Living the Impossible

And now it's '09

I looked back at my list of 8 wondrous things to accomplish in 2008. So handy to have the list easy to find.

I did one. Well, two if Dad and Mom will let me count the yowlings in the car as a serenade. I accomplished one item on my list. It was a busy year....

But for 2009. One of my favorite fun songs says it all.

This Year by Chatal Kreviazuk

This year, is gonna be incredible
This year, is gonna be the one
All the planets are lining up for me
This year, I'm gonna have fun

This year, I'll paint my masterpiece
This year, I'll be recognized
I can feel like I'll fall in love for real
This year, this year

January, I'll learn to fly
February, love's gonna find me
March, April, May, I'll get carried away
Oh, oh...

This year, I'll reach the pinnacle
This year, I'll get to the top
People will ask where she get that energy
This year, I'm never gonna stop

January, I'll learn to fly
February, love's gonna find me
March, April, May, I'll get carried away
Oh, oh, oh, oh...

This year, is gonna be incredible
This year, is gonna be the one
All the planets are lining up for me
This year, I'm gonna have fun

I'm gonna have fun
Just watch me now
This year
This year

This year

Oi Oi Oi

History is an amazing study. Not only the proven stories amaze, but the rarely heard and little known stories, the mistold and misrepresented stories. Even as a kid I loved the stories of people who lived in the homes, castles, towns that I was touring (or being dragged through by my bedraggled parents). I remember visiting old Etruscan ruins and knowing that the ruts in the road had been there for about a thousand years. The carved names in the old tombs meant people had lived and moved and breathed and died here. And the feeling of walking in the footsteps of people who shaped the world as I encounter it stuck with me.

I always had some romantic notions of far off places and how the old days were so much more magical. How noble to fight the battles (little did i know girls didn't fight), to build towns, to man ships, to discover new lands. How adventurous to encounter new people, to try new foods, learn new patterns for life. What a world!

And how wrong I was. In the first century the life expectancy of someone my age in the Middle East? 30 years. How glad I am to live in a time of antibiotics, drive through coffee joints, and bathing consistently.

A recent trip to the Oriental Institute in Chicago reminded me that history and the present intertwine. The old is entangled with the new. Today is wrapped in yesterday.

We have to keep our eyes open. Even if we just have one.

I spy the north land

Took a trip to the northern bits of Michigan with friends. Am amazed to see the beauty and lushness of this part of the world. I thought perhaps all of the beauty had moved south of here. Happy to be proved wrong.

We saw trees. Lots of lovely fall foliage laden trees.

And Tequahmenon Falls. Amazing falls, with mist hanging thick in the air and making everything ethereal.

And mushrooms. I have thought seriously about becoming a mushroom photographer after this trip.

And Mackinac Island. Lover-ly. It reminded me of the UK in many ways.

The Village Green

Arch Rock

The Stone Church

Amanda joined the cannon brigade

And of course, the token, yes-i-am-kooky shots. So, might be noted, are my friends!

Ruminations for another year

The best way to spend time is with the ones dearest to your days, dreams, heart. To be full and to fill.

And so i began this new year of life with dear friends.
Dinner. A trip to the theater.

Rage enjoying water, in both liquid and solid forms.

It's best to keep at least one skeptic about you. It keeps you balanced. Or weird. Or something.

And keep smiling people. More flies with honey right?

And on to the theater.
With real actors!

Amanda in the shadows.

WereCoo, Rage, Papa Lucio and J chillin' at the theater

They let me go on stage!

After my screaming performance

Beauty in emptiness

Recent adventures took me to western North Dakota where i found beautiful country.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Badlands. Wild, open restless country.

"It was a land of vast silent spaces." - Theodore Roosevelt

Layers of orange clay. It fell off in chunks, like giant Lego's laying on the ground.

Prairie Dog central! It was totally cute, little rodents noshing on vegetation and racing about.

Bison herd. You can't smell the stink from this distance.

This place is amazing. It seems empty and desolate, but the huge blue sky is the perfect cover for a vibrant and rich space, brimming with life. You can breathe in and feel the bigness.