Classes have started and week two is already quite overwhelming.

While I intended to blog everyday, I am finding that too is overwhelming.  I think my intention was good... to be intentional and look for beauty in the midst of the normal, mundane even.  It was going well at first but I quickly realized there are only so many routes I can take to the library, which is where I spend the majority of my time nowadays. 

I do like having this space to process and share the beauty I find, but I will probably do so less frequently... the cliche quality over quantity is what comes to mind.

Family:
Put people under the same roof or around a table and watch it form.

It doesn't always happen...and sometimes it's dysfunctional, but most of the time it's beautiful.  It's beautiful when you begin to take interest in the lives that live around you.  It's beautiful when you realize how incomplete the family would be if one person were missing.  It's beautiful when you can look around and despite knowing the not so beautiful stuff about a person... you can still see beauty.

I'm learning family isn't defined by blood but rather by the willingness to find beauty in someone.

I am loving the snow.

    Washington D.C. trip

If I could do anything in the world... I think I would want to be a student forever.
 I would study:
-More English... maybe the more technical aspects like grammar
-Spanish and Arabic
-Gender studies
-Midwifery
-Indigenous studies
-Nutrition

...Thinking back to my post yesterday and how things come together... maybe all these things will come together in my life someday. 

You really never know what opportunities you will be given or where you will end up.  

I've thrown around various ideas for quite some time (Teach for America, teaching English, teaching on Native American reservation)... never thinking they would all come together in one opportunity.  Clicking "Commit" on the 2 year agreement to teach in New Mexico with Teach for America was the both hardest and easiest thing.  It was the easiest thing because it is such a great opportunity, but it was also the hardest because there is so much unknown and it is going to be such a challenging job.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. knew what it meant to be a person.

 

Sit. Be. 

I've always been fascinated with trees and increasingly more so since I've moved up north.  Because the majority of trees lose their leaves you're really able to see the intricacy of the branches: they grow every which way.

What I am even more fascinated with however is something you usually can't see, something below the surface.

Roots.

Roots not only absorb and transport essential nutrients for the tree to grow... they intentionally grow in the direction where the most needed soil, nutrients, and water are.  They can grow in any direction to reach these elements.  Roots also act as an anchor for the tree.  I cannot completely grasp this concept.  Trees are such strong structures and to think that something as simple and delicate as roots can keep them up is crazy!  This however does not acknowledge the fact that the roots have been underground for much longer, working silently and endlessly, preparing to be an anchor for the tree.  Roots don't quite get the credit they deserve.  When we do see a great tree that is big and intricate, that means that the roots below are even greater and more complex.   

Oops.

So much for blogging consistently...

Like many, I always seem to start the new year with great ambitions: learn a new word a day, cook great food, take more pictures, write more.  All of these require discipline and most importantly, intentionality.  It's so easy to get use to doing the same things, going to the same places, having the same conversations... There's no risk.  You can't mess up something you've been doing for so long.

It's a new year and I'm going to try again.  I know myself well enough to know I will probably not blog every day. I have always wanted to try the 365 photo a day challenge...so I'll try that.  Maybe these pictures will act as a catalyst for words. 

Day 1.