A Pause and Reflection

 

A latte at Starbucks with overcast skies just outside the full-length windows, which serve as walls: vibrant life around me, with people chatting, typing on their laptops, and constantly coming and going, just place me in an urban jungle with the rain-streaked windows and the constant crazed movement outside the door. Reminiscence.

Free time provides me with overwhelming thoughts of the past and opportunities for the future. I question the present and pray for decisions that will not be about what I want but for following the life Christ wants me to lead. Still, dreams are powerful and an artistic mind does not settle for the calmness and monotony of being content. I constantly yearn for inspiration and change in the daily routine. Day by day goes by and I begin to tire of the consistency… what do I do?

Life dictates I have a steady job with an income I can life off—that is the path I am following but I still dream of something more…

An artist seeks to be original and to create. Our minds seek the world differently than most people—picking out compositions as we live our daily lives—noticing patterns, textures in unnoticed objects that everyone would miss otherwise. We find beauty and originality in what otherwise people would prefer to ignore. Our eyes measure and compare, we study the shapes and forms around and our minds explode with one concept followed by yet another.

A creative mind seeks to expose the profoundness in everyday objects, or to establish meaning in what otherwise is dismissed to have little or none. When in St. Petersburg I studied Malevich’s square, and discussed in my mind the purpose and the profoundness of the piece. Is there truth in his theories and in his concepts or is it really just another fallacy? 

When an artist seeks to uncover the undiscovered, is it a pointless quest? King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 1:9 he wrote,

“That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.”:

Winter is Here!

I will be honest and admit that I am wishing for a snow day. It seems kind of lazy of me actually, since I just had a weekend. But I will not count it, especially since I spent the entire two and a half days being miserably sick. I’m actually not complaining: I am just saying that I needed a day where I could have caught up with all the work that has been accumulating over the last few weeks…

 

Which actually reminds me that it is now 8 pm and I’ve yet to finish anything that I vowed to finish. Instead I am sitting here typing this blog and anxiously checking the weather since this storm is supposed to last a few more hours. I guess I’ve decided that tomorrow will be a snow day and most likely school will be cancelled. It’s not like I really want to miss the chance of going into the classroom, but my level of anxiety is slowly on the rise. It really would be nice to get the chance to sleep in and then spend the day working on my professional development entry.

 

Sadly, I am not the best example for my students right now. I blame it on my illness and the weather. Yes, that’s right, winter is here; thus, the title of this blog. I call snow a beautiful distraction because it is so tempting to sit in the dark in a comfy chair, sipping on hot tea and staring outside at the snow. Instead I have to stare at the computer screen and try to reflect on “where am I in relation to this standard.” And then wait for the light to flicker and fight off the need to sleep…

 

Winter is here, but I have no idea how long it will last. Maybe “winter” will be over by the end of this week.