"I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists."
                                                                            -Maya Angelou 

This weekend I took another lovely stroll through the Forest Hills Cemetery. The sun was shinning brightly and the sky in places was a particular stunning shade of dusky blue. As I stood in front of a weeping willow I felt a bit emotional. I could hardly catch my breath as I felt such gratitude. I may not have a lot of worldly things, but I can appreciate things and that is something special I thought....not nearly as poetically said as Maya Angelou; however the sentiment is the same and I hope for each of you that your own week is filled with gratitude. 

I try to not take photos of actual gravestones; however this one was so striking. From the sunlight peering through the strong tree to the equally strong form of the woman depicted in statue form, this evoked so many imagination theories as to whom this grave could be for. I purposefully did not look at the name so that I could imagine my own story. 

I was on my way to take the photo below when I looked to my left and saw this. The color of the skies was so beautiful and the orange hue of  the brush and dirt against created just about one of the most stop in tracks moments I have had in some time. 

This was the photo I was on my way to take. I had found Khalil Gibran's (the sculptor and relative of the  author) grave shortly before and nearby was this art installation. The face looks so much like one that I adore and the sun shinning on it and the trees peering through his eyes made me think of all the hope I feel when I see that face (my little Giuseppe...). So I leave you with this: 




"Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love" 
        -Khalil Gibran (the author) 

Where has The Story Girl been? Oh dear, as I posted a long while ago I was sick and well I have stayed sick Thankfully I am on the mend and will be back with some postings in the very near future. I guarantee that the cold and my illness have not kept my eyes closed to the many lovely things going on around me (though I suppose to be truthful these factors have slightly dulled my senses to them a bit). In the meantime I leave you with this:

"There are many ways to be free. One of  them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do"

     -Anais Nin 

I have been quite sick this week. There are illnesses that descend solely on you physically; however this one has attacked me mentally as well. I am so worn down with being sick that it has made it rather hard to focus on the little things. I haven't been running or hiking in over a week as a result as well. One realizes how deeply they love something once it is absent. I was feeling very low yesterday when I looked out my kitchen window. The little black and white wild cat that lives in my backyard was delightfully chasing his tail. He does this often. It would seem that wind, rain, nor snow are his greatest foes, but rather his nefarious tail. As I watched him play and looked at the big delightful tree that also lives in my yard I felt my soul begin to warm again and the following thoughts came into my mind....

 Years ago my favorite movie was Garden State. I still love it, but as I talked it over with a friend the other day we both came to the conclusion that the love affair with it wasn't what it once was. If you don't know the movie it is a film about a young man who returns home after the death of his mother. It has been many years since he has returned home and he is rather plagued by depression. Once home he encounters old friends, a quirky and lovely Shins loving girl, and his relationship with his father that is rife with issues. The soundtrack is phenomenal and even though the movie doesn't resonate in the same way it did when I was in the midst of my own quarter life crisis a quote that Andrew makes still sticks with me,  

 

"You know that point in your life when you realize that the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore. All of the sudden even though you have some place to put your shit, that idea of home is gone or maybe its like this rite of passage you will never have that feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, for your kids, for the family you start. It's like a cycle or something. Maybe that's all family really is: a group of people that miss the same imaginary place."

Anyhow, for a long time I very much related to that sentiment. For a long time I wandered around without a sense of home and feared that the only way to achieve it was to create my own 'imaginary place' and that was so unsatisfying. I think that is why the film doesn't resonate as much any longer,  because as I have aged I realize that you can find home within yourself. That as you become comfy with yourself and who you are that you become almost like a turtle- carrying home with you wherever you go. It sounds heavy to carry such a thing, but it is a very freeing thing to be your own creature. Though I have found a sense of home in myself however it has been a while since a physical place has felt like home. Looking out my window yesterday despite feeling like absolute crap I felt rather blessed to be more self possessed (though still a work in progress) than I have ever been and to live in a house that is a home. And it is in this home that I will continue to nurse myself back to health and nurture my soul into feeling like it's old cheerful self.

I nearly forgot to say:

Happy New Year!!! 






"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you are wonderful and don't forget to make some art (write or draw or build or sing or LIVE as only YOU can). And somewhere in the next year I hope you surprise yourself."
- Neil Gaiman

I took a small hike today to see how some of my old friends fared with the snow. The friends I am referencing are some of my favorite trees that I see on my rambles and hikes. It may seem odd to refer to a tree as a friend; however this is how I feel. I believe if I were to waltz through the woods and find one of them gone that I would mourn. I remember when I first began to feel this sort of connection to nature and I think sometime soon I will share it with y'all.

Now here are two of my favorite trees and the start of the path to the various trails at Blue Hills. The snow made everything seem enchanted. Enchantment on top of enchantment...what a phenomenal day of beauty. 

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of having a dear friend accompany me on my Sunday hike. I love my Sunday strolls very much and it was a pleasure to be able to share it with another person. We met in graduate school three years ago and essentially sometimes it seems went through war together. I finished school last May and she will be done shortly. As we hiked I remembered how totally consumed by school and work I was for so long and how much I missed doing simple things that served no higher goal than bringing myself some peace. I am filled with gratitude for my ability to obtain an education and even more so to be done and to be able to focus on other dreams and passions. 

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."  -John Muir

This picture doesn't even begin to capture how extraordinarily lovely this was. From the previous freeze there were still places frozen over; however there was runoff that was trickling beneath the ice. It was simply breathtaking to look at closely.

You know someone is your friend when you both see the same random shapes in the same random place. You didn't know that a Rorschach test was a part of measuring true friendship did you? Now you do. What do you see in this picture?  

On the walk home I stumbled on to this. I had been feeling a little peeved as I had just picked up a ton of litter and was feeling like the forsaken mother of the neighborhood. As I stood up from taking this picture I saw a sign one of my neighbors had made and placed on their porch- "Faith, Hope, Love for Newton". I felt a lot of positive energy restored. But seriously y'all- litter really bums me out.                                                                           

AND then this- a beautiful can of PBR. Wait- what? This is a shout out to my friends. I asked them to make snowflakes at our Party at the End of the World. They worked so hard to create very unique glittery snowflakes. A lot of beer was consumed, a lot of fun was had, many a snowflake was made and my thankfulness for having kind people in my life was multiplied a million times over. 

"It always seems impossible until it's done"
 -Nelson Mandela