I work from home so I guess some could argue that I spend my entire day alone. But for any of you home office writers, freelancers, or consultants, you know you are anything but alone. Your emails represent nagging voices, conference calls transport you into rooms full of other bodies, and voicemails remind you that someone is tapping you on the shoulder for something. But then there are some days where I sit at the same computer with the same Adele Pandora radio station playing and holding the same warm cup (with of course fresh coffee), and all the people...
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Which moments have shaped me?
… learning to drive a standard
… conversation with an eldery nun in india
… seeing the ocean for the first time when i was 20
… summer as a camp counselor
… learning to let go
… living without a car
… falling in love
… being hurt by love
… watching the sunrise over the himalayians
… spending a week in a foreign hospital
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i used to fill whole journals in a month. writing was not a chore or a task but a tool to process... a way of working through the seemingly insignificant and the knowingly significant moments of life. i didn't know what i was thinking until i took the time to write it out and process it by pen. but today, my journal remains empty. wait, i take that back. it's full, but not as it used to be. you see, i divided it into two parts: internal and external the external contained the tasks of my day, the lists of my projects, the...
Read Moretwo good friends were married this weekend and asked me to write/read something for their big day. i was more than excited at the opportunity but more than nervous because they didn’t want to hear it until the actual actual cermony. yikes! (see text below) all went more than well and it was one of the most memorable celebrations of life and love. congratulations, ryan and kelly. much love to you both. My love for you is not enough; It is not perfect, it fails you and it hurts you. Sometimes it gets angry and does things it shouldn’t. It curses and cries; it questions and...
Read Morefresh and bright eyed, the two new interns arrived for the spring semester. eric and i were there to pick them up. it seems a paradox to stand on the other side of the gate, just a few months after arriving myself. i still remember my first few arriving moments…the noises, the people, the traffic at midnight! i smile at the normalcy of it now. never imagined i could do this on my own. i look out the train window again…i see the same space, the same scenes, the same people through the same, but different eyes. i’m not glued to...
Read Morei almost feel guilty writing this post. i hear of snow storms back in the states, inches and inches of the white stuff combined with sheets of ice makes for quite a winter. it should be cold here as well, but for the past few weeks, lunch outside in the sun… i try to explain global warming to people, but for some reason, they just don’t understand. . a hole in the sky just makes little sense to them. so perhaps, you on the other side of the planet are enjoying winter enough for the whole globe. . thank you for that. but, for a little while,...
Read Morelet’s see. how do i begin to explain to you what my Christmas in india looked like? warm? yes. some 60 degrees so. entertaining? ha! you tell me if you could keep a straight face while trying to pull a present off of a 18′ ceiling with a bamboo shoot. my favorite part? i don’t like to answer favorite questions. busy? understatement. joyful? unlike anything i’ve ever known. fulfilling? you better believe it. beautiful? so much it brought tears to my eyes. i began the day with my ritual morning walk. usually it’s difficult to pull myself out from under the covers…more on that later. but not this morning. it was Christmas morning. though i...
Read Morei was on a quest for travel watercolor set when i saw it painted in the window of the art supply store. the words rested on an abstraction of an ocean wave. find your muse was all it said. i’m sure little was spent on the marketing campaign and definitely nothing for the paint. but the sheer brilliance of the statement was enough to still be imprinted on my mind weeks later…find your muse. i love this three word command for it causes me to ask a question before i can fully understand it. what is a muse and how do i find...
Read Morei like walking around cemeteries. i know...kind of weird. i guess if you find comfort, not fear in death, you may understand. at the risk of sounding sarcastic and insensitive, there are few places i can go to feel more alive and more thankful for each breath i take. my walks over the years often take me to these solemn gardens. in prague, i would lose myself in the sea of tombstones seeming never to end. the krakow concentration camp bared no physical markers of the millions who died within it's walls, but i could not avoid the thought of the...
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i have a couple hours, so here i sit, enjoying one of my favorite pastimes, people watching. the airport is a great place to practice such a hobby. even if for only a moment, thousands of paths collide at one, single terminal. they walk by in a hurry, rushed to get to the gate, to get to the plane, to get to the city, to get to wherever it is they are supposed to be. all these next steps in their journey are unknown to me as they walk by my seat against the window. but i enjoy watching them...
Read Moreit's a rainy night at java nation...i could not be enjoying it more. a chai tea in my left hand and a black pen in my right. i watch the drops fall outside the windows and the cars splash as they hurry by. purple, black and yellow umbrellas float across the framed glazing. i like the yellow one the best. there is peace. life is comfortable. it is easy. i am fulfilled. i am at 'home.' 'home' has become a relative term. it is not the big front porch i dream of having someday or found in the city in which i grew up. it's not...
Read Moretoday was one of those kind of days. you know what i'm taking about. everything seems to happen at once and your head is spinning. you get in your car at the end of the day to escape. the windows are down, the radio is up, but it's not quite enough. the car doesn't provide enough freedom. though it protects, it also restrains. perhaps a convertible...that might get me a little closer, i find my body is still limited in its experience of the open road. sky diving? definitely. but with only one jump under my belt, and dependency on a pilot, i'll set that one aside for...
Read Moreokay studio 109. although i never fill these things out, i will for you to celebrate your entrance back into the bloggging world. i usually brush surveys off, but when you single me out like that, i feel guilty ignoring your expected reply...and haven't had time to put together any more coherent thoughts. IN THE KITCHEN: 1. blue bunny lite 85 vanilla crème yogurt [accept no substitutes] 2. fresh garlic 3. cottage cheese, baby carrots, craisins [listed together because i eat them together] 4. peach iced tea 5. stale peeps [ie. marshmallow peeps opened last week to eat this week] IN THE CLOSET: 1. patagonia fleece 2. james madison baseball hat courtesy...
Read Moreso. it is only 6:30 am here and i've already been working for an hour and a half. i had one of my restless, sleepless kind of nights. i hate those. i'd much rather start tackling the things consuming my mind than lay in bed and worry about them. perhaps i'm worried about my first project i'm sending out for permit next week. or maybe it's lunch today with a friend that i know i need to say something to but i have absolutely no clue how to say it. it could even be that i spent 2 hours last night...
Read Morein the last month, i : + took a salsa/meringue dance lesson + ate dinnter at home with my family only four times + paid off entire loan to the government + began leading a group of high school girls [i’ve forgotten what it was like to be in high school] + enrolled in a class because i want to take it [not because i have to take it] + discovered i actually enjoy this required reading + found weight i thought i had lost this summer + went on two 10 mile runs [training for half marathon to lose it again] + received a raise + took on the black slopes at...
Read Morei don't know what it is about mornings, but i love them. maybe it is the anticipation of a day yet to be lived, a page about to be written. no matter how bad the day before was, the morning promises a fresh start, a new beginning. if i'm up with the sun, i find a stillness and peace enveloping me. the yellow light glows and warms my skin as it bounces against my freckles. it feels as if the earth is coming to life. nobody seems to be in as much of a hurry to get to work as...
Read Moreper·se·ver·ance: n. 1. steady persistaence in adhering to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose; steadfastness 2. persistent determination 3. contancy, dedication, endurance, purposfullness, stamina through almost every trial we persevere. we endured through five years of studio critiques and are dedicated to causes that promote life. we fight for health despite sickness and endure hardships knowing we will be made stronger. if we don't persevere in struggles, we feel as if we've given up. we didn't have what it takes...we couldn't rise above. i am not made to give up. i am a fighter. i would rather fight and be...
Read MoreYesterday was such a beautiful day…or at least started that way. We went downtown to the famous Charles Bridge. We had gone there the night before on our way to dinner, but not during the day. Saturday is one of the busiest times to be at the bridge. There were vendors everywhere selling food, paintings, toys, wine, it was so much fun! Then we walked to the old town square. In the middle, there is a clock from the 14th century. Amazing. It is the most unique clock I have ever seen. The story goes that the king gorged...
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