The element of surprise

Oil Creek State Park, Pennsylvania.


As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.

~ Stephen Graham, The Gentle Art of Tramping, 1926

I have participated in the original, official NaBloPoMo since November of 2006.  It was, in a way, a lifeline for me.  It was through that first NaBloPoMo that I began to experience a sense of community in what I think of as the outer blogosphere.  (I had previously been blogging for years under a pseudonym in a more closed space with a smaller community.)  I was going to need my new blogmates and this sense of being in touch with the outer world beginning the following month when M and I made a temporary move to West Chester, Pennsylvania (a town I referred to as Sabbaticalville while we were living there).

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The play’s the thing*

Autumn collage

I’m curious about other people.  That’s the essence of my acting.  I’m interested in what it would be like to be you.

~ Meryl Streep

*William Shakespeare, Hamlet

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At the center of your being

At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.

~ Lao Tzu

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Jump (Thursday Travels)

If it’s Thursday, this must be the Paint Mines.

The theme for NaBloPoMo in June is Jump.  I won’t be participating because it’s unlikely I will be able to post every day even if I wanted to do a daily post, but I do like the theme which is described as:

Jump into a new project, jump into a new idea, and most certainly jump into something that terrifies you so you can get over it.  We’re going to look at things that make us happy so we can jump for joy through our words.  And we’re going to look at things that make us nervous and jumpy.

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It snowed this morning

Snow visiting the neighborhood

I looked out the window when I woke up this morning and saw snowflakes turning the air white.  It looked almost like a blizzard out there.  This was not our first snowfall of the season, but it feels like the first real snowfall even though the ground was too warm for it to stick.

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A morning walk

It’s been raining for three days and three nights now.  We broke the record for yearly rainfall sometime back in October.  The Bogs are saturated.  Nobody is building an ark yet, but it might happen soon.

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Apples and oranges

The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused, while nature heals the disease.

~ Voltaire

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