Today we have a new student. Her name is Islah. She is from Libya. She is also a teacher.
We learned a new word. “Straggler” means late-comers.
Today is the first time to use the computer. It’s fun, but hard.
This week I’ve been working with my Moroccan friend’s husband to help him find a job. He came with a battered folder containing his important papers, like usual, and as we were going through them, one caught my eye. It was a beautiful page of darkly written arabic script carefully protected by a plastic sleeve. I commented on how beautiful the writing was and asked what it said. He told me, “It is a prayer for a blessing on my papers so that God will give me work.”
This is a man who is trying to get a job as a chauffeur. The humility and the quiet pleading for God’s provision astounds me. He tells me not working is not good for his mind and in his eyes I see that he isn’t kidding.
I add my prayer to his page, God.
dug round his fig trees,
and let the heros fight on at Troy.
Day One with my very own Trapeze. My dad made it from scratch and then proceeded to upstage me. Stay tuned for my progress.
Neuschwanstein Castle is Real
As you were driving today there was a breeze that moved the trees
beside you on the road
but it was not just a breeze
It was your Godmother
taking the form of a messenger and a well-wisher—
The kind that sees you off at the dock.
She was saying she sees you
And that she celebrates what you’re doing these days
And that you are just right.
As you were cooking today there was sun coming through the kitchen window
landing across your warm oiled pans
but it was not just sun
It was the delivery of an overture that had been composed
in the back room of an enormous castle in Germany
with the intention of wooing you into trusting
that what you have right now is enough.
You can sleep now and know that these miracles
are not just a dream.
Tomorrow and next Thursday
and three birthdays from now
you can still have this magic lodged in your spine.
Your ticket for this train is gratitude.
I have gotten into making fascinators as articulated by the one I made for the Port Angeles wedding, but inspired by Philip Tracey. Am I close yet?
You’ll see me “climbing” here and the girls who have done this a long time show me the scars they have on their ankles from rope burn. I didn’t get rope burn, but I “pinched and pulled and hurt my neck” as you can see in the last shot. This is week 2 for me.
Lady on the Moon, somehow an ancient move although apparently the first picture is from a wiccan celebration. Oops. Today we learned how to do this pose.
I started studying aerial dance. I have the same feeling of invincibility I had when I was riding horses as a kid. I watch the girls who have been doing it for years and who were born in Kazakhstan and in my mind feel like I’m just as gorgeous as them, but if I look at the photos of myself later, it’s a hilarious dissonance. But it doesn’t matter to my body because being upside-down feels so exhilarating.
The best part is that I’m venturing into this new creative territory with a friend of mine who is a refugee from Iraq! My job in Denver has proved over and over to be ripe with potential for crazy exotic rendezvous which I have only thought possible overseas. But here I am, hanging from a trapeze in Denver with my friend from Iraq.
