Dessa and Butternut

#1 - I dreamt I was in a Spanish speaking country and annoyed at all these partying Americans. Then I was followed by two women who were picking on me into a health food store. One of the women stole money from the store owner. The store owner didn't realize it, but I asked him to count his cash after they left and he came up short. We saw that she had forgotten her bike, so we had something and since it led to our interaction (it was a very pleasant interaction), he said it was worth it...This is where my dream and waking blurred. I don't know when the line crossed, at some point I was enjoying this health food store owner. I still marvel at this because when I was younger this never happened, a bad dream turning into a good one.

#2 - I think of my niece as an extrovert, she likes to meet new people and invite them to interact with her. At the playground she certainly does not shy away from older kids. However I realized today that I rarely see her in a large group situation. I observed she did not want to be put down. "Up Daddy," she would say whenever he tried. So I learned something new about her.

#3 - I have often heard my niece request to go on a bike ride. Both her mom and dad have carriers on their bikes and they usually take her. Sometimes a short one, today her dad took her on a longer trip despite the fact that he bikes 30 miles round trip to work most days. If I did even half that, the last thing I'd want to do on the weekend is bike more. He just keeps going - no complaints.

#4 - Dessa - rap/hip-hop musician, new find for me though I've heard her name for a while. I'm really enjoying her CD - Castor, the twin. Today, Song #10 - Mineshaft 2 - it got me up from the couch where I was taking a break and propelled me to do my last set of lunge/knee exercises.

#5 - My sister-in-law found some shoelaces for the shoes I wear most often in the winter (they were looking raggedy) and I looked up a recipe to make this week from this uninvited visitor (in the photo) to the garden. It seeded itself from the compost. Yeah!

The Sea and The Shore

If I don't decide it is too cold. I'll be on my last mini-camping trip for 2013 tonight. Here are a few photos from my last one, as well as a song that I heard at that music festival that I longed for today.

I recommend just listening. I actually find this video distracting, it is beautiful, but the song is so full of imagery I like it to take me away without the video. So if you'd like a piece of beautiful melancholy...

Afton Article

#1 - When I started my computer today for work it said to either restart it or Microsoft would force a restart in a few minutes. After I did this something looked strange and I was no longer able to open all my Microsoft files! This would be frustrating in general, but I had already had four other things go "wrong" in my morning and this sent me over the edge! At least I KNEW that I was over the edge, and knowing is half the battle.

#2 - Similarly my brother sent me an email about one of the previous frustrations and asked me to "not stress out" about it. Instead of reacting I thought to myself, "He is right. I am stressing out about this."

#3 - My local library is closed for renovations. It is kind of fun actually to use a different library as my home library for a bit and I'm pretty blessed because I have two libraries within five miles of where I live so it is hardly an inconvenience.

#4 - When I went to pick up some items on reserve at that library today I saw that they have a monthly poetry group! I'll have to check it out.

#5 - Earlier this week my friend read an article in her community paper written about a camping trip a guy had taken to a nearby state park. "Tammy could have written this article," she thought because I'd told her those exact same things about that park the last time I'd seen her. She thought, "What the hell" and wrote an email to the guy telling him this and saying she didn't know what would explain the coincidence unless he happened to be single and wanted to meet her friend???

After this they exchanged a few emails - he asking her what I'd said that was similar etc. At the end he told her to go ahead and pass his email on to me, which she did saying she hoped I would not be annoyed. Annoyed? Please, I need all the help I can get. If she was trying to fix me up with any guy she met out of desperation, yes that would be annoying. But a genuine impulse? Go for it!

So yesterday I sent the guy a message about camping and this morning he replied. Who knows if that will be the end of that, but regardless of any outcome, it is kind of fun!



Bonus item -

I watched this video recently and thought, "Amen!"

Antoniette Tuff

You know I try not to swim in the media, so I'm a little slow sometimes. But to everyone who said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,"
let's present another option Antoniette Tuff.

"Do you not feel like you are a hero?" Anderson Cooper

"No not really. I feel like I helped somebody in need. That God was able to use me, and it was an honor to be able to be used. I feel like I was in the right place. And God needed me to be there to be a vessel for him." Antoinette Tuff

God what a refreshing conversation and a refreshing example.

Ellis

#1- I often listen to something while I am working. Today my typical selections (The Story, The Moth etc.) weren't feeling right. It took a while to find what I needed but finally I landed on music from the festival I was at last weekend.

#2 - I found the song that I wanted to write the chorus in my journal - A Reckoning of Us by Robbie Hecht.

#3 - Though there are many songs posted I could include here, I chose this one mostly because of the woman singing it. She is the embodiment of kindness, just being in her presence brings me joy.

#4 - She (Ellis) is one of the reasons I played a song at the campfire at the festival. Nobody there cared whether I played or not, but for me it was stepping into a circle of people I respect. It was an unfamiliar step, but made much easier because this woman was there and I could follow her song and her lead and her kindness. And writing this now makes me realize how her authenticity supported and encouraged my authenticity.

#5 - Listening to other Ellis videos - she was talking about her need for expression and somehow this hit me in a way I haven't heard it before. The need for expression. I have that need too. I wonder if this is a universal need or more selective. Like the need for danger that some war correspondents have for example.

I'd like to add the following quote which my friend sent yesterday in a book review she thought I'd like.

“"'How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,' Annie Dillard wrote in her sublime meditation on presence vs. productivity. There is hardly a more enduring embodiment of this spirit than Henry David Thoreau, for whom the very definition of success rested on the ability to greet one’s day with joy. Yet this philosophy of mindfulness and immersion in the richness of life is increasingly eroded by our culture’s cult of productivity, which eats away at our ability to truly see life as it unfolds before us."