Sunday, March 11, 2012

Me, Michigan

I've been abruptly announcing to everyone that we're moving to Michigan. Mostly, I don't believe it myself, so saying it aloud and experiencing hearing it is an exercise in extreme dislocation.

Speaking of which--holy selling-house, packing-up, finding-place-to-live, enrolling-everyone-in-new schools!  Lag Liv has been doing this with the kind of aplomb that should be inspiring or frightening, but we're not there yet.

Also, at last parent discussion (that's me and Big A) we decided that we should probably rent for a year before we build our own house. Everything that's out there is either small and dingy with wall-to-wall or huge and ostentatious with wall-to-wall. (Little A has the kind of asthma that's terrified of wall-to-wall.) One house I've been looking at repeatedly, is a not-so-charming trifecta of vinyl siding, beige carpet, and ranch rambling everywhere. It bears little connection to my dream house on Pinterest. But it sits on a lake and one of the online pictures captures the rising sun dead center through the huge windows. I could live with that view for the rest of my life.

But as Big A pointed out, it's inside a gated community and sits on a private lake, and has an obnoxious number of rooms. Where we live now--we live on the edge of a small lake, but it's a semi-public lake and we have neighbors who walk across our yard to visit friends in the nursing home on the other side. That's who we should continue to be. (See, he's not always about fart jokes!) In any case,  Big A is interviewing in Michigan again at the end of the month, so we'll have a better idea of where we could live then...

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Saturday, March 10, 2012

Mindful Embodiment

Spent yesterday in a wonderful workshop on embodied pedagogy with Jen McWeeny, learning and brainstorming ideas on how to enable students to allow experience to count as learning. I want to use more of her work in class, especially the witness circle as a way of getting everyone in class to speak (feel invited to speak).

Today, wished my parents a happy wedding anniversary and brought out the old joke about how I was born a full six days before it. Mindful embodiment, indeed.

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Friday, March 09, 2012

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Indie Earworms


I canNOT stop listening to this on repeat.


A Facebook friend identified the ragas in Bombay Bicycle Club's "Shuffle" as a mix of Kalyani/Mohanam (Carnatic) and Yaman/Bhoopali (Hindustani), if you're into Indian classical music.



And yes, it sounds a lot like Matt and Kim's "Daylight."




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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Daybreak


There is a river
rubbled wrong
with illicit sun

there is a silence
mighty, fruitful
festering

there are lies 
and examples
legs trailing

into the temple,
comprehending 
monuments

in their unruly
matted and
sultry sleep


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Sunday, February 05, 2012

T(H)AT Seattle

When not being coached on how to interview by my lovely friend P, David Fleming drew me a pretty picture. 

I can't thank P and D enough.

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Saturday, February 04, 2012

Quiet

A rubble of such wrong
a refuge made

sitting here just talking
to me, just me

I say "love" again and again
careful (so full of care)

birthing past and future
star after star

the children define words
with pictures

branching color, fencing
feeling

the root green of difficulty
rooms of blue sky

going through the (e)motions

Off to Grand Rapids today to visit the #1 Sculpture Park in the USA (are there others?) and then dinner at a friend's place until late a...