Scientific Ink

Author: Dunrie

  • The power of retreat

    Earlier this year, I took a week’s vacation and came back with a realization.

    I went to Austria with my husband and friends in March. I left behind my cell phone, my laptop, email, IM, everything.

    Just before I left, I feared my family was about to bust apart (stepmother and sister and I were in some deeply uncomfortable discussions about money and shared ownership). I dreaded going away for a week and brooding on the dissolution of my family. Somehow, we accomplished some major repair work by cell phone on the way to the airport. So, family as intact as it ever was, I was able to leave the country with a clear heart and be far away.

    I had several books, the company of friends, and was able to hide out in the mountains in a country where I don’t speak the language. I tried to learn to ski, I went for long walks in foothills. We took a day trip to Italy. We tried several varieties of schnapps. And I didn’t think about home all that much, except to be grateful for the lack of worry.

    After that most complete retreat, I saw the world differently. On the plane ride home, I realized that it was time for me to find a new job. It really was that simple, like crossing a threshold. Something about going away, about really taking a break, changed my perspective entirely.

    The hard part for me is taking that practice and incorporating it into my everyday life. I don’t always have a week to spare to realign my head. The hard part about being an adult is that there is (often) no watchful responsible party to call a timeout. So, I need to look for little opportunities to restore my energies, whether through a nap, meditation, a walk, a bike ride, or taking a long bath with a copy of the New Yorker magazine. I need to become a better judge of when to give myself downtime instead of pushing through whatever it is that seems important.

    I might never know what that rest might provide in terms of insight or new perspective.

  • Cool planes at KARB

    There were wonderful planes today at the Ann Arbor Airport (KARB).

    The Stearman was out, but Chris is often there with it. He was offering flights in it as a fundraiser for Great Commission Air. Perhaps the jets were there for the same reason?

    We went for a joyride to Marshall and back, and on our return we were surprised to hear of “traffic” landing before us that was currently at our 5 o’clock (that is, behind us). After the Alpha Jet completely dusted our Cessna-182, we landed, hearing a MiG talking to Ann Arbor Tower, arranging for a touch-and-go after our landing. Well, as we taxied back to the NW T hangars, the MiG buzzed the runway 2x, never even touching. It came in really fast and quite low (just feet off the ground), the second time it had its afterburners on. Wow!

  • Baby Blanket

    Roth-O'Neal baby blanket
    I finally finished my gift for Chris & Victoria’s daughter. I missed the Baby Shower, but I did get the blanket complete before the baby arrived.

    (more…)

  • My random notes from ArbCamp

    ArbCamp was Saturday 10/27.

    What amazed me was the number of students who were able to attend – driving to Ann Arbor from E. Lansing, Flint, and some coming from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. Talking to the students was a highlight for me. The only business cards I exchanged were with students. I think my first business card was post-grad-school-graduation, so this particular crop of students has several years of wisdom on myself at that age. They impressed me for their preparation, their entrepreneurism, and their networking skills.

    Here’s a list of websites I jotted down:

    Here’s the “new idea” that everyone else seemed to know but me: microformats.

  • Gifts in lieu of gifts

    Every so often, I get into a fit about how much stuff we have. I just purchased another set of shelves for our basement (buying stuff to hold stuff), just dropped off a bunch of cast-off stuff to charity, and of course there is all the stuff we just bought ourselves (renovated bathroom, new TV).

    I have everything I need: my health, my mom’s health, a terrific husband, loving family, smart, funny, and talented friends, a world class feline, a wonderful home…So, I’d like to declare a moratorium on stuff, at least for a little while. So, I’d like to propose a truce with those who give me gifts and to whom I give gifts: hold the stuff and spread the love a bit wider.

    I propose to give $ to charity in lieu of a gift. For instance, I just got “The Most Important Gift Catalog in the World” from Heifer International, and instead of a tchotchke to my mom, I can give a share of a water buffalo or honeybees or llamas or rabbits to a family in need. I have a short list of charities, but it seems like anyone who wants to “play” should use their own short list, or maybe we could exchange charities (I give to yours, you give to mine).

    It doesn’t seem quite fair for me to give to charity if you expect a gift instead, so I’m proposing to do this only with folks who agree. LMK!

  • Beware of home improvement

    Our renovated bathroom is pretty much done. It is lovely – tile floor, tile up the walls, actual storage. There are a few minor details to complete: towel rack, tp holder, handles on the cabinets, a shower head that is taller than we are, but we’re 90+% done. It only took 8 weeks of construction (on a 4-week plan), 7 weeks of showering in the basement in Dave’s garden-hose-kiddie-pool-and-submersible-sump-pump wonder shower, several contractor bills (no overruns!), and a weekend when my aunt and uncle stayed in our house while the bathroom had no door.

    You’d think we’d be done with home improvement, but somehow the restless energy has spread to adjoining rooms. It happened when we redid the kitchen, too. The nicer kitchen shamed us into sprucing up the mudroom at its end. This time, after we replaced the light fixtures in the hall outside the bathroom, the one in the foyer I’ve never liked had to go too. Dave took the opportunity to finally get the monster TV he’s been needing. And, after the construction crew returned the hall closet to me, I invited some friends over for a reverse fashion show – they helped me decide to finally toss/give away schoolmarmish and unworn items before they rooted in the closet again.

    Now, displaced by the hulking menace of the new plasma TV, I’ve taken to doing my yoga in the study. My DVDs will play on the computer, and on the computer monitor Shiva Rea isn’t the size of a small truck like she is on the new TV. The study is narrower, but at least it’s all mine, and I don’t have risk throwing out my back dragging the coffee table from the TV room into the hall just to make space for my mat. Now that I’m in here, stretching and moving around on the floor, this place could use a bit of renewal too. Maybe it’s time to replace the rug, or the light fixture, gotta be something around here I can change, er, fix.