Thursday, April 29, 2010

a bird flew in and perched on me



this morning i woke up to snow again. it is that wet sleety snow that sticks on the petals of my crimson tulips. it is lovely and bizarre. this LA girl wants to know when snow ends, but it's not for me to know. the foothills of the rocky mountains teach me a lot about embracing surprise in the midst of total confusion.

hopefully a morsel of serendipity comes and sits in your lap today.

photocredit: {hollandkerker}

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

xoxo



this past weekend i had a birthday shindig. it was lovely. i especially appreciated birthday smooches!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

love story


sometimes when i am spending saturday night at home i like to play some turtle island string quartet and have a nice cold beer. i open my journal, sketch book, or blog page and begin dreaming. there is something very nice about saturday nights spent inside. i conjure up travel plans, book writing project plans, and think about all the adventures that i may or may not have some day.

tonight i'm thinking about a project a coworker and i want to do about families that live in low income motels. i am wondering what it is like for a child to grow up in a motel community with all of the unique experiences and hardships that such a living environment provides.

i am thinking about how much i admire many of the children we work with and how they walk through the hardest of circumstances with such resilience and creativity.

i would certainly like to be that brave.

photocredit: {jacksonville}

i cursed spring


two days ago i wrote that spring had definitively arrived. the next morning it began to snow. the precipitation whipped around us in an icy, windy flurry and i spent most of the morning worrying about my daffodils and whether or not they could make it through another late spring snow storm.

never be so arrogant as to assume that you can say anything definitive about the colorado weather. this is the lesson i keep learning.

i must:

dress in layers
delight in the moment
always have shoes in the car for snow
never wear paper thin cotton dresses without jackets...even in august

colorado keeps me on my toes.

photocredit: {daryllhunter}

Thursday, April 22, 2010

naughty blogger installment two: chaps


i love chaps. i am from los angeles so i'm not sure how this happened, but it did.

and there you go. on that note...

good night moon, hello pillow. sleep tight world.

photocredit: {thelovelypioneerwoman}

their names on the soles of my shoes


today i spoke with my friends. we are greek. niki, my friend is getting married soon. i cannot wait to see her commit to living life with an incredible person. they bring the world a lot as individuals and as a pair.

nikki just bought her wedding shoes. they are emerald and satin and enchanting. tonight lars, her betrothed, is out of town. she sat down with her shoes, a big glass of wine, amos lee, and a sharpie. it was the night to write the names of the single women most important to her on the bottom of her shoes.

greek girls do this when getting married. legend has it the names that are worn off by the end of the night will find love soon and those whose names remain on the shoes need to exercise patience. niki and i have never liked this tradition. it's like really? is this actually what we're doing. so if i'm single i get to live on the bottom of your shoe? my destiny is tied up in your ability to properly scuff up your heels? i object.

niki called me wondering if it was ridiculous to write on her shoe. we discussed the cultural merits and how tradition in and of itself adds a lovely dimension to any ritualized celebration. we talked about how she'd like to not have her wedding be about creating a sense of marital urgency among her friends and family.

as we were talking about this seemingly unimportant topic, i began to think about the bottoms of shoes. perhaps it is fitting to write our best friends' names on the bottom of our shoes. it is hard to cover up the wear on the bottom of the shoe. bottoms of shoes don't lie. maybe it is where best friends belong. it is the people who love us the most that walk with us through the toughest patches, that dance with us all night, and that bring us the drive and energy to get up and keeping on getting on. they are the keepers of our stories and the honesty meter. best friends hold our stories; they wear our life scars and reflect them back to us when we need a reminder to not make another poor decision, or to show us how far we've come and how resilient we really are.

i am not getting married soon like niki, but i may write the names of the people dearest to me on the bottoms of my favorite pair of shoes. it has nothing to do with the potential of my friends finding love or not finding love and everything to do with the fact that through them i've learned how to love in a more profound fashion. they, like the bottoms of my shoes, have seen my path and bear the marks of my decisions, both the asinine and enlightened ones and then all that live between. we hold each others' stories.

loved ones belong in the heart and mind, but perhaps also on the bottoms of our shoes where rubber hits the road.

photocredit: {etchedstudio}

naughty blogger


i have been a naughty blogger recently. i've dropped the ball. the border of winter and spring is always an odd time of year for me. i go into hibernation mode and spend lots of time reading and making soup and cleaning. i nest for spring.

i am afraid to say it and have another snow storm blow through and disprove me, but i'll be bold.

spring is here. it is gloriously here. the trees are budding. i stood in my yard barefoot today and let my toes sink into the frigid soft earth.


thank you winter for bowing out. you've been striking and transformative, but this girl needs her some warmer weather.

photocredit: {emily brigid}

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