Again, I'm a day late and a dollar short (where does that saying come from, anyway?), but these are too wonderful not to partake in. So... onwards!

1) How did you celebrate the New Year?
I had a fabulous dinner (which was very not vegetarian, so I will spare a description to save the sensitive) at home with my Mark, and then we went to bed early in anticipation of his morning flight home. It was lovely and mellow and perfect, and being awake to see the sun rise on the 1st (there was no one awake and the roads were abandoned; it was in many ways like steppingi into a new world...) was a treat. And oh! My 31st was wonderful. I inherited a chair from another Gaia member and thanks to him (thanks, Erin!) was introduced to a fabulous little museum and a favorite new artist. I love happy discoveries like that. The world is so magical sometimes.

2) What new thing(s) do you want to do this year?
One of my friends committed to doing one new thing each day for all of 2009.

I think this is a fantastic idea but a bit daunting for my tastes; I'm glad this question just demands one. So let's see. Where to start? I want to take an improv course. I want to visit Mexico. I want to interview someone rather than being interviewed (I like asking questions ;). I want to learn the ASL alphabet. I want to visit the Denver Botanical Gardens. I want to get my colors done (am I a spring? a summer? a winter? I've always wanted to know!) I want to go hot air ballooning. I want to ride in a glider. I want to memorize a new poem each month of the year. I want to bury treasure. I want to go scuba diving. I want to learn to juggle. I want to visit every art gallery in my dear little town. I want to visit a US Mint and see how money is made. I want to watch an entire opera, in person. I want to go whale watching. I want to get my palm read. I want to learn to whistle with my fingers. I want to visit the Shambhala Mountain Center. I want to go on an road trip all by myself. I want to ride a unicycle. I want to learn to waltz. I want to explore and discover and goodness... my list for the year is longer, but it's not on me right now, so I'll just leave this to start.

3) What is one (or two!) of your goals for 2009?
Aside from the list above—my goal is to complete them all, and then some!—I've committed to a haiku a day as a little mini-journal exercise.

4) What do you wish for the world?
That, in Kafka's perfect words, it freely offer itself to me to be unmasked, and that it roll in ecstacy at my feet.

5) What do you hope to nourish in your own life?
Attention. Love. Appreciation.

Inspired? Please write your own! The year is already hurtling by. :)

A lovely someone sent me this poem yesterday, and, given my abject adoration of Rumi, I can't help but want to share it here.


Indeed.

Oh, this could not be more appropriate. I am exhausted. This weekend is going to be so, so wonderful, if only because I'll get to (happy sigh!) sleep. :)

1) What do you love to do in your free time?
Read. Read read read read read. I think my personal heaven would look something like a big library. Second to reading? Writing.

I also love conversations--the long rambling rejuvenating 'meaning of life' sort that bounce from digression to digression to digression and that leave you feel as though you've discovered new ways of seeing the world. I like eating, too--excellent restaurants are my undoing--and hunting down good wines. And I like rambling walks to match the rambling conversations.

And you know, I think I could sum all this up using the word, "explore." I like to explore and I like to discover and I like to learn.

2) What music helps you relax?
Oddly enough, though I'm not a big jazz fan, like Jessica, I really enjoy Stan Getz. I love mellow ambient electronica, too: The Detroit Escalator Co., Duplex, Swayzak, etc. Or ancient chamber music. I'm not that picky.

Swayzak - State of Grace

3) What movie did you enjoy recently?
Protagonist has become one of my new favorite films.

4) Who makes you laugh?
Me, mostly. (I somehow manage to do something every day that I look back at later and just laugh at.)

5) Where do you go / do to recharge?
I am a tremendous fan of saunas and hot tubs and those wonderful mineral springs that bubble up in certain areas of the globe. I miss living in Northern California, where the surrounding areas were dotted with these wonderful retreats, but I've been discovering, slowly, options near my new home. A few hours of high humidity and high heat, punctuated by ice cold dips, and I feel like a new person.

You?

Mark arrived last night. There is a tremendous moving van taking up my entire driveway. Boulder is sunny and clear with an expected high of 70, the inauguration is unfolding, and I feel as though I'm living—we're living, all of us—in a bit of a beautiful, ever-present dream.

I love language.

Forgive me, will you, the sharing of a little discovery?

Last week, for reasons still unknown to me (a dream? a strange reminder?), I started poking around for more information on a curious form of English syntax called ePrime. (I first stumbled across the topic a few years ago, but never bothered to learn more.)

ePrime looks and behaves just like everyday English, except it avoids all forms of the verb to be: be, is, am, are, was, were, been, and being (as well as their contractions). Perhaps this sounds needlessly complicated to you, or just plain silly; certainly when I first heard of this modification I reacted with puzzlement. After learning a bit more about the reasons why someone might adopt this apparently awkward approach to writing or speech, though, I fell head over heels in love.

Why?

Because English speakers frequently use the verb "to be" to "express dogmatic beliefs or assumptions or to avoid expressing opinions and feelings as such." ePrime helps prevent this. It forces an active rather than passive voice, which demands more ownership from the speaker (using ePrime, I can't say, "That's a wonderful idea," but would have to rephrase it as "I find your idea wonderful,"), and which makes it harder for people to pass off an opinion as a fact or to confuse a judgment with an objective case. 

Even better, ePrime guards against the linguistic illusion of solidity or permanence. If I say "Joe is a bad driver," I've labeled poor Joseph with a fixed trait that implies something inherent to his very selfhood. If I say instead that "Joe drives badly," I reference his skill level, not who or whata he is. I firmly (if foolishly) believe that the language we use heavily influences the way we see the world, and the way we behave and react and interact with others, and so I love the notion that something like ePrime would contribute to a more fluid and flexible metaphysics.

Anyway. For all its imperfections, the whole idea tickles me pink. (Perhaps I should designate this blog as a "to be" free zone. :) And though I'm not sure I have the wherewithall to always express myself this way (this sentance alone is evidence!), it seems a wonderful exercise in clear thinking, and I'd love to practice further. Again... I love language. Obviously.