Simplicity

The earth produces all that is needed:
Food and Fabrics,
Water and Wood,
Bricks and Clay,
Sunshine and Rain.

The Maker brings these to us as a gift each day
–knowing that we are happiest
when we live close to the soil
aware of our source
consciously embracing all things with thanks.

The secret is that we are fabulously wealthy
Living like Kings and Queens
In a garden of leisure and luxury.
What we have is enoughŠ and more

If we lack anything, it is the simple pleasure
To enjoy what we already possess
–chasing after joyless schemes and business
denying our inheritance
and wanting what can only make us tired, choked and desperate.

Today, let us find goodness
In the small things
Tasting the abundance you have lavished on us
With eager open hands
Giving and receiving
Trusting and Completing
the circle that began
With the gift of life

http://www.sevensf.org/2006/12/04/simplicity/

Rule # 32 for Survival in Zombieland

Appreciate the Little Things:

A shared pomegranate, a pretty darn sexy fruit
The song After the Storm by Mumford & Sons
Phone tag with Deanna Snyder
Friends making friends with friends back in Kansas
Dark Chocolate flavored tofu
Hanging out with Justin on Skype
Phoebe in Wonderland, how wonderful
Inanimate objects like lamp and vase and stool
A poem or two by Pablo Neruda, The Hands of Day
Zucchini
Rapid Release Tylenol - and the nice colors it is

A lot of sharp object metaphors

There comes a moment every semester when all the disparate topics of discussion, and nitty gritty readings, and charts and diagrams that elude me - they are all made worth it. My pick-ax strikes gold! (Well, it's gold to me - maybe that makes it fool's gold, but it shines & thrills me and that's good enough.)

Education and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been pins & needles in my face. It's convinced me I did the right thing not specializing in development. But today I found an education project in the Philippines that will enable me to fight through our research paper component, and is -I SAY- the sword in the stone that could vanquish Malawi's dragons of teacher shortage, out-of-school youth, budget problems, population growth, AIDS rates, and centralized planning. Just call me Wart! Then again, don't.

Project Impact is clearly and compellingly discussed here. Don't pretend you are anything other than desperate to learn more. Seriously, don't fake ambivalence. It's not cool.

MALAWI --- I'M COMING!!!!

My Fave Father-Daughter Movie Scene Is In...

Meet Joe Black:  

PARRISH:  Do you love Drew?

SUSAN:    You mean like you loved Mom?
PARRISH:  Forget about me and Mom - are you going to marry him?
SUSAN:    Probably
PARRISH:  Don't get carried away.
SUSAN:    Ohhh...
PARRISH:  Susan, you're a hell of a woman. You've got a great career, you're beautiful...
SUSAN:    And I'm your daughter and no man will ever be good enough for me.
PARRISH:  Well, I wasn't going to say that...
SUSAN:    What were you going to say? 
PARRISH:  Listen, I'm crazy about the guy -he's smart, he's aggressive, he could carry Parrish Communications into the 21st century and me along with it.
SUSAN:    So what's wrong with that?
PARRISH:  That's for me. I'm talking about you. It's not so much what you say about Drew, it's what you don't say.
SUSAN:    You're not listening.
PARRISH:  Oh yes, I am. Not an ounce of excitement, not a whisper of a thrill, this relationship has all the passion of a pair of titmice.
SUSAN:    Don't get dirty, Dad...
PARRISH:  Well, it worries me. I want you to get swept away. I want you to levitate. I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish.
SUSAN:    That's all?
PARRISH:  Be deliriously happy. Or at least leave yourself open to be.
SUSAN:    "Be deliriously happy". I'm going to do my utmost.
PARRISH:  I know it's a cornball thing but love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without.If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? I say fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.     
SUSAN:    Bravo
PARRISH:  Aw... you're tough.
SUSAN:    I'm sorry. But give it to me again. The short version.
PARRISH:  Stay open. Who knows? Lightning could strike.

Hump Day Resolutions

I'm going to finish reading Renovation of the Heart this time.

After Last Comic Standing, I will quit TV.

I'm gonna finish all my Kentucky Wedding Biz homework by Sunday.

I will communicate well with my boyfriend, instead of like a raving lunatic.

In September, I will move into a convent for the semester.

I will finish my Motivational Quilt art project before I move.

I'll clock in at 8am tomorrow. The snooze button will not be poked.

I will pray Nana off hospice.

Kindness, gentleness, humility & grace will be my garments.

That vacuum will be used.

Never again will I rub my eyes after cleaning with Clorox.

I will shower more often.

Dust be gone.

Jahari and her daughters will feel welcome in their new summer home chez moi.

This headache will go away.

I will empathize more with cockroaches and rats.

Today's yoga class will be the new leaf.

I'll make a doctor's appointment this summer & a dentist's for September.

I'll stop the negative self-talk.

I won't cry.

My Hallmark Card

Sometimes a person just must define: "This is me & that is you, and your problem is not mine."

I don't actually have a problem. I'm well. Even though something in me tries to convince me otherwise, since you are not well.  But that's a lie. I'm not you. I'm not i'm not i'm not. I'm Me.

Get well soon.

Dedicated to The Kolars' 70 years of Love

“Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”
Erica Jong

“We take a risk when we open our hearts because the truth is, if we open our hearts, we will get hurt. You can’t open your heart and not have some hurt because you’re in a human experience. Even if it’s the love of your life and you have many wonderful, deepening, growing, powerful years together, it’s a human experience and that person will pass over. Love takes courage. Be courageous.”
Mary Manin Morrissey

“To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

"Love does not measure, it just gives." -Mother T

"If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love- You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire." -Clive Staples Lewis