Beautifully obvious

"It all looks so beautifully obvious--in the rear mirror," wrote the novelist and social philosopher Arthur Koestler. "But there are situations where [one] needs great imaginative power, combined with disrespect for the traditional current of thought, to discover the obvious."

(From Koestler's The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe, quoted in Thomas Homer-Dixon's The Upside of Down.)

via my friend Mike

The Building Blocks of Storytelling - Ira Glass

Ira Glass from NPR "This American Life" talks about the Storytelling - so good.

Available as a four-part series on YouTube: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 and Part 4

via Putting Things Off - The Importance of Abandoning Crap

An invitation to the future

this is an invitation to an amazing future & I can guarantee it because most futures are & even if they aren't there are better things to do than blaming me about it

via StoryPeople

Bitter

LOVE indexed!

Words fall in

As we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts.

So we place them on top of our hearts.

And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks, and the words fall in.

Source: Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

image source

I'm sorry

Great article on the difference between true apologies and apologia - based in the political arena, but useful as a metaphor for teaching in all areas - what is the real difference?

Joe Wilson, Obama and the Clintons: The Dance of the Apologists

Every pull

From the urgent way lovers want each other
to the seeker's search for truth,
all moving is from the mover.
Every pull draws us to the ocean.

-Rumi

I made a mess of me

Ya'll know I'm a huge Jon Foreman/Switchfoot fan - he posted this picture on his blog the other day and it made me smile.

Just got an email this a.m. of a video they put together of their new song "Mess of Me" - I love it already:

I am my own affliction
This sickness is myself
I am my own disease

I want to reverse this tragedy

I made a mess of me
I want to get back the rest of me
I want to spend the rest of my life ALIVE

Glorious! You really are beautiful on the inside Mr. Foreman!

Two Middle Schoolers!

First Day of Middle School
Grade 8 for Alinea
Grade 6 for Jacob

 

MY new library!

 

 

 

I was offered a job a few weeks ago to be the new part-time librarian at the Milltown Elementary School - I accepted and got to see my new library today! Isn't it pretty? You can't even imagine how incredibly excited I am to have this opportunity. Helping kids fall in love with words, stories and books - what an honor.

Libraries hold a special place in my history. They have always been safe places. To be in charge of creating a safe place for young minds gives me great joy.

Twins at heart

One of the most beautiful things the internet has given me is the understanding that I am not alone. I don't know if everyone feels this way, but I spent much of my life not fitting in, feeling odd, unique or really different in so many places I've lived. One of the great things that the world wide web has going for it is that it is self-sorting. Like finds like. And I have found some amazing people, kindred souls and realized that while I am different I am not unique or alone.

One of the most surprising connections I have made was getting to know Chris. We were born a world apart, 2 months and a few days in age, but grew up in such similar, but very different ways - I read his thoughts and words and feel such a deep pull. With his red hair he had as a boy we truly looked like we could be twins. I adore him and find deep meaning in his words and thoughts. We have never met, and may never meet, but my heart has a deep connection.

I noticed one day on a facebook update by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot that they were playing an unplugged show for a free donation to a foodbank in Boise Idaho - where Chris lives. I knew that this wasn't his music, but I fb'd him and said something like "go and record it for me, I sure wish I could be there" - not really thinking anything at all about him really going, but more just a cry from a heart that lives far too away from civilization to ever be able to do anything like that again, not complaining, it's just one sacrifice we make living on the edge of the world near to all of this beauty.

I didn't think much of it until I got a note from Chris asking for my address. I gave it to him, we were switching craft projects for a fb meme we did and I thought this might be that - what he did for me was so way better. He went to that square little coffee shop for me, waited an eternity, didn't even get near the concert, but stood in line forever to get Jon Foreman to sign a book that Chris knew I'd love. He'd done some research on Switchfoot and found that they did the soundtrack to Prince Caspian, and knew that I was a Lewis fan. He bought this book for me, and after he waited in line for hours when he neared the front they turned him away. Chris begged to have Jon sign the book for me.

It's one of the most kind, intuitive, thoughtful gifts I've ever received. The book is called From the Library of CS Lewis - selections from writers who influenced his spiritual journey. Thank you Chris, my twin brother from a different mother. I adore you, you are so sweet and thoughtful and I pray some day we will be able to meet f2f. This was one of the best house warming presents I could have ever gotten.

 

 

Home is where the art is

My Aussie friend Kel left this as a comment on my last post and it was too cute to hide there:

home is where the heat is
oops, the heart is
no, the art is

Thanks Kel - it is our deep hope that this home truly is where the art is and that we can touch the creative parts of ourselves here.