the silver lining in your shoes

Well, now we will see how my fantastic college experience lends itself to the blog-o-sphere, as we see whether or not I am too consistently brain dead after class to think of anything to write. You would think that I would be so mentally stimulated that I would be brimming with knowledge and ideas. For that I would probably have to sleep more. But let us wait and see what flows out anyway.

So a thing that I have been really big on is taking time to stop and try to see the beauty in things, to be grateful for what we have all around us. One thing I got to help me with this is a relatively nice camera. I have had a blast using it, and even got to try my hand at some more serious photography endeavors. One example was taking some of my sisters engagement pictures, like this one:

Aren't they so cute?

Since coming to school though, and being so caught up in the midst of things, I haven't had nearly as much opportunity to take my camera out and use it. Another problem is that I almost never leave my school's campus. I eat here, I sleep here, I go to school here, and I study here. Talk about short sighted! I guess it happens to the best of us though! I have been missing all sorts of opportunities right here in the world around me. My camera might become one of my constant companions from now on, as a trick to encourage me to look for those lovely little mysteries all around us.

It really is hard to look on the bright side of things all the time. The trick is, to have a trick! For me it is my camera. Now you might not have a camera or any inclination to take pictures, but you can always pick your own little trick. It might just be to whistle a jolly little tune as you go walking down the street, or to play a little game all of the time, like being careful not to step on the cracks in the sidewalk, or to always step on the crunchy leaves outside. Maybe you just like to wear mismatched socks, I've heard that makes your day better! You should do an experiment with that and let me know!

Here is another experiment to try, that will help make your day go better no matter what: as you go walking anywhere other people are too, try to make eye contact with and smile at as many people as you can. You will get a lot of smiles back, and you just can't help from feeling good! Sometimes I ended up laughing outright, for absolutely no real reason other than life is just a swell thing to be living. I wouldn't want to be living anything else for sure!

rebirth

Sooooo...... it has been a while since I posted. A long while. Too long in fact. But I'm going to go ahead and start again. I don't really have anything profound to say at the moment, so instead, I'm just going to give a bit of an update on what is going on right now.

I have now graduated high school, and I worked over the summer with three jobs. I was teaching piano lessons, I worked at a day care, and I was one of those people who goes around hanging those flyers on your doors. While all of this was going on I got to pack up my entire room and prepare to leave for college, and I helped get ready for my sister's wedding, and went and married her off. Congratulations sister! I love you!

Now I'm no longer working, but I am attending college, and keeping very busy. I joined the marching band here, and learned to march the glorious tuba. Marching band is over now so I am cruising along, taking 20 credits, and singing in the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and singing with a church choir.

Now that doesn't sound like too much to have going on, but is has been kind of an incredible experience so far. I never did so well at high school. I didn't like to do my homework, and my favorite pastime was to sleep in class. Now I really regret that, and wish I had gotten my butt in gear just a little bit more. Then my GPA would have been that little sliver higher to have gotten me scholarships, so I wouldn't have to be worried about money. It's a little harder to focus on some things when you are worried about money all the time. You don't really realize that until you are paying a lot out of pocket. Thank your parents now for everything they do/did for you at home! You'll miss it, I promise!

That's a little beside the point though...what I was getting at, is that even though I just did not enjoy the whole high school process too much, I am now thinking that maybe I just want to be a professional student! I've always known I loved learning, and the freedom knowledge brings, but I never quite experienced it quite like this before. Being at college has opened all sorts of doors for me, in that regard. I could do this forever, and very well may!

Speaking of which, maybe I do have a special little something to share. Here is a little poem that I wrote last semester following one of the moments when I had stopped to enjoy the little beauties of the world. I had gone down to the little river right next to campus, and spent an hour or two, just sitting under the trees, watching the water flow past, thinking about the way time, and life flows on just like the river; noticing how the little water molecules have a general goal they are 'swimming' to (downstream) but they don't go straight there. They pause in the little eddies, they swirl up and down, back and forth, in a little dance, all together, so vastly complex and beautiful. I watched the light playing off of the water, and the reflections there.

This is what I came up with.
It's called

"Can You Hear It?"

there is Music in the world all around us
be still
listen
it's there

it's in the ripple of the water
the babbling of the brook
the waving of the grass
the words in a book
the twinkling of the stars
in clarity of thought

it's united, it's one

it's Life.

Now I am definitely no poet, but I've come to discover that so many things that we think of as art, are simply different facets of the same thing, a higher understanding: a form of enlightenment, if you will. One that is often overlooked, however, or thought of as separate, is that of thought and understanding. But no, I believe it is one and the same.

The pictures in the video are mine, that I took specifically with/for this poem. Enjoy :)

Remember to stop and smell the flowers.
It's the little simple things we skip over that can be the most important if we pause to notice them