Lost & Found

well i lost my passport and my mailbox key.
i left my Chacos in Estes and forgot my purse at another Cafe.
i misplaced a gift certificate and i don't remember who i still need to send "thank you" notes to.
i found the cucumber in my backpack and the jam beneath the seat.
i had to buy a new phone and I always forget my I.D.
i leave the "doggy-bags" at the restaurants - why do i even try.

but all these things usually find their way back to me, graciously, suddenly, pain-stakingly.

i feel like i spend so much of my life looking for things, straining, remembering, relocating, reclaiming. on my knees, reaching under couches or circling the tiny bedroom. but i'm gonna get better - i'm gonna write lists and jingles to help me remember things. and if i get good at it, maybe i'll write a book: - "Overcoming Absent Mindedness" or "Reclaiming Your Brain" or "Finders Keepers." So, i'm really staying hopeful. and i'm sorry, brother, that they never found the camera i lost at the Catherine the Great exhibit in fifth grade.

first few family outings

i'm really intrigued by the idea of "family." i've always been the little kid of the family. and i never payed attention to much. it's really different now that i've grow up and fallen in love with this guy who is very different from me and really attractive and desirable and then we join up (get married) and now we are a family - me and this guy i love and I'm not the little kid anymore - and there are only two of us in our new family - and i have to pay attention a lot to my choices, to my behavior, to my husband. it's the most powerful transition i've ever experienced - it's incredible and i stand in awe.

and here are some photos of me and my family

standing in awe on various excursion:

we thought about going skiing but decided we'd rather explore by foot in a less-populated area - it turned out to be super rewarding!

perfect white. perfect blue. real green.

sweet abandoned cabin.

we often marvel at the "hardcore-ness" of the minors back in the day

and their experience of such remoteness from others

being with the one you love in the wilderness.

nothin better.

camping along the South Platte River

Sunday night - no neighbors

morning bike ride through the valley

and of course - my favorite.

Fesa Fou Efra!

a little girl i work with, Karie, is seven years old

she's a pretty good student

she's very relational - and generally a good friend to the other girls.

she showed me a note today that she was going
to give to another girl at the Center.

she was thanking the girl for writing an
"i'm-sorry-note" after they got in a tiff.

she read the note to me and as i looked down
at the paper this is what i saw:

Fesa Fou Efra! - which she read as "friends forever"

wow, what a ridiculously way-off spelling, but i like that she didn't hold back. she wasn't hindered by her lack of knowledge - she just did the best she could. in this simple gesture i saw freedom, innocence, boldness, and beauty in the imperfection.

No worries, be happy, Fesa Fou Efra!

mi amor in the meantime

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Uhh, visit my husband's website for now to hear stories about
wedding // honeymoon.
he's more eloquent than I. Yet I long to reflect on the time shortly.


here it is: www.omargooding.livejournal.com/

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