, student, artist. You return again and again to themes of home, roots, and the lessons of heritage.
Spirituality: Practices inspired by Buddhist teachings, mindful breathing, and presence permeate your posts.
Mentorship & Learning: Deep appreciation for teachers and artists—Frank, Cézanne, Hans Hoffman, Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh.

Your archive is not only a record of your art and swimming, but becomes a living memoir—layered with insight, cultural reflection, gratitude, and the search for unity in life’s many endeavors.g/blog

Your blog archive is extensive—here are even more details and layers from additional entries, themes, and periods:

Art and Technique

A Doodling Journey: Inviting critique and wrestling with deeper questions about creative progress—how feedback from mentors shapes ongoing exploration.dzudo
Metrics: Using tech (Athlytic app) to track heart rate after workouts, merging quantification with the search for self-awareness and longevity.dzudo
Drawing and Practice: Tennis, figure drawing, ground strokes—connecting repetitive practice in sport and art to mastery and feeling.dzudo

Legacy and Generational Connection

My first car: Memory of visiting American family before finishing college, linking transitions and milestones in your immigrant journey.dzudo
Finding Unity: Focusing on wholeness—car maintenance becomes metaphor for care, attention, and blending practical with spiritual.dzudo
Passing Down Exercises: Abstract skill-building passed between generations, emphasizing the lineage and inherited wisdom of artists.dzudo

Critical Moments and Turning Points

In Search of the Real: Rereading Hans Hoffman, grappling with existential questions about faith, creativity, and whether to continue painting—a moment of renewal and decision.dzudo
Finding Life Force: Shift from painting to swimming as the source of rhythm, life energy, and reconnection with the body.dzudo
Liberation of the Physical: Swims that feel as expressive as painting—moments of breakthrough, where art and sport merge as forms of liberation.dzudo

Nature and Environment

Problems to Solve / Del Mar / Là Jolla / Moonlight Beach: Observations about weather, surf, landscape—how external conditions shape emotional states and inspire art or swimming.dzudo+2
Seabreeze / Black Beach / Sunday South Orange: Day-to-day notes on locations, moods, encounters; each entry acts as both diary and meditation.

Reflection on Loss and Mortality

Monday South Orange 12/12/2022: Reflecting on mortality, the “rented” quality of the body, and acceptance of impermanence; themes of loss repeat across posts about parents and family.dzudo+1
The Vibrations Within and Without: Physicalizing memory, assisting an ex-Marine, exploring how art can process trauma and history.dzudo

Annual and Seasonal Markers

Lunar New Year, Anniversaries, Retreats: Rituals marking time, recognizing beginnings, and connecting personal growth to seasonal and cultural cycles.dzudo+2
Holiday reflections: At locations like DeerPark or SeaBreeze Farms, rituals are intertwined with lessons in compassion and self-care.dzudo+2

Feeling and Creative Authenticity

Finding Essence: Striving for genuine marks, learning to balance simplicity and complexity, trusting subtle feelings in both art and life.dzudo
A Place to Paint / Central Park Analog: How physical settings foster creativity—a pattern of seeking and finding new “homes” for artistic pursuit.dzudo

Overall:Your blog is a rich landscape of personal discovery, growth, healing, and expression. Each post connects your experiences as a swimmer, artist, immigrant, parent, Buddhist practitioner, and lifelong learner. Technology, mentors, nature, and memory are constant companions.

Every entry—large or small, recent or old—is a layer in a living archive, weaving together wisdom, gratitude, reflection, and risk-taking. The blog itself is a form of journey, proof of progress, and repository of inspiration.

Your blog is a comprehensive tapestry of art, swimming, family, memory, and spiritual insight spanning many years. Here are even further details from lesser-mentioned entries, expanding context and nuance:

Faith, Mindfulness, and Buddhism

Many posts are rooted in Buddhist reflection, quoting Thầy Thích Nhất Hạnh from texts like “Fragrant Palm Leaves” and “Old Path White Clouds.” Key themes: compassion starts within, mindfulness as a daily practice, and acceptance of uncertainty.dzudo+2
Retreats at DeerPark are transformative anchors—safe places for emotional release, renewal, and intimate connection to Vietnamese heritage.dzudo+3

Milestones and Celebrations

Lunar New Year (Tết), Isabelle’s Sweet 16, major holidays: Entries reflect on the passage of time, family continuity, and rituals that link generations together.dzudo+2
50 Years Later @Home: Artistic metaphors about color families become allegories for navigating life’s challenges and celebrating endurance.dzudo

Artistic Inquiry

Passing Down Skills: Black and white exercises and doodling journeys show how learning in art is continuous and deeply communal, with gratitude toward teachers.dzudo+1
Finding Essence, Liberation of the Physical: Deep dives into art philosophy—how each mark matters, and how physical acts (swimming, painting) can unlock the spirit.dzudo+1

Loss, Memory, and Intergenerational Stories

My Mother and Father Final Resting Places: Cultural storytelling blends myth (“dragon and water maiden”) with the reality of family migrations, burials, and honoring ancestors.dzudo
My Mothers: Recounts loss during the COVID outbreak, the kindness of strangers, and the weight of separation and memory.dzudo

Growth, Risk, and Self-Improvement

Incremental Improvement, Metrics, Next Journey: Posts affirm the vital importance of steady progress in swimming, art, and life—using both tech and intuition to measure and improve.dzudo+2
A Place to Paint: Searching for environments that offer inspiration and respite, mirroring the migratory search for “home” in art and living.dzudo

Travel and Place-Based Reflections

Entries often reference specific locations—La Fonda (border crossings), Del Mar (beach culture), South Orange (early days and tennis), SeaBreeze Farms, San Dieguito, Là Jolla—each with its own emotional and creative resonance.dzudo+4
Journeys blend physical travel with internal exploration, breaking boundaries and revisiting sites of teaching, growth, and healing.

Reviews, Media, and Culture

Posts occasionally analyze films (The Conversation, The Banshees of Inisherin), literature, and music (Santana) to draw parallel lessons for art and life.dzudo+2
These cultural touchpoints become metaphors and “teachers” alongside human mentors.

Patterns and Motifs

The interplay of swimming and painting recurs everywhere—both are spaces for risk, meditation, recovery, and revelation.
You express a persistent gratitude for mentors, family, and friends, viewing each relationship as part of a larger lineage of wisdom and support.
Technology is fully integrated—not just as a tool, but as a companion in self-monitoring, technique improvement, and staying connected to your goals.

Your blog is not simply a record—it is a living journal of an artist-athlete-philosopher’s progress, healing, and quest for meaning. It uses every medium (water, paint, conversation, software, spiritual practice, memory) to find and express deeper truths. The archive is vast, layered, and continually evolving with new insights and reflections

Your blog archive is truly deep—here are still more posts, topics, and emotional connections found throughout the years:

Healing, Safety, and Vulnerability

VNese retreat entries: DeerPark isn’t just a retreat but a sanctuary for releasing deep-buried fears, memories, and sadness. These posts revisit the concept of safety—crying, breathing, and feeling deeply as an act of personal healing.dzudo+3
Family and memorials: “My Mother and Father Final Resting Places,” “My Mothers,” and related entries mine the tension between myth and reality—ancestral legends meet the hard, bittersweet truths of burial, loss, and honoring those who came before.dzudo+1

Celebration and Passage of Time

Lunar New Year (Tết), Isabelle’s birthdays, holiday retreats: These entries aren’t just festive—they’re contemplative markers, expressing gratitude, hopes, and reflections on growing older, passing traditions, and living with cultural duality.dzudo+2

Mentorship, Teaching, and Artistic Practice

Black and White Exercise, Doodling Journeys: These emphasize lineage, mentorship, and the communal nature of artistic growth—learning from teachers, sharing with peers, passing abstract skills through networks of community and family.dzudo+1
Frank, Cézanne, and Pissaro: The posts regularly reflect on what it means to be taught—to receive and to give back—along with the impact of famous artists and their philosophies.dzudo+1

Embracing Change, Movement, and Adaptation

“A Place to Paint,” “Walking on the Home Path,” “Next Journey”: These recurring diary-like entries document environments, seasons, and periods of searching for new places of belonging in art, swim, and life.dzudo+2
“Liberation of the Physical,” “Finding Life Force,” “Incremental Improvement”: There’s a constant focus on resilience and progress—tracking small victories in swim times, artistic breakthroughs, and emotional recovery, all threaded with the help of friends, technology, and internal drive.dzudo+3

Contemplative Inquiry and Philosophy

Posts like “Finding Essence,” “In Search of the Real,” and museum/drawing reflections grapple with authenticity, existential questions, and the simple/complex dance of creativity. You often ask what it means to find the “real”—in art, swimming, memory, and self.dzudo+1

Nature, Place, and the Everyday

Regular entries from Del Mar, Là Jolla, SeaBreeze Farms, San Dieguito, Moonlight Beach, and South/Saturday Orange serve as meditations—observing surf, light, trees, weather, and using these natural elements as gateways to deeper feeling and artistic insight.dzudo+3

Review and Cultural Reflection

In addition to art and swim, you review films, music, and books, using their stories and lessons to illuminate your life’s journey and inspire personal growth.dzudo+2

Threaded Patterns:

Resilience through ritual, nature, and memory: Each time you swim, paint, travel, mourn, celebrate, or reflect, you find and weave meaning in the recurring cycles—marked by breath, movement, season, and tradition.
Mentorship and learning: Teachers, friends, and technology stand beside the brush and the water, guiding technique, spirit, and vision.
Family and history: The immigrant, refugee, parent, and artist sit together in almost every post—reconciling the past and present, honoring both roots and new growth.

Your blog is a living archive. It’s a meditation, a travel log, a family album, and a manual for creative risk. Its subjects (art, swimming, family, seasons, rituals, technology, grief, joy) create a multidimensional self-portrait as you move through time and experience.

Your archive spans even further and deeper—here are more detailed layers and entries pushing into the furthest corners of your blog:

Early Art & Creative Beginnings

1st day @ASL: Reflections sparked by Spielberg’s lesson from John Ford—recognizing that the start of any journey (art, film, career) requires understanding fundamentals, finding mentors, and being willing to begin again.dzudo
A doodling journey / Black and White Exercise: Records early explorations and the importance of playful practice—embracing critique and skill-building as an endless cycle, not just for technique but as a spiritual and communal act.dzudo+1

Persistence and the Everyday

Daily entries: From South Orange, SeaBreeze Farms, DeerPark, Del Mar, San Dieguito, and Là Jolla, you write about weather, mood, small discoveries, and routine—each day becomes a source of insight and a metaphor for creative process, healing, and adaptation.
Metrics, Incremental Improvement: Posts about swimming performance (breaking 1-minute barrier), using tech to track progress, and learning that small gains accumulate to meaningful transformation.dzudo+1

Facing Change, Grief, and Acceptance

Loss entries: “My Mothers,” memorial posts, and reflections during the COVID outbreak. You document the emotional complexity of loss, cultural transition, and the kindness of loved ones and strangers.dzudo+1
Problems to Solve / Daylight Changing Time: Markers of seasonal change, fog, uncertainty—and how facing unexpected challenges can reshape perspective.dzudo+1

Art and Philosophy across Mediums

Museum visits (Cézanne and Pissaro): Linking dinner conversations and museum experiences with historical masters, you find that spiritual insights and technical lessons complement each other.dzudo
Finding Unity, Finding Essence: Deep reflections on what wholeness truly means, how art and life are both simple and complex, and the constant pursuit of authenticity.dzudo+1

Layered Rituals and Cultural Heritage

Tết / Lunar New Year / Family birthdays: Rituals become moments to revisit tradition, to connect with origins, and the ongoing dance between Vietnamese and American identities.dzudo+1
VNese retreat, DeerPark holidays: You return to spaces of safety and spiritual replenishment, using holidays and retreats not just for celebration, but as opportunities for growth, acceptance, and renewal.dzudo+3

Self-Discovery through Nature and Place

SeaBreeze Farms, Home Path, Next Journey: The idea of “home” and belonging is never static—it evolves as you move, travel, and mark new environments with your art, swim, and daily practice.dzudo+3

Connections and Influences

Friends, mentors, family: Lunches, calls, and memories with friends (Jay, Frank) and family are woven with gratitude—reminders that creativity, learning, and resilience are never solitary.dzudo+1

Sport and Skill—Parallels to Life

Swimming and tennis: Drawing equivalencies between groundstroke repetitions and artist doodling, between athletic metrics and creative satisfaction, between disciplined routine and spontaneous discovery.dzudo+1

In summary, your blog is like a layered mosaic—each post a tile, every theme a color, making up a vast and nuanced portrait of an artist, athlete, parent, and seeker. Art, swim, family, ritual, memory, and learning are woven into daily reflections, deep philosophical inquiries, and candid emotional entries.

The archive is both a personal record and a universal meditation—on growth, transformation, risk, gratitude, and finding meaning in movement, breath, ritual, and creative action, no matter where you are on the journey

Your blog continues to unfold with even more depth, variety, and interconnectedness—here are other significant dimensions as revealed by recurring and older posts:

Micro Reflections—Daily Practice

Many posts are brief check-ins about weather, a particular swim, a painting session, or a lesson from the day. These micro-reflections—sometimes only a few sentences—underscore how daily attention, routine, and presence accumulate to fuel long-term creativity and growth.
Examples: “SeaBreeze Farms May 1st/3rd,” “San Dieguito April 28th/25th,” “Monday/Tuesdays South Orange,” “Wednesday South Orange 12 9 2022”—each is a window into ordinary moments elevated into meaning through observation and memory.dzudo+5

Thinking through Movement

Finding Life Force, Liberation of the Physical: Posts that use running, walking, and swimming as metaphors for creative energy, showing how working through the body brings new perspective to emotional and spiritual questions.dzudo+1
Athletic discipline and art: Metrics, routines, tracking progress—whether by app or intuition—are not just about sport, but serve as essential complements to the artistic and spiritual journey.dzudo+1

Transitions, Endings, New Beginnings

Many entries document times of change: moving homes, starting a new school or job, crossing borders, or beginning new art practices.
Even endings (memorials, the close of a season, finishing a swim) are often treated as new launching points, inviting both grief and hope.
Examples: “April 29, 2025: 50 Years Later @Home but a new eternal search is on,” “Norwegian Bliss Thanksgiving 2024,” “DeerPark Holidays retreat 1/1/2025,” “A Journey That Knows No End”.dzudo+3

Art/Family/Community as Lifelines

Lunch with Jay, revisiting Amherst, painting at the League with Frank: These postings consistently reinforce that artistic and personal progress is always supported by relationships, mentorship, and community.dzudo+1
Family posts (Isabelle, Oliver, parents, and American “Mother”) thread through the blog, giving both a personal and generational anchor to explorations of identity and belonging.dzudo+4

Rest and Contemplation

“Sunday Moonlight beach,” “delmar,” “Walking on the home path”: Several entries find peace in stillness—early mornings, pauses after activity, moments of watching light change. These pauses, like mindful breaths, allow themes to settle and deeper truths to surface.dzudo+2

Artistic Struggle, Doubt, and Resolution

Throughout, you openly write about self-doubt, blank canvases, uncertainty in both art and swimming—especially at beginnings. But each message is also about overcoming: with the first brushstroke, first step into cold water, returning to one’s support system, or trusting accumulated knowledge and ritual.dzudo+3

Meta-Themes

The relationship between body, mind, and spirit is explored not only intellectually, but through continuous, lived experience.
Physical movement, nature, and breath are repeatedly celebrated as sources of both artistic breakthrough and personal equilibrium.
Lineage—be it family, mentors, artists, or spiritual teachers—is a vital, living current in the archive.

Your blog remains an ongoing meditation and self-portrait, where each post—however small—enriches the multilayered story of your journey in art, swimming, spirituality, and personal growth. Every reflection, routine, challenge, and celebration builds a mosaic of presence, resilience, and gratitude.

Here’s a final sweep showing even more patterns, themes, and cross-links in your blog’s extensive archive:

Learning from Setbacks and Change

Seabreeze Farms September 12, 2025: “No 5K swim today to visit my dolphin friends.” These entries teach how setbacks—weather, unexpected changes—become triggers for resilience and new forms of creativity.dzudo
Many swim/journal entries document how not every day is perfect, but every experience, even a “miss,” can be transformed into wisdom or creative fuel.

Cross-Disciplinary Insights

Painting and swimming: Nearly every entry draws parallels between physical technique (such as a longer stroke in swimming) and artistic intuition (trusting accidental marks). This duality reinforces how lessons learned in one area transfer to others.dzudo+2

Cultural and Historical Dialogue

Vietnamese legend, Buddhist teachings, family migration: Your posts often use myth, oral history, and religious wisdom to interpret the modern journey—making immigration, loss, and renewal accessible through stories and teachings.dzudo+3

Observing and Celebrating the Everyday

Sunday South Orange, Moonlight beach, Daily beach entries: Many posts elevate the ordinary (morning surf, lunch with family, walks in a familiar park) to objects of meditation, memory, and gratitude, underscoring how the journey is found in details.dzudo+3

Ritual and Repetition

Regular check-ins on technique: The use of apps and swim metrics, as well as posts about drawing and painting exercises, highlights the value of ritual, routine, and repetition as engines of both mastery and comfort.dzudo+3

Connection and Community

From “Lunch with Jay” to reflections on swimming with companions, your blog emphasizes that achievement is rarely solitary. Success and recovery—artistically, emotionally, spiritually—are scaffolded by family, mentors, friends, and entire communities.dzudo+2

Integrating Technology

The presence of FORM goggles and other swim tech apps isn’t merely practical—they represent new forms of insight, feedback, and self-monitoring. This blending of old-school wisdom with new technology is a theme for both art and sport.dzudo+2

Legacy and Teaching

The passing down of exercises, sharing critiques, and remembering teachers situate you as part of an unending human chain—learning from those before you and passing lessons forward

Your blog is so expansive that each “more” brings up new layers and details, so here are even further nuances, overlooked threads, and long tail observations:

Facing Fear, Courage, and Discovery

Saturday South Orange 04/8/2023: “No one gives recipe for dealing with fears. Just have to jump in and swim like crazy…” This entry and others like it repeat the lesson that courage isn’t about eliminating fear, but about stepping forward anyway—whether in ocean or on blank canvas.dzudo
Blank white page, first mark, cold ocean: Drawing direct lines between small beginnings and big discoveries—creativity emerges once the initial plunge is made.dzudo

Cumulative Wisdom through Repetition

The blog acts as a cumulative record; by returning again and again to the same themes—nature’s impact, the reliability of routine, the difficulty and necessity of patience—you build a map of insight layered with experience.
Everyday swim notes, brushwork practice, exercise logs become more meaningful over time, showing how the mundane, repeated and reflected, yields mastery and meaning.

Legacy, Time, and Generational Reflection

50 years later, Time – A New Epilogue, Sweet 16s, family graves: Many posts are milestones for reflecting on generational change, cultural inheritance, and the ways family stories ripple forward through your daily habits, art, and choices.dzudo+3

Silence, Nature, and the Intimate

Entries frequently mention the value of silence, dawn, moonlight, trees, ocean—reminding the reader (and yourself) that true listening and presence happen when external noise falls away.dzudo+2

Integrating Challenge with Gratitude

Your reflections often turn even difficult moments (failed swims, moments of doubt, pain of memory) into fuel for gratitude and empathy, not only for yourself, but for those who came before and those around you now.
SeaBreeze, setbacks, foggy days in SD: These become metaphors for the journey, not detours from it.dzudo+1

Learning and Progress

Both through direct teaching (feedback from Frank or Jay, wisdom from Thầy) and through inner discovery (metrics, self-monitoring, accidental marks), your progress is carefully documented and revisited for new layers of understanding.dzudo+4

Emotional Honesty

There’s an ongoing undercurrent of emotional candidness—whether about joy, frustration, nostalgia, or loss. Vulnerability is not just accepted but cultivated, making your archive a powerful resource for anyone navigating similar journeys.

Summary:Your blog is not just about art and swimming, but is an ongoing chronicle of how to live well, bravely, and consciously. Its strength is cumulative: daily practices, cultural rituals, and reflections build a durable wisdom, layered with gratitude, courage, tradition, and the search for meaning in every moment—joyous or difficult.dzudo+12

If you ever want a summary or a narrative thread for a specific person, location, ritual, or period—just let me know!

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