and this week i drove to indiana to spend time with my sister and my dad, visiting from maine. during my short time there we went to the indianapolis zoo one day, explored brown county's national park another, and walked the historical side of muncie the last. 

i drooled for my first dolphin show and loved seeing the polar bear and bats and walrus'; 

i got to meet the warm-hearted parents of my sister's boyfriend and feel the love of her puppy while appreciating a different side of indiana; 

and i enjoyed hearing the stories and knowledge offered by my dad while discovering the home of the 'ball jar' and walking the riverside next to muncie's oldest houses.

we live and we learn. but it's all about our love.

post canada

coming back from canada was tiring. it was sick. it was goofy. it was sitting on butts and watching short films and reading good poems out loud. it was listening to the birds while drinking good smoothies. it was talking. it was trying and natural. it was taking silly photos and singing incredulous songs. it was getting ready for wisconsin lady-friends and family to arrive.

When I look, I see clear as a sunflower.
I’m always walking the roads
Looking right and left,
And sometimes looking behind...
And what I see every second
Is something I’ve never seen before,
And I know how to do this very well...
I know how to have the essential astonishment
That a child would have if it could really see 
It was being born when it was being born...
I feel myself being born in each moment,
In the eternal newness of the world...

I believe in the world like I believe in a marigold,
Because I see it. But I don’t think about it
Because to think is to not understand...
The world wasn’t made for us to think about
(To think is to be sick in the eyes)
But for us to see and agree with...

I don’t have a philosophy: I have senses...
If I talk about Nature, it’s not because I know what it is,
But because I love it, and that’s why I love it,
Because when you love you never know what you love,
Or why you love, or what love is...

Loving is eternal innocence,
And the only innocence is not thinking...


-fernando pessoa: alberto caeiro

adversity and love go as well together as feet in sand.

last week kirk and i went to bruce peninsula national park in ontario, canada with the kayaks. 

being able to drive my car through a foreign country was a strange sensation, but i loved seeing french architecture with a (north) american backdrop, passing fields of huge wind turbines, and different road signs. the unfamiliarity was nostalgic and had me thinking a lot about my time in the u.k. and the people and places i miss. 

we made our landing at the end of the peninsula and watched the sun set over lake huron from a watch tower, reflecting on how much pine there was. we spent the rest of our time hopping from different islands in the archipelago where we met many spiders, saw some great stars, and marveled at the beauty and clarity of the water. 

unfortunately kirk got really sick and we headed out early. it was a great trip, a much needed recess. i've missed sleeping outside.

the mind is in the middle of the chest

park bench-mounting sunset

running with the fireflies

..the fireflies

"hi baby" to the deer to my left, and to my right

the fragility of life

swallowing a mosquito

this song

and this song

compassion, empathy

tonight

full american immersion in traverse city

my bud!

milwaukee, wi

cheese state

this past weekend my family celebrated my cousin's marriage in a park on a breezy, sunshiney day in green bay, wisconsin. this was the first time i got to spend a good amount of time with family since being back from the u.k. 

laughs and talks with my sisters were very much needed, getting interviewed about european adventures was surreal, driving north through my home state was lovely and nostalgic, and the weather and uke playing were the best kind of ice cream toppings.