·
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Miss Zia the predator
A
sweet, little, blind mole scurried past the kitchen door. Mark opened the outside door and before we
knew it, Miss Zia was out the door and halfway across the yard.
And
that was the end of Mr. Mole.
Dogs
are dogs…prey is prey.
The Hummer in the House
I
looked outside the back door this morning and was surprised to see a beautiful
hummingbird fluttering frantically in the corner of the porch. A lost little bird.
The
poor tiny fairy-of-a-bird was trying to escape through the glass. He banged his beak against the glass
repeatedly as I watched.
How
to get him out? My resourceful spouse
went outside. I saw his face appear
outside the window. Then his hand rose
and that frightened the little bird. The
hummer did a quick u-turn and sped out the open outside porch door and found
freedom again.
Time
to fill the hummingbird feeders
Earth Day Efforts
Recently
a series of e-mail shared among family and friends focused on small ways to “go
green”. Almost all of the suggested
lifestyle changes have always been part of our repertoire.
One
“green” habit I have neglected since coming to
Today
I picked up a drying rack. I also
purchased an electric hot pot to heat our coffee water. Another small effort. Our third lifestyle change is to compost our
coffee grounds, paper, and organic stuff with the help of some red-wigglers –
yep worms! We are getting 2,000 new
pets!
·
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Peace Corps Daze..
Last
year at this time, our life in
Now,
Already
we are beginning to consider what might lie ahead. Mark’s AmeriCorps*
The
past years (Almost 4 from our April Fool’s Day Peace Corps application in
spring 2004 through our return to the
How
funny our Peace Corps experience was. No
African villages with tribal music and primitive ways. No, our experiences in
Our
Peace Corps experience was not defined by the pictures most people conjure up
when they imagine a couple years of service as a PCV. Our experience was hardly like the
experiences of PCVs in
It
was a wonderful experience…but already it seems like a dream. We are just now, after a year in the
And
yet I know I have grown from the experience and I have learned countless
things. What a blessing the experience
was.
How
grateful I am to have had it and how delighted I am to have shared it with my adventurous
sweet-spouse, my high-school sweetheart, my very-best friend, my companion, my
life-partner.
The
future is still a hazy, misty vision…but I know when the fog finally lifts, it
will be a delight…in part, because I will share it with my husband. And we have such wonderful memories to share.
·
Friday, 25 April 2008 - TGIF!
White doves wake me and doves
lull me to sleep…
It
is a pleasure to live closely with nature.
These days I am most aware of the dove-couple on our property. They wake me with their soothing call. Late in the afternoon they lull me with their
cooing.
I
wonder if they know how much joy they bring with their gentle calls. Probably not.
There is a lesson for those humans who are paying attention.
8-)
My
brother’s trip is still in progress. I
guess he is back in
My
hours with him sped by.
Who
knows when I may see him again? My
whirlwind trip is an example of the kinds of things he (and my delightful
sisters) have taught me over the years.
Stop and enjoy friends and family…make the effort…you just never know
when things will change or end…
Good
lessons my family has taught me.
- Love
now.
- Laugh.
- Count the
blessings.
- See the
good in people things, situations…the alternative is dreary, depressing
and downright sad.
- Be grateful.
- See the
abundance….
- Take a few
risks…
- Don’t make
pro-and-con lists or you will never really live…
- Stay in the
now.
- Drop
everything so you can be there…
- Live by your values…be who you are.
- Share
successes and failures…but don’t blame and call names and be judgmental…
- and
ohhhhhhh soooooooo many other things…
·
Thursday, 24 April 2008
First Day Back at Work – Always Hard!
Why is the first
day after a vacation, always soooo challenging?
I spent most of the day sifting through e-mail. Tomorrow is Friday – TGIF. Monday I can start fresh.
National Volunteer Week begins Sunday,
April 27th…
Lest we forget our
fellow volunteers…there are some advantages to the life of a volunteer. Unfortunately people frequently equate
“volunteerism” with a lack of professionalism or training. The phrase: “just a volunteer” slips through
the lips of far too many people.
If not for
volunteers (professional or otherwise) many tasks and services would never be
accomplished.
Next week is
National Volunteer Week – read the Presidential proclamation that follows…
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
April 23, 2008
National Volunteer Week, 2008
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
Through countless acts of kindness, volunteers across America are
changing our Nation for the better. During National Volunteer Week, we
recognize those who take the time to help their fellow citizens realize
the full potential of
Through volunteer work, Americans can demonstrate the kindness and
generosity that makes our Nation great. Mentoring a child, teaching
someone to read, visiting the elderly, feeding the hungry, and finding
shelter for the homeless are all examples of how Americans can and do
aid those in need. Americans are volunteering in record numbers.
Each
year, millions of Americans volunteer, and more of our fellow citizens
are discovering that the pursuit of happiness leads to the path of
service. The cumulative effort of the love and compassion from our
Nation's volunteers will help secure a more hopeful future for all our
citizens.
My Administration remains committed to building a culture of
service, citizenship, and responsibility. The USA Freedom Corps
strengthens civic engagement and volunteer service in
people connect with volunteer opportunities. By visiting the
Freedom Corps website at volunteer.gov, individuals can find information
about ways they can help in their local areas and across the country.
The strength of
citizens. National Volunteer Week is an opportunity to show
appreciation for our Nation's volunteers. The time and energy they
dedicate to helping those in need reflect the true spirit of
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
of America
and laws of the
3, 2008, as National Volunteer Week. I call upon all Americans to
recognize and celebrate the important work that volunteers do every day
throughout our country. I also encourage citizens to explore ways to
help their neighbors in need and serve a cause greater than self.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight,
and of the
and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
# # #
·
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Vacation’s Over…Noon Already
I
call in “sick” – I need a day to recuperate, recover, synthesize events…I will
stay at home today.
I
plunk down at my desk around 0830. The
plan is to sip black coffee from my favorite yellow Bosco mug and catch up on
my daily (ha daily!) journal.
My
plan went awry. Here it is noon and I am
just opening my journal.
All
my morning inspiration (and much of my morning energy) has dispersed,
disappeared, dried up or detoured.
And
I made the fatal mistake - I opened my e-mail.
After
a week of being sans-computer, my inbox is quite full of tantalizing tidbits;
tales from friends and family and many other tantalizing temptations. I failed in my discipline. I break my own rule.
But,
I enjoy it.
There
are about 300-plus e-mails waiting my tender ministrations, but they are on the
back-burner now. I manage to scan the
mass and delete the less pressing mail.
I poke out responses to several inquiries.
My
coffee is cold now and my sense of a long, delightful day in which to turn my
thoughts into word pictures has escaped me.
Since it is now afternoon, I am conscious that my sweet spouse will
bound through the door around 4 PM and I will be caught up in his life.
Then
I will have to pull my thoughts together, put on appropriate garb and take Miss
Z off to our 1730 training class. After
a week away from Miss Zia, I wonder how she will respond to the pop-quizzes the
trainer likes to pull!
Here
I sit, with a brain filled with stories to tell. Likely under the sense of pressure I am
feeling now, the tales will degenerate into a mere report on “What I Did on My Vacation.” I like it better when I can paint a word-picture,
make a snapshot of phrases, evoke a feeling, open a window for the reader…
Sigh.
On
the train (two 24-hour train rides this past week), I penned my thoughts on my
cheery yellow-paged notebook, the kind with graph paper on the reverse side. My notes help me recall events and thoughts I
would like to share or develop. I will
work at this over the next few days.
What I am Reading…
In Borders on
This book, a classic from the 60’s, explores mental and societal breakdown in an
innovative way. The term “inner science
fiction” is used to describe this tome.
I
had hoped to make considerable headway during the 24-hour train ride, but I
barely made it through the introduction.
The
train was quite crowded, so I had a seatmate.
I am capable of burying my nose in a good book, but the reading light
above my head did not work and consequently I was vulnerable to being drawn
into a conversation.
The
book (and my knitting as well as my writing) remained in my tote-bag as I
engaged in an interesting, non-stop conversation with the young scientist I
found myself elbow-to-elbow with.
The
luck of the draw was with me both coming and going. Both seat-mates were intelligent young men
who spoke of ideas, dreams, thoughts, feelings.
Around us other passengers seemed stuck in superficial conversation
while I was fortunate enough to be juggling stimulating ideas as the miles of
railroad track slipped away underneath the coach.
One
of the conversations (not necessarily the most engaging, but relevant right
now) was about reading. How does one
choose a book? There are just sooooo
many books to be read.
The
introduction to Lessing’s book has a lot to say about reading and education and
provides considerable fodder for a great discussion on this topic. (Her Marxist and Communist slant intrigue me,
especially contrasted/compared with her ideas about conformity … but I
digress.
Soooooo, what are YOU
Reading?
How
do YOU choose the books you read?
What
influences your choices?
The
pleasure of randomness and whim? Do you
have a list from a mentor? Do you read
by author or topic? This topic would
make a nice exercise for a writing class…
Why do you read - for fun or facts; for answers or entertainment; for
diversion or escape? Do you read widely
or do you have a driving interest?
Do
you re-read books? Do books affect you
differently at different places in your life and development? Do you read critically or for pleasure? How much of who you are or how you have
lived is reflected in what you get from a given book? Can a book change who you are? Can a book in itself be dangerous?
Library
books, book stores or used books? (The
ecology or the economy?) Write notes in
the margin or treat them as sacred? Finish
every book you start or finish only those that prove worthy? Novels or only non-fiction? Do you read only one book at a time or do you
have several going at once?
Do
you have someone to discuss books with or is it a private pleasure you never
really share? Do you keep a list of what
you’ve read? Do you have a list of books
you want to read?
Where
do you read? Do you ever read aloud to
yourself or to your dog, cat or spouse?
Do you read less now that you have e-mail to eat up your time?
Do
you read books friends and family send you or suggest you read?
So
many interesting nuances to the topic.
Too little time to explore and to share…(Yikes, here it is 1330 already!…)
What
5-6 books would you recommend? Of course
you may have another completely different list for me on another day, but right
now, today, what 5-6 books would you suggest that I read? I’ll compile a list on my website later… Make your list BEFORE you read the list below…
Following
is an interesting collection of “what to read”…How many have you already
read? What books should be added (or
eliminated)?
Here’s a List of 100 Books
from Time Magazine
( http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
)
This
list is limited to novels after 1923…and other criteria…but it is stimulating
to consider these books… What a hard
task to compile such a list. Visit the
website for more on this project.
In Alphabetical Order
A - B
The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow
All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral, Philip Roth
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Appointment in Samarra, John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Judy Blume
The Assistant, Bernard Malamud
At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Berlin Stories, Christopher
Isherwood
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
C - D
Call It Sleep, Henry Roth
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell
The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
A Death in the Family, James Agee
The Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance, James Dickey
Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone
F - G
Falconer, John Cheever
The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain, James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
H - I
A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
Herzog, Saul Bellow
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius, Robert Graves
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
L - N
Light in August, William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
Loving, Henry Green
Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Money, Martin Amis
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
Native Son, Richard Wright
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
1984, George Orwell
O - R
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
The Painted Bird, Jerzy Kosinski
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth
Possession, A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
Rabbit, Run, John Updike
Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions, William Gaddis
Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
S - T
The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor, John Barth
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
The Sportswriter, Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John le Carre
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf