You'll Never Believe This...

  

  I'm sure you'll never guess what I've been up to lately. Aside from when I am at work abiding the crazy-coolness of being surrounded by 4-18 year old summer campers, I have been roaming about the Tennessee outdoors. It's June, it's officially summer, and it's perrrrfect swimming, hiking, biking, outdoor time.

 This particular day hike was at Fall Creek Falls, which is in TN about 1 1/2 from Nashville.

 My friend Jessica and I went and explored several short trails, enjoying the overlooks and quietness of the woods.

 We ventured down the Cable Trail, to Cane Creek Falls which is a short distance from Fall Creek Falls. It was a short, but strenuous hike. Check out the trail notice which was posted at the top of the cable descent:

 It was strenuous, but totally do-able for anyone in decent shape. It was gorgeous, and I actually preferred the Cane Creek Falls area to Fall Creek Falls.

 Being an overcast day, I kinda thought I wouldn't want to swim. Once I got to the base of Cane Creek falls though, of course I changed my mind!

Beautiful.

Weblovin'

 Recently, I've been the recipient of some pretty swell web lovin. Friend and writer, Chuck Beard, posted an entry on his sweet blog :

 "The Marriage Behind Art & Music"

It had some really encouraging words for me, and also, for my hubs who is an artist of the musical variety. I am so proud of what he does and inspired by how hard he works. He is so dedicated to music, I love it. Check out his band, Eastern Block and see what you think!

Also, I was recently quite flattered/ecstatic to be featured as "East Nasty of the Week" on my running group's website. I love the write up, which was done by Rod Jones. It included an image of a pet portrait I did of which happened to be my favorite East C.A.N. rescue dog, Shorty. It also included a wedding picture (of me as a blonde); Jon and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this month!

Bella La Vita

 

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

Generally, I feel pretty satisfied with the way I spend my days, although there is room for some adjustments. I have been in a creative slump, but I learned years ago the only way to come out of that is by doing. By going through the motions and regaining that familiarity, until the flow of creativity returns.


I've been in this slump for months now. Thanks to good advice from artistic friends and a little wisdom from past lessons learned, I 've managed to not constantly beat myself up about it. Being insanely critical of myself is like a default reaction for me; I'm trying to learn more fruitful ways to deal with frustration.

I'm thinking of write now as "pre production" of sorts. I am asking questions, writing down answers, and giving new ideas room and time to be thought out.
Some things I am asking myself are:

*What is important to me right now?

*What do I care about most?

*Why do I make the choices I do?

*Who and What do I live my life for?

*What if people hate what I do?


And then I write down the answers, and in the process of answering those questions, MORE questions arise and I try to answer them too.

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  “The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

-Frank Lloyd Wright

Rollin'on the (Buffalo) River

 The first group canoe/kayak outing happened on Memorial weekend- me, Jon, and, oh, 20 friends.

 Rod and Amy brought class to the outing; I call this their "Steeplechase on the River" look.

I said the morning we left that I would crush a beer can on my head. I forgot. I guess Cary was feeling the can crushing vibe that day, though.

 ROPE SWING!

 Rickety steps; questionable rope; big tall tree. As if these aren't enough to tackle, Rod shimmied up even further. Somewhat like one of those dudes that shimmies up a coconut tree to pick the fruit.

 Amy, Rod, and Gus puppy.

 Jon & I "parked" as the group got spread further and further apart to wait for a few buddies.

 Me, Ian, & Lindsay cruisin' in our sporty new kayaks.YAY-guess what we'll be doing a lot of this summer!

 Jon - just a swingin.

 Jon and I take the plunge. We got married!!!!Hahaha. We jumped off what felt like a pretty tall bridge. I loved it! I love that he likes doing these things with me!

 Matt, Jackson, and Christy- our illustrious trip organizer. She successfully coordinated 22 people for 2 day camping and canoeing adventure! Slight confusion over food resulted in 70 something hot dogs being brought for Sunday dinner, but hey, better too much than too little!

 Regrouping to continue our 11 mile paddle.

 One capsized kayak. Later one capsized canoe. Other than that, pretty smooth paddling. The river's current really carried us along without much work.

 Jackson attempts to climb the tree to the rope swing. Look at that determination! What a sweetheart.

One bridge jump wasn't enough- I ended up jumping 4-5 times.It was perfect. Hot sun. Cool water. Lucky me.