Top 10 Tuesday

Well, here I am again after yet another hiatus. But that's okay. I have gathered that I need more discipline in many areas of my life and with the new year, it feels appropriate to practice now. I'm sure that there is a lot of science and pseudo-science to back me and my new-year-improved-me attitude. But we'll get into that because I'm restarting my Top 10 Tuesdays. What is Top 10 Tuesday? Every Tuesday, I list and possibly discuss ten things from the past week that have moved me, excited me, interested me, etc. You may encounter books I've read, experiences I've had, thoughts I've had, people I've met, the whole gamut. So, here I go!

1. The New Year I'm coming to realize that my favorite holiday is New Year's Day. I'm not shy to admit that I enjoy a clean slate, a new chance. I like re-examining, be it my relationship to my landscapes, my habits, what I create and why, and my relationships with people. And if I want to take this time of the year to replenish or improve, there is no harm in that. What do I want to improve? My experiences, my now-ness, how I choose to spend my time. The past year has been different for each and every one of us, primarily due to COVID-19 and its detritus. It changed plans and it allowed for people to re-examine how they spend their time and what they prioritize. It's one blessing from all of this.
   

2. "What is it about the human animal that impels us to interrupt the elemental elegance and perpetual incompleteness of a perfect ellipse with an arbitrary point we call a beginning? And yet here we are, once every three-hundred-sixty-some days, marking the start of a new year as gravity--a force outside time and outside space, acting instantaneously on each body across limitless distances, holding the universe together--goes on dragging our planet around an orbit with no beginning and no end. Here we are, childlike in our yearning for a fresh start, our future a thing with feathers, perching on that arbitrary point in the ellipse." And here is Maria Popova shaking her head at me. I like this quote despite it all. Two days ago, my husband Brian said something about next week. It made me think about the linearity of time, it just keeps going, but us humans developed a way to measure it, not through an infinite measurement, but through repetition. This Tuesday, next Tuesday, the following Tuesday. This week, next month, next year. We repeat and repeat, until we die.
   

3. 2021 Bucket List I make a bucket list every year consisting of goals, projects, and mostly places to explore. I didn't accomplish many traveling goals in 2020 for obvious reasons but for some not-so-obvious reasons, I also didn't accomplish many personal or creative goals. Last year was rough for my mental health and I don't blame pandemic brain at all. It was the second bout of mental health collapse I've had in my life. I distinctly remember trying to quell my nerves by walking barefoot in my parents' morning-dew yard, listening to birds, trying to settle my pounding heart. All I wanted was a hole in the ground. Things were rough and things will be rough again because roughness repeats. This year, I have near-and-farther travels lined up, birds to watch, rocks to tumble, and things to learn.
   

4. SGL 207 For my First Day Hike, I visited a place on my 2021 bucket list. Every year, we spend New Years with Brian's family to celebrate Christmas, Brian's birthday, and the New Year. There are a lot of places to explore in Brian's hometown and his family thinks nothing of me consulting them about this place or that place on a satellite or topographic map. How do I get here? What's this place? They also think nothing of me taking off with just Silas in tow to explore these places. On the first day of the year, I explored State Game Lands 207, just up the road from where Brian grew up. 207 is on Penobscot Mountain, on the western fringe of the Pocono Mountains. Silas and I navigated an old railroad bed that skirts along the mountain and contains views of Solomon Gap and Wilkes-Barre. We walked about five miles, admiring many rocky outcrops and ice formations. It got incredibly cold toward the end with the wind picking up in the valley and bringing in the impending ice storm that arrived shortly after.
   

5. The Silent Patient My mother implored me to read this novel even though I'm not as much of a novel-reader as she is. Fiction is faster, though, and after a whirlwind trip to Brian's family's, I was ready to sit down with an absorbing book of fiction. I finished the book in a day, so I suppose it is a page-turner, but it isn't my favorite novel. My mother knows that I enjoy psychological thrillers and I'll give that to her. As I've stated in my Goodreads review, the book's narrative was woven very nicely...or was it? Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe there were times where I...I don't know. Anyway, the characters felt flat and considering the traumas they endured, I didn't feel any sympathy for them. The most intriguing character for me was a secondary female character who underwent a drastic change at the end, but she was only briefly mentioned, and without much care in handling. The book also involves the inner-workings of a psych-ward and well, it wasn't at all realistic. Also, the big reveal in the book was--to me, anyway--predictable. However, if this book was on your reading list, do read it. If you like psychological thrillers, do give it a chance. There are many, many positive reviews of the book. Many people loved it.

6. Time with Brian's Family As I mentioned above, I spent a few days with Brian's family. When I wasn't on little jaunts in the woods with Silas, I was playing with my niece and nephews. I love them dearly. We decorated sugar cookies together, played games (I played Battleship for the first time), built a marble obstacle course, and hammered out minerals in a digging set we bought for them.

7. Arsgang or the "year walk" is the Swedish ritual to take a solo walk in the dark forest during the year's renewal or during any dark winter night. The saunter, much like a walk-about, is supposed to bring one information, wisdom, for the new year.. Sometimes the walks occur in cemeteries. Talking, laughing, and being afraid are "forbidden" during these walks. Of course, I didn't participate in such a thing on NYE. I was drunk and winning at Phase 10 and that's a Sarah that a precious few get to see; however, the idea of Arsgang is so intriguing. In fact, on Sunday after two failed attempts to find new places to roam in the woods (due to posted and no trespassing signs), I ended up in a cemetery. Silas and I walked in the woods adjacent to the cemetery and eventually wandered along the tombstones as ice and then fat flakes of snow fell.

8. In Defense of Cancel Culture J.C. Hallman, a former professor of mine, will be participating in a debate with Bret Stephens (New York Times journalist) regarding "Cancel Culture." For quite a long time, I have been skirting along the fringes of this debate and I do not yet know where I stand due to the term itself being such a large umbrella. Anyway, the debate is on January 19th and I have been trying to read as much as possible and listen to podcasts. Anywho, J.C. Hallman's stance can found here.

9. DCNR Trail of Geology Guides A Facebook friend of mine informed me today that there have been three new sites added to the PA's Geology Guide. You can find more information about it here. I have always had an interest in rocks/geology and only over the past year and a half have I educated myself on some of PA's geology (and a little bit of Virginia and Utah). Anyway, if you also think that rocks rock, check it out.

10. Great Lakes Speaking of geology, when I saw that December's issue of National Geographic was about the Great Lakes, I had to buy it. I'm still reading and processing all the diagrams in the article but so far, it is a good read and is inspiring a possible future art project. I've been eyeing a book at the local book store that focuses on the Great Lakes but I have yet to check it out. Soon. I'm hoping to go to Lake Erie this year to do some beach combing for rocks. I'm also hopeful to go to Indiana Dunes National Park in the future.