A Brief Thought In Place of The Real Post I Don't Have Time For.

"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and the sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was." 

-Ernest Hemingway

POSH

Port Out Starboard Home.

Have you ever "taken tea"?  I'm really charmed by the idea of Teatime. The ritual of tea. Tea is always at 4:00.

Also, I've been reading heartily these past few weeks.
Filling up a great big pot.

And now I've begun to write.

NMY Photography

Recently I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot with a lovely friend of mine, Nicole, of NMY Photography. I love the way the photographs turned out, and really enjoyed the experience. Consider this an official recommendation: she's a hit! 

Check her out: http://www.nmyphotography.com/

A Fresh Start

These past weeks truly have heralded a new start in my life.

       From immense heartbreak during the Christmas holiday has emerged a deeper understanding of myself, a sense of my own coming-of-age accomplished. Assumptions that I had about my future have dissolved- leaving the freedom of the loss of control, the freedom of welcoming the unknown. I have accepted that I am delicate during this season of grieving and need to take care of myself. The stress of multiple commitments was pulling me in too many different directions. It left me with no time for myself, and no time to do the things I enjoy and care about.

       My priorities have shifted after realizing what a mess I was last semester. I am taking the minimum number of hours possible to still be considered a full-time student, and have moved from part-time to seasonal at work, in order to have more time for dance. Sometimes I worry about what having a light load this semester will mean for future semesters. Will I have to overload these next two years in order to graduate on time? Do I care if I graduate on time? I don't want to be stuck in college forever. But after all of these thoughts have reared their heads, the remaining realization stands strong that I must take today as today comes, and surrender all worries of the future. It is difficult to let yourself relax, but that is what I am learning how to do. I may only be taking a few classes right now, but I have the freedom within my schedule to commit my best to each of them. That has its own satisfaction different from the kind that comes from cramming and rushing and always doing. Now I have time to do a few things and to do them well.

       The most exciting prospect of this new alignment of my life is that there is so much room for art! I recently picked up the unfinished scarf I began knitting for my grandmother and have made lovely progress on that. Also, as I mentioned earlier, dance has taken a front seat this semester and I couldn't be happier. I look forward to really growing as a dancer, both through class and the university company, but also through Heritage Dance Project, created by a friend of mine. Her values and her movement really speak to me, and I am always encouraged by this sense of divine Providence when we dance together, as if to say "This has been arranged just for you at just the right time."
      
       Oh, and I finally have time to begin this blog!!!

I leave you with a poem:

Oh thou whose face hath felt the Winter's wind
by John Keats (1795 – 1821)

Oh thou whose face hath felt the Winter's wind,
Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in mist,
And the black elm tops, 'mong the freezing stars,
To thee the spring will be a harvest-time.
O thou, whose only book has been the light,
Of supreme darkness which thou feddest on
Night after night when Phoebus was away,
To thee the Spring shall be a triple morn.
O fret not after knowledge - I have none,
And yet my song comes native with the warmth.
O fret not after knowledge - I have none,
And yet the Evening listens. He who saddens
At thought of idleness cannot be idle,
And he's awake who thinks himself asleep.



-Sydney

Going for It

My fondest Greetings and Salutations,

I have wanted to do this for so long and I dawdled and deliberated for months and months about how to start- but no longer. Even though I don't know how to begin with the perfect FIRST POST of my blog, I shall begin nonetheless. Life is too short to wait for the perfect words to come to me on a silver platter. HELLO, BLOG WORLD, I JOIN YOUR RANKS. Imperfectly, perhaps casually, but not lacking in enthusiasm.

                          Farmers who wait for perfect weather
                          never plant.
                          If they watch every cloud,
                          they never harvest.

This will be a place for beautiful things (I hope). I hope to make this a place for my creative interests, gentle domestic arts, and tidbits of my daily life. A place where I can focus on the beauty, wonder, and happy comfort that surround me.

At the mercy of Time, of course.

I see this as the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Sydney