Leo will be four in July and since I have been here has morphed from a toddler into a little boy.  He loves  dinosaurs, monster trucks, books, and playing in the dirt.   Sonya  will be one  in July.  She is mastering the art of walking while dodging  the moose-like creatures who charge down the hallway when the doorbell rings, a precarious feat really.

a Leo video :

a Sonya video:

I feel very lucky to be part of the magic that is life with small children (and can say that easily because I am not the person up with them at 3 AM).  There are funny sayings (like Leo’s introducing the circus with, “Ladies and Junglemen”),  observations (If you meet a T. Rex you should bring a lot of meat with you so he will be your friend) and interpretations of the world (“Don’t touch the burning bush because it’s probably very hot.”)   It is fun  hanging out with Sonya as she learns to talk, trying out all kinds of sounds. Some, like her aboriginal clicking sounds,  aren’t even used in English!

Denver  feels like home. I love the sunshine and I love the mountains.  Please don’t throw things at me, but when I drive to work in the morning and I see the downtown Denver Buildings sparkling in the sunshine with the mountains behind them,  it looks like the Emerald City!

Life is not perfect of course. I still have two jobs, but I hope to remedy that soon. As much as I love both things that I am doing, it makes me a little weary running from one to the other.  I am helping develop a peer training curriculum and also doing evaluation for the gathering place, a day shelter for women and children.  One thing I love about both jobs is that they provide tools and support for people to transform their lives.  That’s a pretty cool thing!

My usual hangouts in addition to various coffee shops are the library (five stories of books, books and more books) and the  Botanic Gardens www.botanicgardens.org .  My intention was to volunteer at the Gardens when I first arrived , but other than a few times with one program taking plants out to senior citizens, I have been too swamped. Still, I am at the Gardens frequently….it’s very close to our house.      Like the Peninsula in Erie, I like the Gardens best in fall, winter, and spring when the fair-weather people have disappeared and it’s peaceful walking on the paths.  But I guess it would be hard to pay the overhead on a place like that if no one came, so the tons of summer visitors are a necessity and the gardens are quite beautiful in the summer!

The climate here is a strange mix which is confusing to both plants and gardeners. The very hot and dry summer days make the plants think they are somewhere warm (Arizona perhaps), but nights can get very chilly and then the peppers and eggplants are totally perplexed (“Do we grow?  Do we hunker down and do nothing? Do we go to seed? What’s a plant to do?”)  The  growing season is very short because of the altitude  so plants that take their good old time growing are shocked when an early frost comes (and their gardener is very sad). Add in the weird storms that blow in over the mountains with high winds and hail, and it can make gardening interesting and challenging, but lots of people are doing it.

Urban agriculture seems to be happening everywhere here. There are people raising chickens in the city, cultivating vegetable gardens in front yards, and keeping bees for honey. There are garden plots in city parks tended by volunteers who give the produce to the food bank or other non-profits.  I don’t have a big garden like I had in Erie, however I get to help with two different gardens for now, the rooftop garden where I work and my son’s backyard garden, which I am hoping you can see if the you tube link works….you’ll also see Dyna in this video  :  

A few months ago I hesitantly  joined Facebook so that I could see pictures of my niece Tara during her pregnancy, and I have found that I like it (for the most part).  In addition to learning Tara was in labor over Facebook, I now get to see pictures of  Tara and her little darling Annie.   I get interesting updates from people I love (and miss) and websites I care about……I learned (among other things) that the vegetarian restaurant in Erie came and went, but the Honey House Bakery is open for business, that some crazy woman drove her SUV into the restaurant Rose works at in Virginia,  and  that my brother was taking Marianne to Hawaii for her birthday (oh, no, I mean just a baseball game).    Plus Melody and I have found one more way to connect with each other!!      Lest you think that electronics are replacing my letter writing, I want to assure you that  if you write me a letter (and send it through the mail)I will  send one back!  I love getting real mail that I can sit down and read with a cup of coffee.  My family and I are doing our part to keep the post office in business. I write letters weekly and am now getting the occasional delightful letter from both Daniel (age 7) and Amanda(age 6).  I am looking forward to seeing them both in Erie very soon!

And now onto the book reviews:

The Woman Who Can’t Forget, Jill Price – a very strange and true read.  Mel and I both read this book, but we don’t recommend that you do because Price really needed an editor. It is a fascinating story, but you can read most of it on  Wikipedia. She literally remembers every detail of her life from about age 11 on.  By her twenties, it was becoming pretty immobilizing.  She didn’t really understand how different she was until she contacted a brain researcher who she heard talking on the radio.  There are some interesting questions posed by the book: Researchers know that we make choices about what we remember, so why do we remember the things we do?   The things we remember help shape the “story” of who we are, so once we have a “story line” going, do we choose what we remember so that it fits “our story”?

Bakers Creek Seed Catalog – okay, it’s not really a book, but this is one beautifully illustrated catalog and it will make  you ooh and ahh over pictures of vegetables (well, maybe you have to be a gardener to do that, but it seems to me if you were not a gardener you’d want to become one after reading this catalog.)  It’s mostly heirlooms (pictures you will want to cut out and frame) and information on organic gardening.

DMT, The Spirit Molecule, A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, Rick Strassman, MD.  This book was hard to get through and it may be another synopsis you want to check out on Wikipedia, but the idea is that humans actually have a molecule in our brains that helps us connect to alternate realities. Very interesting!

The Spectrum, by Dean Ornish, MD,  – thank you to Mike L. for pointing me in this direction.  There is a wealth of information on healthy eating and other healthy practices, but the best part of the book is the research  that shows pretty conclusively that our genes are not destiny and we can  “turn off” bad genes through healthy choices.

Chants of a Lifetime, by Krishna Das.  I saw Krishna Das in concert in April (wow was that wonderful!!) and found out that he had just written this book.  He is a down-to-earth and from-the-heart story teller.  Even if you are not into chanting, his personal story  and his reminders about spiritual practice (just keep planting the seeds, one seed at a time) speak to everyone.

Please keep in touch!      

Amy Leo Sonya

Amanda reading

Michael and Amanda

Leo and Mark W.'s grandson Lucas at Dinosaur Ridge

reading with Leo

One of the beds from the rooftop garden

It’s National Blog Posting Month (NABLOPOMMO), so it’s about time I post something to this blog. I’m determined to complete it this evening, which means it may be a little “all over the place.”   Here’s some highlights of the last few months in no particular order :

At our house, my grandson Leo’s little brother or sister is due anytime now and he is very excited!

Leo and his dad painting his sibling’s room.

Leo turned three on July 1^st and is an absolute delight!  The video below is from many months ago ( he was 2 ½) when my daughter Melody was visiting, and I of course meant to post it then.

Mel and Leo at the Botanic Gardens discussing the moon.

Some of you know that Melody has been editing a book on the history of Lincoln County, Montana, where she is living. Just in case anyone is interested, you can get a copy by sending a check for $26.95 to the Lincoln County Public Libraries Foundation,   220 West 6^th Street, Libby, Mt 59923 .   (That includes the shipping.)

I have honestly been swamped with work the last 5 months. In addition to my job at The Gathering Place, I was doing some consulting work on Recovery (mental health) and had a large report due on June 30^th. It was a great relief to have it completed!  The very next day, on July 1^st, Sam arrived for a visit!  We had a great time, went to Boulder for a few days, ate wonderful vegetarian food, went to the Botanic Gardens, and just hung out.  Leo and Sam really hit it off!

My job at The Gathering Place continues to go well.  I feel very blessed to be there. It is a wonderful heart-centered organization that provides support to women and children who are living in poverty. .…wonderful people, wonderful mission, a rooftop garden, with a great view of the mountains, sometimes a vegetarian meal in the kitchen, and we can bring our knitting and crocheting to staff meetings. How perfect is that?

I just finished crocheting a baby blanket and I visited two yarn shops Friday to pick out yarn for my next project(s).  I learned to crochet from my mother and grandmother and that’s what I’ve been most comfortable with over the years, however, I am now experimenting with some knitting!   Cheryl has promoted knitting over crocheting  for years, but, I had to apparently leave Erie to begin knitting. Of course I haven’t finished a knit project yet, so maybe I’m speaking too soon.

Besides knitting, Cheryl spins and weaves, and now is making rugs.  I got a most beautiful handmade rug from her for my birthday.   When I returned to Erie in April, Daniel and I got to see the loom.

Daniel with Cheryl’s amazing rug loom.

My brother and Marianne came to visit in  June.

Robert and Leo watching the lions.

I went of Florida in February and will heading back soon to see Amanda before she starts first grade.

Me and Amanda at the Gulf of Mexico.

I really do love it in Denver and I feel increasingly much more comfortable getting around.   I’ve managed to make my way to drum circles, Dances of Universal Peace,  book stores, the latest Harry Potter movie, and a beekeeping store (way across town to get a present for Melody). I still use the Garmin, but I usually know where I’m going.

The weather is pretty perfect. It has been in the  90s during the day and then it cools down at night. ……50s or 60s.    I walk the dogs in the morning and it actually feels kind of fall-like in the morning, but that no longer “terrifies me”  as it did in Erie (where fall leads to winter and well, we all know what that’s like!!)  It’s sunny most of the day and then in the afternoon or evening it will rain.  We’ve actually had a lot of rain this year, which is great.  Leo and I have been picking peas in the garden, and tomatoes are just starting to get red.

I’m reading a book by Donna Eden on the promise of energy medicine.  I’m not prepared to give you a book review at this time , but Eden believes there is an energetic circuit for joy.   It’s important to nurture it, pay attention to it,  be silly, have fun, dance, sing, smile.  So here are some moments of joy:

Daniel running at the beach

And what’s a blog post without book recommendations? :)

Francis Perkins, the Woman Behind the New Deal – this book is excellent!!  Perkins was the Secretary of Labor for Franklin Roosevelt.     She started off as a social worker but actually witnessed a textile fire in New York City where hundreds of  workers died.    That incident really shaped her.  She spent her entire life fighting for the rights of workers.  And she dealt with all kinds of political and personal challenges.  As the first woman cabinet member she had to deal with unbelievable sexism.  At cabinet meetings she had to wait to speak last, so they wouldn’t think she was too pushy!!  Both her husband and daughter had bipolar disorder.  Her husband was unable to work.  It’s a great story and the book is very well written.  We are indebted to Perkins for ending child labor, creating Social Security, and ensuring many of the worker’s rights we take for granted today.  She tried valiantly to also introduce national health care, but she was blocked on that issue.  Read the book!!

Speaking of National Health Care:  Here’s my suggestion:   Could we get a National Referendum to take health insurance benefits away from Senators and Representatives?  They should be in the same boat with the rest of us.  They have the absolute best health insurance, not just during their term but for the rest of their lives (So they actually HAVE national health care for themselves.)  It seems to me that if they had to purchase insurance for themselves and their family members they would be more interested in fixing the problem.

The Daily Coyote -   A beautifully written spiritual tale of a woman raising a coyote. I found the story somewhat challenging to my vegetarian sensibilities and  my wanting things to fit neatly into categories of good and bad.  The cover tells you that the coyote was orphaned, but you find out early in the book that her boyfriend shot both of the parents and all the other cubs (because that’s his job for Land Management in Wyoming) and then he brings her this cub as a gift.   I found that part very discordant.  Yet the book is very worth reading.  I would be curious to hear from any of you that have read it.

Qi Gong for Beginners, Eight Easy Movements for Vibrant Health, Stanley Wilson.  This is a great overview for beginners on Qi Gong (chi gung, either is correct).   I have been practicing a set of the “8 Pieces of Brocade” for many years after learning it at the Whole Life Center in Erie.   It consists of  8 (pretty easy to learn) movements that promote health and wellness. A complete set takes less than ten minutes a day.    I’ve been doing a lot of reading about  Qi Gong, and have found that there are many variations of the “8 Pieces of Brocade”.  At first that confused me……am I doing the “right” one?   And then I realized that in a 2,000 year old system of medicine that is Chinese Medicine, of course there would be variations.   The common themes in most of the movements are: an emphasis on breathing correctly and deeply, which not only increases oxygen but massages the internal organs; maintaining mindfulness while doing the exercises; and twisting and bending that nurtures the lymphatic system (that removes toxins form the body).  All of the practices increase Chi or vital energy.   The set of exercises in this book is a little different from the ones I practice, but it’s a great book because it explains so clearly why you should consider doing qi gong and then how to get started.

I also found this wonderful set of  websites posted by Michael Garofalo at :  www.egreenway.com He is a martial artist and practices qi gong.  He is also a gardener, so there are gardening pages too!!!  If you are at all interested in the 8 pieces of Brocade, check out his posting. There are very clear and helpful instructions.

Hope you are all having a great summer and please check in and let me know how you are!!!

I have been at my new job as the Evaluation Manager at The Gathering Place for one week!  It’s a wonderful place, with great people providing great services to women and children.  I’m very happy and am officially done looking at job websites! Hallelujah!  Amy and Leo decorated the whole house to help me celebrate!

During my interview, I was asked what my favorite movie was.  Well that was an easy one!   I love the movie Groundhog Day.  It’s very very funny, but it’s also a very spiritual movie. It doesn’t beat you over the head with it.  It just is.  Bill Murray’s character is stuck repeating the same day of his life again and again and again.Behind all the jokes, it seems to me that the over-riding message is to act from a point of love always and let go of expecting results.  It’s only when he surrenders to that concept  that his character gets unstuck. If there is anyone reading this who has never seen the movie, you should go immediately to your Netflix list and put it in your queue. Anyway, when I told Rhonda (the interviewer) it was my favorite movie, she said it was also one of hers, and actually started quoting from the movie!  I took that as a hopeful sign!

I absolutely knew I wanted to work there when I got the tour! It’s just a hub of activity with all kinds of services. But there are also places to refresh one’s soul…..knitting classes, a quiet reading room, a rooftop garden/play area for the children with a spectacular view of the Rockies!

I was very excited  when I got the call telling me the job was mine!  And the Synchronicity is that I started work on Groundhog Day Week!

Good News, Part II:

Jacob and Amy  are expecting another baby……due in July.  They are delighted! As am I!  Two year old Leo is reserving his opinion until a later date!   I’m not even going to try and guess if it’s a boy or girl…..some of you may remember I was sure Leo was a girl and was calling him Xena for many pre-birth months.  Clairvoyant I am not!

Good News, Part III:

Melody came (from Montana) to visit for a week.   We took Leo to the zoo, the library, and the Botanic Gardens. We flew kites, played Blokus(check out this game online) and just had a great time.

Melody and Leo at the Denver Zoo

Leo with alligator at the Denver zoo

Notice how Leo is near this alligator BUT the alligator is BEHIND glass, that is how it SHOULD BE!!!!.   This is unlike the alligators that live in Amanda’s back yard pond in Florida.

Mel and Leo at the Botanic Gardens

As you can see,  Denver gets some snow….we’ve had about 15 inches all season.  But also notice Melody and Leo’s shadows………….the sun shines OFTEN!

Leo and Jacob flying a kite

Melody is on the other side of this string trying to get the kite up into the air.

Good News Part IV:

I am an official Colorado resident with a driver’s license and Colorado plates on my car. I’m getting more and more places without my Garmin and feel comfortable enough when driving to listen to NPR. When I first got here I felt so confused when driving that  I could not listen to the radio and drive at the same time. (Really!)  Of course now I wonder if I should be listening to NPR everyday. They are painting a pretty gloomy picture lately!

Books

I’m currently reading No Ordinary Time, about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II.  It’s excellent!  It’s so easy to look at all of Eleanor Roosevelt’s accomplishments and think she came to them effortlessly.  So many things were an uphill struggle for her. Her mother apparently was strikingly beautiful and was very disappointed in Eleanor’s looks and treated her horribly. Eleanor struggled her whole life with depression and self esteem issues but she just got out there and did what she believed in. Very impressive!

And I just finished reading  A Freewheelin’ Time, A memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, by Suze Rotolo.  Rotolo is the  woman on the cover of Dylan’s Freewheelin album.  While the book certainly talks about Dylan, this is her memoir about her experiences during that time, so it’s not all Dylan. She had a fascinating life. Her parents were  Jewish/Italian Communists in the fifties! She struggled to fit in.  She met Dylan at 17 and was still trying to figure out her own life.  It’s a great book about the music being created in the sixties as well as one young woman trying to make sense of her world.  It’s a short easy read.  I recommend it!

Melody arrived with the book  Bats at the Library for Leo. If you are looking for a great  book for a child, check this one out.   Bats take over the library for an evening of reading. The illustrations and text are wonderful!

One final note on Ground Hog Day:    The day has its roots in the old European holiday Imbolg…..it’s a celebratory day that marks the half way point of Winter.  I know when I lived in Erie that was extremely important!  Here in Denver, we’ve had a week of 60+ degree weather.  I’m looking out my window right now at kids in the park in tee-shirts, so it’s a different kind of winter here! But for all of you who need it, know that Winter is half over!

At first glance, this may seem like a somewhat disconnected blog, but in the spirit of my book review below (Everything is Miscellaneous), I thought I’d just share some things that are going on, some things I’m thinking about, and things I’m reading, in no particular order.  After you read the book you’ll  realize that miscellaneous IS the order and that everything is connected.

We had a lovely Solstice and Christmas. I connected with friends via computer cam for Solstice.  That was amazing!  Christmas with Leo was fun and wonderful.  We talked to Amanda in Florida and Melody in Montana also with the computer cam .  Does anyone not love this technology?

We spent some of  New Year ’s Eve at the Denver Botanic Gardens.   Here are some photos from holiday week:

Leo at the Botanic Gardens

Me and Leo Christmas Day

Amy and Leo at the Botanic Gardens December 31 2008

Denver City Park December 30 2008

Yes, it really looks like this!

For anyone in Erie who is tired of snow, Melody, has feet of snow in Montana, not inches. They have had to shovel snow off  their roof three times in the last week.  Melody will get a reprieve next week when she comes to Denver for a visit. It will be great to have her here!

I’m still job hunting and hanging out with Leo. My time with Leo is immensely fun, the job hunting is interesting.  Leo loves listening and dancing to Michael Franti’s music. There are wonderful rhythms and lots of songs on peace and justice.   Check out the website    http://www.spearheadvibrations.com/    where you’ll find lots of information and the Barack Obama song if you haven’t heard it.

I will be volunteering for the Denver Botanic Gardens  starting next week. I’ll be part of the Evergreen program, taking plant projects out to groups who would have trouble getting to the Gardens, like nursing home residents.  Should be fun!

My friend’s Cheryl and Eric  have salvaged a large rug loom, which is now taking up most of their living room (as I understand it, I’ve only seen email photos.)  Cheryl is creating a prayer rug and has asked me (and others) to send a prayer written on a piece of fabric that will be woven into the rug.  I have been thinking about this for a few days. The rug will be fairly permanent, so I don’t want to scribble any old prayer down on the fabric.  I’m still working on something, but it seems to me that it will have to be about invoking connectedness.  If everyone operated from a real awareness of their connection to everyone and everything else, wouldn’t that alone change everything?

And now, my most recent books:

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Alex-Awards/dp/0743247531 Melody suggested this book.  It is a true story of the author’s childhood with emotionally absent parents, alcoholism, poverty, neglect, and abuse.  The children all escaped and survived and the author is now a successful journalist. The book is excellent, although I did wish once or twice that the author would  have expressed some anger at her parents rather than take the objective tone which she wrote in.  But I recommend it!

Everything is Miscellaneous, The Power of the New Digital Disorder, David Wineberger  Theresa suggested this book and actually heard the author presenting at a conference.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Miscellaneous-Power-Digital-Disorder/dp/0805080430

It is a fascinating account of our transition from paper record keeping (and the limits of cataloging and categorizing things with a paper system) to digital information and record keeping (where if we don’t drown in the enormous flood of data we are bombarded with, we will actually have more information at our fingertips which will increase intelligence).  The computer has moved us beyond alphabetical order or needing to place things in specific files. We can give a file (or an idea, or an email, or whatever) unlimited numbers of “tags” that can be pulled up, rather than searching in ONE file for it.  It reminded me of George Lakof’s idea that language frames reality, only Wineberger’s point seems to be that how we categorize information frames  reality.  But the book is more than that. It explains how and why Wikipedia works, the origins of the Dewey Decimal system, why gmail and this blog use tags instead of categories, and on and on.   Anyway, you have to love a book that has a chapter titled “ Messiness as a Virtue.”  There is a 50 minute u tube video on the book  at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3wOhXsjPYM

Brightest Blessings for a happy, safe, healthy, and bountiful new year to everyone and a deepening sense of awareness of our connection to all things.

Today, Jacob, Amy, Leo and I went  to the Michael Franti family concert at the Filmore.  What wonderful energy……wonderful music……wonderful lyrics.

Check him out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoaTl7IcFs8 (Really, this is a great video!)  Leo had a great time, even though he fell asleep part way through the concert.

The Filmore is a beautiful old theatre with lots of personality on East Colfax Ave. Actually, all of Colfax Ave. has a lot of personality, from funky stores and tattoo parlors to book stores and coffee shops.  It’s one of my favorite streets here not only because it is interesting, but because it runs the length of Denver to the mountains, so you can’t easily get lost on Colfax. (www.colfaxave.com)

Tomorrow will mark five weeks since I arrived in Denver.  I am not sure I can sum up all of my multiple feelings about the move. There was such a crescendo of activities and emotions before I left, starting even before the house sold. I knew in my heart that I wanted to be in Denver, but it still felt a little like I was heading down a fast moving river toward a waterfall.   Well, the sound of the waterfall must have been inside my head (just the anxiety of change and the worry about leaving people who were in my immediate touchable circle); because I rounded the curve and almost effortlessly slid into Denver…..no waterfall or even rapids!  It so feels like home already. I have wondered often in the last few weeks why I didn’t get here sooner. (And all those people in my “touchable” circle are still connected via phone, email, computer cam and of course energetically……….. I especially liked doing the computer cam with friends having dinner at Latinos….that was great!)

Still, I am in a new city and so things that were routine in Erie are an adventure here. I have a kind of spatial dyslexia and sometimes have to go places multiple times before I can remember the pattern.  One day, I attempted unsuccessfully to find the library. Leo was in his car seat and I was armed with my Garmin and three paper maps, but we drove round and round and just couldn’t find it.  Leo was laughing and laughing in the back seat because he loves when the Garmin attempts to give us directions, so we had a great time even without the library. And we did find the library the very next day and I’ve been back four times since then!  Pattern memorized!

I’ve also managed to drive myself to the downtown 16^th StreetMall to meet Debbie Z. (from Erie) for lunch, the Tattered Cover Bookstore (multiple times), various parts of the city to meet people about jobs, and all the way across town to Arvada for a Chi Gung class.  I also made it to a Wednesday night Dances of Universal Peace, which I’ve attended before when I was visiting.  Seventy people showed up on a work/school night to dance and chant.  The energy created with that many people is deeply centering and beautiful.  The Wednesday dances are only four miles from the house so I’ll be doing that pretty regularly. (www.dancesofuniversalpeace.org)

One of my other routines, walking Dyna every morning, is anything but routine. The path we walk heads east.  When we walk, the sun is just coming up, sparkling off of all the buildings; the sky is intensely blue and I think “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.” It’s not always warm here; it can be 20 degrees at night but then go up to 60 (or even 70 last week) during the day.  But here’s the thing, the 20 degrees does not bother me when I am walking in the sunshine. I often talk to Sam while I’m walking in the morning and he cannot believe how I sound. Last year, I was known to say I was going to die in the cold. And now I’m out in the 20 degree morning weather singing him the Mr. Roger’s song, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”  It’s a miracle!   And then when we turn around to the west to come home, there are the snow capped mountains in the distance.   It’s still startling to see them each time.  I live on the edge of the Rocky Mountains.  I love it!  Okay, now I’ll stop talking about how beautiful and sunny it is here.

All I can say, and I know I have repeated this to some of you multiple times, is that it feels so normal to be here and then at the same time not normal at all.  The days are very full and we are all getting into a rhythm with me being here.   I’m busy hanging out with Leo who is delightful (reading books, making puzzles, playing drums, baking bread), researching jobs, connecting with Sam, Melody, Amanda and Daniel,  making meals,  sorting out the  stuff I dragged with me, and on and on.   I have also found the time to finish the second book in the Philip Pulman trilogy, The Subtle Knife, and may finish the third book, the Amber Spy Glass, tonight. So there is this very normal routine going on.  But when I really stop to pay attention to the moment at hand, I’m somewhat in awe that I actually got myself here, and I feel really blessed to be here.  It’s just where I’m supposed to be.

“…our lives are made in these small hours
these little wonders, these twists & turns of fate
time falls away, but these small hours, these small hours still remain”

from Little Wonders, by Rob Thomas,

     I stayed away from the election coverage throughout most of the day yesterday. It was just anxiety provoking watching endless analysis and opinions, with no real facts.  But when Jacob got home he began tracking events on both the TV and his laptop.  I floated in and out of the room to get up-dates, but for the most part kept busy talking on the phone with some of you and watching past episodes of the Daily Show.  At 8:30 PM (our time) I joined Jacob and Amy in the living room and by 9 PM, Obama had been declared the president elect. We felt like dancing in the street, but Amy and I settled for dancing in the living room!  I also celebrated with chocolate (of course)!  The tide has turned!  The tipping point has been reached!  The hundredth monkey finally showed up to vote! Thank all the powers that be! 

          I’ve been in Denver 10 ½ days now. Michael sent me some wonderful video clips of 5 year old Amanda jumping/diving off a diving board at swim lessons.  She is so confident; there is no hesitation.  She just marches up there and dives in.   I remember my earliest experiences with diving. I used to stand on the board forever (with kids in line behind me fussing) trying to summon up the energy, courage, something to move off the board. It always seemed so far down to the water. Then once I did it, it was great. Well that’s been my move to Denver……………forever standing on the board, and now that I’m here it just feels so in sync.  Yes I miss so many people, but really I’m amazed about how easy this feels. And the wonderful blessings of cell phones and emails and text messages have kept me pretty constantly in touch with Sam, Daniel and everyone.  Another wonderful blessing is that since I started this blog SOME of you who have been out of touch for ages have checked in!  (You know who you are!) Another wow!

Mostly I’m dividing my time between Leo, job hunting and unpacking.

Here’s a quick summary of the last ten days:

-         Two year old Leo is absolutely delightful. He’s funny, smart and full of energy….and like his cousin Amanda, he’s very assertive and loves books!

-         The movers delivered all my stuff on Saturday.  When it was piled up on the sidewalk in front of the house, I was thinking WHY ON EARTH did I drag all this stuff with me, but once it was stacked in one small corner of the basement it didn’t look like all that much to drag around for a whole lifetime! Everything is relative.  I’d still be rejected for membership in any nomadic tribe, but I’m doing pretty okay for me in letting go of things.

-         Yesterday I unpacked my Campbell’s pottery baking bowl and Leo and I used it for mixing up muffins.  There is something so grounding about baking.

-         I had a few days of being completely time disoriented and tired…but that’s gone!

-     Dyna is still getting used to all the other animals in the house, but has stopped looking at me like,”Is it time to go home yet?”

-         Not everything is perfect.  The car has been in the shop four of the ten days I’ve been here.  Sigh.   I think it will be good to go once we pick it up today.

-         The Garmon GPS has proven invaluable!   It makes it really easy for me to venture out into the “Big City”.

-         I’ve just started job hunting and feel pretty sure the right job will manifest when it’s supposed to.

-         Lastly, Jacob says I should tell everyone that when you hear on the national news it has snowed in Denver, it may not be true. Sometimes it is just snowing in the mountains.  He’s says it’s like the story of Iceland and Greenland.  The Vikings supposedly named them the opposite of what they really were.  Iceland was green; and Greenland was cold and snowy. They created an image of cold and snow for Iceland that kept people from coming there. Sadly, after some internet research, the Viking story appears to be untrue. But Jacob says it still applies to Denver!  The sun really has been shining every day! And that’s how I am SURE I am not in Erie anymore.

       I am two weeks away from my move to Denver.  It’s hard to say good-bye to so many people.   I am sad to leave; happy to go.  It’s not linear. 

         But these many good-bye gatherings and goodbyes have sharpened my focus. Now every encounter is highlighted by the backdrop of me moving soon. It all becomes precious because I don’t know when I will see each of my Erie friends and family again.  We had a wonderful party last night at Theresa’s and a wonderful party last week with my gung fu class. There were amazing conversations and laughing and sharing and just those sparkling moments when you come together with friends.  I just want to wrap it all up and hold it in place.  But time moves forward and the only place I can hold it is in my heart, which is actually a very good place to hold it when you think about it.  In truth, we don’t ever know when we will see people again, even when we live only four blocks apart. Life is unpredictable.  Every moment IS precious.  How can it be otherwise?

        On the move itself, it seems comical that I picked the absolute worst time in the last fifty years to sell my house and now I appear to be moving at the worst of economic times. In our attempt to be frugal, Sam and I have not visited Starbucks in months, but we went after class on Thursday because I’m leaving soon and because being frugal doesn’t seem to matter. (In case you are wondering, we recommend the pumpkin spice soy  lattes !)      

          Starbucks was really hopping that night. The mood felt festive and (was it my imagination) almost giddy like an F. Scott Fitzgerald story.   At first glance there didn’t appear to be anyone there who knew that the sky was falling in. But I think they may have been feeling just like us, which was, “ Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow our 401Ks will be completely gone. ”   We were laughing and playing around with some analogies for the moment at hand. I suggested Nero fiddling while Rome burned.  Sam thought that didn’t make sense, since we are not the rulers of anything and really can’t fix the sky if it’s falling in.   He suggested a more appropriate analogy would be the musicians playing as the Titanic went down. They were promised a great time. It would help their music careers to be the group that played on the  maiden voyage of the biggest ship ever built. Everyone KNEW the ship was unsinkable. They’d be crazy not to get on board.  But they found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and acted with grace and courage.   

       Always the information junkie, I visited Wikipedia to check on these stories.  For the record, the Titanic story appears to be true. Most survivors reported the eight person band played as long as they could before the ship went down.  Wow!    That would be living in the Now.

        The Nero story, however, is not true.  It seems his enemies circulated that story when a large fire in Rome destroyed much of the city. Nero actually opened up his palace to people made homeless by the fire. (Can you imagine enemies so powerful that a rumor about you is being repeated hundreds of years later?)  Don’t feel too sorry for him though; he did plenty of ruthless things including having both his mother and brother murdered for opposing him.

           All analogies aside, “Eat, Drink and Be Merry” still kind of captures the moment for me. And isn’t that just another way of saying every moment is precious? 

       I am four weeks away from the longest planned move in human history.  I’m not sure of the length of planning time for the moon landing, but I am sure I’ve exceeded it. I’ve run into a few people who have greeted me with, “Are you still here? I thought you left years ago.”   The gestation period has been awfully long, but I know I’m moving because I’ve received two invitations for going away parties  in my honor.  The first invitation was a little disorienting….there it was in print that I was moving!

          Alternately, I’ve had  people tell me that they never thought I would go, that it was something I just liked to talk about (like people who say they are going to do a marathon some day.)  But this is really it.

          It feels odd to be in this in between space. I feel a little like I’m living in both places at once.  I know that I’m leaving soon so I am paying more attention, noticing more things, looking closely at everything to store it up in my memory.  

           I will be sad to leave so many people in Erie,  but it is my firm belief that distance is the function of the geographically measured distance (miles) divided by the INTENT to stay connected.  Did you get that? 

Here’s the equation:

the measurable distance / intent to stay connected = real distance between people

Example:

1,000 miles divided by 1,000 pounds of intent =  0 real distance J.

      You all know I will be keeping up my part of the “intent”!  And this blog will be part of the intent.  I can’t say how often I’ll write, but I hope to keep anyone who is interested up to date on my journey in Denver.  And just like when we are in person, you can expect the usual book recommendations, book reviews, and updates on gardens,  kiddos, Dyna, and spiritual work.  And with Melody’s help we might even have photos!