A little Wendell Berry, an excerpt from The Wheel:

In a mist of light
falling with the rain
I walk this ground
of which dead men
and women I have loved
are part, as they
are part of me. In earth,
in blood, in mind,
the dead and the living
into each other pass,
as the living pass
in and out of loves
as stepping to a song.
The way I go is
marriage to this place,
grace beyond chance,
love’s braided dance
covering the world.
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“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.” –Maya Angelou
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“Sometimes it seems as though the Wildest One (you might call her God, or the Universe, or Love) is actively meddling in the affairs of mortals, like I am given a thing to learn, and then immediately after am handed the situations necessary for practice and integration.” –Beth Weaver-Kreider
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“You don’t need to attend every argument you are invited to.” –anonymous (possibly Zig Ziglar)

Gratitude List:
1. We are definitely at lap cat stage in our relationship. Thor is often so hyperactive that he’ll jump up on a lap only to jump down twenty seconds later. But now he settles in for the long haul.
2. Watching friendships form among the first years. This afternoon, during a quiz game we were playing, three students found their way to the front of the room so they could see the board better. It wasn’t long until they were giggling together, deciding to play as a team. I felt like I was getting a premonition of a long-term belongingness group taking shape. Three kids with very different backgrounds, different genders, different races, same smiles. May their friendship grow and flourish.
3. Got my glasses fixed. I am tired of carrying around a pair of readers and whipping them on and off my face for different distances.
4. The messy, idealistic dream we have of a democracy. It doesn’t always work well, and we sometimes yell and grumble instead of debating and discussing, but we’re working at it. I read Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” to my classes today for my daily poem. He makes it clear that the American Dream has failed him, but that he still believes in the promise of equality and sustenance for all. It reminded me that we DO have this ideal to fight for, flawed as we are.
5. The lessons in dreams. Last night’s dream is unsettling and full of anxiety. I think I know what my Deepest self is trying to tell me, and I am grateful for the urgent message. Perhaps if I listen, the images can be a little gentler next time.

May we walk in Beauty!