Greetings friends,
Are you loving our winter?
What winter you say? We are finally getting some wetness and some new snow. I love living in California and have been getting the most out of my winter, skiing with my grandson and our granddaughters enjoying the snow (we need more), and then making it back in time for the Citizen of the Year event and then enjoying our downtown, shows at the Gallo and the State and diggin’ the new poetry and music scene at the Queen Bean and working on the Graffiti USA Museum. Modesto represents the “other” California, the central valley, with beautiful almond blossoms, tasty food, great music, cool cars and gateway to the mountains.
Our hearts are broken for those in LA that have lost so much. One of my friends, Zapata Espinoza, one of the best cycling writers ever, lost his home in Altadena. So many cycling relics and memories gone and so many like him that lost everything, but he is healthy and optimistic. Lend a hand if you can, and if you knew of Zap, maybe make a donation here. One of the amazing Modesto High students Ryan Nazari, has created a donation site you can support called Embers of Hope.
This is the month of love and we all know what it means to have that amazing relationship, but it is also so very important to love yourself and know that you can be anything you want to be. The more you know yourself, the better you can share your life with someone else. Many people, never find that peace and it is something we all need to look after each other.
If you live in Modesto, you can truly “Be Anything”. People from our city have accomplished so much, some you have heard of and some you haven’t, but nevertheless, they have accomplished amazing things. You can learn about some of them in our BigView. We look at Modesto twins this month that changed the legal systems as we explore Black History Month and celebrate our diverse community.
Almond blossoms are coming. It’s time to cast your eyes to the orchards of the Modesto region while visitors from around the world come to experience this beautiful season. It looks like white snowflakes over acres and acres. We take our place along with Japan and Washington DC’s cherry blossoms as a global beauty destination, thanks to the great and innovative work of Visit Modesto. www.visitmodesto.com<www.visitmodesto.com>
Most of all, in this crazy world we live in, we have to make sure our kids and friends learn to be compassionate, loving, caring, curious and interested in the needs of others. Being anything is about lifting others up, not building walls and tearing down. Everyone needs to know that they have an equal chance to be something great. From our local businesses, to our civic groups, we are better when take care of each other. We are each other’s keeper and when we live that life, we can truly be anything.
Thank you all reading ModestoView. We were excited to see the results of a City of Modesto study to see that ModestoView was the 2nd most influential publication after the Modesto Bee, and we only print monthly! But have no fear, we are available 24/7 online and on the socials @modestoview. This ranking makes us proud and it shows that we are delivering on our mission to “Serve Civic Pride Daily” and thankful that ModestoView is important to many in this community. Our readers really care about living local. Thanks to our intrepid ViewCrew that creates events and showcases our civic pride to make sure people know how good our community can be.
I hope to see you out and about and enjoy Modesto USA.
With gratitude,
Chris Murphy
Founder & Publisher, ModestoView.
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
