Landscape

“We are a landscape of all we have seen.” – Isamu Naguchi

A reminder:

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be” – Abraham Maslow

Be what you can be today. Today officially feels like spring and from what I can tell, everyone around here is pretty excited by it.

Years

A good reminder today:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – H. Jackson Brown

Today, I add a year.

I’m packing another bag for the weekend and this time around, I’m heading to Ohio. I cannot think of a better way to spend this weekend than with the ones I love (*my big, beautiful family from Charlottesville, D.C., on up to Ohio and even Michigan!). I just wish there was more time.

The day has already been pretty great with letters and tiny gifts in bed and even coffee and a slice of cake waiting for me in the fridge when I woke up. The sun’s out and it will be a good day to stare out the window of the car and have lots of car talks.

Photos from the past week. More –> here.

A Brief for the Defense

First day of the new school semester.

These past few days have been incredibly heavy, dark, and troubling. It is hard starting a new semester with this much weight, but I know things shift, change, and improve.

This photo was taken in Tulum, in stillness and silence.

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.

– Jack Gilbert

 

2014 goals and intentions

This is a little late, but something about sharing this here helps me feel more motivated and serious (*whatever) about these goals // intentions.

So here they are:

+ Respond with efficiency (*take care of business) . . . emails // bills // invites. . . you name it!

+ Learn to take (*some) things in life seriously . . . including myself and my work.

+Inspire others in their personal yoga + meditation practices. . . encourage others to move // breathe // and to take care of themselves!

+ Get involved in yoga in prisons // at schools // in places that yoga often doesn’t get to. . .

+ Practice more partner yoga!

+ Find a doula // massage // holistic nutrition program!

+ BE. HERE. NOW.

+ Wear my hair down more often (*be okay with wild)

+ Learn to skateboard (*oh, and surf)

+ Roller derby (*yesss . . . or just start my own)

+ Go to church

+ Don’t give up

+ Make ONE work that I am proud of

+ Learn about money and how to manage it

+ Go skydiving with Dad

+ Pause. Think. . . All before I speak

+ Complete my portfolio and website

+ Get a grant or two and get out there!

+ Go places

+ Learn how to love more fully

+ Learn how to take a good photo

+ Practice patience

+ Learn how to tell a story

+ Make a food film

+ Take care of the bad foot and listen to my body (*run when I can)

+ Live with less. . . a lot less

+ Celebrate change and keep on changing!

*** words: Brain Krans *** photo: Mnts, Nepal

The first of the month

Happy first of November! It looks like this month will be:

Big book of contemporary poetry | hot tea | plans for next semester | work | other kind of work | one-hour-of-sleep-kind-of-days | celebrations | fending off the cold rain | confused by the weather all around | making connections | rediscovering what health looks like in winter | learning to love through distance and how to talk on skype and a phone | setting aside time for leisure|

Today’s rain makes me feel more exhausted than ever. Last night, I celebrated Halloween the best way I know how (by dressing up as a man *which turned out to be a very empowering, and fascinating couple of hours) and dancing with the good ones. This morning, after only a few heavy hours of sleep, I was back at it -> writing and editing an essay before a class where we learned how to make a decent souffle.

If the rest of November is  anything like today, it will be filled with exciting times (*Phantogram tonight with brother Sam, Danny and Immy) and a lot of hard work. The rest of this weekend involves a few good meals, some projects, some essay-writing, and trying to remember how to correctly wear a sari.

The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation. -Ezra Pound

Two.

Planning for the future and getting more stuck in the past in the process. . .

“Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.” – Primo Levi

Today will be like a lot of other days around here, but I’m not too scared of it. . . yet.

[Photo: Foggy day at Jama Masjid in Delhi, India//Grace Farson]