monotony

Seriously. I need a road trip. Maybe the near 70 miles of the Beartooth Highway that cuts and sways through Montana and Wyoming. That might do it. Stops along the way to simply suck in and hold as long as I can the Beartooth Mountain air that swirls between my hair, tickling my skin. I could drive back and forth until I have enough of the monotony of purity. I might be driving for a while. 

Oh yeah, this might help you see what I see

http://www.beartoothhighway.com/

High School Incorporated

Stay Tuned... I will add to this topic each week... KT

Today’s workplace is high school all over again. Go ahead and laugh whether you think it is true or not.  Throughout high school we spend ridiculous time figuring important stuff out like who we are, where we fit it, what we are good at or bad at. More so, it is a place where we begin to build, in some cases, life-long friendships (or life-long enemies). We move through college and in to a workforce that when you really think about it, is high school all over again. Getting a job is like trying out for the team (any team) and if you do not know the boss or someone who knows the boss, your chance for the job is cut in half. On the job interview we try to impress a bunch of people who do not know you other than by paper.  On the field, we compete against the popular kids who might suck at dribbling the ball but their parents give a lot to the Booster Club or Mom is over-flirtatious with Coach.

Introduction

I moved to a new high school mid-way through my junior year. Not the wisest thing to do, I know. I had no choice. My father’s job had us in a new city every four or five years. Looking back it was not all that bad – the moving around, that is – but there were moments that I wish we could have just settled in one place, made life-long friends in some small Berkshire town where everyone knows you (I know, that can be both a blessing or a curse). My point is really about stability, comfort and some semblance of just knowing where you were from.  Like in the “real world” as our parents sharply said to us all on numerous occasions, “In the real world, you’ll need to…” life is certainly full of the politics, burocracy and oftentimes uncertainly weal hope to be equipped to handle.

If you were like me and had to move around a lot you probably had to work really hard to keep re-impressing the same kind of people over and over again: Coaches, teachers, people in the community. 

exhilaration

dan decided to stay. said God called to him.

on the bluff you are a bit closer to God. I guess.

the sun also beats harder when you are closer.

we made our posts with four branches.

tony had moves he learned as a kid in Zambia.

the ball moved with him as he swayed and swerved.

fresh oranges and tangerines filled us up.

while we rested under shade.

exhilaration after years felt like a rush. Maybe from the sky.

balance

yesterday I was way out of balance - way way.

energy from too many sources disabled my clarity 

fogged my vision and cluttered my mind

at times I swayed, swung, and swirled among nature

finally I settled about the time our resident cardinal flew in to

the window as she does most days at about 5 p.m.

today I feel balance returning - little by little.

energy returns in a fashion of ease and clarity

the nature of my existence is like our Cardinal

I might run into something I can not see but it 

can not stop me from trying again to continue forward in

mind, body and spirit. 

double digits

at 9:56 p.m. ten years ago Ishani was born
and just as the beautiful life of a new person started
the life of a proud dreamy father began as well

as she arrived rain pounded the ground, wind swirled and swayed and thunder and lightening sounded off as if cleansing earth just for her arrival

It is easy to feel emotions for a daughter who is growing
perfectly into a person one day I know will impact this world is special ways. There is a poise and an "absolute"about her that defines her character. It is what I am most proud of.

As the day started, she put it so eloquently and with certainly, "I'm in double digits!"

"That's rights baby girl, and there is no going back!" I replied as I looked forward to the day and to the next ten years. These ten I am sure will be an entirely new experience.

word by word

I read recently that 24,000 differing words can be found in the complete works of Shakespeare. He invented about 1,700 of those words. Another interesting fact is that there are about 6,912 human languages and dialects. If you are bilingual, it kind of makes you think. 

As writers, thinkers or occasional ponderers,  and artists creating art in the form that most moves you, think about the nature of language you use or misuse. Think about the words that are missing from your composition. Think about possible miscommunication from the words you toss on to the page or on to canvas. 

Maybe I am way off and words should not be thought about as writers but rather words should come and as they do they will form your message - your voice and your movement. It has always fascinated me that at times words are pressing at my brain trying to escape and other times it is as if no words are to be found. It is as if the 1,000s of words I think I know are lost for the moment.

I also find that it is easier to write about past versus present as if the mind requires a phase to think and in some way finesse the experience so it comes out right to paper or blog. 

Nevertheless, words are everywhere and experiences are plenty if you choose to have them. Maybe words are trying to tell us to use as you wish when you wish and when the time is right for you. Lots of great moments happened the last few days. The words, however, to describe the moments are yet to arrive. They will come. In the meantime I think I will invent a few new words for fun.  

Move

It is Sunday and the morning is inching to afternoon. Breakfast is wrapping up and the breeze outside is evening out to calm and brisk. Ishani is playing with Leo who just loves to play at any time during the day. 

We all get a kick out of him dashing around the house, coming to a quick stop before the wall, turning around and dashing forward again. The observations that I make each day are usually the same as the day before but I try to see the ordinary a bit differently each day. 

It is sort of like waking up and seeing a mountain every day or hearing the same birds sing at 5 a.m. If you listen or look just a second longer you might realize that the moment is unique in that it will never happen that way again. The mountain you see look different, more defined each day. This all happens if you allow it to happen. 

Inspiration to Interconnectedness

Last week I drifted blog to blog, clicking through good, bad, and ugly stuff that exists out here in blog world. I visited a wedding after party and pit stopped in Portugal just for a second. The photos of a school being built in Liberia we most intriguing. Oh yeah, I got a peek at newborn pictures of a kid from Virginia. Interconnectedness is so close yet so far.

Although there is a lot out here, blogging is a personal, yet still, socially open process of sharing our views, experiences, political agendas and counter agendas: it's the place where your voice just might inspire. It is a place I realize more each day that shows we all have that same desire: to connect even if only one click at a time and for a brief second to for five minutes.

So as I clicked the "next blog" button I stopped at http://kityoon.blogspot.com/ and the photos enticed me and when I had nothing to write that day, I found something to write from. The picture complementing this post is of Walden Pond and it was the point of my inspiration and continued drifting. I was inspired and in turn hopefully inspiring.

As I often say, blog on and blog often. And at times, just click "next blog" to see who else is out there sharing their voice with the world.

Vaishnav Devi in Kashmir, India

This place is sought by thousands of people every day. People know of this place and try to understand what it brings to a soul. The pilgrimage carries with it what you see above only the intensity of what you see can only be as powerful as what you feel if you walk the path and hold your feet to the ground in such a way that you connect with gravel and dirt then dirt and gravel and leafs and twigs. In a certain moment a song is heard from the trees and the hills.  At this moment, I am certain your soul feels a certain lift even as freezing rain pounds the ground and your breath nearly freezes at exhale. 

the nowness of things

Careful not to recognize what is not always in your eye's view. The limitation of linear thinking and seeing is all to common in many of us. The caught-uped-ness we often fall in to most days can easily limit us to experience the full and complete range of what is happening around us. William Stafford says to be aware of the nowness of things. In effect, he suggests that we tune in to our experience in a complete way that invests all of our senses simultaneously but with independent focus and function.

With this in mind, consider the place you stand or sit now as you read and think about the range of your awareness to this "nowness" of things around you. Consider that the idea of understanding something, a moment, or  situation depends more often on the perspective you apply to that understanding than it does just saying or assuming you "get it". Ask yourself what more there might be to understand about what you say you already understand. Then continue to engage in the nowness of that experience. Peace. 

psychology of melody

speak to the gut of America 

not to the mind 

melodious words spill from the mouth 

not from the mind 

words remind us of past voices like King's

we heard in passing 

those words, like these, carried a sense of security 

not a sense of unknowingness 

speak to the gut of America and

you might become President

edge

between winter and spring

if you are outside at the right time

with the right breeze 

you can catch the edge of one season

cold, brisk, yet undeniably refreshing

I never cared for spring but on this edge

it is not all that bad