Bright Woman Blog

My penchant for decorating cigar boxes has returned - Attention dissertation committee members: Will you take one of these instead? ;).

Stella’s view of the backyard … when the ball is not in her mouth ;).

A few garden delights that look especially nice with the changing light …

It’s no wonder I resist going to the library ….

Maybe I will be better suited at a coffee shop for this week!

It’s Austin in August - students have started coming back for the Fall semester and it is HOT outside. This Summer has been nothing like last year and I really miss the rainy days and cooler weather. We’ve been in a triple digit heat wave for over a month and I am ready for Fall more than ever right now.

This Summer has been trying at best … lots of data collection, dissertation writing and trying to stay sane as I get things wrapped up for my PhD. I am beginning to realize more than ever why the time between your comps and completing your dissertation is so dangerous. It is now down to just me and my motivation to get this thing done and motivation has been lacking as I sit at my desk staring at the computer.

With everything going on, I have been living vicariously through my friend Nancy who has been blogging away about her fabulous Summer in New York City - I am so anxious to have a Summer again with nothing to write and no deadlines looming. The PhD will be wrapped up sometime this Fall, so things are looking good for next Summer.

The next couple of weeks will bring more of the same - hot weather, writing and motivating myself to be done. I can finally feel what it will be like to be done and I just can’t wait - it is going to be so exciting!!

Ok, time to stop writing in the blog and get back to writing academic stuff. I keep thinking of one of y favorite Wilco songs with a line in it that says “I can’t find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read” - maybe I will get that figured out sometime this week ;).

Took a day off last week to head to Krausse Springs - what a nice choice!

For the last ten years, or since I have moved to Austin, I have read the Free Will Astrology column in the Austin Chronicle every week. The astrologer who writes it is Bob Brezsny and he is based somewhere around San Francisco, CA. His horoscopes are the most eccentric and vivid I have seen and always make me think. I got this one about a month ago and thought it was worth saving …

Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Writing in The New York Times, Joyce Wadler captured the essence of a genre that has lost its once-heady repute. “Poetry, if we may take a moment to explain to the young people,” she said, “is an art form somewhat like rap, only it does not sell, and since the death of Lord Byron [in 1824] there has been a paucity of bling-bling.” At the risk of nudging you toward a cultural dead end, then, Virgo, I’ll ask you to expose yourself to concentrated doses of poetry this week. In my astrological opinion, you need to have your brain scrambled and heart flushed in a lyrically healing way, which good poetry can do. Here are some excellent sources: (1)James Broughton, (2) Mary Oliver, (3) Pablo Neruda, (4) Rainer Maria Rilke, (5) Daniel Ladinsky, (6) Lots of poets.

Today was a typical Monday morning for me. I woke up, showered, took care of a few things on the computer and then got into the car to head up to campus at noon. Once I had embarked on my ride, I decided that Willie Nelson was the thing to listen to and tuned the iPod to his Willie and Family Live CD. The song ‘One Day at a Time’ came on as I cruised through the intersection at 2222 and Burnet and it was as though I was hearing it for the first time. This is ironic because this song was a staple of my childhood … if anything, you could always count on hearing Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffet and ZZ Top on the stereo at our place. It was confusing because I know all of those songs better than I know most things in my life.

And then, it dawned on me. The song, albeit very simplistic, had taken on a new meaning for me and I had not heard it since then. Several months ago, when I was at my Mom’s house vacationing for a few days, we got into a long conversation about how stressed out I get and my general need to settle down and focus on getting through the PhD years. During this talk, my Mom fished her wallet out of her purse and pulled out a credit card sized card and handed it to me. It was a light yellow color and had a graphic printed on it that represented footprints in the sand. The card said ‘One Day at a Time’ on it and nothing else. She told me that years ago, after my Dad had died, my grandmother had given her the card to remind her that the best she could do was take it one day at a time and be thankful for that. She had carried the card in her wallet since then. The exchange snapped my perspective back into focus and made me realize that I can do all of this and should be thankful for each day that I get to continue to do what it is that I do. Of course, my cynical side makes that difficult on some days, but I do the best that I can.

For now, as I sit on my porch, staring down the next 16 days of school work and tedium, I can only laugh at myself and quote my favorite country western singer …

“I live one day at a time

And I dream one dream at a time

Yesterday is dead and tomorrow is blind

And I live one day at time …”

–Willie Nelson, ‘One Day at a Time’