new blog header

The blogger is down right now for me (probably because I haven't gotten the new interface) so this is the picture that will soon grace my header:

Grey skies and clear horizons

It has been tough toward the end of the quarter. Work piles up and has a looming and approaching due date. Crises occur. Parties are planned. Other obligations interject. Yoga loses its everyday practice. Brushing teeth turns into a luxury. Time is short.

And then... BOOM! After lots of coffee, tea and chocolate, minimal sleep but maximum hours toiling in front of a computer screen... it's over. Another school term complete. And a break. I'll do some work during my vacation, but it is personal and enjoyable especially because it'll be on my time and my interests. What the hell, I may even be able to celebrate my birthday!

Snowboarding, birding, reading, writing, Jake in town, birthdays, sleeping, eating, cooking, plotting, planning and dreaming. Should be a full 25 days!

a poem that saved my life today

"When I Am Among the Trees"
from Thirst: Poems By Mary Oliver. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. (2006):

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

Thank you Mary Oliver, though I may never meet you.