Month: September 2016

10 years

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My first post here was on 9/15/06.  That is ten years ago last week.  The picture above was taken a couple of weeks before my first blog post.

Ten years ago.

It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago that I thought, hmm, let’s try this.  Like all anniversaries, this one is an opportunity for reflection, and there are a great many ways my life is the same as it was that day and even more ways it is wildly different.

I have been blogging for a meaningful chunk of my adult life.  This place and the community it has introduced me to is a very important part of my daily existence.  I can’t imagine life without A Design So Vast.  I have printed out my annual blog posts every year and, hard bound, they take up half a shelf.  I guess that is my “book.”

We are rooted, and we are moving.  We are stagnant, and we are dancing. I have T.S. Eliot’s lines from Four Quartets in my mind (now and very often):

we must be still and still moving

Maybe I am not moving enough, here or elsewhere?  I do feel like I’m repeating myself a lot, writing about the same things over and over, even as some shifts are apparent (I write about Grace and Whit far less than I used to, most vitally).  So on this anniversary, I’d love to return to something I used to do, which is ask you what you want to hear about.  I’d really appreciate your thoughts on things you’d like to hear me write about.  Questions, thoughts, ideas.  Please bring them on!  Thank you in advance for anything you ask or share.

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This picture was taken 10 years to the week after the picture above, in the same city.  So much changes, so much stays the same.

 

Things I Love Lately

 You Don’t Need An Extreme Bucket List to Find Happiness – I loved this piece by Mary Elizabeth Williams.  “I hope someday to see Machu Picchu. I fantasize about getting my master’s degree. There is a big world full of spectacular things, and I have so much I still want to experience within it. But today, I can make that fried chicken recipe I bookmarked three years ago…There is nothing standing in my way – no money to be saved up; no calendar to clear. Life is happening now, and the whole big lesson I got out of almost losing it far sooner than I ever planned is to not put off anything that catches my curiosity or moves my heart.”

A Year Without Oliver Sacks – Sacks is one of my favorite writers, and I think often of his legacy, share his writing, and return to his words myself.  This remembrance by one of his best friends made me ache for his loss, as well as swell with gratitude for his life.  His contribution was enormous (I also had no idea he knew Robin Williams, though it doesn’t surprise me, when I read it.  I hope they are together somewhere now, laughing hard).

American Crime.  I am not a huge TV watcher, but WOW.  I watched Season One over the summer and Season Two just a week or so ago while Matt was immediately post-surgery.  I loved Season Two even more than Season One, but found both incredibly riveting.  So, so, so good.

Matt has been reading a lot, since he’s mostly immobile.  He has recently read and enjoyed Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger, Valiant Ambition by Nathanial Philbrick, Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez, and Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth.  These are somewhat different than the fare I usually write about here, but if you have any books that you think he might like, we’d both love to hear about them!

I read a lot this summer, and I shared the rundown with brief thoughts on each book last week.  I am interested to hear what you have been reading.

I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly.  You can find them all here.

16 years

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16 years ago last Friday Matt and I were married.  As you can see above, it rained during the ceremony and after before clearing into a gorgeous night.  We were so young then, just babies, full of optimism and suntans and grand plans and high hopes. So much has turned out precisely like we planned it, and so many things have been surprises from left field.  I’d wager that the surprises have been more glorious and (when not glorious, often) more full of learning than the things that have gone according to plan.

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the night before your accident, August 18, Vermont

So … this anniversary looks a little different than we’d perhaps expected.  Last year we marked 15 with a dinner with our children (a detail we took some teasing for, but one I am happy about).  I’ve made a few jokes about how we’re focusing on the “for worse” and “in sickness” vows this year, which is perhaps uncharitable.

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The truth is, Matt, I’m wowed by your attitude and your positive spirit. See above for a text exchange of ours before your surgery.  Kelly Clarkson has been a refrain in our house in the last weeks.  This has not been fun for anyone, least of all you, and you remain undaunted.  Your behavior in the face of this challenge does a whole lot to remind me why I fell in love with you in the first place.  Thank you for that.  Only 4 more weeks in that brace!!

So.  Here we are.  It’s been rainy and sunny and stormy and certainly not dull.  I hope there are many more years ahead of us than behind, and I look forward to seeing what this 17th year holds.  I love you, Matt.