2012 was a doozy of a year and, as per my annual custom now with the ushering in of a new muji planner, here's a review of the year in highlights. to mix it up a bit this time, we're going backwards! here goes....
december
- a wonderful family christmas with new niece, baby z. yes, i have become a crazy auntie.
- handing in over 50 pages of my thesis prospectus. tendonitis? check.
- dear friend chelsea comes to visit! gallivanting off to boston for a fun new year's with friends.
november
- 2 thanksgiving dinner parties with friends. gratefully gorging.
- accidentally deleting 7 months' worth of blog posts - BLERG! but reminiscing with great joy and thankfulness.
- after months of church-hopping, finally deciding to commit to redeemer downtown as my church here.
october
- hurricane sandy! or superstorm sandy, depending on who you talk to. fortunate to be spared but heartbroken at the devastation suffered by my new york neighbors. volunteered for a day with friends on staten island.
- dressing up as rainbow brite and the color kids with friends for halloween. possibly one of my proudest costume moments ever.
- east village eats tasting tour! big sigh of relief as i finished this project for my internship.
september
- starting my second (and final!) year of grad school. o, joy and slight panic.....
- birthday celebration with viv! raised over $1300 in my birthday campaign for many hopes.
august
- retreat with the volunteer leaders of many hopes. so privileged to work alongside these amazing folks.
- jazz age lawn party!
- the birth of my beautiful niece. i'm already smitten and i haven't even met her yet.
july
- VIP tent tickets for the met opera summer stage in central park. thanks, tracy!
- watching 'spiderman' on the intrepid! hooray for free summer films in nyc.
- 'twelfth night' in battery park. this city is magic.
june
- coney island mermaid day parade! a dream come true. and i win my first ever carnival game prize: a giant toy husky. the game? whack-a-mole.
- figment on governor's island with art-loving friends mina and randall....it's like being in wonderland.
may
- moved! farewell, park slope. hello, crown heights.
- first year of graduate school finished. WHEW.
- great googa mooga in prospect park. so. much. good. food.
april
- quick jaunt to boston to hang out with my brother, touring boston with a group of his students from shanghai
- school work, school work, school work.....
march
- coordinating a colloquium for school with guest speakers ruby lerner of creative capital and ian david moss of fractured atlas. topic? social entrepreneurship in the arts.
- weekend in the catskills!
february
- macaron-making class
- catching up with mindy and kevin before they make the big move to china
january
- new year's celebrations in boston
- visiting friends and friends visiting
and now we're off to a bright new year. welcome, 2013.
cups of coffee: 2
mood: relaxed
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
ringing in the new
old friends. new friends. art-viewing at museums. chowing down in chinatown. friends performing folk music in new year's eve concert. fireworks over the boston skyline. dance party. a whole lotta laughing.
2013, you're off to a wonderful start.
cups of coffee: 1
mood: happy
2013, you're off to a wonderful start.
cups of coffee: 1
mood: happy
Saturday, December 15, 2012
christmas mourning
28 dead, including the gunman. 20 of those killed - children between the ages of 5 and 10.
it's impossible to escape the images and stories permeating the media from the sandy hook elementary school shooting. beneath all the confusion, bewilderment, anger and deep sadness, there is the overwhelming "why?" - a helpless question with a resounding silence in response.
my own heart has been aching incessantly since the news broke, and with each new piece of information, my heart breaks a bit more. imagining the fear of these children, especially those that were shot at close range....this is not the world they should know. this is not the way things ought to be.
the juxtaposition of the holiday season makes all this seem even less tolerable....in this time of celebration and excited anticipation for feasting and gifts with family and friends, this atrocity is even more jarring. how can we even think about christmas at a time such as this?
but strip away the sentimentality with which we've come to adorn this holiday. take away the tinsel and the christmas cheer, tear down the lights and put away the cookies. think instead on the historical event that launched the establishment of this holiday. ponder the incarnation, the claim that God himself, clothed in human flesh, entered this world as a baby.
recall the infanticide that accompanied the birth of Christ - the slaughter of innocents ordered by a troubled tyrant fearful of a prophecy. imagine the howls and wails that must have filled that night. recount the fleeing of mary, joseph and the babe, running for their lives in the cover of night as Jesus experienced his entrance into this world as a refugee. and then remember the life of the Son of Man himself: the scorn, rejection, betrayal, torture, and ultimately, a wrongful execution.
the heart of the incarnation is a desperate cry for help that was answered. we may not always have the answers we want when terrible things happen, but if the incarnation is indeed true, then God came down to dwell with us in the midst of our pain and suffering. He entered this world of brokenness and devastation, not to observe as a spectator, but to participate fully and to experience it himself, to the point of death. and then if the resurrection is true, He triumphed over the grave. He defeated the powers of fear and darkness and promised that someday, we will experience victory as well and all these experiences of sorrow and grief will be reversed. He made good not just possible but definite even in the face of evil.
the knowledge of this may not alleviate present pain and grief. there is still this need for mourning as we cry for the loss of innocent lives and weep for injustice. but these atrocities also point us straight to the tension of mankind's depravity and desperate desire for a better world. and if the incarnation is true, then victory is not just possible but promised. even as we labor against existing injustices and strive, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to improve the conditions of this world for all its inhabitants, there is the promise of this world to come in which justice will reign and goodness will prevail.
and so our hearts long, even as they break with grief and boil with anger. we long......
cups of coffee: 2
mood: grieving
it's impossible to escape the images and stories permeating the media from the sandy hook elementary school shooting. beneath all the confusion, bewilderment, anger and deep sadness, there is the overwhelming "why?" - a helpless question with a resounding silence in response.
my own heart has been aching incessantly since the news broke, and with each new piece of information, my heart breaks a bit more. imagining the fear of these children, especially those that were shot at close range....this is not the world they should know. this is not the way things ought to be.
the juxtaposition of the holiday season makes all this seem even less tolerable....in this time of celebration and excited anticipation for feasting and gifts with family and friends, this atrocity is even more jarring. how can we even think about christmas at a time such as this?
but strip away the sentimentality with which we've come to adorn this holiday. take away the tinsel and the christmas cheer, tear down the lights and put away the cookies. think instead on the historical event that launched the establishment of this holiday. ponder the incarnation, the claim that God himself, clothed in human flesh, entered this world as a baby.
recall the infanticide that accompanied the birth of Christ - the slaughter of innocents ordered by a troubled tyrant fearful of a prophecy. imagine the howls and wails that must have filled that night. recount the fleeing of mary, joseph and the babe, running for their lives in the cover of night as Jesus experienced his entrance into this world as a refugee. and then remember the life of the Son of Man himself: the scorn, rejection, betrayal, torture, and ultimately, a wrongful execution.
the heart of the incarnation is a desperate cry for help that was answered. we may not always have the answers we want when terrible things happen, but if the incarnation is indeed true, then God came down to dwell with us in the midst of our pain and suffering. He entered this world of brokenness and devastation, not to observe as a spectator, but to participate fully and to experience it himself, to the point of death. and then if the resurrection is true, He triumphed over the grave. He defeated the powers of fear and darkness and promised that someday, we will experience victory as well and all these experiences of sorrow and grief will be reversed. He made good not just possible but definite even in the face of evil.
the knowledge of this may not alleviate present pain and grief. there is still this need for mourning as we cry for the loss of innocent lives and weep for injustice. but these atrocities also point us straight to the tension of mankind's depravity and desperate desire for a better world. and if the incarnation is true, then victory is not just possible but promised. even as we labor against existing injustices and strive, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, to improve the conditions of this world for all its inhabitants, there is the promise of this world to come in which justice will reign and goodness will prevail.
and so our hearts long, even as they break with grief and boil with anger. we long......
cups of coffee: 2
mood: grieving
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
pretty great
today, one of my classes toured the met museum to walk through a newly opened exhibition with the curator.
that was followed by another class tour of the east fourth street cultural district in east village and sit-down discussion with fourth arts block's executive director (my internship supervisor!)
o, grad school. even when things are crazy busy, you're pretty great.
cups of coffee: 2
mood: busy busy busy but happy
that was followed by another class tour of the east fourth street cultural district in east village and sit-down discussion with fourth arts block's executive director (my internship supervisor!)
o, grad school. even when things are crazy busy, you're pretty great.
cups of coffee: 2
mood: busy busy busy but happy
blessed
my dear friend grace posted this poem on her blog - a much needed read and reminder during this present time of madness for me. i love dana gioia's work; he has such a way of bringing profound truths to life with simple words and lucid imagery.
Prayer at Winter Solstice
by Dana Gioia
Blessed is the road that keeps us homeless.
Blessed is the mountain that blocks our way.
Blessed are hunger and thirst, loneliness and all forms of desire.
Blessed is the labor that exhausts us without end.
Blessed are the night and the darkness that blinds us.
Blessed is the cold that teaches us to feel.
Blessed are the cat, the child, the cricket, and the crow.
Blessed is the hawk devouring the hare.
Blessed are the saint and the sinner who redeem each other.
Blessed are the dead calm in their perfection.
Blessed is the pain that humbles us.
Blessed is the distance that bars our joy.
Blessed is this shortest day that makes us long for light.
Friday, November 23, 2012
thankful
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
seems poetically appropriate in a way that i would lose blog posts from the last 7 months right before thanksgiving. in combing my memory to recount the events of the last half year, i have been astounded by the amount of blessings and provisions. there is so much to be truly grateful for.
since a picture is worth a thousand words, in the place of replacement posts, here is a photo gallery of just some of those things from the last 7 months for which i'm thankful.
cups of coffee: 2
mood: my cup overfloweth
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
seems poetically appropriate in a way that i would lose blog posts from the last 7 months right before thanksgiving. in combing my memory to recount the events of the last half year, i have been astounded by the amount of blessings and provisions. there is so much to be truly grateful for.
since a picture is worth a thousand words, in the place of replacement posts, here is a photo gallery of just some of those things from the last 7 months for which i'm thankful.
cups of coffee: 2
mood: my cup overfloweth
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
BLERG
in an attempt to delete drafts of old posts, i accidentally deleted the last 7 months of blog posts.
BLERG.
another reminder that technology sometimes fails us. and how temporal this world is. and how i need more sleep.
i don't enjoy learning this lesson.
cups of coffee: apparently not enough
mood: *&$^#!
BLERG.
another reminder that technology sometimes fails us. and how temporal this world is. and how i need more sleep.
i don't enjoy learning this lesson.
cups of coffee: apparently not enough
mood: *&$^#!
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