"I lift my eyes and all is born again."

Rumi

Happy Earth Day 2013

Hard Heart

"A hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head."

- C.S. Lewis

Small Steps

“Little by little, one travels far.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien  

In the Woods

"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Feeling Stagnant and Book List Update

Yesterday I had the post-vacation blues. Nick and I did a very fun cross-state adventure over the holidays... it was something I had been looking forward to for a few weeks (really, I had wanted to do this trip for a couple of years).  It was so much fun!

Then, yesterday, I hadn't packed a lunch and therefore needed to buy something from a nearby restaurant. In that moment, I felt as if I had already tried everything I could eat with my "different" (not restrictive!) diet.

I expressed this to Nick via a text message.  A couple hours later, he showed up at work.  I still hadn't eaten lunch (because I couldn't pick anything I wanted to eat).  We took a walk, I ordered a vegan burger from The Shed, and we talked about how I was feeling.

During the walk, I remembered that Nick was playing an open mic at Second Street that evening.  I remembered that he is going to L.A. this weekend and I am going next week.  I remembered that there's actually a lot to look forward to in life.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Such as:

- Next weekend is one of my best friend's birthdays and we'll be going to Ojo Caliente, Gabriel's, and snowshoeing to San Antonio Hot Springs 
- My parents are coming to visit next month and we will be skiing, hiking and visiting breweries
- My sister is coming to visit in March and we will be going to Ojo Caliente again
- My sister is getting married this year and I will be able to see my entire extended family on both sides
- Nick and I will be visiting my dear friend Ally later this year in Whidbey Island, Washington

And there's so much more.

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves." -Andre Gide

Also, a book list update:

1.  Wind, Sand & Stars, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
2. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
3. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway*
4. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway*
5. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
6. Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
7. The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea, Joseph Conrad
8. Afterwards, You're a Genius, Chip Brown
9. Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order, George Johnson
10. The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields and What's Behind It All, Bernard Haisch
11. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
12. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
13. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez*

Blaise Pascal

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.  
-Blaise Pascal

Chapter 22 of The Life of Pi

Chapter 22 of The Life of Pi

"I can imagine an atheist's last words: "White, white! L-L-Love! My God!" - and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to the dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, "possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain," and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story. "
-Yann Martel 

Wrapped Up

"A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle."

-Benjamin Franklin

The Greatest Adventure

“The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.
The chances, the changes are all yours to make.
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.” 
 
-J.R.R. Tolkein