“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

The last several weeks have had a focus of patience and progress for me. I have not been feeling well… First, with a cold/flu thing and then with a muscle spasm. Because of this I have had to to be really patient with myself. I have had to force myself to slow down and take care of myself. In many ways I dislike having to do this, but I admit that it has been good for me to focus on being still and resting rather than constantly doing something.

Despite the slowness of pace I feel like I have been making progres in many ways. I have taken time to knit… which has been a lot of fun. I have also taken some time to think about my teaching. This have been good for me- I have been able to move forward mentally with my work. I feel like I am doing well, but I have been able to get my bearings and work on the things that I want to improve.

A quiet time overall though… the month of November is shaping up to be very quiet. Jon and I continue to adjust to our move- It does seem quite odd to me all the things that have changed in our lives in such a short period of time. We learn and we grow. Every day I make progress and I continue the journey learning as I go.

“Do not select a life but make the one you have strech out.

albert camus

What a lovely week. Time this week… there was a lot of time this week to play. And I love it when it can be like that. It is odd though… I can’t say that I am looking forward to going back to work tomorrow- a whole week off was just too lovely- but I am not dreading it. I did not guard today and try to save every moment of it away…

It was a good day and in fact it still is. It is getting dark and it does feel like it should be much later than 5p.m. I do miss daylights savings time, but all is well. I have a cup of tea and I have been playing in my You Think You Know Me journal. It has been a good day, but it has also been a good week.

It is still hard to believe sometimes that we are here in Essex and not in South Carolina. I know that I have said that before…. but it still seems odd… How did I get here. This is the kind of thing that I would always think of doing, but to actually do… it doesn’t seem likely, but here I am. Here I am .

It was a relaxing week… full of wandering and visiting and lots of play. Play with paper and play with yarn, play with words and play with books. Play. It is such an important part of human life, but often people forget that. I often forget that when I am in a classroom… trying to be serious and get my point across… sometimes I forget that. Play… why is it so hard to remember sometimes?

I feel that I am in a period of growth. It has been odd truly for sometimes it feels like I am coming into my own…. self? And then other times it feels like I am growing out, stretching too far… and it becomes uncomfortable. And yet at other times I can’t tell if I am growing at all… but I feel like I should be. It has been hard to explain to myself even… so I am having a difficult time putting it into words here, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

So overall… a good week and I am closing it in a good place. How was your week?

I can’t think of a better way of ringing in the first official day of half-term break… Lovely friends over for food and wine and such. It doesn’t get better than this. Our lovely guests brought of a bottle of wine and attached was the lovely card that you see above. Jon has labeled this the first Chafford Hundred Geek Dinner. Much fun was had.

You simply cannot deny the cuteness that is Cute Overload. These kissing kittens are too much.

Now that I have a reliable internet connection (note the knocking on wood as I say this) I thought that I would actually update anyone who cares to know about life and such on a more regular basis. To start things off I thought that I would share some photos from our wandering in London this weekend for Jon’s birthday. We explored and went on the “Ale Trail.” The “Ale Trail” is done by following this map across different areas of London and having a pint in the pubs listed. When you go to five pubs you get a t-shirt. Being that it was Jon’s 30th birthday we did our best to acquire a couple of t-shirts shirts yesterday. All in all it went well…. saving that the last pub ran out of t-shirts and it does get really hard to follow a map after a little while. But we had much fun and even though we missed the last train home we were able to catch the last bus 🙂 So some pictures and a promise… of sorts of more updates to follow.

We live to hear the slack-jawed gasping
We live under a halo of held breath
And when the children raise up a giant shield of laughter
It’s like they’re fending off death
And we can make something bigger
Then anyone of us alone
And then the clowns will take off their makeup
And the people will go home

Freakshow Ani Difranco

This song popped into my head today. It seemed oddly appropriate as Jon and I tear apart things at our house and celebrate the 4th of July. Things are moving so fast for us these days, but in a beautiful this is what we shoud be doing sort of way. Its amazing really.

So I hope that today you are celebrating your freedom and embracing it completely.

“Pencil It Under Not Happening”

The desire for relief is arguably most pronounced among professionals who work in face-time-intensive industries like law, the media, public relations or sales — really any industry where the reigning ethic seems to be network-or-perish, said Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist in Sudbury, Mass., and the author of “CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap!” (Ballantine, 2006).
“With cellphones and BlackBerries, people are too reachable,” Dr. Hallowell said. “We sign up for too much. So when fate intervenes, it’s better than found money. It’s found time.”

Williams, Alex. “Pencil It Under Not Happening.” The New York Times. 18 June 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/fashion/sundaystyles/18cancel.html.

That last line just caught me. The idea that fate must intervene in order to ease the stress of one’s too booked schedule is truly insane. Why is it taken as acceptable that this is the state of modern life (if one wants to be successful and highly compensated for work)?

Instead of questioning the state of things this New York Times article focuses on how people are dealing with their overwhelming and over-scheduled lives. Instead of being an active participant in their lives they hope and wait for someone- anyone- to cancel on them; be it a business luncheon or dinner with a close friend- it is a gift when someone cancels- it is a “gift of time.”

Is time not something that people could afford to gift themselves? Being that I am not a highly compensated individual who is overly book and constantly running to the next appointment it may just be that I don’t understand the demands of modern life. But truly I must ask the question, “Is this a life that is worth living?” What possible compensation could be enough to make this state of affairs acceptable- nay, not just acceptable, to be termed success?!@#!

I do not understand and frankly I don’t want to.