June Twenty-Twenty-One

To cleave the truth of our own lives,

 to lift and look beneath our own stones, 

is to see glimmers at least of His life, 

of His life struggling to come alive in our lives, 

His story whispering like a song through the babble and drone of ours.

-Frederick Buechner 

Senior Project: https://celebrate-2day.blogspot.com/2021/06/two-and-three.html

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. 

- St. Therese of Lisieux

Now you who are loved of God, 

step forward into this new day

appointed by him, that you might 

journey through its hours

in the peace and grace and the love of God. 

-Douglas McKelvey, Every Moment Holy 

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small 

matters compared to what lies within us.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kid, you’ll move mountains.
—Dr. Seuss

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.- Celia Thaxter

You are so much sunshine in every square inch. 

-Walt Whitman 

If our hearts have been tempted this day 

to believe anything about ourselves or others 

that does not take into account your creation, 

your mercy, your sacrifice, your grace, 

your forgiveness, your redemption, 

and your unshakable love, O God, 

remind us again of these truths, 

giving us faith enough to believe

 and hope enough to choose 

to embrace them again and again. 

-Douglas McKelvey, Every Moment Holy 

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we
only look, and see.

–Mary Oliver

Little Seamstress

 Anna has been doing quite a few sewing projects lately, 

and Poppy ended up getting to be right in the middle of it the other day. 

Dinner with a View

We enjoyed a fun dinner at the Sun Mountain Lodge last night with a view right off the dining room that did not disappoint! Such a fun and quick trip in one of our favorite places...

  

fried brussel sprouts - yes please! 

We laughed at this item on the menu and had to get it because it sounded so ridiculous- 

homemade mac and cheese in a bread bowl! (We could not finish it as it was quite rich, and we were able to have the rest tonight for dinner back at home!) 

Monday morning view before heading back to the Seattle heat

 

Lake Ann & Heather Pass

About a month ago, Anna and I sat down and brainstormed things that she wanted to do before she went to college, and the Maple Pass Loop hike that we did last summer was on her list. We put it on the calendar for today, and it was the perfect timing to get away in the mountains today as the heat wave is here in the NW. What a glorious day soaking up Lake Ann and Heather Pass!!! 

 

bike mechanic in the house

It sure is nice having a resident bike mechanic in the house. Taylor has been VERY kind to fix my bike and make it better than it was before, and he even came along for a ride with me the other day for an errand (and I showed him the Valley of the Gnomes as an added bonus.) 

Dancing through life

Below are some of our favorite pictures and a video from Anna's dancing through the years along with two college essays that show how this has shaped her into the person she is becoming.  So grateful for the gifts of dance and the life it has brought to our girl. 

7 minutes of pure joy: https://youtu.be/qAB3WbXGgcs

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (150-400 words)

              Five, six, seven, eight. Glissade, jeté, pas de bourrée, assemblé. Then grande allegro: I explode across the stage, leaving all else behind. I melt into the movements, connecting mind and body. With each articulation of my toes, each extension of my legs, my teachers’ voices echo in my head: “Rotate, spiral into the floor, use your core, hips up, remember your gluteus medius, relax your shoulders, engage your back, don’t forget to breathe.”

Beneath my bursts through the air and whirls atop my toes, the hours spent practicing present themselves to the audience peering through the stage lights’ glow. I reflect on fifteen years of corrections, trials, and errors weaving themselves into my cocoon, where I’ve dared myself to fall, to fail, to learn. Countless times I’ve tumbled sideways from a turn. Try again. My ankles have tangled in petit allegro jump sequences. Try again. I’ve lost the fight to balance en pointe. Try again. I’ve let myself cry in the dressing room, holding space for frustrations and discouragement before once more waltzing across the studio. Then new processes emerged: some of undoing, some of patience, many of both. In our world walled by mirrors, my comparison has scoffed at me, “Really? That’s your best? Her leaps, her pointe- all better than you. Why do you even try?” Brick by brick, these whispers rose pillars of doubt, casting shadows over what I believed I was capable of. Yet step by step, the undoing began. I danced solos I never dreamed of, my excitement drowning out that mocking voice. I piquéd, pirouetted, fouettéd, pliéd, and relevéd. I found inspiration and challenge in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s depiction of his creative process as a writer:

“What you are seeing is not some innate thing. What you are seeing is go again, go again, go again…The bleeding on the page. And then bleeding again and again.”

Among incalculable hours I found my own bleeding not in writing, rather in crossing the floor of the studio again and again. Five, six, seven, eight. Piqué, pirouette, fouetté, plié, and relevé. Rotate, spiral into the floor, use your core, hips up, remember your gluteus medius, relax your shoulders, engage your back, don’t forget to breathe. Repeat. Five, six, seven, eight… From all these memories I return to the present moment on stage, where I pour myself into new movements of erupting, resisting, receiving, and offering.

Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities, jobs or family responsibilities. (50 words)

Five, six, seven, eight. Glissade, jeté, pas de bourrée, assemblé. Then grande allegro: I explode across the stage, leaving all else behind. I melt into the movements, connecting mind and body. Then removing my stiff pointe shoes, I feel the floor again and take from the studio this momentary peace.