Day One

Day One

Ash Wednesday

This morning Amelia and I made the decision to get up early and walk to the cathedral for Ash Wednesday mass. I am so happy we made that decision. Getting up early was hard but it was the perfect way to start this Lenten journey. We had a refreshing walk to the cathedral and then were greeted by the bishop of Allentown who presided over our mass. It was the school mass and it immediately made me remember my St. Williams and Our Lady of Mercy years. I have been so blessed to be able to attend such wonderful schools. The busy day continued and I looked for opportunities to set out on my list. Here is what came of it all...

Show two people how much they mean to me

(1) I made Nina a CD today of "elevator music" for her piece. Apparently I am a great source of elevator music. She seemed to really enjoy the selections I put on it for her to play with in her rehearsal tonight. Hopefully they help her have some revelations about her exciting new Dance Emerge piece

(2) While the people who are receiving the deed won't know until Sunday, I purchased 3 songs from the Dynamics. Jeremy, Stefanie, and Jess (hopefully they are not reading this.. or will at least act like it still a surprise when they get them) will have the Dynamics singing some great love(ish) songs (meaning in addition to offering "Better Together" and "What Makes You Beautiful" you can also purchase "Single Ladies" or "Never Getting Back Together") soon after Valentines day. Here's a great picture of some of my favorite Dynamics!

Naomi, Dan and Helen manning the table.

Help out a stranger

I held a door open for someone leaving the gym today. That counts right? I smiled at them too. They didn't seem to notice or care though. I think holding doors open and smiling at people is pretty normal at Muhlenberg. Also it is hard to find someone that is a stranger here. This is going to be the hardest of the things I want to do.

Take three pictures of three beautiful things

I am totally pulling a Maria on this one...

(1) See above

(2) For Creative Movement (the class I teach for 3-4.5 year olds) my wonderful suite mates and I created these paper snowflakes. For some reason they don't seem to last very long (perhaps because having such small children stand on paper each week leads to the paper getting ripped). Anyway, they looked particularly pretty today because they were fairly new and undamaged. Plus we're apparently supposed to be getting snow tonight according to Miss Meteorologist Amelia. 

(3) Our baby Perkulators got their team jackets at the game tonight! They were so excited. I remember last year when I got my jacket that was the moment that I finally felt like a real part of the team. So happy and blessed to know such wonderful ladies.

Shannon, Rebecca, Anya, and Gina surprised and thrilled to get their jackets.

Look up at the sky

Walking to Campus Safety to get the key for my class today I took a minute to look at the sky over South and Robertson. There are such beautiful hills just beyond our campus and right above them the sky was very faintly pink. You could see all of the cloud cover just above it but there was a gorgeous strip of this pale pink sky, almost like a glimmer of hope. 

Read for pleasure

I read a bit of Heaven Is For Real last night before bed and plan to read another chapter before bed tonight.

Take ten minutes to dance improvise 

Did it. And so happy I did. I left the gym from the basketball game and was not not my best state of mind from the day. I started dancing doing just what felt good and eventually I morphed into making and starting significant ideas and movement motifs for two different pieces about everything that is going through my mind. I'm really glad I didn't try to move in the vocabulary I have set for my piece this semester. I needed to stop and be human for these ten minutes.