Dear Fall Break, YOU ARE HERE! Thank you for annually giving me the time to play, step back, recharge, and refocus for the last eight weeks of the semester. I am grateful for you. Dear Twinner, I like getting texts from you at 11 pm asking if we've ever gone to Chuck-e-Cheese. Your sense of curiosity blesses me. (My answer: maybe?) Dear Blue Ridge Parkway, I've found myself climbing your mountains these past eight weeks more often than I ever thought I would. Thank you for your colors, wind, clouds, overlooks, randomly placed bathrooms, and hills. Dear Autumn, welcome to Western North Carolina. I hope you stay for a while. Dear Maya Angelou, thank you for teaching about caged birds. Caro Mamma, ti amo, ti amo, ti amo. Thank you for your phone calls, for sending me tomatoes from our garden, and your joie de vivre. Don't stop calling. Dear Tupelo, you are as sweet as the honey you are named after. Thanks for keeping me company this weekend. With love for you, thoughts of lentils, and gratitude for new friendships,
Michy #CHALLENGEALERT: This week write a letter to someone you miss, someone you love, someone you haven't spoken to in a while, or just someone and send it to them! I'm sure it will make them smile :) "What is home? My favorite definition is “a safe place,” a place where one is free from attack, a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. It’s a place where people share and understand each other. Its relationships are nurturing. The people in it do not need to be perfect; instead, they need to be honest, loving, supportive, recognizing a common humanity that makes all of us vulnerable." ~Gladys Hunt from Honey for a Child's heat This weekend I spent time in the mountains with my Aunt Patti and Uncle Rob.
Together we: climbed the highest peak east of the Mississippi ate delicious potatoes at (almost) every meal sampled local brews discovered new Asheville area favortie: restaurants, street performers, book stores, and wine contemplated buying motorcycles and took pictures of our feet. I'm grateful for the time I was given with them this weekend! What did you do this weekend? All my love and more, Michelle Last night my dear friend Molly pulled her car over to watch the sun set on September. I'm grateful for her wonder otherwise I would have missed it.
I woke up this morning not even realizing it was October or that September had past. I'm remiss that time and I are moving so quickly without any promise of slowing down, but I welcome this new month as a new beginning. This month I'm looking forward to: Homecoming weekend Fall Break (!!!!!!) Orange Leaves Cool mornings Bonfires Community building Working outside Camping Cinnamon coffee and long hikes in the woods What are you looking forward to this month? All my love and more, Michy "Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary." ~Henry David Thoreau Last night I camped out under the stars on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Even though it was cold the sunrise was worth it.
Montibus in claris semper vivida fides (Faith is vigorous in the clear mountains) <3, Michelle “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” -Albert Camus Happy autumn, lovlies! I hope this seasons brings you many opportunities to play in the leaves and pick delicious apples! All my love,
Michy <3 Recently, my friend Ayla challenged me to list out (I'm extending this to others forms of literature) that have stuck with me over the years. SO if I had been able to lay in bed this weekend these are the books I probably would have chosen to read (in no particular order):
1) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 2) The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde 3) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 3) Sonnet on Approaching Italy by Oscar Wilde 4) This is Water by David Foster Wallace 5) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 6) "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver 7) anyone lived in a pretty how town by e.e. cummings 8) Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 9) Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 10) Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry An odd list for sure (and a little Oscar Wilde heavy) but these are the writings that of have stuck with me in recent years and I could definitely add a few more if I had to. What are some of your favorite reads? Tell me in the comments below! Happy Saturday, friends! Michelle And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears. Get over your hill and see what you find there, With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair. Dear Twinner, It’s our birthday! Congratulations on making 20 trips around the sun! Can you believe it? Only yesterday I was tackling you for stealing my stuffed animals and hitting you over the head with them—good times. In the past two decades we have grown side by side. In recent years we’ve spent more time apart than together, but you have always been and always will be my first best friend. Together we've learned so much: Like, how to hug and smile. We have discovered the healing power of a good nap. You have taught me that sun tan lines while working hard should be eliminated at all costs (even if it means wearing a onesie while mowing). Mamma bear taught us that spaghetti is best enjoyed without utensils and in the company of others. Pop-pop helped us learn that tractors, flannels, and sunshine are essentials of life and keys to happiness. I learned that anything can be conquered with cherry Kool-Aid in hand while decked out in my Sunday best. Sundays are the best. Together we remind each other that no one is ever too old for swings—ever. We have been afforded the invaluable lesson that dolphins should be kissed with care (and pigs fed beer with laughter). Ethan showed us that there are a few things a trip to the shore can’t cure. Mamma, Stephen, and Matthew were there to help us learn that Christmas stockings (and siblings) are sacred portals to childhood and neither should be lost nor forgotten. That big gold van and trips to see family taught us that car rides (and stroller rides) without seat belts may not be the safest way to travel, but they're definitely the most fun. Aunt Patti and Bryan helped us learn that snowboarding with people to push you back up the hill makes falling down it a little more worthwhile. Stephen, Leti, Mattia, and Davide led us on trips around the world to remind us to never stop chasing the things (and people) we love. You taught me the joy in catching fireflies and the magic of baseball in the summer. We’ve collected nicknames like potato, sweet potato, pop tart, corn pop, bran muffin, and sugar plum. Obviously we have become true aficionados of breakfast food. I have taught you to love the soul-stirring stylings of Jason Mraz, and we have learned that he is even more soulful and stirring live in concert. Through volume and repetition you have introduced me to Christian-rap and we’ve traveled long distances to see your favorite artists. It has blessed me to see how much you love the kind of music that inspires great things in you. With you by my side I've learned that photo booths, fake mustaches, and big ol’ glasses go hand in hand like, well, you and me. We truly have had a wild, colorful, and crazy past 20 years and I am so grateful to have shared them with you!
As I look ahead to what the next 20 years will hold for us I see us passing many milestones--together and apart, working hard, finding love, and taking advantage of everything life is worth. I’d be a very naïve 20 year old if I thought the next chapter of our lives would occur without any bumps in the road; so, as you begin your own incredible journey into adulthood I want you to carry with you the following birthday wishes: I wish for you to find work that is honest. The kind of work that leaves you tired at night, but that inspires you in the morning to rise without moaning I wish for you to remember that you are brave in the moments when you feel weakest I wish for you to find the kind of love that makes you feel strong and safe in the same instance, and reminds that you are known, needed, and valued I wish for you to reach the understanding that beauty and value are not synonyms for one another nor should one definition suffice as the house rule. You are not valuable because you are beautiful, you are valuable because you are human, and you are beautiful because you are a creation of God. Do not let the world persuade you otherwise. I wish that as you grow up you don’t leave your childhood behind. Always look at the world with wonder and every new day as a chance to play; play often I wish for you to discover the joy of knowing that home is not one place, but many places. Home is anywhere you can find love, rest, warm food and the comfort in knowing you can fart without judgment. I wish that you make it a priority to travel. You have a wild, adventurous spirit. Do not let the illusionary constructs of a “successful” life tame it. I wish for you to be aware of your health at every dimension. We are only given one body—use yours well. I wish for you to remember that there is no shame in an active mind. Explore and challenge what you think you know. Dig deep into long held truths, and treat graciously those things you would normally approach with skepticism. I wish that even as we grow apart we continue to grow together. I wish that as you move into these next 20 years you do not tread carefully, but begin with a splash and proceed boldly. And never, ever give up. I mean it. I wish for you many, many things, but at the end of the day I really only wish for your happiness. I’ve written a lot here already, much of which may be forgotten as you soon as you hit that little red “x” at the top of the screen, so if you remember anything from what I’ve written please remember this: I know best as anyone that our first 20 years have had their low points, up hill struggles, and confusing phases, but please—I beg you—do not let what you perceive to be the sum of your mistakes define who you are and what you do in your next 20 years, because, the truth is, you have never actually made a mistake you have only afforded yourself opportunities to gain enlightenment. Use that knowledge well. I love you forever and always, Michelle "Certo io vado."
Sometimes, some words have a way of encapsulating the theme of a certain day, or a certain string of days, and even certain strings of weeks, or months. Sure, I'll go. Michy |
Archives
October 2015
Categories
All
|