In a Strange World

Seriously I have been feeling like a little monster lately, like the kind that chews on your ankle with its gummy mouth and tickles you in the ear, making weird little noises as it scampers off... Not dangerous, just slightly creepy. Some days the feeling is more like a strange and beautiful creature, but rarely do I feel human. It's not overwhelming, though. Just a kind of lonely backdrop to daily life. Or maybe just church life, which seems to be creeping more and more into normal life.

Well, the other day, my roommate made me watch this little clip and said "makes me think of you for some reason, Katie." And I am glad it does because the video makes me SO HAPPY. Watch until the end.

For what it's worth, she also, on a separate occasion, told me that she could imagine me working at Trader Joe's. This, I take as a most tremendous compliment, as I would like to marry Trader Joe's some day.

B and E are home on Spring Break, which means we get to spend lots of time together eating green frosting and watching such obscure childhood favorites as Dot and the Whale, and I remember my place in this world.

I guess it's just nice to feel affirmed.



Anyway I think I'm going to grow some vegetables this summer.

International Women's Day

A friend and I were talking yesterday evening about how fortunate we are to be women in America in this day and age. It is tempting to glorify the past, but to be serious, it was actually pretty rough to be a woman then in many ways. Giving birth was a terrible risk; education was out; property ownership was out; voting was out. Wow! I am so blessed. I certainly wouldn't have been working as an engineer.

Anyway then you think about it and realize that in other places, even in America there's still a long way to go.

I love BBC News' "In Pictures" features. Well today highlights International Women's Day. Click on the picture to see more beautiful and amazing sisters from around the world.


Anyway, what can we do to help with the fight?

Trail Mix

"What are you doing???" we asked, eying the plastic baggie of Skittles and Golden Grahms.

"Eating trail mix," she replied.

"That is not TRAIL MIX. You cannot just mix random foods together and call it trail mix."

But we were wrong. Apparently she can.

A Remarkable Story

First, some background: about a month ago I was walking by this church on the way to work and there were these flowers in the trash. I asked the groundskeeper if I could have some and he said "of course of course, you'd be amazed at how many flowers we throw away." So I removed 3 beautiful white spidery flowers and continued on towards the train station. I kind of got tired of carrying the flowers so I stuck 2 of them in the snow bank just past Bak's Dry Cleaner (thinking maybe people would see them and smile a little bit as they passed). I brought the third one to work with me where it sat in a vase on the table by the elevator. It actually lasted there for like 2 weeks or something. And to think it would have gone directly to a landfill otherwise.

Well, on the way home from work that night, I passed by that snowbank and one of the flowers was gone! I like to think that somebody thought it was pretty so they took it... who knows maybe an animal dragged it off. Anyway then the snow melted and the other flower disappeared or I forgot about it. Or both, I mean.

A month passed, snow has come and gone and come again. Life rolls on. But this morning, you will never believe it, I was passing by that church and I saw three of those white, spidery flowers, exact make and model, stuck into the snow bank. What is the meaning of this?

Maybe a new immigrant saw the ones I had put there and thought it was a tradition in America to stick white flowers in the snow!

Maybe someone else DID smile from passing by the original 2 flowers and decided to pass on the love?

Maybe the groundskeeper was cleaning off the altar and thought "ohh some of those white flowers... I remember that weirdo girl likes taking them from the garbage and today is trash day. I'll set some aside for her."

Who knows?

A Psalm for the Faithless

Every year, February and March are immensely difficult for me. I feel like invisible fingers are dragging me down and like the sun will NEVARRR shine again. The routine just about kills me.

Today I wrote these words for mornings when it seems like there's no point. I will tell myself:

There IS hope because there is still beauty, and there is still love. If you cannot see the beauty or the love, look for it and find it in the world around you. If you cannot find it, create it in small ways or great ways. That is where hope lies: in tiny and large seeds.

Are we not still here? Are we not alive?

Magnifying Glass

I want to get one to carry around with me so I can see all of the important things in the world.