Hi there.

[sun_set_bravely]

Today, I went to Pearl Paint and bought myself a Curious George journal. I figured I could use the reminder that Life is not as serious as it seems.


I just booked my summer vacation. Last year, I had to ask my (now former) boss if I could please take some time off. This year, my new boss marked off two weeks on her calendar and said, "That's when I'm taking mine. Take yours whenever you want."

Last year, I took my long-necessary return trip to England. I spent a good deal of that trip immersed in self-reflection. It was wonderful. I hope to do the same thing this year. I'm spending two weeks with my family at the end of June. I'll be in Estes Park, Colorado, with my Dad and Company for one week, then I'll go home to be with my mom (and visit my sister in San Antonio!!) for the next week. I haven't seen them since December, and I miss them a lot. Especially with all the emotional turmoil going on in my life. I need a hug from my mom. And I'm mad excited to have some time off.

It's been so long since I posted anything personally detailed in my journal. I feel absent from the LiveJournal community, although I've been cherishing every entry from my LJ friends. There are so many things I want to say, and a good deal that I don't. On top of everything else, my office has been a hurricane of activity, and I don't have the time to gather all of my thoughts.

With that said, I want to thank a few people. I am cultivating gratitude in my heart, and I want to share it with y'all. Please, refrain from asking me if I'm accepting an Oscar. I don't quite know why this post poured out the way it did. These days, I'm just accepting things as they happen.

~ ~ ~

First off, a big thank you to schpahky for a lovely dinner last Friday, at the end of a hard, painful, and surprisingly illuminating week. When I e-mailed her on Tuesday to warn her of my emotional turmoil, she replied kindly, "What could be better balm than a drinky-drink at a speakeasy with a total stranger you met off the internet? Really, I can't think of anything!" The funny thing is, she was right. I can be pretty shy when it comes to meeting new people, but I felt at ease sitting across the table from schpahky (who, by the way, does a mean Homer Simpson "d'oh!"). Oh -- I forgot to compliment her on her excellent striped tights, which made me happy.

Thank you to all of you for showing me that there are a million ways to live a passionate life, all of them beautiful.

Thank you to my friend L. She's a non-LJ person, though I think she might look at the site from time to time. She's been a great help during this time, and she's encouraged me to buy jewelry for myself, which I appreciate.

Thank you to cntrygrl for opening up and giving me good advice from her own hard-earned experience. Thanks to the rest of my family, too, for their patience and love.

Thank you to my Tea Girls.

Thank you to the trees in Union Square for releasing so many tiny leaf-petals. Thank you to the wind for blowing them around like snow in a tiny globe.

Thanks to Jonatha for writing the sweetly devastating songs that have carried me to sleep for the past few weeks.

Thank you to freak1c for patience, and for silence when I most need it.

Thank you to paradelle. For showing me what courage looks like.

And thank you to these words. For existing in the world:

"We think very little of time present; we anticipate the future, as being too slow, and with a view to hasten it onward, we recall the past to stay it as it is too swiftly gone. We are so thoughtless, that we thus wander through the hours which are not here, regardless only of the moment that is actually our own."
-- Blaise Pascal

Today's Affirmation
Everything I need to be happy right now, I have right now.

Today's Meditation
Dear God,
In this moment:
I am safe and secure;
I am peaceful and a peace maker;
I am loved and loving;
I am grateful and generous;
I am hope filled and hopeful;
I am aware and awake;
I am all that I am.
And so it is.
Amen.
--Ric Beattie

Comments

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

A sweet post. Weblogs are something you can rest from once in a while, and still plunge right back in. Perhaps there's a reminder that so many things in life are that way.

Be kind to yourself.

[sun-set-bravely.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these wise words. I think you're right about weblogs, and many other life-things. I'm happy that life is not as linear as I think it is. If it were, it would be a very boring thing, indeed.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Let us thank each other until the dawn of the next millennia! And see, we didn't even get to the alcohol. We'll see where the mild manners go after a cosmopolitan and a chocolate martini.

Thanks for the stripey compliment. Don't tell anyone, but they were knee socks. I must find more, I love them so.

My one regret over the NYC weekend is that I didn't get to Union Square, where my old internship was. My heart aches to see you describe all the tiny snow-petals blowing through the Square. That was a big spring for me. Thank you.

Many continued good wishes during your sorting.