The soul is like a wild animal - tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy.  If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out.  But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of a tree, the creature we are waiting for may well emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a glimpse of the precious wildness we seek.

- Parker Palmer, Let your Life Speak

I'll speak for myself and say that I am OBSESSED with this design/furniture/decor duo, Nightwood.  T showed me their site and I absolutely fell in love.  We both said, though, that we've decided we want to do what they do forever: giving dead materials new life by making beautiful, functional creations.

(All images from their site).

"Snow never fails to please."

I agree.

Sludge and ice, however, fail every time.

Snowpocalypse 2k12

It snowed again.  In Seattle.  The local news station is calling it "Winter Extreme."  You may remember the snow fiasco that we had a little over a year ago when Car-mageddon hit the city: SUVs and sedans alike were strewn all over sidewalks and tossed to the bottom of icy streets.  This year, we seem to be doing a bit better.  We have yet to see much sliding, but there has been much sledding.  We got about four or five inches of snow, which is a lot for Seattle proper; the surrounding towns, however, up in the mountains got upwards of 15 inches of snow! 15!  That's crazy I tell you.


When it snows in Seattle, people go a little nuts.  It's kind of the same, freakishly happy smile as when the first warm day of summer hits Seattle.  Everyone waves and smiles at one another, conjures up small talk on the street, and comes up with the most creative ways of spending their time outside.  Seattle is known for its passive-aggressive, no-eye-contact folk, so it's a little odd.  What's even more odd is what we saw sledding down Queen Anne Hill.


Queen Anne is the neighborhood that we live in an is known for having one of the notoriously steep hills in the city.  It didn't take long for it to close to vehicles this morning.  It's also known to be one of the best sledding spots because people know that it will inevitably close to cars, it's incredibly steep, and incredibly long (any of you who have visited T and I can attest to all of that).  With no sledding devices in hand, T and I hiked up to the hill because Queen Anne sledding is definitely a worthwhile spectator sport.  Boy, it didn't let us down this year.

 Inches.

 Outfit.

 Love.

 Mattress.

 Unexpected.

Also unexpected.

Found here.

Obsessed.

How do you mark important days?  Milestones?  Anniversaries?  I'm sure it depends on the occasion.  It does for me.  This morning, I'm thinking of how I want to mark the first day of my last term of classes at The Seattle School.  Today marks the beginning of the end.  But it also marks just...a beginning.  The beginning of a completely knew, and what is sure to be surprising, chapter in my life.  I've been a student for almost twenty solid years; I'm not quite sure what to expect out of life without papers to write, stacks of books to read, maxing out my mental and emotional capacities, and hours in front of a computer screen.  The life I know ends in three and a half months.  More than that, however, more than just my identity as a student changing in April, this marks a great shift in this big journey that I'm on.  A journey that started in Chapel Hill, NC and brought me all the way across the country to this tiny little school.  A part of my journey that has shaped me in inexplicable ways and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.


Important days deserve a little extra attention.  So today, as I walk through the doors for class, I will be mindful of all that these last two and a half years have held, as well as all that is and may be before me.

My last read of the break.  I'm in the middle of it.  It's different [writing style, subject matter], but I think I really, really like it.  A good friend gave it to me for Christmas and, if nothing else, I love sharing in my friend's worlds.

“Sometimes you’re loved because of your weaknesses. 

What you can’t do is sometimes more compelling than what you can.”

Another 365 days

It's hard to believe we've arrived at 2012.  I hope you have some major plans on your calendars for this year because, according to the Mayans, this is it.  T and I decided on a whim to make a little trip out of our New Years weekend since we didn't have any big plans.  We booked a room at the Downtown Hotel in Port Angeles and drove the two and a half hours up to the Olympic Peninsula to ring in the new year.  It was a short trip, but a nice one with (way) too much good food.  We hopped in and out of antique shops, spent some time in a candy store, and ate two, yes two dinners.  Since we couldn't get a reservation at our restaurant of choice, Michael's, until 8:45, we had a little pre-dinner dinner at Downrigger's around 4, which overlooked the water.  Dinner number one at Downrigger's was odd - our waitress obviously had some personal d.r.a.m.a. getting in the way of her job performance, so we had a sufficiently awkward experience.  Dinner number two was amazing.

This photo of Port Angeles Downtown Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor

 Appetizer: Baked oysters with bacon, spinach, and basil 

aioli

 Entree: Traditional paella for two (local seafood, shellfish,

chicken, and Linguica sausage on a bed of crisped rice)

Dessert: NYE specialty chocolate tower cake with 

layers of strawberry filling, atop a vanilla custard

with a scoop of homemade raspberry ice-cream

We don't do it often, but we do it right.  Since our reservation was so late, we sort of hoped to last at Michael's until midnight.  After we downed all that food, however, the only thing that sounded good was heading back to our hotel room to change into "stretchy pants."  So we watched fireworks at the Space Needle from our hotel TV, and hoped that Jazzy wasn't freaking out at home.  (When we arrived home today, we found out that instead of freaking out about fireworks, Jazzy freaked out about being locked in our linen closet the entire time we were gone.  Oops.  We gave her lots of love and hugs to make up for it). 

As I glanced back at my New Years post 365 days ago, I reflect on 2011 and the surprises that it held for me as I imagined what it would look like on that first day of January.  So many hopes realized and so many hopes lost last year.  There were wonderful, beautiful, and joyous surprises last year, and there were also painful, dark, and heavy surprises too.  I can tell as I sit here, anticipating yet another year to come, that the last 365 days have really shaped me.  They have rocked me.  In some ways, they have made me hard and cynical.  I can tell that I don't have the same kind of boundless hope, nor do I care to even think about resolutions in the same way that I did on January 1st, 2011.  Some ideas, some relationships, some dreams don't have the same shimmer as they once may have.  While it may sound unpleasant, and it is, I am also grateful for how 2011 stretched me and will continue to.  The conversations that I have with my supervisor at my internship often circle around the "growing up" that I'm in the middle of doing.  Part of growing up is losing the innocence that we all know and desire: the starry eyed hope in the goodness of people and the world, the belief in Santa and the tooth fairy, unbridled trust and loyalty even in the midst of betrayal.  It's sad to me that often times growing up means losing some of these things.  I can also tell, however, that my growing this year has made me particularly strong and feel particularly empowered, despite my many moments of feeling the complete absence of these things.  

It's love and loss.  It's hope and cynicism.  

It's trust and doubt.  It's joy and grief.

This year is big: graduation and new jobs are in my future.  There is much to anticipate, much to hope for, much to dream of.  There is much growing to do.  Here's to 2012 being a good one whether it's the last one or not.