i understand more than i can utter

I get so annoyed when people say that animals are not sentient. Bull, I say. Look into those eyes and then tell me that.

for the love of words

sometimes it really is just that simple

perspective is everything

full moon

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye

that is always saying,

with that sweet moon language,

what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

-Hafiz

welcome, 2010

May we all invite and cultivate more love and grace - for ourselves and others - into our life.

about face, forward march

I used to hate to hike. Well, more accurately, I used to hate the idea of hiking. I didn't do much of it until a few years ago. I thought it sounded boring. It was just walking, after all. Now, I'm in love with it. I love walking the terrain, looking at rocks, trees, birds, picas, lakes, streams, waterfalls, mountains, greeting the other people on the trail, eating found food (you know, berries, not lost granola bars), and breathing good, clean air. Alone or with friends, I love it. I am a bit sad about the coming of winter, but I will adapt. I bought snowshoes recently and so I will try to keep going even through the snow.

yoga poses on the beach

Photo credits: Chris Rohrman

Golden Gardens Beach, Seattle, WA

tiger mountain (no tigers, thankfully)

rattlesnake ridge hike, minus the rattlesnakes

all that you can't leave behind

it may not look like much

maybe it is not much

but it was a place i looked forward to being five days a week

for seven years

now i have just five days left

the people who breathed the life into it are long gone

so leaving won't be too hard

but maybe still, a little hard

three seconds of fame

I was on TV this morning, about not having a TV....

wordle

There is a Web-based tool called Wordle that creates a word cloud from a chunk of text. Here is what my thesis abstract produced (click on it for a larger version). 

front page news

I am on the front page of the Seattle Times right now and no one will ever know it's me. 

100 things i love in this world

Inspired by Heather:

1. The prelude to Wagner's Lohengrin

2. Green

3. Bacon

4. Mark Strand's poems Fear of the Night and Sleep

5. My bed

6. My white down jacket

7. My Diablo fountain pen

8. Rose quartz

9. Vanilla

10. Yoga

11. Being read to

12. My thesis

13. Isabelle, who is not a thing, but she won't mind

14. Apples

15. Psychology books

16. The sun

17. Irises

18. My favorite jeans

19. Water

20. Bear

21. My computer (MacBook Pro)

22. Bubble baths

23. Chants

24. Paul Delaroche's The Young Martyr

25. Paper

26. T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets

27. Harpsichord music

28. My baby blanket

29. Lavender (the flower)

30. My shower curtain

31. Cherries

32. Down pillows

33. Chagall's stained glass windows at the Fraumünster

34. U2's The Sweetest Thing

35. Silence

36. Breath

37. The smell of Happy

38. Seattle

39. The Five Spot

40. My journal

41. Tulips

42. Tapioca pudding

43. Rice pudding

44. Candles

45. My bike

46. Summer

47. Acupuncture

48. Ballard

49. Pumpkin pie

50. My red jasper heart necklace

51. Sleeping

52. Berlin

53. Meatloaf

54. Polar bears

55. Pictures of people

56. Houseplants

57. Tetley's decaf British blend black tea with milk

58. Wooden matches

59. Rocks

60. The ocean

61. Butterflies

62. Mosaics

63. Glass birds

64. Tiffany lamps (real ones)

65. My camera

66. Opera

67. Cognac

68. Silk

69. Cool grass

70. Keeshonds

71. Oysters

72. Milan Kundera novels

73. Green and Black's organic chocolate

74. My fuzzy grey sweater

75. Camelbak bottles

76. Chevre

77. Ballard Sunday Market

78. White tigers

79. Pajamas

80. Pilot Precise V5 extra fine pens

81. Apples

82. Bengal cats

83. Pacifica

84. Towels just out of the dryer

85. Sweet pickles

86. Skype

87. Cornelia Garden raspberry syrup

88. Hats, especially my knit hat and my baseball hat

89. My duvet

90. My new red wall clock

91. The Ballard fish ladder

92. Bells

93. French toast

94. Music

95. The Seattle Aquarium

96. Rabbits

97. Saturdays

98. The Ballard Sip and Ship

99. Backgammon

100. Milk, all from one cow

more snow

The novelty is wearing off, but it is beautiful! 

white as snow

Remember the cherry tree? Well, here is the winter view. 

Emily and Marty's porch...

Being outside at about 11pm it was peaceful, still, and beautiful--as it should be at all times, everywhere. 

yoga pose of the day - wheel

Also called Urdhva Dhanurasana. His head should be down, but we'll let it go this time. I mean, look at that action in his fingertips! 

As a side note, I have been asked why the WaMu teller doll is wearing shorts and a polo shirt. He is wearing his CAN (Committed Active Neighbors) outfit. CAN is the WaMu volunteer program. I'll try to display him in his WaMu uniform at some point. He also has his own trading card!

the falls

Emily took me to breakfast at the Salish Lodge today for my birthday present. It was wonderful and the misty view of the falls, spectacular. 

yoga pose of the day - airplane pose

Also called dekasana. If he were bendy enough, we'd get his chest up higher, but this will have to do.