Sunday, January 27, 2008

Please read - copied from my friend Lance..

The time to act is now - help save lives in China with 10 of your dollars - it could help so many children..

All you need is a facebook account and to check out the group Love Without Boundaries. They are based in Loudi of Hunan Province, China, where Lance taught last year. They do amazing things. Please click the above and read from Lance what he has to say and suggest.

Tuesday, January 29 before 12pm EST.

Book plug

I'm reading How to Learn Anything Quickly and let me tell ya, it's very informative. Combining what we know already a bit about - right and left- brainedness, the four major learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic), and what that means for whomever has those combinations that come of these pairings. It's already helping me see why it is that I don't get things sometimes - why it's difficult for me to remember things. Apparently I'm a tactile right-brainer, which means for me as a person that I'm prone to be very sensitive and think globally - I read people's body language and feelings more quickly than what they're actually saying...and on and on it goes, with precise and mostly to-the-point descriptions.

My secondary learning style is visual - I guess that's part of why I like to read so much! And just now it clicked - maybe this is why I would rather write someone an email than talk to them on the phone if I couldn't see them to talk.

So that's what's going on in this world today - that and saying goodbye to the first group of His House students on their winter retreat. After cleaning up shop this afternoon, a bunch of us went ice skating out to the shoals - it was amazing to look down through the 6-inch clear ice and see giant boulders not even 6 feet away beneath my hockey-skates! And wouldn't you know, the battery in my camera died without me getting any shots of it, today or yesterday either. It's about time to retire mr. A520, I'm thinking. Too bad. He served me well. And I don't want to hunt for another again.. Oh well. It could be worse.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Simply.. Amazing

The temperature has been incredibly cold lately, sufficiently so that the bay has frozen over enough now to walk from one side of camp to the other - or ski, or snowshoe, as you will. Tonight, I think it will be snowshoe-ing.

Can't put that full moon to waste when it's blazing in the night sky, can we?

And for the last several hours, I have been educating myself by reading a book about the peace corps in front of a cheery fire in the owl's nest.

I can hardly believe this is my life right now.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I wonder

why I like so many things...

would it have been easier going if I just knew I always wanted to be an astronaut?

it's so consuming to figure out.

and that's not even the most important thing in life..

but my narcissistic self would like to remind me that it is..

of course it's not. I like to hang on to ecclesiastes...

"1:24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind...5: 18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart."

It speaks pleasantly to me when I'm bitter, and tempers me down when I tend to go sky-high with crazy schemes.

And throughout all these thoughts, the snow silently blankets this home, snuggling in to bring to this northern land snowmobilers and winter recreation-seekers. That's the reality of where I am right now. And it's getting far too late for me to be writing in my drugged (they're legal, for the cold I find also silently blanketing my throat) state.

Adios!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Hm.

Somebody's excited about applying for the Peace Corps.

But I'm not going to name any names.

Friday, January 04, 2008

My New Year



The eve of this new year, I almost forgot 2007 was leaving. Hah!


In spite of that, it was still one of the best. Farouk played 'Silent Night' on the saw, Robinson discovered the Americans knew his song from China (the song was to the english eye 'If you're happy and you know it'), Nathan burst the pin(y)ata, I had jiaozi (the real dumplings, from scratch in Chinese hands that have been in the US for only a few months), wonderful jiaozi, took pictures like a tourist, and even cried a bit because my new friends were about to leave me..


I still forget to write '08 on official documents. At least I know a lot of people do this :-)