2/21/11

Fort Defiance, VA

This is the view from my desk.

 Eight hours a day, five days a week,
I am here.

It's a nice view.

But today it feels pretty bleak.

Rather than dreaming of flowers and sunshine
I should be focused on teaching and learning.

As I look at this picture

I try to see the beauty.

I know it could be worse.

But it's hard.

Love, P

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Huntsville, AL

Living in the south was my dream after college. I journeyed to Nashville where a chance encounter with an old friend at the Ryman lead me to my husband. We moved to Huntsville, Alabama in hopes of an easier life. Ironically, the opposite happened. Four years later I'm divorced but willful and strong. I continue my dream as a mother of two boys, a professional, and now, a southerner.

A song my dad used to sing to me

"Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton. There ole's times are not forgotten. Look away, look away, look away Dixie Land. Oh, I wish I was in Dixie, away, away. I wish I was in Dixie Land, I'll take my stand in Dixie. Oh way, Oh way down south in Dixie."

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LaLa Land...

Today is Monday and this is how
I will remember her. New week, fresh
start, new project. But I feel tired and homesick
and watching my dog die
is hard. I stayed home to study and keep
vigil, but my neighbors, like everyone in LA,
are waiting to be discovered
and so continue to have band practice over my head,
which does not make for easy.

I just want this exam over with. It's only
going to determine the rest of my life
as I sit here and keep vigil and feel myself
becoming hardened.

I miss home. That place in my heart
where there is easy, I have passed, Stella
jumps up and down when I come home,
and my neighbors do not have the liberty to write
the soundtrack to my afternoon.