Who Would Have Thought?

My last semester at Union, I took 21 course hours. Crazy - right? I remember a post-it note I had stuck to the shelf above my desk. Each paper I had to research and draft that semester was listed, along with how many pages the draft must include. Yikes ... I think I had close to 200 pages to write that semester.

What's amusing is now I write for a living. I research a matter and then write about the matter, forming something similar to a research paper. And on top of all the research and writing, I teach a class on research and writing. Oh how life changes. How stressed I felt several years ago during my last semester of college. My posture towards research and writing amounted to getting the paper "over with." Now? I might not go so far to profess a love for writing ... but I do enjoy it. Especially with all the personal endowment of stress removed.

Isn't it interesting how humans have a much larger capacity for things that "stretch" them than originally anticipated? Sure life events condition humans for growth, but is it not true that we seem to be able to handle much more than we believe we can handle? All it takes is a testing moment to experience the so-called stretch. The next thing you know, you'll go from a stressed co-ed to writing research papers for a living. Strange how life unfolds.

Ansel Adams

Yesterday we toured an Ansel Adams exhibit in Edinburgh. It is absolutely amazing the landscapes that man captured during his lifetime.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Everything I learned about St. Patrick, I learned from an e-card. Such as ...

1. He was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland in 387 A.D.

2. At 16 he was forced into slavery in Ireland where he worked as a shepherd.

3. He escaped to France where he attended seminary and was ordained a priest.

4. He then returned to Ireland on a mission... and before he left, over half the country converted to Christianity.

All that from an e-card. Amazing.

Click here http://http://www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/1129354/ for more info on St. Patrick.

The Future's Looking Bright

Although I have about six hours of research and writing ahead of me... then about five 15-page papers to grade ... and an entire flat to clean ... the future's looking bright. Six vibrant red daisies were given to me this morning by Matthew. A dear, dear friend of ours arrives this Thursday -- we simply cannot wait to spend time with him and his lovely girlfriend. And, more family and travels have recently been forecast for the coming May. Oh yes- the future is looking bright.

Big, thick snowflakes are wafting across my window. I love the setting of my desk. It's set in the middle of this large bay window, and from it, I can see our little village and the Pentland Hills (mountains) in the distance. This morning once I situated myself to begin work, I noticed the Pentland Hills in the distance were covered in snow ... absolutely beautiful. And now, the snow has begun to move into the city. It seems like the snow may already be drifiting away. However, the Pentland Hills supply our drinking water -- so one thing is for sure about this snow: it will provide more of the yummiest drinking water I've ever had.

Living on an island you learn about the supply of goods, the demand for those goods, the rise in price for those goods etc. etc. It's an inadvertant lesson. One can simply notice that the price of a product is simply twice as much as the same product elsewhere. Which can be especially disheartening when you're trying to stretch an American dollar in the United Kingdom. However, something is just so cool about knowing where your drinking water comes from. And not only knowing where it comes from, but seeing where it comes from. How cool is that?

Calling All Tips Please

The only time I've moved off my couch today was to sit in the bathroom while the shower was on and breathe in the steam. Having a cold can be such a bummer. I'm already working on my second box of Kleenex. And yes, I made sure we purchased the real 'Kleenex.' I wasn't going to risk off-brand sandpaper on this nose. As if having a cold wasn't bad enough ... I don't need raw skin surrounding the infected area!

Does anyone have any tips on the fastest way of getting rid of a cold?

Museum of Modern Art

Today we visited the Museum of Modern Art. While admittedly not huge fans of modern art, we were still a bit disappointed with the local collection. However, we did make a wonderful discovery: The Scottish Colourists. Notably, Samuel John Peploe, John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter, and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell led this particular artistic movement in their native Scotland. Explore Art writes that the painters became known as "the Scottish Colourists because they grafted their knowledge of contemporary French Art – Monet, Matisse, and Cezanne - onto the painterly traditions of Scotland, redefining the qualities of light and colour in their still life, landscapes, figurative paintings and drawings into their own singular styles."

Here's a sampling of the vibrant, happy Scottish Colourists' work: