first snows

Blog Three

Hard to believe this is my 7^th week here: wait, is that correct? I feel like I arrived here about 2 weeks ago, but physically I have resided in this space for much longer. Time is a blur in this rushed life in the wild. I find myself wanting more and more hours of the day:not to do what I like to typically do: fill it with more and more things, but rather, I want more time to sit and stare outside, or wander through the woods, or ride a bike through rural roads that run parallel to the Tetons. Waho. Amazing. I feel my vocabulary is slipping as I try to explain the vastness of the environment here. I watch the Aspen leaves fall while a bull moose runs through our “lower meadow,” I teach students about sage brush and get to help them make plaster casts of animal tracks, I learn about geology and grasp to memorize Latin names for various species of plants and animals. My world unfolds with such wonder here.

I am trying to understand the role of community in my life. I am surrounded by lovely beings and enjoy that, at the same time, I catch myself feeling so ready to be in my own place. Last weekend I enjoyed the beauty of community with late nights of chit-chat and story telling. We had a dress-up party where we all wore are “best dresses”--which for many of us was pretty simple—and enjoyed fantastic music and fancy boxed wine: what a riot. I am learning to be less pessimistic, and feeling quite joyful in just the act of being alive.

There is so much to explore here...in so many ways.

My gushing seems trite, but true.

I am Alive, wishing for more hours of real sleep, and totally---------content-----------.

I wrote this blog a few days ago, but alas, never sent it. I write as I stare out the window at the freshly covered (with white puffie snow) Aspens. Yesterday early morning we received our first snow. O! I went hiking around “campus” (aka the Grand Teton National Park) with a fellow student and as we paused in our huge upper meadow I felt like the luckiest person alive. It was gorgeous: like one of those outstanding pictures in National Geographic. The sun was peaking through the clouds in the South, the North was dark with clouds, the West showed sneaks of light and the east seemed to simply glow. What a honor it is to live and study here. Tomorrow I teach about geology and fire ecology—woh. Not totally sure if I am as prepared as I should be... owell.

Happy week to all of you:

thanks for being a part of the adventure.