growing space

There is a lovely little patch of landscaping chaos along our little city driveway against the house. It really is chaos. At least five different plants of all types, sizes and colors is growing in this one mass unit. I love it. Its a very beautiful chaos. Red azaleas, along side white azaleas. A baby oak tree with a total of three leaves of variegated green and red colors towering above it all, some beautiful little pink flowers (I have yet to learn the name of) which hang high above the foliage displayed against the blue sky as dainty pink bells which swing low during the rain. A layer of thick airplane plants covers the ground beneath this array. Can you see it?
This is what gardening is for me. A beautiful array of colors, textures, types and heights. A painting. Painted through the growth and bloom of plants doing exactly what they were created to be and do. I'm apprehensive to post a picture of this scene because I believe my written illustration would create a perfect illusion that would over-do a picture of the actual thing in someone else's eyes. But in my eyes, the written perfect illusion is exactly what is real and what it there.
Simple pleasures.
Maybe I will post a picture someday.

I am not neglecting my blog.

Its hard to keep up with my blog during the hectic school days. My mind is so occupied with other thoughts that I have to purposely think about a blog post. Which is abnormal. Blog posts and words to almost everything always just come or are given to me. But for now I must have a separate brain folder for blogging.
My point is I have not neglected my blog. I still think about it and do want to keep it updated. :) That is all I have to say today. Have a wonderful weekend.

book recommendation

Please read this book. 

'An Elephant in the Garden' by Michael Morpurgo

It is truly wonderful. Its a simple tale, yet very profound. This line was profound to me, "In these terrible times I think it is only music that can bring us some joy and peace of mind." I just finished it, and I read a bulk of it in four days. Its only 196 pages, a good weekend read. 

Here is a piece of the book description:
"The bombing of Dresden looms ahead and Lizzie's mother, a zookeeper, persuades the zoo director to allow Marlene, a young elephant that has bonded with Lizzie and her younger brother, Karl, to be kept safe in their garden."

And this book is inspired by a combination of two true stories.

Enjoy!

just alittle writing..

Living in the past is like

laying on a swing

face down,

peering at the ground passing 

to and fro

beneath you.

Your sights never change.

The ground is the only scene you see

the only scene you participate in.

Look up!

Live in the present!

Be absorbed in the sights passing in front of you now.

Letter

Just received a letter from my sweet friend Emma Mae. Aaawwww :) I am so honored!

reading about writing

I could read articles like this-The New Yorker-On Writing in the Morning all day. In fact, I kind of have.
This article rings true with me in quite a few different ways. Not in the way of, "In the morning, I don't talk to anyone," that's not me. But I love the way the writer talks about waking up in the morning in a different place than she was overnight:

"The reason the morning is so important is that I’ve spent the night somewhere else.

This is nowhere I can describe exactly, only that it’s mysterious and limitless, a place where the mind expands. Deep, slow currents, far below the surface, shift me in ways I needn’t understand. There is no sound, no scrutiny. Waking, I’m still close to that silent, preconscious, penumbral state, still focussed inward. I’m still in that deep, noiseless place, listening to its voices, very different from those of the outside world."

Oh my, Yes! I adore that state of being with a passion.
The article gets better! At the very end, in the "This is the moment. On a good day,..." the rest of the article from there is super fantastic.
Thank you New Yorker, and Roxana Robinson for this beautiful inspirational article. 

On more week of normal-ness, my friends, before second semester is full-blown for me. Wish me luck and think of me as I cross the tumultuous sea of high school :) Happy January 8th.

Done!

That feeling of finally finishing something you've been procrastinating and completing something which you've never done before after a long hard toil. I am so feeling that right now...in fact I could probably jump over the moon! 

Look at this little guy! Thanks to my Marine Bio class, I now know all there is to know about this little fella. Who is indeed a Pygmy Seahorse, the smallest known seahorse species in the world.

The stars. I love the stars (I could say that 100+ times and I would mean it every bit as fervently, each time.) They're beautiful, mysterious, happy and so distantly far away but genuinely near at the same time.

"Stars, In your multitudes, Scarce to be counted, Filling the darkness, With order and light"

Mom and Dad

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Today you two have been married for 14 years. Congratulations! Love you both so much and not a day goes by that I am not grateful for you. Thank you for being Elliot and I's super amazing, caring parents. You're the best. Love you very much.