Living this Week

Within the space of one short week, life has changed .

This is what living history feels like. How will the world be changed when this is past?

Interiorly, there is room for deep introspection. How will I use this time? How will I keep Sunday holy in the desert-like weeks?

Normal life is crowded with activities and rushing. In the absence of this schedule, what will my heart yearn for in the empty moments?

Grad school week one. Rambles

Afraid if I talk about my schedule people will understand just how crazy I am.

Day one Monday spent six hours just on syllabi. Thankful I was canceled at work and at home for today or I’d be panicking with overwhelm at the moment. But know what my work looks like now

Day two Tuesday, I thought I’d accomplish major amounts of coursework today. But didn’t happen. Took care of appointments, however, and got an hour fitness barre class in. realized I had completely insufficient amounts of food for the amount of energy I took up. Thankfully I was invited to get supper with close friends passing through town. Quick nap, making a pot of decaf coffee and going at another round to knock out some more lecture.

Wednesday: Found a groove after meeting with a student

Thursday: planned to wake up early and study before work, but totally snoozed my alarm way too many times. found a sweet spot again at the library before a reading lesson

At the college library. This seems like its going to be my favorite spot, early evening in a quiet spot. Keeping me going:  the flowers on the table, which  I just spray paitned to be a two tones table with white top. Opens up the room with the lighter tone. Matt Maher, late to the party to discover how great these songs are.

Fruitful

Midsummer boasts many delicious fruits: ripe peaches and plums. Promises of apple pie liger around the after school starts section. My summer is also growing full and fruitful, showing the rewards of seeds planted months ago. Some I carefully planted and tended. Others are volunteers, springing up in my life garden without asking. (Planted, others have suggested, by the Master Gardener, Whose plans are so different than my own).

Many things I’d been working on to get up and running are just beginning to show some reward for the effort. Seeds that were planted when I left for a three month travel contract in Kansas.

I spent my first shift as a volunteer on a labor and delivery unit. I did not actually get to assist with any births, but I spent several hours deep in nerd-nurse conversations with the other staff. I started working for this position way back in April, even driving 6 hours to attend an amazing seminar for training.

I take off for a trip to Florida in only two hours, to see a college friend and spend time with her near the beach. Making this the second year in a row I’ve seen both Atlantic and Pacific oceans within a months time. Two and a half weeks earlier in the year in California with family proved restful and joyful.

Weekdays find me preparing for a weekly bible study I started with a friend, inspired by the amazing community I was a part of during my time travel nursing. I met a new friend on my arrival home, and she provided the encouragement and motivation to kickstart what would have otherwise remained an unfulfilled dream. I never would have chosen to lead or start a group by myself. Thank goodness she has led most of the discussions so far, but as the last week of her summer here I’ll be on my own.

 

How is your summer bearing fruit?

This Silence

These periods of silence here, they are not an absence.

Every day I think of this space.  Pages are filled with scribbles, stop-start ramblings as I begin to write. I always carry a notebook with me, to capture these fleeting thoughts. It’s hard to organize these random bursts of understanding and newfound rhythm in my days.

when I was young “grownup” was a destination.

I’ve had a lot of reordering in my life the last year, friends. I’ve been shaken, jolted, stirred, and had to set about picking up the pieces. And not always happy about it. Answering questions: what is life after college, life after my family moved away?  The beginning of true adulthood. Funny, when I was young  it seemed “grownup” was a destination. Now I see it’s much more than that, a path perhaps but not a place.

 

 

Comfort Zone Launch

We set personal resolutions as a end of the year assignment in Psychology my junior year of college. Mine was to seek experiences that would push me beyond my comfort zone. Though I didn’t think much of this resolution at the time. My life to that point had been filled with consistency and routine. and without prodding, I usually stay well within in my comfort zone.

I didn’t realize at the time that goal would be the theme for my next two years. 

I have heard that whatever you avoid will find you at some point.  “Try to get out of my comfort zone” has been the recurring pattern over the last several years. Most of the time I would have preferred to stay well within my safe space.

Life, it seems, has other plans.

rebalance.

Hello again, world.

 

I wasn’t planning on taking an extended blogging break, but days IRL became over-stretched. The virtual world had to be set aside. The biggest thing throwing my life into chaos was trying to hold down the schedule of a day/night rotating nurse.

So, last month, I decided it was time to move on to a schedule that allowed some control and consistency. Since then, life has begun to sort itself out, one piece at a time.

Waking hours are reset to match the daylight, sleep back into night. Permanently.

Travels

No matter how far ahead I’m watching, I think I’m going to have to resign myself that I’ll never be able to see what life has in store even a month ahead of time.

A six inch long crab from a South Carolina beach.

People, cultures, places. Modern transportation has made the earth both larger and smaller. Smaller when traversing continents in days or hours, yet larger in the amount that I can explore. Growing up, even going on a weekend trip to a major city three or four hours away was a rarity. Now I have set feet on both sides of the country in one month’s time. It’s a strange feeling, this mobility. My mind adjusts slowly, not quite able to adjust to the pace yet. Perhaps in another year I will have adjusted to the roving lifestyle I find myself in.

Visiting a National Park with a Large Family

Our Family’s Trip to Yosemite with 14 people

Guest posted over at True North, in Part 1 and Part 2

My family recently moved to California, half a continent away from my grassy South Dakota hometown. This has some benefits, as now we have the opportunity to plan a special trip when I am able to travel out to visit. This year, we chose to visit our first major national park (unless you count the Badlands in Western South Dakota, which are lovely but small and not very crowded). Eleven children, two parents and my brothers guest, who just graduated from (homeschool) high school loaded suitcases under the seats two spend a two night stay in Yosemite National Park. Every age group from nine months old to adults of the early twenties was represented in our caravan. A baby, a toddler, ten older kids, and two parents, and my 16 year old brother’s friend, fourteen people in all.

A highlight of the trip was the visit from my brother’s South Dakota friend.

The most challenging part of large family travel is getting from place to place and having enough energy to enjoy the destination. In the past, my mother has used sticker books and long lasting suckers to keep the natives happy, but this year the baby of the family-a teething nine month old with a strong set of lungs, was too young to be impressed. Squeezable baby food packets, teething biscuits, and organic dried mango helped to buy time in the carseat. Rights to the coveted front seats are rotated between the children. The privileged spot comes with the responsibility of playing with the baby. The young men of the family take the job seriously and use creativity to devise the entertainment. The newest sport on the planet, Fidora Frisbee was invented in this way. The goal of the game is to throw a hat directly on the baby’s face, to her delight. It’s probably only a matter of time till this game becomes known worldwide, from its humble birthplace in the middle benches of the blue fifteen passenger van between Stockton, CA and Yosemite National Park.
Once we arrived at Yosemite National Park, walking shorter distances rather than driving allows the family a welcome break from the car. A few of the middle school aged kids take advantage of the freedom, however, and try to branch off on their own.  This means moving as a group is sometimes more like herding sheep, and before leaving a location a headcount is mandatory. Though I believe we’ve only left someone behind once in the entire family history, there was one near miss this trip before getting on a bus. Fortunately, our family friend noticed the missing child and made quick trip to check the bathrooms seconds before we boarded.
The beginning of the day is always very enjoyable on foot, but in the afternoon the younger kids lag behind. The wide age span in the family is an advantage at this point, and the three year old and five year old enjoyed shoulder rides courtesy of the teen boys for the last half of the day, to their delight. In the past we have transported children in strollers, but my mom chose to bring a baby carrier this time for added mobility. The baby was much happier being carried close to mom, and we didn’t have to use valuable car space to store it or tote one up stairs. 
sister takes a turn in carrying the baby in the pack
Motion sickness is not a unique trouble to a large family, but the high backed seats and bumpy back rows of the fifteen passenger van are particularly rough on stomachs. After many years of enduring the smells of half digested lunches, the family now always packs a large stash of Ziplock bags. Drives through curvy mountain roads are new to the family, and in the future child friendly nausea medication will be essential.
Our family is thirteen strong and incredibly nerdy. Every path brings new subject matter for discussion, exploration, and research. Since half the family are budding entomologists, a butterfly or dragonfly causes a pause in the hike. The family welcomes these pauses as moments of wonder rather than treating it as an inconvenience or telling the kids to hurry along. Yosemite furnished a variety of spiders, butterflies, and praying mantis along the trail to please this fan club. Later on, four history nerds paused to contemplate the significance of standing next to the Grizzly Giant sequoia tree where Theodore Rosevelt had camped. Fingertips touched the plaque showing the president in the exact spot where we now stood, 115 years later. Though country and culture had transformed in this time period, the face of the natural landscape remained unchanged. Contemplation of this fact sparked a discussion on rock formation and erosion led by the amateur geologists. 
Experiencing natural wonders is much different in a large family than alone or in small groups. As we explored the dramatic monoliths of Yosemite looming above meadows of wildflowers, we also enjoyed the companionship and commentary of our tribe.
This is the famous Fidora
The friendship and camaraderie in my family creates a richness I miss when I travel alone.  The multiplicity of reactions of each family member come together to form a fuller experience than could be had in a small group with a smaller age range. I will look back at my impressions of the majestic mountains alongside the exclamations of my five year old sister. Individual experiences are flat in comparison. 
The young ones bring appreciation of the smallest things on the trail. Their eyes turned downwards to the things they can reach, and while the bigger ones pause to climb the trees they pick up sticks and rocks. ‘Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints’ is the motto in the National Parks, and It always takes some convincing to make sure the youngest comply. They are open to bartering, and we phrased it this way, “You can’t pick up rocks here, but you can at the cabin outside the park limits”. Nevertheless, they leave their mark on the park, as small drawings in the sand and stacks of leaves and pinecones mark their path.

Sweet and Simple

Stop and smell the roses, they say, and these local wildflowers make a very good start.


Tiny in size, it takes effort to notice them. There is nothing extraordinary about the dozens of tiny flowers along every sidewalk, road, and path. Yet if you do bend down to notice their world, you will be rewarded with fairy-sized beauty.

Working on finding all the names for all these, but I did find that the white ones are a member of the buttercup family, and called Meadow Anemones.

Over the Mountains

Far over the misty mountains cold

….We must away ere break of day


…To dungeons deep, and caverns old…


 

This song from Tolkein’s The Hobbit began in my heart the moment the plane lifted off towards the western horizon. Like Bilbo, I’ve been in awe of mountains, since I first saw the Beartooth Mountains in Montana. Perhaps simply because the terrain stands in stark contrast to the flat grassy plains where I live, I heartily believe a real adventure should involve mountains. So we piled in the fifteen passenger to brave the recent Sierra Nevada snowstorm over the heart of the range.

Me and lil’ sis, on the shores of Lake Tahoe.