Everyday Life

Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too. 

-Lloyd Alexander

Everyday life doesn't feel all that adventurous, but Taran is slowly teaching me differently. Always dreaming about faraway lands and desperately wishing myself back, I have trouble being content where I am. I think that one of the many reasons the Chronicles of Prydain hit home with me is that Taran comes to learn the same lessons that I have to learn and relearn. My heart yearns for adventure and heroism and beautiful new places, just like Taran did, but I often fail to see the beauty, adventure, and heroics around me. "Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone. Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain." Lately, everyday life for me looks like:

watching: The Paradise, Monuments Men, How to Write a Hit Pop Song 1&2, Doctor Who Series 7, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Guardians of the Galaxy

reading: The Foundling, The Once and Future King, The Maltese Falcon, sentences in Greek

eating: kolaches, chocolate sugar cookies, italian beef, lemon drop cookies, banana bread granola, peaches, sweet corn

admiring: this lady's lovely photos, the creative writing of my little brother and sister and her best friend, the Welsh language

listening: Bastille, Oscar Peterson Piano Jazz, Welsh/Celtic music, my ever expanding soundtrack playlist, Parachute, Higher Things hymns

anticipating: designing my dorm room, (hopefully) going to Camp this September (and if not September then January), Doctor Who Series 8, apple and cinnamon fall days, the first snowfall of the year 

procrastinating: composing music, practicing piano, scrapbooking, editing videos/photos, basically my whole list of things I wanted to do this summer

feeling: hungry, tired, adventurous, hot, completely unprepared for school

smiling: Taran, Eilonwy, Gurgi, Fflewddur, Doli, Gwydion, Rhun, Hen Wen, Smoit, Llonio. Also emails from friends, scones for breakfast, first autumn leaves falling, communicating by Pinterest pins, Big Family Stuff (and honestly every other routine of his)

missing: the lilting cadence of Italian, beautiful German houses, eating ice cream on the steps in the city square of Erfut, walking through castle ruins on mountainsides, the pine and lake and campfire-smoke smell of Camp Luther, my best friends' laughs (I think this list could go on forever)

wishing: I lived in Europe, school wasn't so imminent, our town had cobblestone streets, Sherlock and Merlin had more episodes, I had some Milka caramel