How an education can open your eyes... even old(er) ones.

It wasn't enough to just live in the moment this summer. To walk outdoors and smell the air, feel the rain when it just so happened to rain. It seemed like at every turn I was noticing things that I had not noticed before. When I arrived back home from this summer’s adventures, I perused every photo I had managed to take and realized how changed I was by it all. I have always loved the outdoors, the mountains, and the flowers in the spring. I have always loved a good argument too…especially when convinced I am right. But I looked through the photographs and was overwhelmed by the combination of what I have always known about the outdoors and the life I love in it and the knowledge that has come with my college education. My eyes were only half open and now they are wide and expansive seeing past the beauty of a mountain or the flight of a bee and realizing how intertwined we are, man and nature.

In staring at one of the pictures and remembering the moment I wrote on the back of an envelope:

"And I stood atop a mountain where God impressed upon me with all His might and all of His glory - all of the world that I love in a way that has encouraged me onward in my pursuit of knowledge. To find a way to protect it and preserve it so that one day your children and mine will find it - still there waiting for them as it has been waiting for me. As close to the way that it should be – without permanent intrusion of man, and in it a safe haven to those living creatures that without it would have no place left in the world to roam free and would surely face extinction. I was given a lesson in its beauty, as man encroaches upon nature so wholly that it no longer thrives, he inevitably deprives himself of what it truly means to be free. I wish to imagine that there will never come a time when the quiet of the mountains ceases and the valleys within them alive with inhabitants are no more. I pray that we may come to our senses before the thirst for energy and space is so voracious that we rob ourselves of those few remaining quiet expanses that are still free from the chaos of man. That we realize what is precious and rare before we are left only with proof of their previous existence as historical recollections in memoirs and photographs of visitors past."

Keep it clean people, the water, the land, and your life. Be mindful of what you use, and how much you use. Pick up the trash you see on the street (or roadsides, parks, expansive spaces). Teach your children not to be wasteful. Fix things, donate things, re-use things, recycle things… or better yet, maybe just don’t buy so many… “things”. Every little bit counts.

Here are a few more pictures of our crazy lazy dayz of Summer.

Fort Worth Nature Center Trip

Final Days of Summer

For me, the summer has flown. I took a class that I did not really want to take, and I took a job that I was hoping not to have to take, but today - TODAY - is my final exam - I get to finish this class and I get 17 days of this summer to make something happen for myself.

I have things I want to do and plans I want to finish - so that I can start this semester (and what remains of my college goals) with a clean slate and zero projects.

I want to finish our gazebo, and finish painting the outdoor furniture, finish the "Honey Hole" (which is this imagined little spot where the carport used to be), I want to make sure no more trees die on my property and take good care of my grandfather's rose bush (tree really).

I want to get the porch rails up and finished, and help the band and the flag girls, I want to make a list of "100 Things to Do before I Graduate" for my son (this is his senior year).

I want to enjoy the remainder of the summer - drama free and without interruption. Oh, and I need to have a garage sale (which should be fun with the temperatures being what they have been).

For those interested that thermometer is on my back porch and shows what the temperature is today at my house here in Texas (it is August 6, 2012 and it is HOT today). I am thankful that for today, I am inside and though procrastinating, am about to take my final exam. Here is to one more "A" - I am throwing everything I have at this one. I hope to get it all done and I will blog along the way about my progress or lack thereof...cheers (and stay cool).

Focusing the mind...

I struggle from time to time between the things that I must do and the things that I want to do. Today, is one of those days. Actually, the past three weeks have been one of those days.

I love the outdoors, I never thought I would really love it like I do, but I love it dearly. My body craves sunlight. If there are too many cloudy days I get sad, if there are too many days when I do not get to go outside... I get sad.

My short summer stint at the camp, left me wanting to be outdoors, and when I realized I could not get everything done for the bar-b-q in time with a job, and a class, the job had to go so I could get it done. I did get it done. I spent the remaining two weeks before the bar-b-q outside, cleaning up the yard, straightening projects out, creating a place to do the projects and cleaning the house. It paid off when our house was full of friends and family and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. But after the "goal" had been reached (time-frame wise), I had to immediately get back to my class and finish it up. I am in the last stretch of it - I have two tests to take and I'm done with calculus and it is all that I can do to even look at them.

It isn't that I don't want to. I do. I can't wait to finish them so I can have the two weeks of the summer left to finish some of my projects... but I can't make myself sit down and DO THE WORK. My mind is tired, it is full of worry, and I am wondering at this point if I should continue on with calculus. It is kind of a booger for me - I am learning it - but I am not enjoying it. Don't I need to enjoy that to be an engineer? Ack... am I running down the wrong path?

So, I am wrapping up this note or thought as it may be, and I am hitting the books. I will write again when the work is finished and my mind is somewhat at ease.