Life seems to be full of a great many challenges right now; everything from silly to looming. I think this is just a case of life really… but I do feel like there is a lot on people’s minds right now. I was reading an
article in the latest issue of Orion magazine by Sandra Steingraber on finances, a thing I loathe, in hopes that I would glean some wisdom from it. The article wasn’t uninteresting. Wasn’t exactly the revolutionary brilliance I’d hoped for, but she had some thoughts. So: finances, challenges... one in the same for the purposes of this post I guess.
She states: “Our stories about money, when told without nostalgia or judgment, provide perspective…” To paraphrase my take on the article: we don’t often talk about things—like the state of our finances or other challenges— because they are somehow taboo, and when we don’t talk about them with the people in our spheres, it becomes hard for us to judge reality- because we lack the perspective of real people and their real life expieriences. We become susceptible to what we read or what we are told by the news, or whomever… we become fearful and isolated thinking that we are alone in our world of troubles, when in reality; we are all pretty much in the same boat. Or maybe we are on different boats, but we’re in the same ocean. Perspective is a good and healthy thing. Perspective that comes from sharing our lives and our realitites with each other… So, all that being said, I will, if you permit, share some of my daily challenges with you. Perhaps you can relate?
Silly challenges:
- Keeping the cat from walking across my keyboard (this computer has got to last!)
- Sorting out what is wrong- and more importantly how to fix it- with my one ailing African Violet
- Washing my face every night and flossing.
- Peeing in public… and by this I mean in public restrooms, not out in the open… especially quiet ones. Or ones with long lines.
- Finding a bucket the exact size I need for the ponytail palm…
Moderate challenges
- Getting back into running (jogging- whatever) after a long winters blobification
- My ever-aging car, which, by the way, I can get HISTORIC liscence plates for this year: Dalati is turning 20 and going strong (more ore less) at 176,000+ miles…! The mechanic man says with he thinks I can get to 300,000… now that is a challenge I’ll take on…
- A new housemate- and double whammy- a dude. And while he is a pleasant and neat (keeps the seat down- at the very least!) fellow, there is all the awkwardness and adjustment that comes with sharing your very personal living space with a whole other person you barely know. (I can’t decide, this one rocks back and forth between moderate and looming...)
Looming Challenges
- Yes, finances- and the awful reality that $$ is somehow necessary in this world to do a good many things. Maybe not everything… but certain things… certain things I’d sort of like to do. Or at least plan to do in the future.
- Ah yes, and the FUTURE… Sorting out the how, and when, and what and where to be doing ones life…
- Finding an interesting, single, male individual to travel through life with… in his 30’s (give or take) with some edge- a couple of tattoos- who is kind and considerate and wants to live life with abandon and see the world, and has facial hair… but not (too much) body hair… Seriously though, why is THIS one so hard? Is that REALLY such a tall order?? Well, apparently. And actually, I might be somewhat in the minority on this one, because it seems that the reason there ARE no single, interesting males out there is that they’ve all been snatched up! Ah, well, I guess. Lower my standards or shut up and sing. Next?
- Self acceptance
- Actually that about sums it up for now. All challenges can sort of be traced back here. Is that pathetic? No, right… that is the point of all of this….
Fun Challenges, because its not all gloom, right?
- Throwing…
- Becoming a rockstar! Well, practicing my guitar, so that one day I may become a rockstar!
(PS- sometimes I don't love the way this site works... so the formatting- which looks fine in the preview- won'twork for the actual post. So it looks a little goofy. SUPER ANNOYING!)
I went for a long walk today in the fresh spring air and warm in-and-out sunshine. I wish I felt as exuberant this spring as I feel I ought to feel... as I want to feel. Instead I feel unsettled and restless... I sat with an old ent for a while in the tulip garden, hoping to absorb some groundedness. I wondered just how old the dear fellow was. How many years had he been there- how many years of weathering and growth had carved such deep lines in his bark? I must have seemed like a pipsqueak to him. Well, its kind of nice to be thought of as a pipsqueak, because sometimes I feel I'm getting old and I fear life is passing me by. And I am afraid of my inaction. And also my action. And somewhere between inaction and action is paralysis. And stagnation. And I do not want that... So. I will p u l l one foot up out of the soil of Baltimore... shake it off, wiggle my toes around- feeling the air between them, and... step... gingerly... forward...
Ok, so I don't USUALLY find far sides all that funny... but... well... in my intermediate wheel class earlier tonight Jim (the instructor), was demonstrating wadding- which is basically creating temporary little feet for your pots that so that they won't stick the shelves when fired in the wood kiln. So he's standing at the glazing table in front of the class, rolling out a coil to wad his lidded jar with- and kind of like how musicians will talk in between songs during a show- was saying how rolling out coils always reminds him of this far side. Well... struck my funny bone like... well, something serious. Haven't belly laughed like THAT in a while... I came home and looked it up: I think it is so flipping funny...! It will probably keep me chuckling to myself for a good while. Anyone else in need of a good chuckle? And hip hip hooray- tomorrow is FRIDAY! And the first official day of spring! I think I just want to weep for the pure joy of it... WE MADE IT! 
Ok, this is not the previously mentioned fun-game-post-that-is-to-come (that is for Thursday) however, since we're on the subject of moonbows... it just so happens that there is a moonbow out there right now, I thought to try and take a picture to post. Even harder than capturing moons with little plum point and shoot cameras, is capturing moons that have moonbows around them with little plum point and shoot cameras. So best out of twenty, this is what you get: some etherial, cosmic blob burning through the darkness. Perhaps this is what it looks like to die and "see the light"? Well, but anyhow, you can tell its not just a moon, right? Its not the biggest moonbow I've ever seen, but its there. (The biggest one I ever saw was in 9th grade- on a CFS trip to Nyeri in the central province of Kenya. That one was so amazing it is still firmly imprinted in my memory. Remember Kara? You saw it too, and you were way up in Northern Kenya that night...)
(If rainbows, moonbows and snowbows HAD made the first cut... well, who knows what could have been...)
Whoot! 
