Happy Day!

I wake up bubbling over with joy today.  Life is wonderful.

I'm happy to be part of such an amazing community where friends are family.
I'm thankful for the hour I got to spend on the phone with my mom yesterday, the 4th of July, and impressed with the excellent cell reception I get even when calling from the exact opposite side of the globe.
I'm thankful that I was born in a free country that the world envies, a place where people from every corner of the globe dream of living.
I'm looking forward to the walk to Lukla tomorrow and a chance to check my email, check in with my friends.
I'm happy that I'll be back on the trail for four hours, in the company of my good friends Sapana and Pasang.
I'm so thankful for Sapana's friendship and the memories we've made here at Pema Choling.
I'm excited for her and all the possibilities as she continues her five-month journey to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Lumbini, then to volunteer in Africa and hopefully to visit me in Finland come September.
I'm excited about the the cloth I'll buy at the tailor's on the way back from Lukla, and the little drawstring pouches I'll make for my little monks to keep their marbles, rubber bands, candies, and other treasures.
I'm overjoyed when I remember that I've been accepted to a Master's program, that my Finnish residency permit has been approved, and that - even though it will be so hard to leave my beloved Himalayan home and friends - I'll start a whole new adventure in just two months.
I smile upon making friends with Dawa, my only Sherpa girl friend, and when she tells me she only completed seventh grade before starting to work, I'm infinitely thankful for the education I've received at one of my country's best universities.
I'm so excited because look at all this free time I have! And how much there is to learn here! Sherpa society; Buddhist history and philosophy; Nepali culture; farming and horticulture; Nepali, Sherpa and Tibetan languages; building and construction; art and sculpture; not to mention a dozen books I hope to finish on my Kindle in the next month.
I'm giddy because I told my mom about Pasang's incredible artistic talent, his desire to take a break from monastic life after 14 years, his gentle patience with the younger monks and capacity to teach, and my silent wish that I could bring him to America as a master craftsman to share Buddhist art and technique with the West.... I'm giddy because my mom is so passionate about others; she believes in their talents and dreams and has offered to help me help Pasang and is actively looking for schools, universities, art guilds, monasteries, and Buddhist foundations that may sponsor or host him.
I'm joyous because I live on top of the world, and at this moment I wouldn't trade the breathtaking view from my bedroom for any of the First World comforts.
I'm thankful because I can't imagine a more blessed life than this.

Murmuration

I started to write: "I'm in one of the moods tonight that's a perfect mixture between introspectiveness and appreciation for social fellowship; a healthy balance of quietness and exuberance; maintaining focused thoughts yet finding myself on the brink of complete awe and wonder at the world around me."
But then I decided I could say all that in one word.  Peace.

At peace is a most wonderful place to be.
And it is here, where one is most vulnerable to feelings of overwhelming enthusiasm when presented with even the littlest joys of life, that I came upon one of the most awe-inspiring phenomena of the natural world that I've ever seen.  Just look for yourself....

Murmuration, by Sophie Windsor Clive A chance encounter and shared moment with one of nature's greatest and most fleeting phenomena.
Shot 14 days ago on the River Shannon in Ireland.

Counting My Blessings

I was looking around online tonight, hoping that by some miracle all the credible sources would tell me that Fruit Loops are gluten free.  You see, they've come up in conversation several times over the past week, and my walk through the cereal aisle tonight seems to have triggered a craving for the brightly-colored, entirely unnatural, sugary rings.  


Unfortunately for me, I will never eat a real Fruit Loop again.  There may be some knock-off gluten-free, lactose-free, casein-free, egg-free, lame excuse for a Fruit Loop that tastes like cardboard, but I'm not into allergy-free counterfeits.  I lived too long as a glutenarian (a word I made up for people who eat gluten) and the memory of the "real thing" is still too fresh. If I can't have the original, I'd rather not eat it at all.  

Some things in life are the same in every language

This is so adorable, I just had to share. Even if you don't understand Spanish, you can't help but fall in love with this darling girl.

Platicando con Vannia 1 from Paco Gomez Vega on Vimeo.

Wanderlust

So there IS a name for my condition....

Hope for Humanity

Even the most un-mathematical of you will understand this graph.

Maybe you can even practice this basic economic principle today :)

A Letter from the Honors Council

Congratulations! The Honors Council met this month and approved your Plan of Study for a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a catalog major with modifications in International Entrepreneurship. The Honors Council appreciates the attention to detail you and Professor Schenkel gave to the plan, and is pleased with the ambition you've shown in structuring this Plan of Study. I hope your plan will be productive for your future. Best of luck as you work to fulfill the program....

An even more enthusiastic "congratulations" is due you for the outstanding thesis prospectus you presented to the Council. They did, of course, approve the prospectus for the thesis entitled Social Capital and Personal Financial Capital as Linked Factors in the Formation of Entrepreneurial Intent in Russia. The Council was extraordinarily impressed by the vision and detail in your prospectus.  You and Dr. Schenkel are to be commended for putting together a proposal of such creativity and ambition. 

This letter made my day. :)

So close...

It's crunch time, but hopefully my thesis prospectus will be approved by next Friday. 


Working Title: Social Capital, Personal Financial Capital, and Entrepreneurial Intent in Russia


I just got great news last week: My thesis advisor (without my knowledge) sent my prospectus off to a friend and research colleague.  She reviewed it, was very complimentary of my writing, is intrigued by the project, and has hopped on board!  As it turns out, this woman is one of the leading researchers in my specific field of entrepreneurship -- the one whose work I've built my whole study off of!!!  


I was literally speechless when I was told that she wants to work with me.  We've only had the opportunity to have one phone conference so far, but she's already provided some very valuable insight and I'm so excited to see the project develop!


Stay tuned!

On Easter - Les Pâques

The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances. 

Robert Flatt

Let every man and woman count himself immortal.  Let him catch the revelation of Jesus in his resurrection.  Let him say not merely, "Christ is risen," but "I shall rise."  

Phillips Brooks

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.  

Walter Raleigh

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die."

John 11:25-26

And he departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him.  For He departed, and behold, He is here.  

St Augustine

have you ever had one of those days where everything just went smoothly?

...you know, as if the day had been rehearsed and then played out to its fullest potential.
Yep, that day was today.

I woke up to the most beautiful sunrise. My apartment, conveniently located at the top level of the highest building on the biggest hill for miles around, features an east-facing balcony offering a 180 degree view of beautiful east Nashville. Every morning the fiery red ball shows up to beckon me out of a slumber and fills my room with a pinkish glow. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this last week, so my early morning jaunt to the gym was more than pleasant. Something about the warm breeze, soft glow, and birds chirping this morning took me straight back to Australia.

Once situated at a comfortable pace on the treadmill, I pulled out some required reading for my Honors Colloquium and was pleasantly surprised by the good-natured tone of the book; before I knew it I had burned 500 calories, finished the assignment, and the time had flown! What a nice way to start off the day.

I got home and was treated to a hot shower since practically no one else in the building was up yet to use all the hot water; my hair somehow did exactly what I wanted it to do; I relatively quickly found something matching to wear; and my egg was cooked to perfection when I flipped it onto my plate. Bliss.

I left to campus early so I could meet with several faculty about different projects: First I stopped off at the university's Fundraising/Development department to get some fundraising tips for the 40 Days Across America trip I'm taking with the Sociology Dept. this summer. To my amazement, one lady offered to contact the university's Corporate Sponsorship and Marketing Departments as well as several other faculty in order to get the best advice and any new ideas for our group. How kind of her!

After an especially delicious hummus & veggie wrap in the caf, I headed up to the Entrepreneurship Center to go over my Public Relations Industry Analysis with my genius professor. This is the first class I've gone into without really knowing all the answers, so it's been a hard adjustment to have to work so hard to understand the material. But apparently I'm doing some things right -- Dr. S gave me a big compliment and said I'm actually way ahead of most of my classmates. So nice to hear...I can't stand falling behind!

As this especially productive afternoon got underway, I managed to get a ton of research done for several different classes. My only class for the day didn't start until 3:30pm and then got out early, so I had more than enough time to beat the rush hour traffic on my way to dinner with Whit. Convenient!

Oh and this is good....Whitney just happened to mention a new FroYo shop opening soon, so we checked it out online and it turns out they're an awesome company (featuring 100+ healthy flavors) and are currently hiring for the new location a few blocks from Belmont. I've been looking for a job for the whole first half of the semester, and I keep running into dead ends, so I would be so grateful if this worked out! I'll be calling them tomorrow morning :)

Some Russian girls came in while I was studying at Panera and it was so cool -- I understood a lot! I almost went up and talked to them, but from what I gathered one girl was having some serious relationship problems and was homesick for Russia, so I decided that an enthusiastic American girl with less than fluent language skills is probably not someone she would be interested in talking to at the moment. But it was still cool to see that I'm actually learning a lot in class!

And of course, to finish off a great day....all my favorite songs were on the radio on my way home :)

I hope your day was as full of joy as mine was!