desktop quote & manifesto monday : grass

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i love silences. spaces between. when nothing happens.
it is magic to me to be able to sit and watch and listen
to the world happen...to my own being happen.
these are the moments i dream of when life gets busy...
it makes me hungry for these moments just thinking of them.

i used to think that the "flowers" in life were those moments
where there is an obvious accomplishment,
and that the grass was those silent spaces where i could do nothing.
so i learned to cherish those nothing moments.

but now, i am busy. and i think the metaphor has switched.
i spend most of my time doing, and not as much time
sitting and pondering.
perhaps, now is a time when all that i am accomplishing
has become the grass, and is no longer the flower.
those silent moments are my flower,
and i must learn to love the grass of "doing" just as much
as i love the "flower" of silence.

so today, as i am busy doing this and that...getting ever closer
to dreams that in the past were just that: dreams,
i will love my moments in front of a computer screen, or in a meeting
just as much as i love my moments on the couch watching the sky.

this i believe.

building an office...

ceej has been helping me in his spare time to build some
furniture for our new office...we're both so busy so it has
been a slow process. but we're hoping to make a lot of
progress this weekend, and my hope is that within the
next couple of weeks we'll have everything put together.
so our weekend will be full of trips to the hardware store,
painting, drilling, assembling, organizing.

hope your weekend has been a productive one so far!

our red rock wilderness {part one} : another reason we love living here

"something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the
remaining wilderness be destroyed...we simply need that wild country
available to us, even if we never do more than
drive to its edge and look in."

-wallace stegner

have you ever looked in to the mysteries and grand beauty
of the red rock desert?
it changes you. it slows your breath, and opens your heart and mind...
but it closes your mouth.
all you want to do is listen and watch to find out just how much this
seemingly empty place is moving and growing...thousands and thousands
of years of constant, but steady, change.

our red-rock wilderness pulls at my heart-strings.
it is a place that is incredibly stormy:
at one moment the sun shines and the dirt is cracked,
and before you know it a thunderhead has burst
and flash floods can be a danger that i have, luckily, never experienced.

it is stormy in another way:
there are tensions as to whether it should be preserved
as the great wilderness that it is,
or if it should be interrupted for our energy consumption,
or opened to development that, simply, there is not enough
water in this desert to support.

we fight to keep this wilderness...
because when it's gone, our children will miss it.
i know nature is much more powerful than us,
and could possibly heal after hundreds or thousands of years...
but i desperately want my children to know this wild place
as i have known it. and i desperately wish i knew this wild place as
it was for my grandpa as he traveled its canyons and plateaus so many decades ago.

this place will heal you.
it will whisper the most simple, but awe-inspiring secrets to your heart.

this is why we love living here. the wilderness is at our fingertips.

{by the way, did you know that much of this red rock wilderness is yours? if you live in the US, and pay your taxes, then you have a right to say what happens to this land...pretty rad, huh?}

desktop quote

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hello there!
we just returned from a few days away to our red-rock wilderness...
how was your long weekend? hope it was sunny and relaxing.
will have photos for you of our beloved desert very soon...
until then, enjoy this week's desktop quote!

the ballet : sleeping beauty, of course

how is it that going to the ballet feels oh so sophisticated and elegant
at the same time it makes me feel so whimsical and child-like?
what a wonderful experience to feel so many things during
one experience. i love seeing the audience in all its variety:
couples who have put on their best, little girls wearing their
fluffiest & twirliest dresses, sisters who link arms and laugh loudly,
country-side accents commenting on the huge talent of the dancers.

i love that moment before anything begins...when the curtain
is down, and everyone is trying to find their seats or flipping through
the program learning about the dancers' personal lives.
most of all i love the orchestra down beneath the stage practicing
difficult measures and tweaking their instruments...oh so exciting.

sleeping beauty. what a perfect valentine's day ballet.
i loved the fairytale quality: all the frills and delicate but strong
choreography. i loved the crone and her black pointe shoes,
and princess aurora and her red hair and golden tutu.

i probably took the opportunity during intermission to look up
when i could attend the adult ballet classes...trying to remind myself
that ballet is currently on my "liberation list" and will have to wait
until a time when i am not so busy with other things in life...
but, oh so tempting! ballerinas are certainly the most powerful
yet graceful beings on the planet. i have those little bits of regret
that surface now and then...wishing i would have stuck with ballet
just a little longer. you know what i'm talking about, i'm sure.

however, i couldn't decide if i wanted to be the ballerina
with the perfect arabesque or if i wanted to be the solo violinist
down beneath the stage...what music! that tchaikovsky is genius.
i found myself often leaning forward so i could peer down into
the sea of instruments where the orchestra made the magic complete.

oh my. what a lovely night we had at the ballet.
can't wait for the next one.

st. valentine brought us lots of sweet things...

dessert after lunch. a chocolate before the ballet. and chocolate cake after the ballet.
sweet indeed. my fave was having ceej home for lunch so we could surprise each
other with little gifts and notes. i especially love my surprise from ceej of pretty
potted flowers...i get to keep those as long as i'm a good little steward, and they
can sit on the new desk that ceej is currently constructing for me.

this year, i bought the sweet treats...i am trying to hold on to as many small moments
of nothingness as i can. we are busy, and i need time to sit and let my mind wander as
i stare out the window, walk around the block, or listen to violins or the piano call to me.
so, down to our fave bakery i went and took home two treats, because choosing one was
impossible. cookies and cake. and both were delicious. both were rich. but my tummy
handled it all quite nicely. thank you, dear tummy, for making my sweet valentine's
that much more enjoyable.

...photos of the ballet coming tomorrow...

desktop quote & manifesto monday: words, poetry, physicians, letters

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sunday viewing: what a "dawn patrol" looks like

this is a morning with all the guys...

{my pace is much slower...and i prefer the "scenic" pace}

watching this makes me excited for my

weekly dawn patrol with ceej.

hope you had a perfect weekend.

{video creating/editing by j. whittaker...see more here...and if you want to see ceej's dance moves click here}

Butler Fork 12-30-2010 from Jed Whittaker on Vimeo.

routines are oh so grounding...especially when they involve food