Plea for space and time to CREATE!

Here's what my life has looked like for the past 4 weeks and will look like for the next 2:

Mon-Thursday: 9am-noon Spanish class, 12:30-3:00 (more or less) Community Service-Learning Office work, 6pm-1:30am college perk coffeehouse work (Tues & Thurs), free time?=spanish homework, lots of it...and occasional reading of of Rumi & Chomsky (I know, stark contrast)
Fri-Sun: Either at retreats, conferences, family weekends, or the like. In other words, Never Making Space To Create.

And there's just So Much Boiling Inside.

But soon enough I will be on an airplane to SPAIN and then taking a bus tour with my mom for 2 weeks through Madrid, Barcelona, southern France, and Italy. It will be sweet, sweet bliss and adventure. And I am terribly excited. (And will be terribly broke, despite working 2 jobs this summer :) Abroad, I will either write endlessly in my journal as we travel, or let even more thoughts steam-up inside of me so that when I get home and my schedule is finally freed up, I will have no time for anyone or thing but my art to finally boil over.


Anything boiling over for you? Tell me of the sweet nothings you finally have time for this summer... I'd love to hear of them.

besos, mi amigas.

Special Package Deal: Motivation Included!

On my important to-do list for this very evening:

-fill out application for International Volunteerism conference in Taiwan

All essays combined = about 2,000 words total. I know I've cramed papers in this amount of time before.. and what better motivation than a free trip to Taiwan for 5 days!
Topics include natural resources and environmental protection, past community service involvement, and volunteerism and world citizenship.

Oh, did I mention if I get this application filled out by tomorrow I can go to Taiwan for FREE?? All expenses paid by UMD's President Mote! (That is, if I get chosen, of course...)

Off I go.... write, write, write!

Kisses

PS-"Keep It There" by The Weepies has kept me going lately.
"All my troubles in the rear view mirror
I know, I know I got to keep them there
To Keep Them There..."



********ADDENDUM*********
I finished! Check out the conference website!
http://osa.nccu.edu.tw/~activity/ICSL/Welcome.html

heheheeee... this is me super excited and proud of myself that i actually filled out the damn mile long application!

So much overdue...

It's always these late nights after long days that my creative juices start flowing... But then just when I find time for my mind's muses to whisper words onto paper, all of the overdue stories and ideas cram into one big brain-jam of memory-traffic and it all just crashes into the hazy mess that is known as my vast and hard-to-reach memory.

And there they go...stories of a woman who predicted my future, or a $100 parking ticket, or the beauty of diverse nudity, or a kind man with a severe stutter, or a profesora de espanol fantastico, or a Gatsby-esq beach community, or a family tree that tuned into a priceless life history, or the same 2 Andrew Bird songs that make me feel alive on my 10 minute drive to work, or a simple stranger's smile, or the nerve to say no, or the courage to say yes, or the very moment when i knew that. . .

But I feel calm as these stories float adrift from the pressure to be recorded-to be held still in space and time. When the time is right, these stories will find a place for safe preservation. Until then, I'll just carry them close, bound to my heart, woven into my step, payed forward to those I reach with my smile and soul.

Until the stories surface for your reading, take a look at this:


[Judy, Me, Kathleen & Jodi enjoying some smoothies&schnapps before Jo & Kat ventured up to summer camp in Maine]


Besos,
Rach

20 songs for the summer

I have a fun tradition of making a mix cd (or 2) at the start of each season. This summer, the tunes are uplifting, full, and light...all at the same time! (And very lovey-dovey, might I add). Oh, the bliss of music's many dimensions.

1. La Nueva Belleza - Jason Mraz (in honor of the Espanol class I'm taking... which I will soon be posting about. Preview: I Love it!)
2. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
3. Love Love Love - Tristan Prettyman
4. Loving You - Paolo Nutini (This whole album is so fun & uplifting!)
5. Peaceful Easy Feeling - The Eagles
6. By & By - Brett Dennen
7. Mushaboom - Feist
8. Get It While You Can - Janis Joplin
9. On the Radio - Regina Spektor
10. Moving, Shaking - Daniel Lee (Master of Music...didja know? danielleemusic.com; check him out. He's also a beautiful soul)
11. Living Life - Ben Kweller
12. She's Only Happy In the Sun - Ben Harper (beautiful, and seasonally appropriate, but not true for me. i'm really happy in the rain. and you?)
13. Upside Down - Jack Johnson
14. The River of Dreams - Billy Joel
15. For Once In My Life - Stevie Wonder
16. Head Over Feet - Alanis Morissette
17. Ohio - Crosby Stills Nash & Young
18. Find the Cost of Freedom - Crosby Stills Nash & Young (time appropriate...)
19. A Change Is Gonna Come - Otis Redding (another time appropriate one, my heart and hopes believe)
20. Shroud - Ani Difranco (because no mix is complete without this incredible womyn's insight)


You'd think I was in love, or something... which is actually quite funny. I think I'm just finding the love in daily morsels and mistakes. And feeling like some good pop music.

Dance a little today!

paz y amor, amigas.

More on Love and Letting Go

This afternoon I finally busted out the watercolors that Brian bought me for the holidays and splashed my paint brushes into the new medium. After scribbling the words onto paper then carefully cutting them each out, I found there just wasn't space to paste them atop the painting without the whole thing looking smushed. So into the trash the words flew, and onto the paint my sharpie scribed. It's a first, so I hope you like it. Click on the image to enlarge and read. And enjoy!

ps-I'm aware of the extra "l" in resilient. There's something I like about it, though. Imperfection at it's best :)

Cheers.