Restless Life Syndrome

This poem is inspired by my recent restlessness.

Restless Life Syndrome

I would like to be everywhere

doing absolutely everything

until the base of my shoes

wears down to the ground

and my weathered weariness

shows my breath in the wind

and I have seen

more open fields

than my dead dreams

Until I must make myself

fall asleep again

Wind

Wind

Thank you God

for the wind

you put inside of us

and the wind

you push out of us

the wind

that follows us

and the wind

that guides us

the wind

that billows our hopes

and the wind

that sends them away

the wind

in our mouths

and the wind

brushing our hands

We feel you.

Blackberry Patch

Here is a new poem I just whipped up after picking blackberries in Malvern, Arkansas yesterday.

Picking Blackberries

We are few
mother, father and child
with splotches of purple on our hands
working to pick out what is ripe
from a harvest stinging with the sun

Waves of heat
not from movement but stillness
follow the sweat
our heads send our toes

The finding of precious jewels
amidst the beaten earth
brings our bodies alive
and whispers in a wave
with cooling breath
"You are searchers.
Find me what is sweetest."

As our trail of tastes pushes us into
the mysteries of the blackberry patch.

"So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up."
Galatians 6:9

Green and beauty

The beauty of the spring green outside inspired me to write a poem in its honor.

Bless God for the brilliant green of

stormy skies

ragged weeds

dewy grass

flora, fauna and fronds

mossy swamps

new buds

the life

that grows in your shadow

Fresh start...and plastic bags

I'm back in the world of blogging.

It has been terribly too long since I have written anything, so it may take me awhile to gain my few readers back. But I think I'm up for a challenge.

I am going to try to post more of my writing more often because I am currently watching Julie and Julia, and it seems like the right thing to do.

Here is a column that I wrote about plastic bags that was published in the last issue of my newspaper, The Threefold Advocate.

Hopefully you will read it and start using reusable bags! If you do, the Earth will love you...and I will too!

Bag lady's wisdom

Grace Pennington, Editor-in-Chief

Aren't plastic bags annoying?

They break easily, they're ugly, they never seem to go away, and being plastic, they really won't go away.

After you have used them to bring groceries or things back to your dorm or house, you have no other need for them. Then, for most people, they just end up being stuffed into a corner or a forgotten cabinet, waiting for Christ's return. Then, something that was intended to make your life easier and faster becomes a cluttered, ugly thing that won't leave you alone.

I used to feel this way about paper bags until I discovered an alternative for carrying groceries while living out of the country. It was very interesting to learn that in Europe, it is almost expected for a shopper to bring a reusable bag with them for their purchases.

The cash register tellers would ask first if you had your own bag. If you answered no, they would look at you a bit perplexed, then reluctantly help you pile your things into bright orange plastic sacks. Bringing a reusable bag was the norm at these grocery stores, and after my first plastic bag trip, I began to discover why.

First, plastic bags do not hold up well when you have to walk twenty minutes to get home. I once had to hold a ripped plastic bag together half of the way home, probably looking like another American idiot, after discovering this problem.

Next, instead of fitting all of your things into one reusable bag, the size and shape of plastic sacks force you to use several sacks for even just a few items. When you are walking home with a purse and heavy book bag, the last thing you should add onto it are loads of plastic sacks.

Finally, you look much more like a classy European when you are carrying one canvas bag filled with groceries, than when you load up a pile of artificially orange colored sacks on your shoulders.

I think us over using Americans need to learn a lesson on the benefits of using a reusable bag.

Here are the facts: A reusable bag is cheap (usually no more than $1), sturdy, takes up less room, is reusable (as the name implies) and gets rid of those horrid plastic sacks that trash all of our lives. Oh, and did I mention that it is a very green and Earth - conscious thing to do?

According to reusablebags.com, four out of five grocery bags in the U.S. are plastic, and our society's consumption rate is estimated at more than 500 billion, which is about 1 million per minute. The website states that the plastic bags we use today will be on our planet for up to 1,000 years. Also, the average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in four trips to the grocery store.

So much energy on our part and the Earth's part could be saved by us making $1 purchase of a reusable bag and actually using it. Although plastic sacks seem easier at the time of purchase, they will only turn into a decision that will haunt us and our precious Earth for years.

Other alternatives of green shopping can include asking for paper sacks, which can be recycled, recycling those unwanted and unused plastic sacks, or not using a sack at all. If you are only buying a bag of chips or a CD at a store, just ask the person to not put your purchase in a sack.

Here is what I suggest: Buy a reusable bag, keep it in your car for when you go shopping, don't be afraid to use it, and introduce other people to this smart way to shop. It will save you time, hassle and help keep the Earth clean.

According to reusablebags.com, by using a reusable bag, you have the potential to eliminate 1,000 plastic bags. I can promise you from my experience that using a reusable bag is fun, easy and simply makes you feel a lot smarter. So, I challenge you to shop smart and never leave your reusable bag behind.

Stay tuned for some of my recent poetry.

something

Lest I lose this dream

the world's beauty would be lost forever

To forget a found passion

would bring me to futility and to tears

Thought of time continuing as normal

could ruin the art of finding the new and unique

Tutorials behind, Alps ahead

So, here I sit, 7:16 p.m. in my bed in my cozy little dorm-like room, preparing for my spring break trip to Germany and Switzerland. By preparing, I mean catching up on ugly betty and the office from last night and enjoying a warm, peanut butter, kit-kat cookie that my room mate just baked. 

Today, I had my last tutorial. Although last Thursday, I was pretty ecstatic to be done with my theology tutorial, the one today was a bit different. Well, we have been studying Romantic poetry for the past 8 weeks, and I have read hundreds of poems and written eight (stellar) essays on authors like Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Anna Barbauld. I have SO enjoyed time spent every week reading poetry, dissecting it, then talking with my amazing tutor about it. And we usually end up talking about random soap boxes, things like feminism (which is a good thing, in case you were wondering). Also, English essays are so fun to write. I get to put in my opinion, use lots of quotes from books and not be quite as serious as articles for the newspaper are. 

But anyway, a chapter of my Oxford experience closed today, sadly. I had my last tutorial at 9 a.m. today and left glad to be done, but also sad that my tutorial days are over. Also, the Oxford students are leaving this weekend because their terms is done, so I will miss observing their intellectual ways and snazzy fashion sense. 

After surviving 8 weeks of tutorial, I really feel like a changed student. Even tonight as I was watching Ugly Betty, she was asked at a dinner party to talk about the history of opera. As she was coming up with an educated answer about something she knew nothing about, I, weirdly, was too. Being with a professor who knows everything about the subject you're studying for an hour and asking sometimes crazy curve-ball questions can really help you think on your feet. At the end of these eight weeks, I feel more prepared to answer hard questions, to come up with questions and to not feel awkward sitting for a minute staring into your tutor's fireplace to come up with an intelligent answer. And sure, I failed answering questions a few times, but mostly, I tried my best and got the hang of it. I find myself not shying away from intellectual conversations and not relying so much on dictionary.com to give me a definition for a word or thought.

Now, with my tutorial experience conquered, I am off to conquer the wonders of southern Germany and Switzerland with two girlfriends. We will be traveling from Frankfurt to Heidleburg then to Munich for a few nights. Then, we are going to see the Neuschwanstein castle (aka Disney stole their castle architecture from this castle) then on to Thayngen, Switzerland. We are renting a car, so I'm super excited about a fun and scenic road trip! Wooh!