Sunscreen

My Dad emailed me a link to this video this morning and it made me happy.

Maybe you'll like it too.

(you'll probably recognize the song, but watch the video anyway. It's good)

Dirty Hands

This picture was taken on the last day of my Ph.D. seminar up in northern Cali.

There's a bit of a story behind it, if you can't already tell.

So, here's what happened.
I was a bit drained after non-stop classes and interactions and demands on my attention. I'm discovering that I'm quite accustomed to the comparatively large quantities of quiet time and alone time that I enjoy on a daily basis. When I'm surrounded by people and teachers and things I must be doing and places I must be going, I don't mind it in the moment, but eventually I get overloaded.

Such was this particular day.

The time was about 1:00pm, and I arrived in the large assembly room early. Our presenter was already there, and I helped her to arrange chairs and set out art supplies - this particular class was going to be on creativity and expression through body movement and art work. On a good day, this means amazing things that I can take into my coaching practice. On a bad day, it means we have to dance around the room like goons and draw pictures.

(this was a bad day, needless to say)

So I eventually sat down, close to the door, as people started filing in. A couple of my friends had skipped this talk, telling me about how, last seminar, this woman yelled at people who stood on the edges, refusing to dance. Usually things like this are only participatory. Yikes. I'd missed it last time because of a nasty flu (yuck), but I wanted, at least, to see what all the fuss was about.

So I opened my journal to kill time and waited for things to begin.

More people came in and found chairs and the instructor passed me for a final run to the ladies room before the hours-long presentation.

Go, I heard.

Now, it's not like I heard a voice speaking in my head, schizophrenic-style (although that does occasionally occur in a really good meditation or something like that).

In this case, I just had this overpowering feeling flit through me to get the heck away.

Ummm, WHAT?

So, I figured that this was my lazy or naysayer pieces, and I decided to treat them as a threshold guardian (a piece of the hero's journey that tests your commitment to your path of growth/learning/experience/whatever your path is), trusting that if I waited for awhile I'd have a great time.

Go.

And before I knew what was happening, I was out the door and halfway across the Presentation Center grounds, towards my cabin.

(so much for beating the threshold guardian...)

So, I entered my cabin and flopped my books down, unsure of what to do now, but sure that I was in a funk!

I decided to go on a walk down the nature trail that hugged the side of the mountain. Enormous, serene trees, soft bird calls, new bright green spring growth, perfect.

So I passed the sign, warning travelers of snakes and coyotes and bears and wild pigs and poison ivy and such, glancing at it but not really concerned because I've hiked this trail loads of times, when I heard it.

A very strange sounding animal call.

Heavy, growly breathing.

I couldn't see ahead - the lovely new spring growth was impossible to look through...

All I could think was wild pigs.

So I turned around and trotted back up the hill, away from the nature path.

(was a wild pig there? We'll never know. But that sure wasn't a squirrel, that I'm positive of...)

And now in an even greater funk, feeling thwarted at every angle, I said a little prayer asking for guidance and direction as to what I ought to spend the next couple of hours doing.

Just at that moment, I was passing the Presentation Center's greenhouse. In it, I could see a tall woman with white hair working. It was probably one of the nuns who keep the grounds (a small convent keeps the Presentation Center up and running).

Before I had time to second-guess myself (much), I was at the door of the greenhouse, saying hello and asking if she needed any help with anything.

Sister Paula and I spent the next hour and a half digging up a venerable decade old spider plant that had completely taken up one of the greenhouse table beds. The real tools were in a basement across the grounds, so we used two old spoons, a repurposed meat cleaver (AWESOME), and every now and then, a huge shovel, holding it close to the bottom, careful to not break the ceiling with the long handle.

The spider plant would not come out without a fight, and I swung that meat cleaver with the force of all my overstimulated aggression behind it. We rolled up the root mass, bit by bit, which covered the entire bottom layer of the bed, and chopped and shook and squeezed until the soil was all free, and tangles upon tangles of spider plant lay in a heap outside the door.

I haven't had that much dirt under my fingernails in at LEAST a decade, maybe two.

It was amaaaaaaaaaazing.

So, in closing, keep you mind open and follow your gut. You may just be like me and decide to take up gardening out of it! We'll have some home grown basil this year, that's for sure!
(I like to start small.)

Today's quote:
We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.
— Brian Andreas

Bird's Eye Sky

Here's a sight or two from a flight or two of mine yesterday.

Yeah, I MAY have done all the Sudokus in the back of the magazine except for the hardest one. My bad, anyone who wants to do a Sudoku that doesn't make your eyes cross....

I'm currently sitting in a meeting about the dissertation process, and my mind is wandering. Can you tell?

Happy Tuesday!

I'm Dreaming of a White January...

About now, my plan was to be arriving at the airport to fly up to northern Cali for my Ph.D. seminar (a week, twice a year. Exhausting, but necessary. I won't complain about a week on a secluded mountain either...)

However, Wednesday night, this beauty of a sky greeted me:
They say a ring around the moon means snow or (chilly) rain is coming soon. I discovered, in researching the myth later online, that the effect is caused by thin clouds made of ice crystals twenty thousand feet up. They refract the moonlight, causing rings around the moon.

So? Was it true? Did a ring around the moon mean snow was coming soon?

Well, Thursday, all day Thursday, this was going on outside:

It started out with rain awakening me before dawn, slashing against the window with a force that exceeded normal rain drops. That was because each drop had a little heart of ice in it. An hour later, only straight ice. And, after that, snow.

So, now, the roads are covered with ice, then up to a foot of snow.
Hmm.
I don't think I'll be making it to the airport, 50 miles away.

Last night I got a phone call from Southwest saying that my flight was canceled. They also said to, if possible, call back at another time to rebook because everyone on all the canceled flights (there were a few, I'm assuming) was currently calling to rebook.

No biggie. I put on my heavy socks and waited it out. Besides, what's the point of rescheduling a flight if I won't be able to make it to the airport?

This morning I discovered that the roads should be fully clear by Sunday, and that no flights are available til Monday.

So, Monday it is!

Of course, that's assuming that there's still a spot open on the flights (I haven't called yet.)

We'll see!

This morning's view out the front window:

Check out those ice cycles!I won't discuss how during the day Wednesday the temperature was up to 60 degrees. Living inland is weird.

Today's quote:
I spent a long time trying to find my center until I looked closely at it one night & found it had wheels and moved easily in the slightest breeze. So now I spend less time sitting and more time sailing.
— Brian Andreas (Story People)

In Rememberance of Howard Zinn

1922-2010

What a tragedy.

When T told me the news a few moments ago, I had to sit down. Certainly his voice of sanity and reason will be missed in our topsy turvy world. I have no words other than to quote him: "War itself is the enemy of the human race."

Zinn's site

What Is a Life Coach?

I'm aware that I've been neglecting this blog and I apologize.

In my defense, I've been busier than I can say in one sentence, and I've been thinking hard about blogging! I've got two in my noggin right now, just waiting to zing down to my fingertips, dance on my keyboard, and wiggle their way onto the world wide web...
But that doesn't count, does it?

Anyway, in lieu of the actual blog I was going to post today, I'll put an amazing video that my cousin (and journalist extraordinaire) Ispy gifted me with this morning as a surprise. When she came over for dinner and pictures a few nights before T and I drove out of Cali, she asked me what a life coach was (and other similar questions) and I blabbered on, ignoring the camera she happened to have out...

...and the below is what resulted. Yay! And who knew? Beautiful job, Ispy! Thank you!!! Made my day :)


Please ignore the dorky face at the end. Thanksssss.

...and another one...

This is what T and I will be doing tomorrow:


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Wish us luck!

Today's quote:
If you hold on to the handle, she said, it's easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it's more fun if you just let the wind carry you.
~Brian Andreas