Into Blossom

I submitted a recipe!

2011-04-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

to Food52, one of my favorite blogs. Check it out here.

Honeymoon Period

2011-04-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we bought our chickens for our campus coop. Though the farm store didnt have many options due to a winter raid, we bought 2 americanas, 2 spotted sussexs, 1 australorp, and a sex link. They are such cute little ladies!

We had an introduction to the Chickies, and it was really well recieved. Everyone got to hold and play with the girls. Here is a photo of some of my favorite underclassmen, making faces.

Now as I am preparing to move to NY, Im thinking, hey this is easy, and fun, and you get eggs! Chickens are allowed in NYC backyards, so it's totally doable. Only thing is the shoveling chicken poo, which has never been my favorite thing. So for now, it is an idea and a dream, but we will see!

Penne with Ricotta, Spinach and Raisins

2011-04-11T15:29:00.001-07:00

I've been on an food-image kick. This dish was springy and sweet, and was great with a large dose of pepper and parmigiano on top.

Lavender- Honey Macaroons

2011-04-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Homemade

2011-04-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

Pad Thai/Phat Thai, yum yum yum. So much easier to make than it appears. A surprisingly forgiving dish too. A lot of extra sauce? not too much tofu? random veggies in your fridge? doesn't matter. It still tastes good.

yesterday

2011-03-24T14:40:00.001-07:00

Asparagus in the Snow

2011-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

My roommate had requested asparagus, despite the wintery- no asparagus grown here climate. I did buy it eventually, but of course she had forgotten the request. Anyways, Asparagus with Bechamel and Chili pepper is a nice wintery dish.
It is just the right combination of heavy winter comfort and hopeful spring anticipation. Though I made this week ago. I am in this state of needing heavy winter comfort, with the 15 inches of snow, and of course, anticipating green things.

A new hat

2011-02-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hat #1. Tea Beret

Hat #2: Earthtone Slouch

two questions

2011-02-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

School is busy of course, but I have found ways to make it relevant to my curiosities. Several guests have come to campus, including a documentary filmmaker. She raised question #1.

Is there such a thing as spiritual underachieving? I would argue that religion is community and spirituality is individual, so what are you comparing yourself to? Though many people believe it does in fact exist, the golden standard of spirituality is a myth. Just as there are 6 billion people, there are 6 billion spiritualities; being human is equivalent to being spiritual. My 2 cents.

question #2. What is enough? ahhh.... my senior year question. I am currently diving into my second capstone, which will largely be around this question in relation to the homesteading movement. How is sufficience as an idea and choice in the Global North related to subsistence as a nongoal and lifestyle in the Global South?

Wild Geese, Mary Oliver

2011-02-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clear blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Sometimes...

2011-01-29T14:45:00.000-08:00

...Nature takes over us.

a welcome back muffin

2011-01-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

Hi there. It's been approximately 3 months since my last post here. But I had a pretty good excuse of finishing my semester, writing a capstone, dealing with parents , dealing to Vietnam. And now that the new year has come along with a routine of classes, I have promised myself to write more. And this year promises to be one of dreams and struggles, decisions and passions. This is the year I graduate college, and the year I act on my meditations of food, love, and life.

Sunday morning, I wake up to an empty apartment. I am still lingering in my jet lag. After the initial confusion of waking up in the dark, I watch the orange lines form on my wall from the blinds. I make my coffee, and then I make these muffins.

I make the muffins briskly, but also interpretively. Rather than just milk I add yogurt for tang. Rather than just white sugar, I add its brown sibling for additional sweetness. It's like a paint by numbers where I decide to pick different colors. The result: a coffee cakeish muffin.

I brought these muffins to a gathering held by a friend. Although a new semester with deep pockets of anxiety and expectations, it feels like winter break has not happened. It feels like winter itself has not happened; hannah's apartment was fogging up with heat as friends burst into the room. The little winter oasis greeted me with lemon ricotta pancakes with maple butter and ginger cream, pomegranates, oatmeal, and pumpkin bread. Delicious. Though college expects us to socialize in the dark, it is much calmer and joyous in the (limited) day light.

2010-11-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Check out this video! looking at it for research, but when I think of the life I want to create for myself, it is in transition.

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.

2010-11-05T21:09:00.001-07:00

My philosophy is simple: if plain people craft, and attractive people have sex, and you find yourself a crafter, take comfort in the fact that with crafting, the risk of STDs is greatly reduced.
-Amy Sedaris

I wanna be a farmer

2010-10-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

i really do.

due mesi

2010-09-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

It's been almost two months since I posted. These weeks consisted of:

quality time with cousins

cooking time

beach time

State Fair Time! with a spectacular rainbow

The End

2010-07-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

of italy. I am safely back in the United States.

Things I missed about the United States:
- international food: Mexican and Indian in particular. and tofu
- microbrews: New Belgium and New Glarus
- a full kitchen! and a kitchen I fully know how to operate
- Mad Men! season premiere was last Sunday and already back on track.
- my garden

Things I WILL miss about Italy:
- homemade pasta
- gelato
- happy people when I tell them my family is Italian
- old buildings around every corner
- the colors of the landscape/cityscape, and how they change over the day
- Patti and Martino, and the doggies!

2010-07-21T04:27:00.000-07:00

The Siena Palio. Craziness.

Beautiful hipster DJs. Bologna, certo.

La Dolce Vita open-air in Piazza Maggiore

wind, in Assisi

Spann- OWH-Kia

2010-07-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

This place has awesome views. Everywhere you go, by the pigs, down the dirt road, clipping vines, you turn around and can get snippets of a view. Even the driveway is impressive- about 3 km long.

www.spannocchia.com

what I was doing last week

2010-06-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

A few big transitions in my travels.

First, my Mom and Grandma, who I call Nanny, came the last Thursday I was in Florence. After spending the night with them in their hotel in Florence for an night, we left for Bologna. Called "Bologna the Fat", Bologna is an awesome city in my opinion- full of young people, interesting stores, leaning towers, archways, and delicious food.
This here is a picture of my grandma and mom at a Parmigiana Reggiano factory. They produce about 2000 wheels of cheese a week! behind them is the giant, GIANT storeroom where they age the cheeses. On the same day we went to see factories for Prosciutto and Aceto Balsamico Traditionale. AWESOME DAY!!! everything smelled and tasted really yummy. Also with the grandma and mom took a cooking class where I learned to make gnocchi and fresh egg pasta, panna cotta, and watched Italy's first calcio ( soccer in italian) game.

My time with my mom and nanny were great, but at the same time hard because I am very similar to my grandma! I joke that she is the matriarch, and last week, I learned you don't mess with a matriarch. Looking back on last week, it has sunken in just how important Nanny is to me. Even though I contest her silly opinions, it is more important that we have a good relationship as she gets older. And I am pretty lucky that seeing giant wheels of parmesean is as exciting to her as it is to me!

AND......
After parting with Nanny and Mom, ventured to Prague. It had been 6 months since I had seen Nika and it was glorious. Honza also surprised me with a visit to Prague as well. here the two of them are being cute. It is sad to think that I will not see Nika for another 6 months.... but good friendship lasts!

CURRENTLY: at Spannocchia, just outside of Siena Italy. Its beautiful!

In transit

2010-06-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

Just spent the past week with my mom and grandma. They came to Florence and then we ventured to Bologna, capital of Emilia-Romagna.

Lots to show and tell! more to come.

Becoming a wino

2010-06-08T02:49:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows about wine here- its an integral part of the Italian lifestyle. You drink a glass as part of the Mediterranean diet, to create stronger flavors in your meal, and to social at an aperitivo.

I am almost finishing my 'semester' here in Florence ( a summer session is 3 weeks with 3 credits per class) - one of my classes is "Food and Wine Pairing." Along with six other students, we meet 5 days a week with our awesome, young, and cosmopolitan teacher Camilla.

my place at the wine tasting table: notes and three white wines

For my other class, "Food, Culture, and Society in Italy" I just wrote a paper about Tuscan wines. Apparently wines are so important to the food side of things that I had to write a paper. But regardless of papers, powerpoints, and grades, I find myself really amazed by the subtleties and the malleability of wine.

Camilla said to us today that her goal for us was to TASTE food, not just to eat it, and to TASTE wine, not just drink it. And its amazing how someone like me who considers herself a foodie will still shovel food into her mouth.

wine is art, Food is culture. food + wine = synergy.

p.s. this is a drink I frequently drink during aperitivo hour: the Spritz pronounced SP-rrrrrrreeetz.

elements of living

2010-06-03T02:24:00.000-07:00

food shopping frequently

old streets

churches around the corner

interesting graffiti

Dealing with tourists

Sapir-Whorf

2010-06-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

Italians are never awkward. Suave and cosmopolitan, Italians wear uncomfortable shoes and smoke cigarettes. They also drink coffee really fast, and have the ability to wear jackets in 80 degree weather. And not sweat when wearing them.

In terms of drinking and going out, Italians are still suave and cosmopolitan. For example, on a Tuesday night, the Piazze San Ambrogio (pronounced ahmmm brrrro gee o- I love saying it), was FILLED with florentines drinking and smoking. Always classy drinks, always well-groomed, always expert flirting. Italians are experts at socializing.

Some friends and I came to a conclusion: the word 'awkward' must not be in the Italian vocabulary. And the anthropologist comes out in me: the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is in full effect here. If awkward doesn't translate, then that means Italians don't have the concept of 'awkwardness', which then gives us the conclusion that because they concept doesn't exist, it is not possible for them to experience it. Sapir-Whorf in full effect! Words shape the way we see the world. And the Italian world is not awkward.

Castello de Volognano

2010-05-30T03:15:00.001-07:00

Friday, we went on a field trip for my Food and Wine Pairing class. Camilla, my teacher, is a third generation wine producer. Some class mates and I slipped into Camilla's mini-cooper, and we drove off along the Arno, cross the river, and into suburbs, and then the rolling hills of olive groves that Tuscany is famous for. As we got higher and higher in the hills, Camilla asked us questions about how we had been spending our time thus far- places for dinner, weekend excursions et cetera, et cetera.
We were greeted by this amazing building. My classmates and I didn't know what to expect... but this was wonderful! the building dates from the 11th century, and feels like a little village, with its own chapel, wine cellar, and pool. It overlooks the entire country side, with its vines on either side of the hill.

It's funny to think that Italians grow up among these amazing old buildings. In the U.S. buildings will be a hundred years old; we have a completely different sense of age and antique. Similarly, shopping for vintage yesterday, the clothing on the racks had dates, some of which went as far back as 1860! I touched the sleeve of a little blue bolero-style jacket, silky to touch with old looking buttons, it looked well loved. And rather than just a generation or two of jacket- clad individuals and their attached memories, it had a hundred years worth of generations. That is four generations, isn't it? Despite its well-worn front and ripped silk, this jacket would be placed behind glass in the U.S. I'm not saying we should shrug of the old and use all the antiques we could find. Rather, using and living in these things, just like Camilla's family lives in a one THOUSAND year old cast a different, more appreciative light. We don't preserve our culture, we live it.

This reminds me of one of my Anthropology professors who has a deep love of history. He always mentions that history and anthropology are strongly connected fields Rather than living separate from our memories, I think those memories could help shape our culture and the way we progress forward. Just as soil and ice build layer upon layer, culture and memories can be this way too. when you drill to get a core sample of ice or soil, you get to see the different layers composite together. Let's not erode and degrade our soil, lets build upon what we've got.

I think I would like to be italian in this regard: living among my cultural relics. So that I have a stronger awareness that there were many, many people who inhabited this earth before me, and there will be many more who will hopeful cherish the relics of my generation.

new

2010-05-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

new food markets

new foods to try (spaghetti con frutti de mar)

new sunsets
new friend

Appartamento

2010-05-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

my kitchen, minus a fridge

my view! This is the oldest church in Florence

Camera timers are silly things.

The Roots twofold

2010-05-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

1. I am returning to the roots of the slow foods movement: the land of table wine, pasta, parmigiana, olive oil, non-fast food- the home of Carlo Petrini and the snail, the original small farm and specialty product. I am going to learn about food and wine and farming.

Terra Madre- last trip to Italy October 2008

2. I am returning to my ancestral roots. As a third- generation Italian American, I long for familial ties to place and I want to reclaim the culture of my family.

My great-grandmother

I use a lot of butter in life

2010-03-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

Cheesecake-swirled brownies

Chocolate-Stout Cupcakes with ganache

snapshots

2010-02-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

Art Shanties, just a short time ago. Dreaming on the ice.

the dumpling feast that occurred afterward.

crafting adventures: a package for Nika, undelivered valentines, a hat made with sparkly yarn, a photography class, slippers for mom.

You know you are a nerd when....

2010-02-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

you get excited about maple tapping. And the prospect of learning how to tap maple trees over spring.

the most exciting part is that is is possible to interact with your immediate environment in innovative and thoughtful ways. Yay Cities! I think as much as I dream about farms and rural areas, Cities are full of exciting things, innovation, and cool people. oh yeah, and cool cities have maple trees.

Read this article at the The Local/NY Times Blog.

Homely

2010-02-02T20:09:00.001-08:00

Why study when you can nourish your bones?

Above picture is a dish of pasta with caramelized brussel sprouts/onions and a sprinkling of aged cheddar. It was made last week on my first day of classes. And today at a community forum, I mentioned my love of baking as a sign of hospitality, giving, and an open heart. Food just makes you feel good.

Fundraising a la Alli

2010-01-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

For my job as the Midwest Organizer for the Real Food Challenge, we had to commit to fundraising. For one week I went on a baking spree- making over 10 batches of cookies, 3 pies, 3 cakes, and 1 commissioned carrot cake. I raised over 300 dollars, not including cost of baking.
This is the poster I made showing the offerings. I also made invoices and composed a color scheme. I had to spend many a night frosting and cooling and packing up the goodies. I never imagined I would be tired from baking all day! Below are two pictures: one of my carrot cake, and the other of sea salt brownies.

Looking out...

2010-01-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

my brother and I at Tikal Ruins, Guatemala, just 2 days ago

I have arrived in St Paul safely; a new semester awaits! Unlike this photo, I do not have the ability to look out into the horizon and see vastness- or in other words- predict. Rather than set expectations for myself, I would rather embrace the exciting time of change and newness about to begin.

lets see if it works!

Cavemen and Homesteaders

2010-01-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

Joseph Goldstein has written an interesting article entitled "The New Cavemen Lifestyle has Found a Home in the City."

A particularly amusing quote from the article:

They regularly grumble about vegans, whom they regard as a misguided, rival tribe. But much of the conversation is spent parsing the law of the jungle. The most severe interpretations generally come from Vladimir Averbukh, a jaunty red-headed Web manager for the city who was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Upon visiting Mr. Durant’s apartment for the first time, in August, Mr. Averbukh scowled at a tomato plant on his host’s roof deck.

“Cavemen don’t eat nightshades,” Mr. Averbukh, 29, said. He explained that tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, arguing that they are native to the New World and could not have been part of humanity’s earliest diet. Mr. Durant shrugged.

I find it relevant to my musings because I advocate for a a return to life of simplicity and humility and wonderment with nature. When participating in a workshop at the GFJI conference, we had to write on the board our ultimate life goal. and I wrote in my un-cursive scrawl, " to live a life of compassion and stewardship." Regardless, this kind of life is nowadays equated with ignoring technology and stepping back into the past.
When I envision myself homesteading, I still see internet, cities, travel, and vegetables in my future. I want to re-learn smart ideas from our ancestors, and so do these folks. While I propose to relive a few ideas from the past few hundred years, the 'cavemen' propose to relive a diet that is HUNDREDS of thousands of years old. There is a reason why humans have evolved- we are well adapted to the world's various ecosystems now. In line with my values, I think we are at the brink, and need to bring back design, values, and lifestyles that help us continue to be. But, reliving the cavemen days does bring back one idea I believe in: the human animal and human ecology. We are one part of this earth, and like our fellow animals, must do what we can to survive and work with one another.

Landscape, Mary Oliver

2009-12-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

Isn't it plain the sheets of moss, except that
they have no tongues, could lecture
all day if they wanted about

spiritual patience? Isn't it clear
the black oaks along the path are standing
as though they were the most fragile of flowers?

Every morning I walk like this around
the pond, thinking: if the doors of my heart
ever close, I am as good as dead.

Every morning, so far, I'm alive. And now
the crows break off from the rest of the darkness
and burst up into the sky—as though

all night they had thought of what they would like
their lives to be, and imagined
their strong, thick wings.

sabi sand game reserve, south africa

Recent Knittings

2009-12-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Home Furnishings

Anemoi Mittens for me

and an Eggplant hat.

Reflections on Human Ecology

2009-11-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

So it has been over two months since I last wrote here. I am still unsure whether someone reads this, but this blog has helped me to develop my perspective on my outlook onto the world.

I am a creator. I like to make things with my hands, see things grow, make something out of very little. I want to be able to do this for a living. I want to create my life in a way that reflects my value in creation and creativity. I have come to love the term "human ecology" lately. I think this encompassed many ideas of what I, ideally, would like to fashion my life into and my own personal ethics. Humans interact with the natural world with each life choice they make (regardless of whether they recognize it or can connect the dots) AND must live within their means.

The term ecology, as I have learned, basically revolves around the goal of each species surviving so that they can then reproduce and put their genes into future generations. I believe humans have taken this really far- ethnic wars, global economies, unethical corporations, and the creation of industries far removed from nature. We are still putting genes into future generations, but we are not enabling the future generations to succeed in our same goals. What makes this funny is that now in modern rhetoric the term "human ecology" refers to home ec- the class everyone loved to hate in middle school where they played with dolls and learned to sew and cook.

I propose a new claiming of the term "Human Ecology." I think it could actually be an empowering term that helps us humans learn our place within the earth system, and help us gain better perspective on those practices that enable us to do that. I see Human Ecology as an enabler and an enpowerer.

Think Homesteading! While our world has rapidly moved us away from an age where we can only depend on those who live with us, Humans still have two hands, two feet, and a heart and a brain to learn how to do new things with their bodies. Gaining the skills to make and create things that we use in our lives gives us integrity. This is because we know that we have the ability to connect all the dots for the item ( creator to crafter to user). And its also just cool to say, hey, in chances of an energency where there is no more heating in my house, I have the ability to create wool sweaters for my family. The possibilities are endless. and it's cool to learn new skills.

But to make this happen, rather than think of this in terms of self-sufficiency, we must think of human ecology of dependence. We are trying to decrease the links, but learn about how humans relate to one another and how they relate to the world around us. Relationships are key to building happiness and integrity as well.

Delicious Revolution

2009-08-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

chch check it: my post on Organic on the Green.

Past Two Weeks

2009-08-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

5 Things to get right next time

2009-08-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

1. Start on time.
If you start too late, the hive won't build up in time to produce honey and make it through the winter. This also led to my other issues. If I had started on time, numbers 2 and 3 would not have been an issue.

2. Purchase from a reputable source.
I bought my hive on eBay because no one else was selling a bee package late in the season. That was silly. When my hive came, they were half dead, including the queen. But also see number 3.

3. Don't let a heat wave take over.
I received my bee package on one of the hottest days this summer. ninety degree days, humidity, and trucking do not do well for bees. When I received my package I almost fainted from the smell of decomposing bees. Again, start on time because the bees will be in their hive by the time the heat hits, as opposed to
being trapped in a wooden crate.

4. Act Fast.
If something goes wrong, act swiftly and make a decision. Every decision I have made with my hive came too late. Talk to fellow beekeepers, join an association, do research, but regardless, if you think your hive is in danger, decide quickly what the next steps are.

5. Watch the Queen
When I purchased my bees, the queen was dead. I bought a new queen and I had misunderstanding with the apiary, so they did not mail the queen for two weeks after I purchased. then, when I put the queen in the hive, I decided to pry open the little box it came in to "speed" up the re-queening process. Instead, the hive and queen both got confused and she disappeared.

Current Status of Hive:
I feel like I am playing God because I have the ability to kill my hive of bees. Understanding the bigger picture of pollination and genetics and ecology, how can I let my hive still live while doing what is right for the bigger picture? If I let my hive struggle to survive, the bees will be below par and if the drones mate (which some of the workers produced) they will spread inferior genes. Again, do I play God and let them suffer and slowly die so they can still offer their pollination services or is that torture? Or should I say, bees can not feel pain? but they do feel some sense of loss because they do not have a real hive to belong to. Honey Bees are an exemplary model of democratic community, if managed correctly.

If I have learned anything, it is that it is crucial that I start on time, because although honey bees are somewhat domesticated, they are truly a wild animal. although the way I managed the hive certainly affects the bees, the whims of nature also affect the health of the hive. Bees depend on the seasons of nature for their success, so human keepers should work with natural timing.

Update soon...

2009-08-04T14:39:00.000-07:00



Tumbling-hair
             picker of buttercups
                                  violets
dandelions
And the big bullying daisies
                            through the field wonderful
with eyes a little sorry
Another comes
             also picking flowers

the Queen arrived!

2009-07-09T17:18:00.001-07:00

What shall I name her?

Putting Up Jam

2009-07-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I picked 35 pounds of strawberries with my dear friend Emily. the next day, when they were bruised, nice and juicy ( they did endure a 20 mile bike ride home), they were jammed. We be jamming. My berries and I jammed 6 pints worth of jam, and the result is delicious!

I talked to my friend Needham today about vocational explorations. I realize that despite not having a summer job and often thinking of my lofty career goal, I really enjoy domestic life. Baking, crafting, jamming, being self-sufficient. Being a housewife ( I really, really cringe at the use of that term) is not really a good thing. Making a choice to live off your local surroundings, to live self-sufficiently, to make do and create, these can be beautiful things. The whole money thing is the real problem. If we lived in a culture where money wasn't what you needed to get by, creating would be our culture. Living off the land would be our culture. Making food and shelter would be our culture; making money which, after several transactions, creates the things one really needs to live drives us to do things we don't really want to do, and don't really matter in the long run

Buzzzz Buzzzz

2009-06-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

So my big project for the summer is to learn about bees and pollination. I received a scholarship from the Garden Club of America to study bees. Earlier in May and June I took a class with Marla Spivak. an entomologist at the UM.

I learned how to manage a hive, extract honey, and manage diseases.

Even though I got a late start to the season, I got a bee package in the mail a week ago. the bees were mostly dead, and were starting to smell because of decomposing. I hived the package, and gave them some sugar water to discover that the queen was dead too.So I bought a new queen, and we will see how it turns out this Tuesday, when I receive the queen! Till then, lets hope the ladies (since all worker bees are women) can hang in there!

Inspiration

2009-06-27T08:33:00.001-07:00

Hello. I'm excited to start sharing my life, musings, and photography through this blog.

I got the name for my blog from James Wright's Poem, " A Blessing".

Just off the Highway to Rochester, Minnesota
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
I felt that this poem captivates a similar emotion I feel to the natural world. And even as a student who is trying to figure out what I do with my life, I want to always maintain a sense of compassion for others and for the larger world. Interconnectivity!!