Outside the lunar eclipse is about to happen, there are shadows cast by the bright light of the pre-eclipse moon; inside, I really should be in bed, but am still wide awake and feeling guilty for my blogging silence.
I feel caught in between many tensions: between the normalcy and the crazy adventure of life, between feeling known and loved and valued and feeling judged and misunderstood and dispensable, between overwhelmingly grateful for the privileges my life has held and throwing a pity party for the hardships of the same life, between the common human experience of suffering and being confronted with stories of true suffering, between telling all and telling none.
Questions of meaning, purpose, existence are swirling in my head, and extend to this blog. What do I want to be saying here? Who is my audience? Should there be a style or a theme?
Everyone loves the stories of how different life is here. I won't disappoint; keep reading for a few salient examples. In many ways, life is still the same. I get up in the morning, put on my pants one leg at a time, eat, hang out with friends, exercise, repeat.
With no further ado, here are some of those moments where I think, huh, I'm not in California/Alaska/Washington anymore.
-It is warm at night. It is warm during the day. I went for a run the other evening because it felt lovely and cool. When I returned from the run, I checked the thermometer --> 78 degrees.
- I take a flashlight with me when I go out at night... so that I can scan the ground for snakes.
- Waving my arms in front of me is a normal approach to walking up my front walkway. The spiders insist on building their webs across it periodically.
- My house and living space teems with visible life. I've made a decision to only kill scorpions. I'll have someone else kill a snake. All other animal species are allowed to live.
- I buy vegetables out of the back of a truck when possible.
- Running or driving past a herd of cows, little kid riding a horse, or flock of chickens is more common than not.
- Saying goodbye to new friends, constantly.
- Smoothies made from hibiscus, pineapple, and passionfruit are my new favorite beverage.
Wherever you are in the world, are you looking at the same eclipse I am?
I feel caught in between many tensions: between the normalcy and the crazy adventure of life, between feeling known and loved and valued and feeling judged and misunderstood and dispensable, between overwhelmingly grateful for the privileges my life has held and throwing a pity party for the hardships of the same life, between the common human experience of suffering and being confronted with stories of true suffering, between telling all and telling none.
Questions of meaning, purpose, existence are swirling in my head, and extend to this blog. What do I want to be saying here? Who is my audience? Should there be a style or a theme?
Everyone loves the stories of how different life is here. I won't disappoint; keep reading for a few salient examples. In many ways, life is still the same. I get up in the morning, put on my pants one leg at a time, eat, hang out with friends, exercise, repeat.
With no further ado, here are some of those moments where I think, huh, I'm not in California/Alaska/Washington anymore.
-It is warm at night. It is warm during the day. I went for a run the other evening because it felt lovely and cool. When I returned from the run, I checked the thermometer --> 78 degrees.
- I take a flashlight with me when I go out at night... so that I can scan the ground for snakes.
- Waving my arms in front of me is a normal approach to walking up my front walkway. The spiders insist on building their webs across it periodically.
- My house and living space teems with visible life. I've made a decision to only kill scorpions. I'll have someone else kill a snake. All other animal species are allowed to live.
- I buy vegetables out of the back of a truck when possible.
- Running or driving past a herd of cows, little kid riding a horse, or flock of chickens is more common than not.
- Saying goodbye to new friends, constantly.
- Smoothies made from hibiscus, pineapple, and passionfruit are my new favorite beverage.
Wherever you are in the world, are you looking at the same eclipse I am?
