Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Things that make me smile :)

birthday parties
friends
balloons
blue skies
trains
pictures
love notes
clocks (melting ones, or broken ones)
ice cream cones (with ice cream inside)
mint chocolate chip
Pixar movies
good books
flying
fairy tale endings
life, the universe and everything
architecture
starry nights
campfires
irises
s'mores
hugs
waffles
Greek yogurt
cantaloupe
sweaters
old movies
poetry
walks (on the beach, up to campus, through a foreign city at night, etc)
making up words
good conversations
Christmas songs
A good mystery, read while curled up in a comfortable chair on a rainy day.
comfortable couches
stuffed animals
foreign films
cooking with friends (and eating, too!)
art museums
thinking, musing, pondering or otherwise wondering about life
dancing (salsa or country)
Spanish poetry
fall weather
teachers
dreams
lunch
colorful leaves
spiral staircases
Spiral Jetty
roses
trying new things
talking to people
making lists in an attempt to describe myself.
Those lists are probably unavoidably incomplete, but I try anyway. I made another of these last year in July, so I thought it would be interesting to do it again and compare the two. Maybe I'll do it again next year... Here's last years' version:

Singing in the rain.
Cooking with friends.
Dancing.
Pizza.
Love notes.
Letters.
People who genuinely care, and who take time to show it.
Going for walks.
Swimming.
Picnics.
Canyons.
Blue skies, with not too many clouds.
Playing soccer with friends, in Spain or wherever.
Going for walks.
Fireworks on the fourth of July.
The way nighttime smells.
Jumping into/through pool toys...
Writing and expressing myself with words (thus this note).
Hearing songs I like come on the radio.
Lying on the floor with my roommates and talking about whatever we want to.
Talking about books, movies and plays with other people who like talking about books, movies and plays.
Singing out loud, when I'm with people who won't mind.
Museums.
Seeing friends I've been missing for a while.
Swing music.
Finding really cool parks.
Spontaneous dance parties.
Liar's dice.
Hugs.
Fiddle and folk music.
Hearing stories.
Speaking Spanish with people.
Baking cupcakes.
Sharing food.
Weddings!
Laughing.
Waterfalls.
Taking pictures and making memories.
Making people smile.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Musings on life and poetry.

It's been a while since I've written. As you can tell if you look at the dates of all of the posts on here. But I feel like writing again.
It's about midway through my second-to-last semester as an undergrad. It's also my last Wednesday as a 2o-year-old. Life is still good. It's just busy enough to help me avoid boredom, and I am enjoying my classes. I've been reading lots of Spanish poetry, which means I've been thinking about life, love, memories, dreams and philosophy. I enjoy thinking and making connections between all the things I learn. Poetry is a fun way to express thoughts. I've tried writing poetry a few times... I find it easier to write in free verse, without worrying about rhyme schemes or meter. For me, that's a better way to describe life. Life doesn't always fit in a specific meter. It's mixed-up and crazy and complicated. Putting it down in words is hard enough without worrying about making it rhyme. That's not to say that I don't believe there's meaning to life. On the contrary. I believe life is full of meaning. God is real. He loves all of His children, and He does have a plan for us. That's where the meaning of life is and that's why I can say that life is good.