early thanks

On this All Hallow's Eve, I am grateful that in this creepy week of neighbors gone bad, that friends show up.  Both cyberly and with orange zest cookies dipped in dark chocolate.

Grateful for mild weather in which to pack and move.  Yes!  Again! 

Bring on the popcorn

LOVED this movie as a child and was happy to find it this week.  It will be the trimester final for the 5th graders~a nice tie-in to all the composers/geography/architecture we've been studying in our music history classes.   It also helps that my entire music class is also part of Choir 5. 

to sleep, perchance

SOOO glad that we're coming upon the weekend with the extra hour of slumber.

oh, I'm a Texan now

At least on paper.  It only took three years and FOUR attempts at being in a DMV line to obtain my license. 

The dance of the blessed spirits?  While I appreciate the whimsy of this yard, I have to ask~when did we start decorating as much/or more for Halloween as we do for Christmas?  It's a bit of lunacy. 

books & such

 

Gorgeous day for the Texas Book Festival.  Difficult to believe perhaps, but I did not purchase a single book.  Partially because it was too hot to carry loads of things and partially because I decided to walk to the event. 

Still swimming.  Yes, at the end of October!

 Al fresco lunch from my favorite French cafe.

Arrived on campus this morning to find lovely displays for Diwali~the Hindu festival of lights.  Knew really nothing about it, until after an informative assembly.

I am for anything that celebrates light.  And flowers.  And food!

murricle of life

One of the hatching monarchs on campus yesterday morning!

Me and the 7th & 8th grade choir beginning the heartbeat rhythm for It Takes a Village for the Installation of the Head of Trinity.  Oh yes.  Processions and Bishops and high ceremony~well, as high as one can get in a middle school gymnasium.  (We have a GORGEOUS new auditorium, but we can barely fit the student body in it~they way underestimated the growth of this school when building.)

beauty in the cracks

Seen on tonight's amble towards the market.

Yeah, guess I'm sleeping on the sofa tonight.  Wait, we don't have one.

some skills

may take a lifetime to acquire.

Taylor Gold

OMG~as my students would say.  These are the most exquisite pears I've had.  I was at Central Market looking at the red pears when the produce guy asked me if I had tried these.  He sliced one open and I was hooked.  Just had a tasty dinner of a bed of mixed greens, crumbles of bleu cheese, toasted pecans and these pears.  DIVINE.

the ness of light

Some of the pretty posies left from Monday's night final memorial service.

Just a gorgeous day of breezy warmth.  (Although, I am a bit ready for cute boot season.)

bwa-ha-ha, if this is true

then all y'all are in a lot of trouble.

gift of song

Saddened to hear that a marvelous composer just passed away~here's one of his gems.

"Tell me where is the road I can call my own,
That I left, that I lost, so long ago.
All these years I have wondered, oh when will I know,
There's a way, there's a road that will lead me home.
"After wind, After rain, when the dark is done,
As I wake from a dream, in the gold of day,
Through the air there's a calling from far away,
There's a voice I can hear that will lead me home.
"Rise up, follow me, come away is the call
With (the) love in your heart as the only song
There is no such beauty as where you belong
Rise up, follow me, I will lead you home."

~Stephen Pauulus

originally, there is nothing~

 "Hope is like a path in the countryside. 

Originally, there is nothing—

but as people walk this way again and again, 

a path appears."

~Lu Xun

Love the quote and am looking forward to reading their second book.

whirled peas

or something to that effect.  I drape pretty fabric over my still-packed boxes to ignore them~think I may try that with the heaps o' bureaucracy on my work desk.

the witching hour

Jack-o-lantern?  Check.  Black cat?  Check.

We are ready for the witching hour.

(the roaches are a bonus)

#iwantanap#peacefullivingthroughslumber

A friend shared this~thought it sums up this Monday rather well!

Friday faces

some days, you just need warm pie for dinner and a friend to bake it for you

Woke to find the following email in my work in-box.  I wish I could say that I knew the woman~but in a way, I do.  Her daughter is the Head of the Lower School and is the one who highly recommended that I be hired for the Middle School. I teach her two grandsons.  And I walk her campus daily.  We've three official services that are being planned for the next week~lots of music to organize.  

Here's to the hope that when one shuffles off the coil, someone will write the following (or some such sentiments) regarding one's life & efforts.

"Dear Trinity Community:

I write to you tonight with a truly heavy heart.  Jane Ferguson Hill, the beloved founder of Trinity Episcopal School, died late this afternoon after a long and difficult illness. No words can adequately express our sadness at the passing of this amazing woman and the great loss her family has suffered.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hill family, her husband Dr. Tom Hill, daughter Jennifer Morgan (Todd), son Andrew Hill (Heidi), and her grandchildren Hill, Drew, Libby and Charlie.  We are sincerely grateful that they have so generously shared their wife, mother, and grandmother with the entire Trinity Family.

Jane Hill was quite simply a force of nature. The consummate educator, Jane began her career as a kindergarten teacher at Good Shepherd Episcopal School, and then spent the next decade as Head of School at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School.  In 1999, Jane became the founding Head of School of Trinity Episcopal School.  Jane’s gifts were innumerable.  Her vision, leadership and charisma, tenacity, and innate sense of what was good for children inspire us all, making her the Pied Piper of Trinity. Over the years Jane received numerous honors and accolades for her work in schools.  Because of the vision and dedicated hard work of Jane Hill, generations of children have known and will know the love of God and through that foundation realize their potential as both students and human beings.  I have no doubt that Jane has been welcomed into the arms of our Lord with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

There will be a special All School Chapel in the coming days.  Our message will be an age-appropriate celebration of our founder and the seeds she planted here at Trinity.  Services at St. David’s Episcopal Church are being planned by the family for next week.  Trinity will also host an evening Celebration of Life honoring Jane Hill for the adults in our school community in the week that follows.   As soon as details regarding services and donations in Jane’s honor are confirmed, the information will be posted on the Trinity website (www.austintrinity.org). 

After careful consideration and conversation with Jennifer, it was decided that, with the family’s blessing, we would not close school on the day of services.  However, it is our intent to allow every faculty and staff member who would like to attend the St. David’s services the opportunity to do so.  Once we know the timing of the services, I will be in contact and we will make firm plans on coverage.

While this is a loss to the whole Trinity Community, it is felt most especially by the Hill and Morgan family.  We are sensitive at this time for their need to mourn privately. You are invited to share remembrances and condolences with the family and the community through the Jane Hill tribute page of the Trinity website which will be available tomorrow. If you or your child experiences this loss in such a way that you need support, please know that our Chaplain, Brin Bon, and our school counselors are available.

Jane’s physical presence may no longer be here among us, but her spirit lives on in the classrooms of Trinity Episcopal School.  Although Jane’s voice is now silent, her message is still heard in the lessons we have learned.  Though Jane’s hands that were always so busy now lie still, her good work remains.  And, though Jane’s heart of gold has stopped beating, her love remains here among family and friends, and the Trinity Community.  Trinity is Jane’s gift of love to us, given with every intention that we should take up her vision and carry it forward. 

Yours in service,

Marie Kidd

Head of School

acoustic life

Sometimes, it is good to unplug.

Just spent some pleasant hours catching up with an alum.  Such a quietly glorious thing to observe a former student happy and flourishing.  And the full moon rise on the urban walk home was a bonus.

a day late, but not sure about the dollar short

Yesterday was St. Francis Day and many pet blessings occurred throughout the land (our school chaplain decided it best to have people bring in photos of their pets and I applaud her wisdom as there are well over 600 students/staff.)

I was lucky enough to grow up with a menagerie of animals ranging from Shetland ponies the to horned lizard I tried to adopt in our backyard when I was 8.  Many cats and dogs have added much joy to my days.  Bogart is rolling into the grand age of 15 and continues to bless my days~the occasional hairball aside.

"Until one has loved an animal

a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

~Anatole France

we's got the rhythm

A 6th grader who likes to hang out in the choir room during lunch (he's not my official student).  He's so good that he actually has a band playing in the ACL festival this season.  (We will draw a veil over what the combo of ACL and a UT home game does to traffic in this teeny town.)

This didn't turn out as arty as I wanted, but it was a gorgeous moment in yesterday's ideal afternoon sunshine.

end of the road

My feet felt breezy today and when I slid my shoes off, under my desk~I realized that I had worn THROUGH the leather.

I was crushed.  I have resoled and reheeled these lovely shoes many many times.  They have carried me onto many many stages and held me upright through many concerts.

Then I realized that they were well over a decade old and perhaps it was time for them to get to retire their weary leathery selves.  

Here's to the next decade of rehearsals and concerts.

And here's a little poetry to ease into Friday~am totally preempting the meaning for shoes:

"I won't be the last
I won't be the first
Find a way to where the sky meets the earth
It's all right and all wrong
For me it begins at the end of the road
We come and go..."

~Eddie Vedder

tick-tock

The Layers
Stanley Kunitz, 1905 - 2006

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.

From The Collected Poems by Stanley Kunitz (W. W. Norton, 2000). Copyright © 1978 by Stanley Kunitz. Used by permission of W. W. Norton.

Yes.  Once again, I have given in to the allure of the U-Haul company and my addiction to cardboard boxes and am changing addresses.    As this is supposed to be a blog about the daily joys, I will gloss over (here) the horrid behaviors of various neighbors at this address and be grateful that it's easy to find housing here and that I know lots of people here~some of whom are willing to lift my books and help me move.

That.  Is something for which to give thanks.