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

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. 
Blessed is the love that in losing we discover.


cups of coffee:  1 so far

mood:  insane in the membrane
 

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

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:  *&$^#!

perspective

i am tired. my brain is fried, my body is both jittery from caffeine and completely wiped from lack of sleep. i am living, breathing and even dreaming of the overwhelming amount of work that stands between me and relative freedom this summer. two more weeks. and i am grouchy.

but then.

i remember the wonderful privilege i have to live in what is inarguably the greatest city in the world. i remember that it is a gift to have the physical, mental and financial capacities to attend graduate school. i remember the amazing group of friends i have here, all that i'm learning - both good and hard, and the ways the Lord has provided again and again, beyond abundance. i count all my blessings and then some. and i am truly, truly thankful.


cups of coffee: a bazillion

mood:  persevere, persevere.....

l'amour

meditating on some great quotes by c.s. lewis on love:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves 

"A woman's heart should be so close to God that a man should have to chase Him to find her" - C.S. Lewis 

and listen to this magnificent piece of music: "oblivion" by astor piazzolla.

sheer eargasm.

cups of coffee:  2

mood:  sunny days! 

the world offers itself to your imagination....

a lovely poem to meditate on today....

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

******

a little over 3 weeks left of the semester. the weather is gorgeous. officially registered for my fall classes. meeting next week to kick off the arduous process of thesis researching and writing.

the light of summer vacation is blinking, steadily and ever less faintly, at the end of the tunnel....

please, brain, don't check out now.....


cups of coffee:  2 + 1 green tea

mood: ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh