Favorite segments from a passage in Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet":
"Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divining, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent."
"The more still, more patient, and more open we are when we are sad, so much the deeper and so much the more unswervingly does the new go into us, so much the better do we make it ours, so much the more will it be our destiny, and when on some later day it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to others), we shall feel in our inmost selves akin and near to it. And that is necessary."
"...That which we call destiny goes forth from within people, not from without into them."
I recommend the entirety of this book; hurrah for German prose and poetry!
This blog needs a facelift, so I'm going to halt my entries until I do so (not that they've been anything but infrequent lately). My next one will be private, so please leave your email (family not required, I've got all of yours :) if you'd like to continue following Brett and I. And as we'll be ending the Facebook sometime soon, this'll be where I record happenings and happy things.
I think maybe we don't pray more, don't actually attempt to pray unceasingly, because we may feel subconsciously restricted by the formal prayer pattern. I don't mean changing any of it, but just that I think prayer doesn't have to be limited to Beginning, gratitude, ask for blessings, ask for repentance, Ending, each time. I know that when I experience gratitude for something, say, the sunshine that morning, I can just ponder how it's from Him, and then I feel more joy. To me, this is prayer as well - a communication between Father and daughter. I believe every time we remember Him is a prayer, and every prayer makes us happier.
I've always imagined my idyllic future home to be a bit off the beaten path (though not too far from my neighborhood Trader Joe's), with enough land to feel sequestered and peaceful. I did not, however, think I'd be the kind to enjoy having chickens or other farm animals. After this weekend with some of Brett's family, I feel differently.
Brett's aunt and uncle have a good bit of land around their home, some of which is dedicated to a bunch of chickens, ducks, geese, two wild bunnies, and a "jungle kitty" - Brett's name for outdoor kitties. Their middle-school-aged son, Robbie, shows his chickens at contests and has won a number of prizes, not to mention being well-versed when it comes to knowing all there is to know about his animals. We spent the better part of the evening trying to catch and hold anything that wouldn't scurry too quickly. Brett was even able to catch a duck, though Robbie had informed him he would be unable given their speed. Abandoning every caution for the kemptness of his clothing, he dove into a pile of chicken poop and caught the reluctant duck. I found I loved Jungle Kitty and geese and duckies and bunnies and chickees and want them all someday. 
[Brett:chicken as Rafiki:Simba]
We also visited Brett's dad's family, including two wonderfully adorable 4-year old twins, one of whom had a special crush on Mowlex and would take every opportunity to hang around her. While I was taking a nap on the couch, this same child came within 1 inch of my face and grinningly yelled, "LOOK AT MY FACE!" There are worse ways to wake up, given how cute they both are. 
Overall, we had a lovely weekend filled with viciously competitive road games (finding the ABCs in particular) and family time, with a perfect ending: an indulgent dinner at Red Robin, complete with chocolate malt shakes.
But fall is here now, and this autumn smells like work and change. It was a bountiful summer.
This is a short blog, only to recommend the film "The Visitor." Maybe Brett and I are late on the ball and you all have already enjoyed this film, but we just got to it, and were absolutely thrilled by it. I'm no articulate film critic, so I'll just let you know it's worth the investment. If any of you have recently seen films/read books of good report, please feel free to leave a note of them to me! I am always eager to eat up new material.
Memorial Day Weekend this year was excellent. Some friends from Provo were visiting, and our whole gang took to the Silver Falls for a scenic hike and some occasional frisbee.
(Brett surprised me with this sign after my last day of school)
Even though I still don't have my diploma from BYU because of a minor administrative error by some faculty in my department (I should receive it come August), I have some form of proof that I indeed graduated:
Here is some more "proof" of the happy weekend, following which are posted some photos of the newest member of our family:
And now presenting our new member: a mint Baldwin organ! One of our dear friends found this organ (complete with pedals and drum machine, see pic) on Craigslist under the "Free" section. We picked it up from a retirement home that just needed to get rid of it. We were happy to take this gem off their hands, although it took Brett, Matt, Cam, and Carl to get in our living room given its 600-lb-ish weight. It's beautiful, plays perfectly, and very handy now that I am the fill-in organist for our ward:
Next post on all the happenings in our dear Portland since!
I couldn't have asked for a better 24th birthday, which was like a daylong date with my best friend. Brett made me a cherry chip cake, complete with edible decorative stars and vanilla icing, which we eagerly devoured. This evening we spent milking my birthday for all of its privileges, i.e. free fried ice cream with our meal at Los Hermanos (which they kindly gave me sans employee singing), free frozen yogurt from Yoasis, and a free show! In addition, today we celebrated two other huge events, 1) selling our apartment contract and 2) securing housing in Portland next to our friends. We are relieved, to say the least, and very grateful. And I thank my family and friends for all of the nice messages.
Just a few more weeks until Portland! AH!
