I'm Yin, You're Yang.

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness;

All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Therefore having and not having arise together.

The long and the short offset each other;

The high and the low incline towards each other.

---Tao Te Ching (chapter 2)

Having and not having arise together...

I've been studying Taoism in World Religions and it is such a beautiful religion. Its all about balance between yin and yang, male and female, light and dark. Everything is relative. If I didn't know that this was true, I'd probably be melding into the Tao right now. But I can still love both.

Just one more thing. Or seven.

Lately I've been...

Reading The Chosen. I'm about to meet Danny's father...

Wearing boots. I like wearing boots, I decided.

Loving chocolate chip cookies. The ones with the large chocolate chips. Ohhh.

Drowning in schoolwork.

Listening to Pink Floyd. And I'm comfortably numb.

Backpacking. Camping on the top of Maple is extraordinary. Yes, extraordinary. Except for the part where we almost fell off a cliff. That part, not so good.

Thinking about marriage. And that it and I don't want to be friends for a long time.

Snow.

First snow. First snow! And this year the first snow of the season equals homemade cinnamon rolls. My mama started this new and fantastic tradition that the first snow will from now on always be accompanied by a fresh pan of warm cinnamon rolls. I'll tell you what, love love.

I'll also tell you what, I love love snow. I cannot even describe how much I love snow. But its a lot. Fran and I stood outside and stared at the flakes falling right out of the sky as I sang the song from "A White Christmas" in my head. You know... snow, snow, snow, it won't be long till we'll all be there with snow... I think those are the right words anyways. Snow makes the mountains even more beautiful and I about fall right over every time I look at them... Fran described them today as being dusted with powdered sugar... My favorite is at night, when the mountains are so bright because of the white snow that they stand out, brilliant, against the night sky. I will miss my mountains.

Oh, and Sags, here we come.

Harvest 2010

Our annual harvest party this year was incredible. Firstly, the whole team came (minus R and R), the moon was full, and the weather perfect. We sat underneath our honeylocust, strewn with white christmas lights, eating beef stew, biscuits, and honey butter. Not to mention Neil Young was playing "Harvest Moon" in the background. We talked and laughed. Incredible.

I Will Speak Finnish.

Finland is the official home of Santa Claus. Santa Claus. I'm going to be in the same country as Santa Claus for 18 whole months.