finshed Jayber Crow

A few days ago I finished reading Jayber Crow. I really enjoyed the narrative of the book, as well as the thoughts on a slower, community-centered life. As a person just leaving her 20s behind, I've come to learn that things don't happen as fast as I wanted them to when I was 21. They take time. Relationships take years to develop. And you can't force things. I heard this loudly echoed in this book and appreciated gaining some insight. The river was a constant thread in the life of Jayber, the main character...and here's one more thing he had to say about it...

The river and the garden have been the foundations of my economy here. Of the two I have liked the river best. It is wonderful to have the duty of being on the river the first and last thing every day. I have loved it even in the rain. Sometimes I have loved it most in the rain.
No matter how much it may be used by towing companies and water companies and commercial fishermen and trappers and the like, the river doesn't belong to the workaday world. And no matter how much it is used by pleasure boaters and water-skiers and the like, it doesn't belong to the vacation world either. It is never concerned, if you can see what I mean. Nothing keeps to its own way more than the river does.
Another thing: No matter how corrupt and trashy it necessarily must be at times in this modern world, the river is never apart from beauty. Partly, I suppose, this is because it always keeps to its way.
Sometimes, living right beside it, I forget it. Going about my various tasks, I don't think about it. And then it seems just to flow back into my mind. I stop and look at it. I think of its parallel, never-meeting banks, which yet never part. I think of it lying there in its long hollow, at the foot of all the landscape, a single opening from its springs in the mountains all the way to its mouth. It is a beautiful thought, one of the most beautiful of all thoughts. I think it not in my brain only but in my heart and in the lengths of my bones.

-Wendell Berry

fast and fast

Does time ever go by quickly these days! In this new rhythm of just working a Monday thru Friday work week, I find myself looking forward to the weekends. But even with that, I don't feel like I have abundant structure still. My new household has helped some, which is nice. We have dinner together on Tuesdays and on Fridays we have a big dinner and invite lots of friends over. I was kind of afraid to commit my Fridays to doing community dinners (which...we did conclude that everyone is not 'expected' to be there - but so far we all have I think.) But I'm finding that it's really nice to have a social happening that you know is going to happen regularly. I think in LA especially, that's just not the norm. Like this morning in church, I was sitting in front of a couple who were in a Bible study with me a few times but had never really talked to but want to get to know - and I have the community dinner to invite them to, it's great!

The second 'fast' in the title is because I've been doing a detox fast this week. I've done it a couple of times before and I find that it really kicks my body back into good health. And I feel much better now at the end of it. I'll be breaking it tomorrow - which I'm looking forward to of course. But it is funny...I haven't been craving food, the first few days I really wanted to put something in my mouth though. And I've been able to just enjoy the smells of things, which is a really nice detail to become more aware of. I've also been trying to slow down the pace of life some...and that's been really good feeling. I really don't want to feel rushed and pushed through this life!

A couple of weekends ago I got to have lunches with my nieces and Kenny and Tiana - which was great! Hopefully soon I can start spending more time with them, I miss them!!

And last weekend my parents came to visit, which was very nice also. They got to meet my new housemates and we dinked around town some, visited some art galleries, some which were nice. I found this one painters work that I really liked, I think I'm going to pull some of his ideas into my own work. Which, I know have my easel here thanks to Dad, and soon I will have a functional little studio space in our outdoor garage. I'm really looking forward to spending some time in painting.

This weekends highlight was getting the last bits and pieces out of my old apartment. Kim will be moving out of it this week. A little sad. I like having a second "home" in my old neighborhood. But...I still kinda will anyways. Also this weekend I got to do a photo shoot of me and the Stude! A friend of a friend who's a photographer offered to do it for me, as I was looking for some good shots of me and the Stude to submit with my magazine article idea. You can catch a sneak peek of a few of those pictures on Andie's photography blog...I'll be posting some here when I get the set. It looks like there's going to be some great pics to come, I'm very excited. Andie's got skills...thanks Andie!

AND I got to talk to a guy who lives a few blocks away and has a 55' Studebaker too! What are the chances...his is almost exactly like mine.

Tomorrow I'm headed to San Francisco for a work conference. It's on a curriculum dealing with training teens what healthy relationships are supposed to be. Always a challenging subject to teach, so I'm looking forward to that - and of course to being in SF and with buddies!

if you don't know what "yonic" means...

I normally try to keep this blog free of references to my work-work and work with human trafficking stuff. But beware…because I’m going to break that rule right now.

My human-trafficking group has been brainstorming up ways to connect with and educate various populations of people about the issue. One of these populations happens to be “johns.” So, yesterday afternoon as we were out and about doing some work, we happened upon an adult establishment called the purple onion. I was a little grossed out by that name – and of course I could surmise a possible explanation why that establishment was named thus…but I was still curious about any further explanation to the name so I googled purple onion. Mostly I just found restaurants. Being satisfied that the name was due to my initial conjecture, I became curious of the word to use in order to describe this imagery.

I searched my brain for the word opposite to phallic and was surprised to find I didn’t know…so I went a-searching again. And what I came up with was “yonic.” (Gee…sounds an awful lot like Yani…ha!) Evidently, this word doesn’t exactly coincide with phallus because it stems from different etymologic roots. I found an interesting blog discussion about just this and some alternatives to yonic people suggested were “uterine,” “labial,” and “vulvic.” I think vulvic would have to be my favorite – but I’m also all for the making of yonic into a more commonly known word. But I suppose where one doesn’t want to explain oneself, vulvic could do.

Being a sex-ed teacher and dealing around genital issues daily…I have to say I’m continually perplexed at how males are so genital proud and females are so genital ashamed. I’m sure this has something to do with why we all know the word “phallic” and not “yonic.” Whereas I don’t believe genitals should be worshiped as is sometimes done in our society…I certainly think they should be accepted as an important and good part of who we are. Oh…why do so many women love to hate themselves!?

So in support of women embracing their whole selves…I hereby commit the word “yonic” to memory and hope to have the opportunity to use the word intermittently!

beginnings

No, I haven't been in bed all week...I was pretty much well last Saturday night...after a good 5 days of being sick! I even managed a first beach jaunt of the season during the week. Kim and I were both "working"...but we managed to enjoy the sun and good weather as well!
Today Kim graduated from Fuller Seminary with her Masters in Theology. After 2 years of having a talkative roomate and bestfriend in seminary - I almost feel as if I have my own degree via osmosis. And just as she'll be going into a little period for writing projects, I too have been brewing my own writing projects in my head. I've been working on an idea for a column in a car magazine and also feel a push to get that writing done about topics surrounding sexuality that have been brewing...I don't know - but if I wanted to, I really think I could use my sex-ed teacher position as a real advantage in some articles related to sexuality.
Time of course is always an issue. Even with the most low-key schedule that I think I've ever had (a 40 hour work week and only 1 major other commitment) I still have a stack of projects that I just never seem to get to! Priorities...priorities!

I've been imprisoned to my bed the past couple days. Yuck, sickness. Yay, a reason to do nothing.
Started a book I've been wanting to read: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. I really liked this bit...

The river was a barrier and yet a connection. I felt, a long time before I knew, that the river had shaped the land. The whole country leaned toward the river. All the streams flowed to it. It flowed by, and yet it stayed. It brought things and carried them away. I did not know where it flowed from or to, but I knew that it flowed a great distance through the opening it had made. The current told me that....it is hard to look at the river in its calm, just after daylight or just before dark, and believe that history has happened to it. The river, the river itself, leaves marks but bears none. It is only water flowing in a path that other water has worn.