From My Journal Recently
A few little snippets and scribblings out of my journal of late...
---
“It is sometimes better to travel hopefully than to arrive” {a fortune cookie fortune that I glued in}
---
Summer is a time of fast, hot metabolism…fertile, fecund growth at rates that are downright alarming. It’s also a time to embrace the change that comes with that growth…even when some growing pains are involved. I’m seeking everyday to embrace these growing pains, to stay with the discomfort and look it square in the eye. I want to be brave and step into this new life with my eyes and heart wide open, to greet Fear and Uncertainty as the entwined lovers of my dear friends, Adventure and Living. I want to live in the wonder of a life that says YES (even if sometimes with a slight tremor) rather than the wondering of a life that says “no” or “not now” or “someday.”
---
I commute to work now. It’s been years since I had a daily commute…more than a decade if you don’t count law school. I’d forgotten how lovely a little time to transition between home and work can be, the ability to wind up or wind down, the quiet time in the car for contemplation and reflection. We spend so much time rushing willy nilly from here to there, from this task to that, and it dawned on me today how much opportunity we let slip by when we ignore the value of transitions. The pause between breaths, the dreamy possibilities in the half-waking of early morning, the closing of a task well-done and the opening of a fresh challenge, the tipping point between hanging on and letting go. I vow to pay closer attention to the moments in-between, to the tiny spaces where possibility or truth or rest might be hiding…
---
I’m reading The Emerald Mile right now. It’s a dangerous book for me in my current state. The craving I’ve felt for big water, for a wild and untamed river, has nearly choked me lately. This summer has been chock-full of everything to do with our move and our camper and preparing to leave this place we’ve called home. Little time has been left for fog-filled mornings casting flies into a gurgling brook or paddling rubber into whitewater, or even for putting one foot in front of the other on a mountain trail. I feel the lack deep in my body. I'm downright cranky with it. There is a place in my center that is parched and shriveled, all papery and thin and dry, desperately thirsty and in need of a river’s quenching respite. I won’t go another season without a river, without knowing each curve and unforgiving wave. I just won’t do it.
---
I just bought a plane ticket to Greece for a fast trip to Athens in September. Four full days. That’s all I’ll have. I want to capture the story of those four fast days: the smell of the city in the first hours of the day, the taste of each morsel, the heat of the afternoon Mediterranean sun. I want to capture Terry’s effort and grace as she marathons in the birthplace of marathons. I want to look, to notice, to see and, perhaps with words and my camera capture just a tiny slice to bring home with me.
---
I’ve owed you guys these images for awhile…sometimes it takes me a bit to get around to sharing things here in this space. Mount Rainier National Park and the Hoh Rainforest and the glorious beauty of the Pacific Northwest…
