Last Thursday my Dad brought me to the airport for my flight to France. After meeting Sarah and Bethany in Philly, we flew together to Paris. For the next two months, we will be in Vichy studying at Cavilam. On the way, SG and I watched The Descendants and tried to sleep. The Descendants was surprisingly…
All Stories
Life is pure adventure…
Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art. – Maya Angelou Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves,…
summer comes, yeah, as loud as hope…
I am always so inspired by other people’s blogs so here I am, six months after my last post, hoping I won’t forget about this place that exists somewhere out in cyber-land, hoping I can contribute something to the world that might add a little beauty. It’s just every time I sit down at my…
What is the winter for? To remember Love.
New York Blizzard of December 2010 I ventured out into the blizzard to take some pictures. I wore the dress my mom gave me for christmas (which, for all that I just said in my last post, I still love and if it proves to be durable enough, will most definitely become the dress of…
now my heart stumbles on things i don’t know, this weakness I feel I must finally show
This video (with no intentional connection to Christmas) makes me think of the way Christmas should be: people appreciating and celebrating life by showing beauty and love to those closest to them as well as to strangers. I have the song Awake my Soul by Mumford & Sons stuck in my head. It describes me…
Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on across the universe.
Driving alone is a good time to cry. You can sob as loud as you want, turn up the volume when an appropriate song comes on the radio and scream or whisper the words—depending on the type of crying. But you can never completely let yourself go (that kind of crying is best saved for…
Love’s not afraid of what it finds in the dark…
Every night Mama Eula wakes up, gets out of bed, puts on her stockings, shoes and coat, opens the blinds and turns all the lights on. Sometimes she does it multiple times a night. My grandfather usually gets up with her, turns off the lights and tries to get her back to bed. Last night…
all the trees of the field will clap their hands
Insurance Company… My grandmother is not doing well, and as I sit here typing I can hear her answering questions for the insurance company. Right now, the nice lady (loudly and slowly) asks my grandmother if she knows what day it is. Silence. She asks louder. Still, I can’t hear her response. The lady moves…
September 11th, 2010
It’s been 9 years. I don’t have anything special I want to say to commemorate today or the lives lost. I just need to write. It’s been two months since I’ve been on here; I had to try a few different passwords to log-in. I’ve written since then, mostly about my grandmother and our time…
I’ve got to figure this out before I lose you, love…
“Honey, I want to go home.” I look away from my book to meet her eyes and answer, “we are home.” “No. I want to go…” she motions with her arms in a direction, presumably towards Mount Vernon where she grew up. “This is home now, and we are here together, and we’re going to…
listen to the sound of my shaky heart
Yesterday was a good day. Today is a bad day. This morning I found Mama Eula throwing all of my grandfather’s things away. She’s furious because he’s taken her money and run off with another woman. When I try to explain that he’s coming back soon, Mama Eula’s eyes widen and she usually says, “When he…
Sophia & Mama Eula & Me
Well, we made it through the night, kind of. Mama Eula woke us up at 5am by turning on all the lights in the house. She seemed surprised to find us asleep in our beds. I quickly turned them off and led her outside into the kitchen, allowing S to get back to sleep. My…
![Oh, what is this feeling? [Anxiety in our scary world].](http://awildsoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/jdesantis-julia-anxiety-1.jpg)
Oh, what is this feeling? [Anxiety in our scary world].
I’m scared. Over the past few years I have noticed a pretty significant change with myself: I’ve become a paranoid scaredy-cat. I used to be afraid of nothing. Yep friends, let me repeat that, I used to be afraid of nothing. (I think I’ll always hate unnecessary and unexpected noises and sudden movements, and I’m…
Mama Lula
Today Mama Eula had her hair done. My grandfather warned me that she combs it out really quickly these days, so I thought I should get some pictures while I had the chance. She was a great model, but when Mom came out to see how we were doing, Mama Eula complained that I was…
Summer fun and family!
Yesterday some of our family from Mount Vernon, Kentucky came to visit us. 🙂 It was too short a visit, but some of us did make it down to the lake for some swimming. I brought my camera, and have been thinking about why I like taking pictures so much. Because I don’t just like…
Sophia’s trip to Maine
Last week, I finally saved up enough money to buy a dslr camera! YAAAY! I have been borrowing cameras from the school library to take photographs, but now that school is over I had to take the plunge. Especially with everything I want to do with my grandmother. After lots of searching, I settled on…
summer plans: love, love, love
For the past 10 years, I have volunteered in the US and abroad, but this summer I have made no such plans. Instead, I am embarking on a different journey: an adventure with my grandmother, Mama Eula. Six years ago, my Mama Eula started forgetting things—how many eggs she put in the cake batter, where…
Waka, waka! 8 Goals, 5 years. Do it, do it!
Millennium Development Goals In 2000, 189 nations came together and agreed upon 8 goals: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. These goals are the…
MDG 2010 summit informal hearings
On Monday and Tuesday, I will attend the Informal Interactive Hearings of the General Assembly in preparation for the MDG 2010 summit (High-level Plenary Meeting). The UN Member States hope this MDG 2010 summit will rally support and encourage collective action in reaching the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The UN Member States asked the…
MDR and the Oil Spill
On Thursday I spent the day at Mount Desert Rock, a small island 25 nautical miles south of College of the Atlantic, and returned with new sorrow for the oil spill thousands of miles away. The rock is home to the furthest and most exposed lighthouse on the east coast. Although the island used to…
Community Unity: An Evening of Solidarity
It’s so hard to find time to write, but right now love is pulsing through me and I’ve been dancing around clapping with happiness all evening. Now I just need to write. Usually, I write when I’m either deeply troubled or overflowing with joy (and those two often go hand in hand). And that is…