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Name: Heather
Country: United States
State: Colorado
Metro: Denver
Birthday: 1/30/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: still discovering these. i recently moved into my own apartment without a t.v. so i have plenty of time to discover my passions. it's exciting. i like everything to do with outdoors in colorado...hiking, backpacking, climbing (although i do this infrequently), snowshoeing, snowboarding, walking in the park, rollerblading. i love to read. i enjoy watching people at the zoo, the airport...wherever. i love experiencing a moment of beauty that no one else saw or experienced. it's like God is saying, "here, heather, this is my gift to you."
Expertise: i guess you could say i'm a master at physical therapy. (i have my master's degree...just call me master heather...). other than that i'm discovering my talents and gifts. i like to do a lot of things but wouldn't consider myself an expert at any of them. i'm a student of life...
Occupation: physical therapist
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/5/2006
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| finally! i have seen them. the volcanoes that is. there are three surrounding arequipa: chachani, picchu picchu, and misti. i was walking to the institute on thursday and all of a sudden they were looming in front of me. up to this point it had been mostly cloudy and hazy. it's the middle of rainy season here. in the mornings it's usually pleasant and then by 2 or 3 in the afternoon the sky looks ominous with rain to follow not too long after. the past couple of days have been perfectly blue. but it has been a "dangerous" time to go outside because it is the time of El Carnival de Agua. I'm not sure the meaning behind this time or these festivities. all i know is that ana (peruvian sister) and i ventured out to the pharmacy today, against the wishes of elizabeth (peruvian mother) and we returned to the house more than 45 minutes later drenched with water, confetti, foam, and paint. we were the lucky ones. i have heard of guys throwing things like oil and urine on people. this should have been a 20 minute trip to and from the pharmacy. we were taking the back roads to avoid the festivities walking along peacefully on a road that no one was on. all of a sudden we heard a noise behind us. out of nowhere 10 guys were running after us with buckets of water and foam and confetti type stuff. we only managed to elude them for a minute. we were drenched 4 times by 4 different groups. our pleas to be left alone because we were already wet fell on deaf ears. the guys were enjoying themselves. at one point, in the safety of the pharmacy, we saw about 50 young people, mostly guys, walking along the street looking for their next victims. it was really fun. but it took a while for me to get warm after that. it was sunny but only in the mid 60s. to be drenched and wearing a tank top is not very warm.
i may be a bit philosophical. i have been alone with my thoughts for a while. one thing i have been practicing while here is being present in everything i do. this proves to be difficult. to be fully present and aware and in the moment is not easy...at least for me. here the pace of life in the states becomes apparent. my mind is often unruly and goes to other places, back to home, to the future, etc. i'm practicing rest (i take at least one nap a day) and mindfulness and being wholly present. feeling my lungs expand with each breath, feeling the weight and goodness and nourishment of my food, giving thanks for the earth, soil, sun, water, and work that has made food possible. even friday night i was practicing this. i went to dinner with a group of gringoes from the institute. (i was the only american) we sat for 5 hours eating crepes, drinking beer, laughing, and sharing our lives. it was good. time spent around a table with others is a holy time. there is a meditation practice i have been doing that i would recommend. breathing in, i smile. breathing out, i relax my body, mind, spirit. breathing in, i experience the present moment. breathing out, i enjoy this wonderful moment. do this without your mind wandering to other places. it is difficult.
with this rest i have been practicing and experiencing come some realizations. this is a lifestyle that does not come easy. the world will continue without my efforts. (very humbling). how many of my efforts are about earning something? i have found myself getting bored, or perhaps thinking i'm bored. or maybe even being afraid of being bored?
setting aside time to rest is about:
my work being done even if it isn't
my job being to enjoy
being fully available to myself and others i love
producing nothing
reminding myself i am not a machine
saying i didn't do anything and not feeling guilty about that.
hope you are doing well. i have enjoyed hearing from some of you while i'm here in peru.
shalom, h | | |
| so i never followed the fairy tale with the real version (my blog from september). i sent it via email to several of you. if you want to hear it i'd be glad to forward the interpretation of the fairy tale to you (the previous blog). now i'm writing after a four month hiatus. i've been adjusting to life in montrose. it's AWESOME! the grocery store, bank, library, and post office all within a few blocks. my work about 2 miles away so i can walk or bike...except when it's 2 degrees, which it has been most of this winter. i've enjoyed rock climbing 30 minutes away, snowboarding in telluride, hiking and snowshoeing at the black canyon only 20 minutes away. this beats denver anyday...none of the crazy city traffic. i don't miss it. but i do miss friends there. although i am starting to form my own community here which is exciting. i'm writing to say that i'm going to Peru in a week and a half to study spanish (improve my skilz) and travel around, see the sites and be formed and shaped by the culture there. i'll be going by myself but have contacts in lima and will stay with a family in arequipa. then i'll journey to machu picchu via a 4 day trek on the inca trail. as you can guess i'm pretty stoked. i'm giving you a heads up that i may be writing more to give updates, thoughts, insights. take care and live well. | | |
| why is it that every time russell and i try to see each other either he is sick or i am? at least that's what it feels like. last time i went to see him he got a bad cold. i even managed to remain healthy even though i was around him when he was sick. i've been fairly healthy recently until the past couple of days. and guess what, russell is coming into town this weekend. of course. i thought i had allergies (i do this year...the word on the street is that it's a really bad season). but what i have is definitely not allergies anymore. i was awake last night i think from 1 until 5 because of my stupid sore throat. stupid throat. anyway, i guess i could say, at least i'm alive and can feel my sore throat. but i'm not that optimistic right now. so, grrr. but i do get to see russell tonight. yay! | | |
| so i have passed this story along to a lot of people. but i figured i'd post it for the world to see. a little scary. i think i will follow this story up with the "real" version of the story so the real life details come through. this story is mostly true, but a few details are changed. that's why it's a fairy tale. my boyfriend (did i really just write that?) wrote this story. he's very creative as you will see. here it is: I heard this fairy tale the other day. It doesn't have an ending and it's probably all made up- (I mean who has a name like Russell? I know as many of those as I know Zeb's)- but I like the story anyway: One day last spring a messenger named Tony said to a wanderer called Russell, " I found a girlfriend for you. Here is her number, she is expecting a call." This girl- called Heather- was a healer and also friends with Tony's wife Michelle. Michelle was a prophet and had imagined Heather and Russell together for a long time- but it took her a while to pass that thought on to the messenger. It didn't really matter though because Russell was still wandering- often disguised as somebody else. Sometimes he was disguised as an Indian- other times as a rapper, blind man, and made his living babbling a language from a far off place. But when the wanderer crossed the great divide, the prophet knew the time had come. She had also sent word to the healer. Then Russell called Heather and arranged to meet. At this time, the wanderer had a clever disguise as a punk- complete with spiky hair, but for whatever reason, the healer thought this was cute. While they had a good time together, the wanderer needed to wander for a few weeks more, and the healer had to heal the elders with their gruesome wounds. But as soon as Russell stopped wandering, he wanted to see Heather again. So they shared food and wandered together near the great divide. Russell even occasionally brought her to some secret haunts in the green forest where they would listen to the rain together under a mossy wooden roof. The prophet had seen clearly and the wanderer and healer were very happy together. But then when the leaves started to fall, the wanderer was called to babble his tongue again and the two wondered if they ever could be together again. It was a habit for the wanderer and his fellow wanderer friends to get in relationships and immediately move from 526 to 10,413 miles away. While this time the distance was a mere 258 miles, it still felt like a long way. While both Russell and Heather were willing to brave the steep mountain passes to see one other, it would certainly be a sacrifice. Then one day a traveling servant visited the place where Heather healed. He saw her and said, "I bring news from a far off place from over the great divide. Perhaps somebody will want a healer like you- Somebody with your powers and abilities- if you would like, I will tell those who seek of your prowess." Heather thought about this for a while, but she casually said that she wouldn't mind if the servant spread her name around the kingdom. In a few days the traveling servant sent word back to her that a group of healers where looking for another member- and they happened to live in the same place where Russell was babbling. Before anybody could tell what was happening, Heather was offered a place among the healers- and they would pay her very well- far more than she was making across the great divide. Then one day before the snows made crossing the great divide difficult- while Russell was pretending to be an Indian again, Heather moved towards the setting sun and made her own home, just a walk away from Russell's. Editors notes: *Approximately October 9th- but this is a fairy tale so details don't matter | | |
| silence and solitude...these are two spiritual disciplines i have been thinking about recently...as well as trying to live out and practice. i have been sick the past few days (sore throat and body aches...ugg), so i've had some good practice with silence and solitude. i didn't realize how busy i am. i make a lot of plans and fill my days. so i've been feeling really frustrated that i've had to just lie in bed not feeling well. bummer.
last friday i specifically made a point to spend some time in silence alone. and over course as soon as i make that decision, i become impatient and restless and try to get stuff done and see the compulsions that direct my life. by compulsions i mean those things that point to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. i really care how i am perceived by the world. compulsions manifest themselves in the fear of failing. in solitude i struggle against these compulsions. these do not define me. after spending some time in silence i realize i desire to be a person who is so familiar with silence and solitude that i can experience these things no matter who i am around or the circumstances/situations that surround me. i desire that i can speak from silence, that every word i say i mean and is truly spoken from my heart. this is a discipline i don't fully understand, but desire and am in pursuit of.
i'm reading henri nouwen's book "the way of the heart" and he speaks a lot about silence, solitude and prayer. that's where i'm getting most of my thoughts and reflections. he says:
"compassion is the fruit of solitude. it is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken.... compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction which prevents us from really being with the other."
yep, good stuff. i'm going to continue to practice these elusive disciplines-silence and solitude.
shalom, h | | |
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