momentous no. 3: take a walk

Texas this time of year is hot, hot, hot. I have been down here near Dallas visiting my sister and her family for the past week. It's been a wonderful trip full of summertime fun in the sun. We have been graced with sunshine a lot, but the past couple of days have been filled on and off with terrific claps of thunder and shocks of lightning. I love a good storm any old time, but down here the cooling effect of the rain makes me especially appreciative of them.

This morning, post-rain, the air was humid but so much cooler that I decided it was the perfect chance to take the kids on a walk to a nearby trail which runs parallel to a slow moving creek. I was hoping the cooler temps and rain would bring out some interesting wildlife and I was blown away at what 4 attentive kids were able to spot! We saw silkworms spinning a pod like web, a baby turtle resting on a log, a seriously camouflaged toad, 2 squirrels, and a bright green caterpillar the length of a stick. Cleo managed to collect 2 dead cicadas with their stained glass-like wings to bring home to her insect loving Dad. It was a very successful morning!

The level of enthusiasm and enjoyment each kid showed was especially poignant to me because just last Friday we traveled to a very cool wildlife safari, one where you drive your car through acres of preserve filled with exotic African animals like giraffes and ostrich and strange looking antelopes. This place was seriously impressive and we had a great time. But it also cost a lot of money, relatively speaking, and it took considerable effort to drive there. And though clearly the kids and Ame and I enjoyed the experience immensely (nothing quite like hand feeding a giraffe out of your sunroof!), I can honestly say that the shock and awe factor exhibited for this wee little turtle spotted creekside 5 minutes from home was right up there with those giraffes.

I love to be reminded of how little children need to have their imaginations and curiosity ignited. As parents and loved ones, we like to give them the world but I think sometimes we just need to remember that its really as simple as opening the front door and stepping out with an exploratory mindset. You just never know what you might find out there!

inspirato: recognizing that the moment at hand should trump the technology in your hand

I'm a little bit of a hippocrite posting this today since I am currently out of town and very much connected to my iphone. But I have saved this little nugget from an interview Gretchen Rubin featured on the Happiness Project awhile back because it struck such a chord in me:

Is there anything you find yourself doing repeatedly that gets in the way of your happiness?
I spend too much time screwing around with my iPhone, to be honest, on email and Tweetdeck and so on. It makes me feel connected and productive, but it also prevents me from being present in the moment. I met my husband on a long bus ride 15 years ago; we were sitting across the aisle from each other, we had finished our respective newspapers, and we started chatting because we had nothing better to do. I think about that all the time, and how if we were on that bus today, we would never meet at all, because we'd be tip-tapping on our tiny keyboards, totally preoccupied, missing what was right next to us. I also fret about what message I send my kids when they say something to me at the bus stop and I answer "uh huh" with one eye on the keyboard. So I'm trying not to use my iPhone at all while I'm with them, and once this book launch is behind me, I'll take another big step back from the social media.

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Isn't that amazing to think that this woman met her husband on a bus ride? I think she is dead on that for most of today that kind of unadulterated moment of just sitting there looking out the window, being "available", would be few and far between. Our devices (or maybe I should call them vices?) mean we are very plugged in to technology, to information, and to interconnectivity with those far from our current reach. And yet because of that maybe we are losing the chance to touch, to connect with the ACTUAL person sitting right next to us?

I think it is important to consider how these little miracle devices are taking daily miracles right out from under us. Jaren and I like to joke about how the iphone has terminated any sense of mystery in casual conversation. If one of us says something like "I wonder what language they speak in Macao?", we don't speculate, we ask the oracle. If we are freaking out in a movie unable to place what an actor has previously been in, we check the IMBD oracle. We don't let much lie in terms of gaining knowledge,and I can't help but wonder what kind of effect this has on my actual body of knowledge. Is it making me smarter, or is it making me actually value information less--this fact that I think of a question and find the final answer in under 30 seconds?

I'm not advocating junking our prized hand helds, I just think it is worth prioritizing when we use them. It's something to think about and I don't think it's a question the iphone will have the answer for in an instant.

abundance no 1: birding

In the past few months I've realized how much I enjoy watching birds. I like to watch them in flight most of all. The movement of wings is so surprising, not nearly as effortless as it looks on first glance. I've become pretty serious about wanting to identify what I see and hear in the trees around me. I think it must answer some anal niche in my personality to understand my surroundings.

Birds are perhaps the wild animal we humans interact with and see the very most. Even the most dedicated urban dweller can identify the pigeon or the swallow. I love the way birds are always in our sight line but never within in our reach. I think that is what grabbed me about Andrew Zuckerman's latest photo book called Birds. He photographs each bird subject with an entirely blank white background. The resulting shot is so pure BIRD that you get to see each and every detail of the beak, the feathers, the eye with extreme clarity, something those quick little buggers never afford us when they are out on the branch or flapping high above our heads. I found the details on each bird ridiculously beautiful. And a great manifestation of the perfection of every creature on the planet. Take a minute and scroll through the photos featured on birdbook.org. It will make you want to don a pair of binoculars and check out the robin or sparrrow in your own backyard.

MOMENTOUS=people enjoying perfect moments of everyday life

I am sure it has been more than apparent that I've been a little off my A game with this thing lately...not much to report because I've been relatively busy and relatively uninspired! Summer living may be easy, but thoughtful living is always hard!

I recognize that I live an exceedingly lucky life. I spend a lot of time pondering that I could be poor, impoverished, denied my liberty, could be riddled with disease, could lose the people I love...and instead here I am alive, free, middle class, educated, healthy, and loved. So it can feel curious to me sometimes that I spend so much of my energy on this blog seeing the failings and trappings in my own life, brain, and in the world around me. And though I know my goal is to be constructive and thoughtful, I think it can also be a fairly negative place to reside.

So in an effort to combat this negativity and rejuvenate myself and my inspirato, I'm going to dedicate the next couple weeks to presenting to you some plain and simple abundance. I will showcase tidbits I find online that inspire me or make me happy or share experiences that I'm referring to as MOMENTOUS. In the past week I've caught people enjoying perfect little moments of life that grace all of us each day. And it made me wish I had the presence of mind to document it with a photo or a line....

MOMENTOUS no. 1: The other night I was driving home and happened to notice a man on a busy road in town called Foothill Blvd. who had stepped out of his daily routine and was standing on the curb of that traffic-y thoroughfare watching the sun sink low in the west. It was a particularly lovely sunset that night, and Foothill has a perfect view perched as it is up on the Eastern bench to the valley stretching out below-- clear down to the Great Salt Lake, where the sun sets this time of year. It was a sunset worthy of stopping the car and slowing down and yet no one did; not me, or anyone else. And yet there was that lone man stopping and looking westward, taking in the lovely moment playing out before him. I found it very inspiring and the mental picture I have of him still and smiling will stay with me forever.

MOMENTOUS no. 2: I was driving down yet another busy street, running errands, both my kids hot and cranky in the backseat. I was stopped at a red light and looked over to see these two adorable teenaged girls in outlandish outfits and purple haired wigs, each holding a sign that says "Wave if you believe in being FRIENDLY." How awesome is that? I rolled all our windows down and we honked and waved like mad to support such a simple, wonderful plea for camaraderie. It was a reminder that at our best we humans are humorous, kind, and willing to use our energy to promote happiness in others. It inspired me.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy the next few weeks of daily posts. I hope they lift your spirits and inspire.

Our patron saint....

Trust me, I am not a big fan of hang overs, but occasionally over-imbibing creates the perfect reason to slow down and laze out. This was the state of things in the Harbertson household on Sunday after a very fun and indulgent bbq the night before. Both Jaren and I were moving a little slow and the kids had stayed up late and were right there with us. We were all content to just stay in our pjs and hang out with no agenda all day. We read books and played with blocks and made lots and lots of buttery toast. Even with a head with a dull ache in it, it felt blissful and indulgent in a wholly different way.

I must credit Jaren and this hangover-induced mellow mode, for providing us with the perfect situation to spend time introducing our kids to a very important artist. On Sunday as a family we watched the documentary Rivers and Tides about the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Years ago in NYC, Jaren and I happened on Goldsworthy, a well known British artist who creates work outside in Nature using all natural materials. He does miraculous, insane things like building a large egg shaped sculpture out of random stones on the beach for hours and then watches it slowly break away and fall to pieces again as the tide comes in. He lays down on the ground in the rain and waits for enough time to pass so that the outline of his body will be perfectly left imprinted on the ground because the area where he laid is left dry instead of wet from the rain. He takes freshly shorn wool and covers miles of rock wall in the Scottish countryside and then just lets it blow away in the wind. He builds amazing structures out of broken icicles and then watches them melt away in the heat of the sun. And hundreds and hundreds of other interesting, beautiful, and compelling sculptures of Nature, inspired by Nature. He truly must be the most patient man on the planet. If it weren't for the photographs he takes of the projects, there would be no record of them since most float/drift/blow/melt away in just hours or days after completion.

Both our kids like to be outside, but Cleo in particular has a penchant for collecting and creating with natural materials. She spends hours collecting petals or rocks or sticks and then usually creates some sort of scene with them. It struck Jaren as very Goldsworthy-esque and he thought showing her the film about him would make an impact on her. It did! It made an impact on all of us. It was so inspiring to see our 6 year old watch intently as an adult artist created things that she could wrap her brain and creativity around. She saw the connection between the "work" she does in the backyard and the work of a famous artist! It brought a smile to my face for sure.

And it inspired me and Jaren to think about patience and parenting and how we can encourage the spirit and simplicity of what Goldsworthy does in our home. Watching him work, you can't help but feel the peace around his process. It is quiet. He is collecting lovely minutia for hours in a beautiful setting, breathing in the fresh air. And then he channels all this into a beautiful visual treatise on the ephemeral nature of Nature-the fact that nothing ever lasts. To me seeing his acceptance of this basic rule of life manifested in his work was like hearing a bell ring. It is a reminder to attempt to be ego-less, to embrace patience and the details of life, and above all to spend time creating and being inspired with those I love.

I took this to heart today. I took the kids hiking and Cleo completed her first official Goldsworthy inspired project. Check it out! A pocket of carefully placed dandelions ready to drift out into big water....I think its pretty beautiful and the hour it took to collect the dandelions on the mountainside, hike down to the water, and sit on the cool rock watching my daughter place them gingerly in the foam was even more so. Thank you Andy Goldsworthy. You are this household's new patron saint.

(Images above are an Cleo's work followed by a few lovelies from Mr. Goldsworthy himself. If you have a minute google Goldsworthy and check out the great images and youtube videos available on his geniusness.)