The Hills are Alive

the next month should be filled with interesting adventures.  in three days i board a plane to head to the metropolis of victor, idaho – population 1,559.  in case you have not had the pleasure of visiting victor or other places in (remote) idaho, victor is in the north east corner of idaho, just over the border of wyoming.  now in all fairness to those of idaho (did i mention i am going there for christmas because some of my family lives there?), my brother has been posting pics on facebook and they are absolutely beautiful.  where my cousins and brother live is at the base of the grand tetons and the pics look magnificent.  this pic is one he took in october and it is breath-taking.  he’s become quite the photographer since moving.  now his facebook idaho album is also filled with things like bears, foxes, elk, buffalo (really!) and other interesting creatures that are basically right in their backyard.  that just seems wrong to me!  i don’t want a buffalo in my backyard, not even for a second.  squirrels are pretty much my limit.  when the raccoons wander into the yard, as they occasionally do in my somewhat suburban boston neighborhood, i don’t like it at all!

but then there are the other challenges to be encountered in a city of 1,559.  the closest starbucks is 30 miles away.  i currently live 3 blocks from starbucks.  oh sure, you say i’m spoiled.  but i’m a city girl and i have never claimed to be anything else, have i?  even if you want to go to walmart (which i am not a frequent guest of), it is 60 miles away.    i have not dared to ask if there is a whole foods (that’s a health food store in the north east).  that’s way too much to ask for in a meat-eating central-us state like this.  i think vegetarian friendly is out of the question.

here is where the real rub comes in.  my brother just moved into a never lived-in condo.  it is fully furnished, down to the flat-ware, three bedrooms, obviously in a new complex.  he says it is absolutely beautiful.  $1,000 a month.  can you believe that?  even with the current economic problems, that apparently a big housing inflation in idaho.  seriously, i live a 40+ year old house that, while beautiful, needs some significant work.  it is two bedrooms and i pay way more than $1,000 a month.  oh, sure i live 3 blocks from starbucks so perhaps that is the trade-off.  but i’m excited to see his place.  i don’t even know if they do things like this in the boston area – i’m thinking a comparable place to his in boston would be $5,000 a month – yikes.

well, three days.  i have yet to pack.  i don’t know want to bring.  but i’m excited about the adventure.  my mom is meeting me in denver and we will fly together to idaho to see my family.  there should be some tales to tell.  keep tuned.

Mathgiving

i haven’t posted in a while because i have been working way too much and my job has been preoccupying every spare moment of my waking and sleeping hours.  when you start dreaming about work, you know you are in trouble.  yesterday was thankgiving and i didn’t have any plans since i don’t have family in the area so i had premeditated a day of netflix and leftovers.  but at the last minute i was invited to have dinner with a friend from church and his family.  i debated my options and in spite of my introvert-self, I opted in on hanging out with a group of strangers (yes, if you’ve ever met me this is shocking).  so i determined to break out of my recluse tendencies to be social and celebrate the day. 

thanksgiving is an interesting holiday.  it is only a holiday in the states but when you consider the idea of taking a moment to be thankful for all that you have, you realize (or should realize) it really makes sense.  i know that it is so easy for me to forget just how much i have, how blessed i am.  i can so easily focus on the how much trouble my job is causing me or some other challenge in my life, when in fact god has blessed me with more than i deserve or realize.  i wonder what it would be like if we had many days of thanksgiving, not just one day year.  i wonder how different we would be if we were really thankful for what we had instead of spending so much energy focusing on the difficulties in our life or what we think we deserve.  i wonder if our relationships would be different, better, both with ourself and each other if we changed our perspective just a little and were thankful.

in the spirit of thankfulness, i headed to my friend’s house for dinner.  there was quite a group – turned out to be 12 in all, wow!  i think that all holidays are best celebrated with children and his two nieces were there, they are adorable.  i rarely get to celebrate holidays with children since i live so far away from my family and because i have only a few young cousins that i don’t actually see very often even when i am home.  the house was filled with people that made me feel incredibly stupid.  with conversations from math to physics, anatomy and physiology and more, i felt like a high school drop out among phds.  during casual conversation, his sister solved a 4x rubik’s cube and reminded us that it’s just a matter of simple mathematical patterns (right, that’s what i was thinking all along). 

but feeling like the invited dunce wasn’t so bad when you balance it out with the laughs i enjoyed around the kitchen chaos and family stories.  i actually felt right at home with that little bit of chaos around the house, everyone running here and there, sometimes not sure which way is up, but nearly sure it’s all going to come together in the end.  the only thing missing was the arguing i’m accustomed to at the traditional holiday meal and well, to be perfectly honest, i was ok with that.  a holiday without a fight is….something to be thankful for. 

but nothing is without it’s, let’s say interesting moments.  i’m not accustomed to, nor do i desire to become accustomed to people i’ve never met touching my hair….repeatedly.  maybe it’s just those introvert, antisocial tendencies popping back up, but i don’t know.  and most people who know me know that i’d be happy to talk to them about what i believe about god, but with people you’ve never met, “religion” never seems like a good topic for discussion.  there are always motives behind their asking that i can’t figure out and i think it’s best to slip past that topic until the conversation can be had in the context of a relationship/friendship.  but, there it came, five minutes after walking in the door, and again, and again.  i was a bit puzzled by the repeated questions about church and i kept deflecting them.  unfortunately for my friend who came with me, she caught a couple of the deflections (so sorry, not my intention) but some of our dinner acquaintences seemed satisfied with the non-substantive answers.  and this only goes to prove my point, that there is some motive behind the questions other than wanting to really know the answers to the questions being asked.  did i mention that i stink that these games and don’t want to play?

but in the end i have to say, i was reminded again how thankful i am.  thankful for friends to spend great times like this with.  thankful for family who i love even though they are far away.  thankful that god has blessed me with more than i could have asked for or imagined.

Sea of Pumpkins

i went on one of my favorite fall adventures this weekend – the pumpkin festival in keene, new hampshire.  maybe you have to be a certain kind of person to appreciate the fried dough, kettle corn, hot dogs, street bands, pumpkin pie eating contest and children in their halloween costumes but i think it is a great way to spend a fall day.  there is also a cute, little old theatre in the downtown area that shows old cartoons for free all day long so you can take a break from the cold for a few minutes and sit down.  it’s such a laugh, road runner, tom and jerry, the three stooges, cartoons I haven’t thought of for years!  and little kids still think they are funny – who would have thought?

and then of course there are the pumpkins.  this year it was a drizzly, rainy day so i think attendance (of both

around the gazebo - pumpkin festival 2008

people and pumpkins) was down.  usually there are upwards of 27,000 pumpkins brought by attendees.  do you know how many pumpkins that is?  seriously, that is a lot of pumpkins! the first time i went several years ago i was absolutely amazed at the sea of pumpkins, pumpkins for blocks and blocks.  but this year the recorded total of pumpkins was 22,568.  granted, not an insignificant number of pumpkins, but noticeably less than last year.  and i admit (with my head hanging in shame) that i have yet to ever contribute a pumpkin to the grand display of pumpkin pageantry.

but in spite of the there being a few less pumpkins, the pumpkin display was amazing.  the three story scaffoldings of pumpkins at the end of the streets, especially once lit up after dark, were a sight to behold.  at the end of the street around the gazebo there is always a fun display and this year they had the giant pumpkins in that area.  there was a pumpkin that was almost as tall as i am.  now i realize i’m not very tall, but seriously, i am over 5 feet tall!  the pumpkin was at least four feet tall and if it was standing on end (which it wasn’t) i’m sure it would have been a couple of feet taller.  it was amazing  — and carved.  i don’t know who had that job, i’m just glad it wasn’t me!

the pumpkin festival seems like one of those things that represents whatever you might think of as good about fall and new england.  it’s an adventure that you can share with family and friends.  i won’t miss very many things about new england when i leave, but this is definitely something i will miss. if you missed it this year, don’t miss it next year.  put it in your calendar now: saturday, october 17, 2009.

http://pumpkinfestival.com/

Cup of Tea?

I’ve just recently finished reading one of the most amazing books.  Perhaps you have heard of it, since it has won all kinds of awards, as has the mountaineer Greg Mortenson, whom the story is about.  The book is called Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace….One School at a Time.  Mortenson was attempting to climb K2 in Pakistan (the world’s second tallest mountain), when he got separated from his climbing party and nearly died trying to find shelter.  His story of survival in the harsh conditions is the story of someone who found his mission and calling in life in a most unexpected way.

In the very remote mountains of Pakistan he meets Haji Ali, the leader of Korphe, the village that nurses him back to health, who becomes like a father to him.  While Mortenson instantly feels a connection to the people, the culture and the community, it takes him a long time to adapt to the ways of the Balti and other peoples in the Karakoram Mountains.  One day Haji Ali explains,

Here we drink three cups of tea to do business: the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join the family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything – even die.

Mortenson thinks he finally gets it.  This is not America and you can’t do business like you do in America.  The point is not to get down to business, talk business, keep a professional business attitude.  It’s about relationships.  Talk about a change of perspective, attitude and a complete paradigm shift.

But the most inspiring part of Mortenson’s story is his mission to build schools in the forgotten places of (first) Pakistan and later Afghanistan, especially for girls.  He sees first-hand how children are raised in an environment of terrorism, educated into terrorism because it is the only form of education offered to them.  So, with the help of many people, he created the Central Asia Institute and starts building schools so children can receive an education just like I did, and you did and your children will.  He doesn’t do it without consequence, repercussions or a bit of a fight, but he does it and with great success, right through 9/11, the fall of the Taliban, the fall of Baghdad and all kinds of hate mail against his family through that time.

Mortenson’s story is one I hope we can all learn from.  Violence only breeds more violence.  But he is building a legacy of peace, here through education.  I can only hope that someday I will be able to have a sliver of this kind of impact on the world, maybe the Middle East, helping build peace through whatever means make the most sense in my life.

Here’s how you can read Three Cups of Tea (and you should definitely read it):

http://www.threecupsoftea.com

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Tea-Mission-Promote/dp/0143038257/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

shhhh….it’s called silent for a reason

i’m going on an exciting adventure, a really quiet one.  anyone who knows me knows that i am a pretty quiet person, i guess that is to be expected given that i am well off the introvert charts.  but i am going to go on a weekend silent retreat.  no talking from friday evening to sunday afternoon. no music, no cell phone, no computer, no tv, nothing.  just me, the jesuit monks and whoever else might show up to try this spiritual exercise of silence for the weekend.  i am about as equally excited and nervious as possibe.  forty eight hours is a long time of silence, even for one as introverted as me.  what if i just have scream 26 hours into it?  ok, i’ve never really screamed in my life.  what if i bust out in song at hour 33? now you know that’s possible.  it’s just a long time.  but i am really excited too.  i think it will be an amazing opportunity to get away from the insanity that is my life and take time to just be.  now that’s something i’m terrible at.

so what is the purpose of a silent retreat, you might ask, as i did when i first considered doing it.  i am amused by this quote from the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy:

If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working.

silence is an uncomfortable sound for most people.  we are surrounded by noise constantly: tv, radio, ipod, other people, the sound of our own voice, the list can go on and on.  so the idea of the silent retreat is simple, you go somewhere away from all of that kind of noise, and don’t talk for a short period of time (or potentially a long period of time if you want).  people have described what happens during this time in a variety of ways.  the hitchhikers guide, i think accurately points out, you can hear yourself think, which is often hard to do with all of the other voice in today’s society.  you may meditate, or seek the guidance or the voice of a higher power like god.  i think talking to god and seeing what he has to say to you is a great idea so i’m hopeful for lots of that and also hopeful for the chance to hear my own voice because i think it is easy to let my own voice get drowned out by the many voices in today’s world.

i’ve heard from others who have done this type of thing that it can be very significant and even life-changing.  i don’t want to put too much pressure on myself or the event, but i’m excited to see what happens and i think it will be really good.  so don’t call me.  it’s called silent for a reason.