this

all of this.


Alan Watts & David Lindberg - Why Your Life Is Not A Journey from David Lindberg on Vimeo.

just a boy

& his friend...

sim but different

mama's

always right.

pure feeling

2:00 to 2:12 is what i'm alive for.  seriously.  honestly.
it's why i'm still here to write words into the darkness of the internet.
that absolute raw emotion that knows no words, no images,
it is just feeling.
it is raw and real and it can be painful or joyful or more often
it can be beyond emotional categorization.
that
is
being
alive.

that is being human.
that is what we're here to experience.
that
right
there.

oh ellen & lewis (hah!)

love!

please read & share her article if you love it...i think it's pretty fantastic 

http://www.glassheel.com/single-post/2016/08/31/Buried-Treasure---The-Admiration-Of-Inspiration

I met Janna working as a summer intern...to me then, at 16ish years old, she was this fantastic, creative, professional, caring, giving lady who I thought man, if I could be like her, maybe even have a gig like hers, and get some of those sweet colored markers she has up in her office,
I think life might be pretty good.  she laughed a lot, mentored me in the sweetest way, and now she's off doing something new and amazing :)





<3

dammit Kara!

just when I think everything is good and fine and you're done teaching me, I teach something and find myself remembering you with such love and then (inevitably) missing you.  thanks for making this video so I can hear your voice when I'm missing you...

do it. find the time to watch this,

you won't be sorry you did.

didn't they say that

only love
will win
in the end

grow baby, grow!

"temporarily"

: during a limited time. :not permanent.

vs. that which is permanent.  lasting, and eternal.  (when oceans rise)

via moode

to see and seen

margaret meehan

how lovely

to see an old friend, eat dinner, and notice your art in use on her counter.  just lovely.

"tomorrow

is a new day. we will start fresh. i am confident that it will be a better day"

i'm observing

a pattern.  a string.  whatever, it's important.
Chase,
Phil,
and another.

anger = fear, covered up.
acting out = an unmet need, often entirely unrelated to the situation.
hurting others = being hurt, either currently or an unresolved previously.

maybe not always are these things true, but there is a pattern of cases that support them.

so much

to learn. so much to share.  so much wonder.
joy
love,

(KKH, I find myself more and more teaching all about things I didn't know about.  yesterday, Trinity taught us all about Blue Morpho butterflies from a trip to Houston Science Museum with her grandmother.  all I could do was stand there and think of you telling us time and time again about constructivist education, about creating a knowledge base from everyone in the classroom & not just the teacher.  so. cool.)

and frozen of course:

via huffingtonpost, 

for frozen canvas painting, of course.

sigh.  only day one and my heart is full.

love.

i am missing you

so, so much.  there goes HansPeter, there goes G-daddy in Touchstone.
l-o-v-e love.

Timelapse: Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta from Roadtrippers on Vimeo.

i can not wait to get back up, to pilot, to share flight with others,

to win competitions?

yes, maybe.

"if you want to change the world,

get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward"

"don't be afraid of the circuses"

"if you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks"

i'm usually not really big on what it means to be a longhorn, but this commencement speech for UT graduates this year is pretty great

Naval Admiral William H. McRaven

read/watch the full speech here

diving deep

by Kara Kelley Hallmark, who has been freed to dive deep again.

I long for the waters of my life to be calm.  To have a smooth surface, to be deep and comforting and glistening in the sunshine.  But lately, for the past few months, the people I love most in this world have been splashing around.  Not for fun or of their own fault, but they've really been splashing.  The kind of splashing that not only causes ripples but causes little pulses of disturbance into my life pool.  An uneven surface that isn't at all waves and isn't unsafe, 

but it is frustrating because I have this unanswerable and deep desire for calm.  A deep desire that I'm pretty sure can not be met by any actions I take.  Nothing I do, no matter how hard I try and work and kick and tread water, nothing will bring about the calm that my heart desires.  I am both frustrated and humbled that nothing I do will bring about the calm that I desire.  

bringing in the strings, we're all in the same body of water.  Never will the waters of my life be the kind of still I desire because every human on this earth is in a body of water with me, and never will earthly life be still.  there will always be struggle, there will always be splashing, and even if it is from the furthest body of water, and even if it causes a ripple so small that it could only be detected by machines, it disrupts the still I desire. I am humbled because I get to be part of a life force that connects the whole world, I am humbled because I was gifted with eyes and a heart that can detect tiny ripples.  as much as those ripples disrupt me, I have hope that one day the waters of my life will be so big, so vast, so deep that the splashing of another human can be softened when it reaches my little section of water.  maybe my sea will be big enough to absorb some of the splash, maybe it will be calm enough to calm someone else into splashing less.  

and if nothing else, i remember that the waters we all share were provided and are overseen by someone bigger.  someone so still, so vast, so deep, so calm.  unchanging.  unending.  the one who never tires, who is never disrupted by the biggest splashes we make in his sea.  the one who not only can bring the calm and the still, but promises to.  that is the safe haven i cling to.

the big ask

from an e-mail from 5.7.14 at 6:38pm: (edited, clearly)
"Hello, my name is A and i was wondering if you would be willing to donate about a cup of black glaze to my school. You see, I go to a public charter school known as ___ and due to the flooding we had our school is rather broke. We recently did a clay project in art and everyone else used up the little amount of glaze we had from last year and due to lack of money my teacher can't buy any more. So i was wondering if you would mind lending me a cup of glaze for my tea set I made. It would really mean the world to me. "

"Really! Thank you so much!!! Is it ok if my mom picks it up on her way home work tomorrow? Oh and i will be sure to stop by and show you my tea set when it is finished. :)"

hope she knows i'm looking forward to seeing something like this:

Samita Masami | "Remoteness" 1992. Porcelain with gold and silver pigments over black glaze

or these:

Hedwig Bollhagen via rawearthopensky

via rawearthopensky

I like when people go for the big ask.  many many people in my life are where they are because they weren't afraid to just ask for what they want.  seriously, it doesn't hurt anyone to ask.  it builds your own confidence, reminds you what goal you're reaching for, and builds character.  even when you receive a whole bunch of 'no's' in response to your big ask (which you will)…chances are it's an opportunity to work harder.  an opportunity to refine your shpeal, to ask in a different way, to look for a different kind of place or person to ask.

i think god appreciates the big ask, too.  not every opportunity is going to fall out of the sky into our laps, people.  some opportunities god has fully in the works and in his plan, but he's just waiting for us to figure out that we really want it.  that we'll appreciate it.  that we'll see it as the huge opportunity and blessing that it is and act on it.  it probably takes a little work to orchestrate opportunities and miracles…I wouldn't blame him for waiting until we're in the right mindset to observe the miracle and jump into action because of it.

even jesus went for the big ask.  before being killed he went and asked god 'i'll do what you say because you're the boss man and i trust you, but couldn't we do this any other way?  it would be really really great if there was another option that we could explore here…'
and god said no and the way we understand jesus has forever been enriched by that observation of the big ask and receiving a big fat no.  you've got to remember that sometimes your big ask will result in a big fat no for a big fat good reason, but it doesn't mean you should stop being awesome. or that you should ever stop asking :)