Instead of shaking in the darkness, I watched the starry scene in front of me. It was six 'o clock, but the sky was already darkened. There were no stars, but there were lights from countless windows far away from me. What I saw didn't seem to be true.

When I first walked into Bryn Mawr, it was a Wonderland to me. Now it still is--the only difference is that I KNOW it is real. No matter during the day or at night, it looked like a place in fantasy. The flowers, trees, and old buildings--yes, those, at day time, not after the dawn.

How many people have sat on the bench, wondering--"why am I here, what do I see?"

The lights were glowing, shining as if they were showing off in the darkness. We still don't want to blend in the night, do we? We need artificial lights to feel safe--we just need that feeling.

I see that they (the administration/grounds) is still taking care of the grass at Perry.  In the beginning of the year, the vibrancy chairs were slowly being consumed by the vines in the Perry House garden but they are clean now and left with plenty of space to sit in silence and solidarity.  The last few times I've been to my site at Perry I couldn't help but think about the current ambiguity of the House's future.  It is strange how, once the students came together, the lawn vines were finally cut back.  Would it have been so bad for the vibrancy chairs to be swallowed by the vines?  Is it worse that the chairs are free from their plant captors, but left on their own?  Its almost like they are symbolic of the culture of Perry House.  Either the vibrancy of the house is to be swallowed up and claimed by someone else or it is to be left on its own, there to be looked at but never to be integrated into the whole. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

As for what I did at my site that day, I marveled at the warm weather (I was there on Tuesday) and I finally stepped through the stone archway.  I had been avoiding that all semester because I liked to imagine that there was another world amongst the bramble of the otherside.  I sat down on the steps and I sang songs though I'm not quite sure why.  It felt right.

My assignment for our trip to Ashbridge was to hold an online reflection of my shared experience with the class. That can be found here. Something that our blind shuttle made me think about was the difference between hearing r.graham.barrett and eetong’s auditory description of the history (past and present) of Ashbridge Park and the waterway restoration, and the visual differences I encountered that were in contrast to the mental image I had constructed. I wasn’t really expecting the trash, especially after hearing about all the conscious efforts to revitalize and preserve the area. I assume if I did not have my sense of sight that I would have retained the visual image I constructed from the stories, unless perhaps I had someone describing the reality to me. Carmen Papalia said on our blind shuttle that not having sight could be a beautiful thing, that sight gave us so much to be distracted by that our other senses don’t work as hard as they could. I am now left wondering how my experience at Ashbridge might have been different if I had taken some time to close my eyes. Would I have had a more watery experience if I let me ears and nose take over, uninhibited by the distractions my eyes plagued me with?

"Sometimes it's harder to attain inner silence than outer silence. The dog stopped barking and the kids have gone to bed, but your mind has a lot to talk about and it knows you can't pretend you're not at home." -Linda Solegato

I stumbled across this quote today and it reminded me of Thursday's class with Professor Beard. I thought she had such a peaceful presence about her, but the end of the conversation made me a little uncomfortable. We talked about the Chittister text and our discomfort with silence because "it is silence that brings us face to face with ourselves" (Chittister).

As you read over your classmates' papers, pull out one sentence you would like to discuss further, and BY MONDAY @ 5, ADD IT HERE AS A COMMENT. I will draw from these in constructing the game of "barometer," which we will play in class on Tuesday. Thanks!

We have 8 presentations--so each one gets 10 minutes. I will be very strict about the time-keeping, since we want to give everyone an equal chance to share what they have learned. Here's the program:
11:25-11:35 Minh
11:35-11:45 Sarah C
11:45-11:55 Shengjia
11:55-12:05 Wanhong and Barbara
12:05-12:15 Susan, Rochelle and Sara
12:15-12:25 Alex and Hannah
12:25-12:35 Claire and Zoe
12:35-12:45 Maddie and Elizabeth
If you have technical needs, you need to get there early and get yourself set up (otherwise, setting up becomes part of your performance time, and we all get frustrated....)
I'll bring some treats--and am very much looking forward to this!

Final Version:

My armor weighs more than I can still carry,

A cage for my skull,

Five years empty inside. 

Circean shapeshifters sold me this

Sheathing. 

In shadows they flitter, in daylight they hide.

Remember: 

Effortless solstice of winter,

Sleeping, 

Turning, legs and arms twined.

Human cocoon

Of breath, skin, Elysium,

Flawless empyrean, fullness of mind.

Now

Skating the precipice, dragging my baggage,

Punch hard,

Pierce through this carapace shell. 

With unguarded organs 

I squint through the scissure,

Unable to tell if it's heaven

Or hell.

Exoskeletal shedding takes trust,

Though I can't seem to know when it's false or it's real,

But If i touch heat then

I'll maybe be able to

Cry

and then actually, finally

Feel.