Born November 26, 1983. I'm from a small town near Frederick, Maryland and I thought that the view of the Appalachian mountains from my yard were actually mountains until I saw everything from the Tetons to the Olympics and now I know...those ain't no mountains, they're hills! I've only lived in this amazing place called the Pacific Northwest since August '06, so everything out here is fascinating and new to me and like a dream. I love ROCKS, rivers, mountain ranges, blue skies/warm sunshine, yummy vegan food, metaphysics (err astral projection), the coast, ghost stories, swimming holes, and slip-skin grapes. I play cello and am trying to learn guitar and spend a lot of free time writing/playing music. I also love moss-covered trees and rainforests. One day when my grandfather is gone I hope to take over my family farm with Adam (organically) and make my grandfather proud. I would love to spend my days slowly making friends with the wild kitties, fixing up the barn and the sheds, sitting by the creek, and working hard in the fields. The old farm house is kind of (or really, actually) creepy though so I think I would need a couple of friends to live in it with me. I am constantly playing with different ideas for things like what to do with the old milking building and what kinds of animals I should ask to come live with me and be my friends. Maybe some sheep because then we could make the wool into things. My mom says she would come down and weave on the loom with me some days. It would be really cool to start some kind of community project where people from the new (and ridiculous) housing developments down the road could come and reconnect with the land. Adam likes working with kids so I tell him he should get kids to come and have an after-school thing where they play in the woods and learn cool things. Anyone is welcome in this future project :)

I initially took Healing Gardens because it seemed like a great introduction to this land that I had been dreaming about for years and would give me the opportunity to form an intimate relationship with this place. It has done that so far, but also has taken me in directions that now seem to just be natural progressions of myself, my identity, and my awareness. I have been loving the exploration of thought and self and place with my fellow classmates and I am very much looking forward to what new ways we will grow and learn together this quarter.

Moon & Stars

the end

My creation story is more of a children's story, as I feel a lot of creation stories tend to be; childhood is when creation stories are usually told since it is when one gets accquainted with the world. My story is more personal than reflecting a powerful world view or what have you, though. I have really been missing the Sun lately but have been finding comfort in the calm peace of the night and have been seeing the Moon as a friend to appease my loneliness. Thus my creation story is a way of me expressing those feelings. Additionally, however, the story illustrates the importance of friendship and would give a child the feeling that the world cares about her/him, while bringing a child's attention to and forming an appreciation for something that could be overlooked (I have a feeling that some people go months without ever looking up at the stars and appreciating them or noticing what point of the Moon is in her cycle). It also illustrates reasoning and purpose in the world in a positive manner and purports a connectedness -- the moonlight helps the owl, the rabbit, the rocks, the people, etc. and all these beings are friends with eachother, at that!