Author: Jana

  • too cool!

    People:
    I am sitting on a downtown street in San Diego after a full day. And I am blogging. Using someone’s wireless (thank you anonymous wireless hookup) and my laptop. Too Cool!

    Had a full, full day: San Diego Friends Meeting, Clair de Lune, Balboa Park (The Museum of Man–why is is just about men? I cannot figure that one out! Because WO-MAN would somehow be too titillating shown in all of her anthropological glory??), the Botanical Garden, a Bonsai Show, and much time walking hand-n-hand with my sweetheart and glorying at the curiosity and beauty of my kiddoes. All in all, a glorious day. San Diego, you rock!

    So GameBoy just brought me dinner so I will sign off now and get my fingers greasy. Fish tacos. YUM!

  • Beans


    thoreau’s beans, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Me, Getting a Taste of History

    I first read Walden when I was in high school. I was immediately enchanted with the leisurely style of Thoreay’s writing and I’m sure that I was more than a little infatuated with the man himself. I pictured myself his partner, roaming the forest, taking moonlit dips in Walden Pond, growing beans. So romantic, so idealistic. So peaceful and simple.

    While we were in Concord we visited Thoreau’s pond and cabin and the environs. I felt a thrum of pleasure as my body felt so at home. And it renewed my fantasy to someday live an experiment like his.

    From Chapter 7 of Walden, “The Bean-Field”:

    “I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antæus. But why should I raise them? Only Heaven knows. This was my curious labor all summer — to make this portion of the earth’s surface, which had yielded only cinquefoil, blackberries, johnswort, and the like, before, sweet wild fruits and pleasant flowers, produce instead this pulse. What shall I learn of beans or beans of me? I cherish them, I hoe them, early and late I have an eye to them; and this is my day’s work….
    We are wont to forget that the sun looks on our cultivated fields and on the prairies and forests without distinction. They all reflect and absorb his rays alike, and the former make but a small part of the glorious picture which he beholds in his daily course. In his view the earth is all equally cultivated like a garden. Therefore we should receive the benefit of his light and heat with a corresponding trust and magnanimity. What though I value the seed of these beans, and harvest that in the fall of the year? … These beans have results which are not harvested by me. Do they not grow for woodchucks partly? The ear of wheat should not be the only hope of the husbandman; its kernel or grain is not all that it bears. How, then, can our harvest fail? Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds? It matters little comparatively whether the fields fill the farmer’s barns. The true husbandman will cease from anxiety, as the squirrels manifest no concern whether the woods will bear chestnuts this year or not, and finish his labor with every day, relinquishing all claim to the produce of his fields, and sacrificing in his mind not only his first but his last fruits also.

    And from the Conclusion of Walden, a quotation that bears frequent pondering:

    I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of h[er] dreams, and endeavors to live the life which [s]he has imagined, [s]he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. [S]he will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within h[er]; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in h[er] favor in a more liberal sense, and [s]he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as [s]he simplifies h[er] life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.


  • geranium, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    From the courtyard garden at the Beacon Hill Friends’ House.

  • wedding quilt

    circles

    Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.
    ~Simone Signoret


    Y’all might be interested in heading over to the ExponentBlog to read my post about my wedding quilt.

  • set in stone


    headstone detail, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Some flowers and fruit from the side of headstone.

  • reading time

    People:
    These be good links. Sit down and click. Enjoy.

    –Liz (one of the many oh-so-unfortunate but oh-so-wise and now bankrupted cancer bloggers) gets invited to a chi-chi “The Art of Being Human” workshop. She turns down the opportunity because she’s already become human by sitting in the waiting rooms with the other folks who aren’t adequately insured:

    “These ugly, drab, grungy, noisy, cluttered, crowded, smelly, uncomfortable [hospital waiting] rooms are the “workshops” where I learned to sit in perfect stillness for eight hours or more. This is where I learned to transcend my own jumbled thoughts, desires, physical pains, and frantic emotions; to tune out the noisy world blaring its distracting Regis Philbins and Bob Barkers and Judge Judys; to let go of striving for goals, to abandon hope of fruition; to feel at one with my fellow sufferers; to wait in utter stillness, with Cosmic patience, compassion, and a quiet empty mind.”

    –The Books That Changed Our Lives: Six feminists discuss the books that rocked their worlds:

    “When I first saw my mother’s copy of Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, I remember being a little afraid of the cover, which featured a picture of a bizarre woman-like mask reflected in a compact mirror. Being the morbidly curious 13-year-old that I was though, I picked it up. I’ve never read a book faster.
    Almost immediately, I was confronted with ideas that made sense of the thoughts I’d been having – that I wasn’t good enough, pretty enough, smart enough. It was such an incredible feeling to know that so many of my insecurities weren’t really about me, but were manifestations of a culture hell-bent on keeping women in their place.”

    –A musing on aging and sex from La Vie en Rose, where she writes: “I firmly believe that women who have good sex can change the world.”
    Amen to good sex and changing the world, sister!

    –Spend a peaceful moment with Maddie at Persisting Stars as she discusses tea and poetry.

    –I am just sick of never-ending car repairs and paying waaayyy-too-much at the pump. I am just so close to giving up the car altogether (and proud to report that I’ve only used it twice this week–to go to yoga and once to my son’s school). I loved this article about another OC family who gave up their car and has no regrets…

    –You know, of course, that all good bookstores have kitties. But did you know that Powells‘ cat, Fup, has his adventure saga that you can subscribe to via email? Yah.

    –Move Over ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day,’ The 24th Day of the Tenth Month is now “International Talk A Quaker Day.” Thou art forewarned.

  • meetup in San Diego?

    I’ll be spending some time in San Diego this weekend. If any of you would like to join me for something yummy at Clair de Lune on Sunday afternoon, drop me a line and we’ll work out the details (phddillyATyahooDAWTcom). :)

    Or if you know of another super-cozy teahouse or coffeeshop in SD that’s worth a visit, do tell!

  • big enough?


    dining room, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    I don’t have any ambitions to own a big home someday. But I have to admit that I was rather jealous of the dining room of the home we stayed at in Boston. Can you just imagine the great dinner parties we could have at such a table?

    And we could probably have, like 5 gameboards of Ticket to Ride going all at the same time.
    :)

  • aching

    —Trigger alert—-

    On our way to Quaker Meeting on Sunday morning, as we were on an onramp, we saw this–passing the man’s car on the onramp just moments after he jumped to his death. We were fairly sure it was a suicide, but tried to minimize the situation because we didn’t want to freak out the kids.

    I found it difficult to concentrate during Worship after having passed this scene. While I respect the difficulty of a suicide choice and I don’t want to trivialize or sensationalize this incident, my heart just aches knowing that someone was hurting so badly.
    Note: H/T to John for the link.

  • do you believe?


    begonia, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    “It’s frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the the only thing known for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children. Long ago children were forbidden the Gardens, and at that time there was not a fairy in the place ; then the children were admitted, and the fairies came trooping in that very evening, they can’t resist following the children, but you seldom see them, partly because they live in the daytime behind the railings, where you are not allowed to go, and also partly because they are so cunning. They are not a bit cunning after Lock-out, but until Lock-out, my word !”

    Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1906.
    Note: I copied this quotation from this delightful post at Le Fumoir…

    There is a magical time in my garden each night as the sun sets behind the hills and the solar lights along my main pathway start to twinkle. It’s a time of day that I generally find myself chatting with friends rather than gardening. It’s a time for contemplation and not for work. :)

    So in the gloaming a few weeks ago I was chatting with a friend and her young daughter and when the lights came on, I mentioned that it was now “fairy time” in the garden. Such times remind me of when my kids were littler and the joy they had in finding all of the nooks & crannies of the garden where the ‘fairies’ lived. Oddly, though, I don’t think my kids really believed in fairies. It was more of a game for us….a way of acknowledging the magic and creativity of the garden. At least that’s what I tell myself now.

    I didn’t foster my children’s belief in Santa or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. Yes, the kids would get some money under their pillow after they lost a tooth, but it was more of a ritual than a practice in deception. And at Christmastime I often put gifts under the tree with only a “To” on the tag and no “From.” Sometimes the kids said this meant these gifts were from Santa. I don’t think I purposefully encouraged this belief, but it was just there given the cultural milieu in which they were raised. And at Easter we often gave little treats and hid colored eggs, but the Easter Bunny part of the holiday was just an excuse for a little fun, much as in the dress-up part of Halloween.

    So now I wonder why I still speak of fairies? Why did that comment so easily pop out of my mouth at dusk? Why do I feel the need to linger and relish the transition from night to day, the “fairytime,” in my garden?

    I believe it’s because I use the image of the ‘fairy’ as a kind of cultural shorthand. The notion of little sprites darting around in the plants expresses my feelings about the mystical presence of my garden: the flowers that spring up in unintended spaces, the persistence of some plants against all odds, the continued ‘unexpected’ of each visit to my “Secret Garden” space.

    Just as I still enjoy myths and fairytales and ripping-good yarns, I still speak of fairies. I think I still believe in them, too. Not of the Disney/ Tinkerbell variety, but as embodiments of the healing, enlivening energy that surrounds my flowers & plants.

    What about you? Do you believe in fairies?

  • the best of times, the worst of times

    I came across the story of Prof Randy Pausch through the 37 Days blog. Randy has terminal cancer (pancreatic, just like my Dad’s). You can see his recent scans and read a bit more about his current condition, if you’re interested. In his own words:

    In August of 2007, we learned that the cancer had returned, having metastasized to my liver and spleen, which is a death sentence. At that time, the doctors gave me an estimate of having 3-6 months of healthy living left.

    I love how he replied to the question of whether his battle with cancer has strengthened or diminished his belief in God:

    This is obviously not how I wanted things to turn out, but my wife and I have no regrets; we did everything I could to maximize my odds. And we want to thank everyone who has so graciously helped us. Somewhere during my treatment, somebody asked me if having cancer had made me believe less, or more, in God. I replied that I didn’t know, but it sure had made me believe more in people.

    Randy recently spoke in the “Last Lecture” series. If you have a minute, I think you’ll find these excerpts from his words to be inspiring. You can also read a summary of the entire lecture here….and can I just add that I’m intending to give my kids some license on bedroom graffitti from now on….

  • happy


    curly petals, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Happy Monday everyone!

    The undergrads have arrived on our campus (as of yesterday). Our community will be all hustle and bustle until they stop attending classes (in, say, three weeks or so….). The beginning of the schoolyear always brings such excitement….