Things I'm Loving

pandora radio
rocks my world. seriously.


plotting
my life is... so up in the air right now... but some exciting ventures are coming together

and brainstorming is one of my very very favorite things to do...

zen green tea
mmmmm!

my new camera
(thank you so so so much v)

grey's anatomy
i started watching this in kenya on the 'rough days' -- kelli brought her sainted hard drive with all sorts of wonderful things on it that got us through the nights that followed the days of walking through feces. anyway, i'm hooked. thursday nights = grey's.

ginger soda
for real, i can't get enough.
ginger anything, really.

meditating/breathing
sometimes i forget to breathe.
especially when i start worrying about what is next, which happens A LOT lately.
So, breathing/meditating is my new friend. Usually this lasts about 1 minute at a time, but my amazing friend jen and i meditated for 20 whole minutes straight together!

cleaning out stuff
my mom and i are doing this big time. it feels SO GOOD to purge STUFF.
My goal is to only have as much as will fit in my car.

re-reading blue like jazz
his writing blows my mind.
and makes my soul happy.

reading made to stick
i was supposed to read this when i was a teacher
but... i think i was too busy working 90 hour weeks
so i'm reading it now
and it is SO GOOD!

playing the piano
i'm amazed that my fingers remember how.



what are you loving??

Another side to MLK

On MLK day (or Civil Rights day, or whatever we're supposed to call it), I got to wondering....

What if Martin Luther King Jr. had not been assassinated?

Would his living legacy be as strong as the one that has developed with his death?

Would it be the SAME legacy if he had had the time to evolve as a speaker and advocate?

Would his messages have evolved?

Would he hold the same place in American popular media as Jesse Jackson?
Would he have run for president?
Would he go on Oprah?
etc, etc.

Today I read this post by The Edge of the American West about the MLK who isn't as remembered... the MLK who wasn't quite as 'safe' as the way we have immortalized him.
Its a super interesting read.

MLK

"Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny.
He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives.
He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy."

-Martin Luther King, Jr., The Measures of Man, 1959.

PS - The Dream speech gets me every time. I mean EVERY TIME. And every stage of life I'm in, it hits me a different way, and every time I have heard it, it has been more powerful.

My favorite photographs of 2009

Tis the Season: ADVENT CONSPIRACY

Back to the Roots - images of my 2009 fall

My welcome back to the USA - - Beautiful Idaho August

Some QT with my girls in Denver

A perfect week with my grandparents on the ranch in Arizona

These pictures of my grandma making a pie are now some of my most prized possessions - simply priceless.

A Father-Daughter trip to Yellowstone National Park

And the Grand Tetons

Harvest in Idaho

A weekend with Victor

Meeting my brother's future in-laws

A freak snow storm the first week of October

Trailing the Sheep with Mama in Ketchum

Family Reunion in Las Vegas

And coming out 10 dollars ahead!

A beautiful reunion in San Diego

Doing yard work for possibly the first time ever..

I am SO Thankful for this
wonderful, unexpected season
of rest and reconnections with my roots.

What 26 Looks Like.

On my birthday, I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. The clerk stared at my I.D. for an inappropriate amount of time, looking at me, then the I.D., then back at me...

Thinking she was wondering why I had a Texas driver's license, I started to explain that I hadn't lived in Idaho for a while.

She interrupted me, saying, "No... no.. its just that you hide it SO WELL!"

"Hide my I.D.?" I said, confused.

"No, your age! You look so much younger! GREAT JOB!"

And I thought - wow.... so this is what we've come to.

All aside, I had a wonderful birthday.
Turning 26 never felt so good.

The pizza tradition continued. My parents started celebrating my birthday with pizza waaaaay back. My birthday seemed to ALWAYS fall on a basketball game day, from about 5th grade through my senior year, and my parents would always deliver pizza for the whole team. When I left for college, they continued the tradition. Over the years, they've had pizza delivered to a hotel room in California, a classroom in Sevilla, Spain, my dorm room at Rice in Houston, two classrooms in two schools that I taught in in the gheeeeeettto in Houston, my house in Denver during the middle of grad school finals, and a pizza party for my friends in Grahamstown, South Africa. This year I got to eat it with them at the Pizza Hut in Burley.

My aunt Donna and uncle Richard came over for a fabulous dinner with lots of my favorites. It was so warm and fabulous.

The menu was rather extravagant, and complete with a VERY strong drink my dad invented for the occasion...

And for dessert - Creme Brulee!
Dad torched it to carmelize the sugar, and I was convinced the house was going to blow up..

It was delicious, and a beautiful beginning to what I am sure will be an incredible year.

A reflection on 25.

• My 25th year began in Grahamstown South Africa surrounded by so many loved ones...
• Shortly thereafter, I finished my master's thesis,
• Went on an incredible trip to islands off the coast of Kenya and Tanzania,
• Flew to Idaho for Christmas and got promptly thrown into sub-zero weather up in Sun Valley for a family bonding session,
• Visited Houston for a quick luncheon with all of my loved ones and a presentation to the Rotary District who funded my year in South Africa,
• Went to Jerusalem for 3 months to participate in a Special Program on Human Rights, where I got detained, got angry, and had my whole heart swallowed up by the situation,
  
• Visited Jordan and Egypt,
  
• Returned to Denver to finish my last quarter of graduate school,
• Went to Nairobi, Kenya for 3 months to conduct research in the largest slum in Africa where I walked through human feces almost every single day and had my flight home canceled due to terrorist threats,
  
• Returned to Idaho in one piece,
• White water rafted Hells Canyon,
• Visited my grandparent's ranch in Arizona where I learned how to bake a pie and got to listen to more Fox News than any one human should ever have to,
• Snuggled with my loved ones and presented our findings about the slum to our funders in Denver,
• Took a Father/Daughter special trip to Yellowstone,
  
• Reconnected with beloved family at a reunion in Las Vegas,
  
• Accompanied of one of my dearest friends to his sister's wedding in San Diego,
• Picked pecans right from the trees in El Paso and heard Victor present about his hot shot new job,
• Became an excellent phone answerer and sub-par label maker at Fletcher Law Office,
• And got to hang out with my parents, lay low and breathe for the first time in a really long time in Burley Idaho.

So overall - it was amazing, exhausting, overwhelming, love-filled, drama-filled, gratitude-filled, ball buster of a year. I am certainly still processing everything that happened..

26 has a lot to live up to.