Hello World!

Why is it always so hard to start? Harder still when you think about it for too long. A couple years ago I realized I wanted to live more from my heart, and get out of my head. My academic world is all about the intellect, often at the expense of heart-wisdom. So this blog is one way I feel I can be more expressive, more from the heart. I have journaled for years and feel 2013 is a good year to publish or share some of my musings. This week has given me so many different and yet overlapping perspectives to ponder. Lance Armstrong’s chat with Oprah – hard to watch at times. Gary and I have followed the Tour de France for years, and his fall from grace was hard to see. He told Oprah that his wife believed the truth can make you free. That is the thought Oprah closed the interview with. I have experienced the power of the truth to liberate. He seems to be opening the doors to facing and perhaps owning his truth.

We spent Saturday morning volunteering at Project Understanding, helping straighten, organize and stock the food pantry, for the National Day of Service. The three hours sped by and it was a great feeling to meet so many other people all wanting to help our community. That evening we went to see the film Lincoln and it is certainly award winning, in so many aspects.  Makes me want to re-read Team of Rivals. The time of Lincoln and the Civil Was has always seemed so poignant and so close to me, especially after visiting the area and seeing how  that war tore apart neighbors and even neighborhoods. And when I was in DC visiting many of the historical places, I felt as if those times were not very far away – almost palpable,  when I read some of the letters written by the young solders. You could almost feel them just through the veil of this thing we call time.

My aunt called Sunday, excitedly describing all she was watching of the events leading up to the inauguration and remembering how we had visited her a couple days before we went to the 2009 inauguration. And then today we watched the second inauguration, from our cozy warm town house, comparing today to being there in below zero wind chill in January 2009.