Beauty Lives

I have spent the past five weeks of my College Career as a Student Teaching Intern at Middlebury High School.  In order to do this, I had to move home.

I packed my clear totes full of all my worldly possessions and tearfully said goodbye to the college life style.  I traded in the "Two Dollar Tuesday" Sundays spent watching movies and getting up at 9 AM for a jump start into my much coveted future as an educator.  While the transition has been hard, to say the least, and sometimes lonely, I could not be in a better position.

 I love the High School I work in, I love getting up at 6 because I get to see the sun rise and write in the quiet peace of morning time.  I enjoy eatting dinner with my parents, helping my brother with his essays and curling up in the recliner with the dog.  I have come to realize that I fit into this lifestyle and that being home on a Thursday is not a sin. 

Sure I miss where I was, and miss parts of myself that I left there on the hill, but when I am alone in my bed at night now I don't feel alone, I feel tired.  I sleep and I look forward to the next day not with dread but with wonder. 

This epiphony hit me today as I was teaching Creative Writing.  I had the students cut out 26 words.  I then had thme make those 26 words into a poem which I hung on the wall at the back of the room.  It was a nice way to get them back into the writing mode, and take them out of their apparent slump due to weather. 

After they left for the day, I sat down and completed the assignment for myself.  What I came up with made me smile.

Beauty Lives-

Thinking of sweet flashbacks.
The want here-
           Different.
Giving a worth to all passion.
           Tame art inside people
               Inspired spirit lessons.
Go.
It Matters.

It was a fun little assignment for the class, but for me, it was a reminder that things are going to be okay.  They always are.

Soul Shine

They say that llamas can read a person's soul simply by looking them in the eye.  LLamas are thought to be so perceptive that they can tell whether you are pure at heart or not and they are the type to judge. 

I was fortunate enought to grow up with two llamas in the backyard.  They were kind hearted and somewhat fecicious animals.  It may seem strange that the chosen Thompson family pets happened to be soul searching spiritual animals, but as my dad will tell you, it made us we were. The prescense of these phenomenal animals defined us as a family. 

This is poignant today because lately I have been spending a lot of time with the last of the Llamas from my childhood.  He is sick and dying and for the first time in years, he allows us to sit beside him and rub his neck and talk to him.  For years Ira has been to afraid of humans and has not let any of us come near him.  He has however, allowed us to stand near him while he came up to us.  He would always look a person in the eye and if you seemed good, in some way or another, he would come closer and give you a llama kiss on the cheek.

I named this blog soul shine, because for the majority of my life, I have thought of these amazing creatures in our backyard as the ultimate judges of character.  My siblings and I, we have pure souls.  We were fortunate enough to grow up with such spiritual pets.  And this summer when I heard the Allman Brothers song "Soul Shine" I thought of these animals that have so brilliantly touched my life.  " You gotta have Soul shine.  It's better than sunshine, better than moonshine and damn sure better than rain."