A Geographic Place of Peace

I frowned again at the words of the book in front of me. I had been trying to concentrate and actually make a dent in the massive amount of homework I had, but it wasn’t working. Looking up, I noticed the dismalness of the room. Four bare walls, a scratchy yellowy brown carpet, a small window that looked out onto the brick wall opposite.
I have to get out of here.
I jammed as many books as I could fit into my backpack and headed out the door. As soon as I had left the building I knew where I was headed. I went straight to the top of the man-made hills around MSC, a building on campus. The deep green sea of grass drew me in, a pleasant relief from the stark white walls of my room. Warm brown tree trunks each called me to them. I chose the tree farthest removed from the world and curled up against it. I could feel the rough bark against my back, and as my fingers wandered to the soft grass, I soon found that it was interspersed with twigs and dirt. I could not tell which was more solid and full of strength- the tree or the ground. All the while wind was swirling around me, teasing my hair and laughing as it dashed on. It seemed as if the wind took my cares with it as it ran. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply the scent and taste of fresh, cool freedom. Bird songs and branches rustling in the wind whispered in my ear. This must be the taste of peace.

A Sink

Partly connected to my last post, I begin with: Sometimes you feel so philosophical you wish nothing more than to grapple with life's toughest issues, but sometimes your soul aches for something very simple. Today I will write simply, about a simple, little noticed topic.

My sink.

This sink is positioned in the exact middle of counter, in Sentani, in Papua, in Indonesia, in the world, in the solar system, in the Milky Way, in the universe. It's white, shallow, not very large. It has one faucet, but another empty hole that could fit another faucet. On the top of the drain stop is the word Toto, and the plug is the same color as the medium width band across the outside of the sink. To the upper left side is a bottle of push pump hand soap. Strawberry, flourescent, and gooey. Around the outside of the bottle the label repeats the images of tiny cherries, oranges, green apples, lemons, grapes, and strawberries. The bottle itself is actually imprinted with the word "Grape."

We use soap refills.

To the right of the sink is a blue plastic glass with stars set in it. It's filled about 75% full with water; this is the cup that my cat likes to drink from. When the water gets low, it's amazing how far she can squeeze her ears back and her head in to get a sip. It's also amazing how many times she can knock it over and flood the counter, dancing away with wet paws. The counter top is a strange, non descript color. Yellowy brown spotted gray, maybe. It's more attractive than those colors made it sound, but now you won't be dissappointed if you ever see it.

So that's my sink. Set on a counter level that now reaches mid-thigh on me (I'm not sure why it's so low). That is where I brushed my teeth and washed my hands for 5 years. It's a nice sink.

Sometimes

Hardly anything is constant, is it? Something always seems to change. One day you may like it that your hair is brown, but tomorrow you may be infatuated with the idea of blue hair. Maybe you used to hate piano practice, but now you can't stop playing. You don't wear the same style of clothes you wore in grade school (I hope). You listen to different music than you did when you were five years old. Yesterday maybe you didn't want to walk in the rain because you would ruin your suede shoes, but today you're willing to ditch the flip flops and splash through a puddle.

And so this post is about sometimes. Sometimes you can't stop laughing, sometimes you can't stop crying. Sometimes you're dying to be with people, sometimes they just won't leave you alone. Sometimes words flow, sometimes the well is dry. So what do we do, when everything always changes? When nothing is the same? When what you see is not familiar, when who you're talking to you've never talked to before? What do you do?

To Family and Friend

Hello.... as it's my first post I'm not going to say much... except "hi" to the few I thought about when creating this blog.

First, to Mom and Dad and Evan... Argentina has good beef, doesn't it? The mashed potatoes are creamy too.

Second, to Ashley... lobsters are fabulously courageous, are they not?