Dipping from the Past

I went to dinner tonight with some of my oldest friends. I met Mindy in 2nd grade, Rhiannon in 7th, and Natalie in 9th. We have kept in touch over the years, sometimes from a distance. But somehow we've all managed to reconnect over the past couple of years to become dear to each other again.

I love that there are people who have known me for so long. They have seen me change and evolve over the years, and they are still hanging out with me ... which is pretty cool.

When we get together, we catch up on current events in our lives, we inevitably take a stroll down memory lane, and then we just talk about who we are now. I'm grateful for good friends. I'm glad to know there are people who grow with us and who somehow understand us without having to work at it.

Soothing Words

There is something very calming about sitting to write.

Sometimes it is the only way I can unwind, and other times it is the way I can process all I'm thinking and feeling. If I can put words to my feelings and emotions then they are easier to sort out and to handle. Granted, there are some things that even words cannot describe, but even the attempt to write something out seems to soothe me.

It has been an interesting week. I've managed to fill my summer full of classes, trips, work, and many other things. I keep thinking, it's summer and that means I'll have time. But, I've successfully booked myself fairly full.

I keep thinking back to the days when I had the summer off. It was only a few years ago that I would have at least a month and a half off completely. What did I do with all that time? I would love to have some of that time this summer.

My plans are rewarding though ... here is some of what is planned...

Seattle trip

Letterpress class

Teaching 316 again

Work (of course)

Trip to Camp Loll

Farmer's Markets

Jaw therapy

Book making

Hopefully some other weekend adventures ...

Should be a wonderful summer. My goal is to write about all of these and much more--and hope that they are of some interest.

I am not my body

I found this video today, and somehow I needed it more than I could have known. In my own small, small way, I know what it means to feel that my soul is so much more than the body that encases it. But, I think we sometimes forget how much beauty there is inside us and who we really are. There is so much life to live if we will allow ourselves to experience pain and suffering. I always think of the movie Shadowlands, when Joy says to C.S. Lewis: The pain then is part of the happiness now.

I marvel at the beauty in my life: faith, family, nature, friends, words, art, music and so on. And maybe the most amazing part of beauty is that it is always there ... if we will open our eyes to it.

Something a 29 year old should know ... I guess

Do ever come across things in your life that you probably should know about or know how to do, but you don't?

I have to get a prescription refilled today, and I realized I don't really know the process for how to do that. I guess that means I'm lucky to not have had very many prescriptions and none that required a refill, but it made me feel 19 instead of 29. Do I call them? Do I go in? Do I have to take my original stuff in? These seem silly, but it is just that I've never done it.

So, I called a life line.

Thanks to my sister for filling me in on the big mystery known as prescription refills.

Thoughts before sleep

Usually I'm not someone who can stay up late--just ask all my friends and roommates. I am the one in the corner asleep while the party rages on.

But tonight, well, this morning ... 12:33 a.m. and I am awake.

Sometimes it is the rush of all the things I'm thinking about...

My new letterpress class will be challenging...but rewarding. Could this be part of my future?

What happens now that I will be missing classes? I could take a late flight to Seattle ... that may just work.

I have 20 students signed up for Summer. I was expecting closer to 7.

Where should we stay in China ... wow ... I am going to China in a week and a half.

Dan is great.

I have a lesson for Sunday ... haven't started that yet.

Family reunion this weekend ... I am summarizing my mission, which means I have to prepare photos, look up information. I'm going to cook Bulgarian food. I still can't believe that deli wasn't open Tuesday ... I have to take my lunch break to go get the cheese.

There is a baby shower tomorrow after work ... I can't forget the present.

Project due tomorrow at work ... is it even making sense?

When will I be able to get back to the studio to do my homework for class?

My room is a mess.

Shopping for food would probably be a good thing.

I need to write a letter of rec for a student.

I guess that none of this matters to any of you except that this is how our minds run so often. There is so much going on ... and it all has to take form in my brain before I can get any of it done.

And ... it will all get done, somehow and someway.

Maybe now that I've dumped this here, I will be able to get some sleep.

Creation

I found these photos online a week or so ago. They are from Hubble. I found them to be remarkable. They are called Pillars of Creation. Inside that swirl of light and dust are the beginnings of stars and worlds. As I saw these pillars, I couldn't help think about the pillars of creation in our own lives. What is swirling around inside of us--being created right now. The dreams of our soul that are germinating and developing with time and experience. Not only are we in the process of being created, but we are able to create.

There is something rewarding and fulfilling about creating something--anything. It could be beautiful meal, the perfect sentence, or a colorful picture. We each find something that flows from us--as if our internal creation must escape and become tangible.

When I look at the images of the Pillars of Creation, I am in awe of their beauty. And, when someone looks at my outer creations and can see beauty, it somehow is a recognition of my inner creation. And, some of the most memorable moments in my life have been when I've seen the inner creation of others.

So, whatever you create, I hope you let it reflect all that you are and all that you are becoming.

“All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. His instincts prompt him to compete for his place in that community, but his ethics prompt him also to co-operate (perhaps in order that there may be a place to compete for).

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.

This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.

In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land- community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”

From “The Land Ethic,”Aldo Leopold’s final essay in A Sand County Almanac