colorado love

hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags, 

i've come to know that memories

are the best things you ever had

the summer shone down on bony backs

so far from home where the ocean stood

down dust and pine cone tracks

we slept like dogs down by the fireside

awoke to the fog all around us, the boom of summertime

we stood, steady as the stars in the woods

so happy-hearted, and the warmth rang true inside these bones

as the old pine fell we sang, just to bless the morning

hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags,

i've come to know the friends around you

are all you'll always have

smoke in my lungs, or the echoed stone

careless and young, free as the birds that fly

with weightless souls now

we grow, grow steady as the morning

we grow, grow happy as a new dawn

we grow, grow steady as the flowers

we grow, grow older still.

coming May 15th (get excited)

Ten Stories / mewithoutYou

Preview February, 1878 here.  

dia del resurrección

Palouse Falls picnic

elk herd

mule deer

roasted beets & zucchini with feta

bread and wine

warm spring weather

making matzo balls for Passover

good friends

viernes santo

He grew up like a sapling before him: who would have thought more of his destiny?

Crucificalo!

(para esos los que no te conozcan)

Mira, mira, el arbol de la cruz, nuestro Salvador

(para los que no han conocido)

y no es mi cultura, este besiendo de tu cruz

todo la gente adorandote en este modo

not cerebral at all, but bodily, tactile

estoy incomoda, pero yo participo

(este no es un momento para abstenerse)

Y esas palabras yo eschucho de mis lecturas de la pascua:

''Remember what I did--remember that I did this for you,

in real time, in real history.''

Pues, yo he recordado

yo lo recuerdo

and, instrument for death inseparable,

I gingerly place my lips on your cross.

currently reading: Henri Nouwen

''Knowing G-d's heart as it has become flesh--a heart of flesh in Jesus--means consistently, radically, and very concretely to announce and reveal that G-d is love and only love, and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begins to invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from G-d. This sounds very simple and maybe even trite, but very few people know they are loved without conditions or limits.''

''Knowing the heart of Jesus and loving him are the same thing. The knowledge of Jesus' heart is a knowledge of the heart. And when we live in the world with that knowledge, we cannot do other than bring healing, reconciliation, new life, and hope wherever we go. The desire to be relevant and successful will gradually disappear, and our only desire will be to say with our whole being to our brothers and sisters of the human race, 'You are loved. There is no reason to be afraid.' ''

''Contemplative prayer deepens in us the knowledge that we are already free, that we have already found a place to dwell, that we already belong to G-d, even though everything and everyone around us keep suggesting the opposite.''

popcorn mutiny

''My grandma, she is rich.''

''How many money does she have?''

''199.''

''My grandma is rich too. She has 420.''

-conversation overheard between Alejandro and Dominic, on the way to first grade small group

For a school fundraiser in January, Blue Ridge decided to sell popcorn for $0.25 a bag. Not realizing how many kids would be excited about this, the popcorn ran out before K-2 got a chance to buy. ''Where is the popcorn truck?'' a tall black kindergartner asked me at recess, concern furrowing his brow. ''We're about to have a popcorn mutiny on our hands,'' the principal joked.

Recess means I'm pushing kids on swings, counting to sixty in Spanish until it's time to switch, holding one end of the jump rope while tiny kindergarten Alice jumps carefully, tongue sticking out in concentration. I'm trying to convince kids to keep jackets on--most of them have variations of the same jacket, thanks to Wal-Mart and similar stores.

We play Apples to Apples Junior with my third grade phonics group (the Spanish-speaking ones). I wonder about how it will go and get a clear idea when, in the first round, the adjective ''famous'' receives the subjects ''science experiment,'' ''mustard,'' and ''Pinocchio.'' (And if Pinocchio is indeed famous, it's because I helped that student choose that word--her English is the lowest of the four). Another example: someone enters the word ''crown'' for ''enjoyable.'' The good thing? They seem to be enjoying themselves, and it gives us a nice break from the sometimes painful work of reading and practicing pronunciation correctly and spelling.

Dylan likes to go by Dilly B. Slippy (the B is for Beatrice, he tells me). Kimberly's sister's birthday party has a tie-dye, zebra stripes, and peace sign theme. We talk about the meaning of the word ''ache,'' and Virginia tells me, ''Like I get really sore arms from using the mouse.''

''We gonna get a medal and a picture of you when we graduate?'' Dominic asks me, referring to our first grade poetry group. He is all about incentives--prizes, stickers, rewards of any sort. Even a photograph of me, I guess. Heh.

When we work on sentence building with our vocab words, Alejandro, who gets really into it, writes, ''I have a drone house with three windowe.'' ''A dream house?'' I ask, clarifying. ''No, brown,'' he tells me.

Oh, what would life be without these little guys?