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"A person's maturity 
consists in having found again 
the seriousness one had as a child, at play."

- Friedrich Nietszche

75 days away from home

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At 50 days on the road, I was in Paris and emailed my dear friend, Val:

We've been on the road for 50 days now, and holy moly, we've been like a tornado ripping through nine states (Mississippi was more of a drive-by, though), four countries, seven flights (well, five, but two had two legs), twelve cities, etc. On good days, it's amazing. Aria and Téa play in a picturesque playground sandbox with the Eiffel Tower in the background while Andres and I sit on a shaded park bench and sigh at how awesome everything is. On bad days, Aria is tantruming, Téa is crying because she's hungry, Andres and I are grumpy and tired and lost, and it starts to rain. We've had plenty of both kinds of moments, but there are definitely far fewer of those perfect moments! (Of course, they weigh a lot more, so one five-minute awesome moment can carry us through a tough day or two...) ;-)

Now, at 75 days away from home, we've settled in our home for the academic year, but we don't know anyone here yet, and it's colder and grayer in Germany. (Let's all play our pity violins for the wimpy Californians.) There is a ton of paperwork to fill out, and while we have a place at a bilingual school for our younger daughter starting October 31st (yay!), we have been jumping through hoops in search for a school for our older daughter and are now on the wait list for an emergency place with the ministry of education.

The upside is that we live in what I call a castle because it is old and gorgeous and looks, well, like a castle.

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And the way I figure it, we'll either make great friends this year or we'll bond as a family.

So, for now, we'll be donning puffy jackets and bundling up, and we'll try to remember to do our next sabbatical somewhere warmer. :-)

P.S. If you speak English (or Chinese or Spanish) and live in (or near) Darmstadt, send me a message at serendipityberries@gmail.com, and let's be friends! Any other expats around? We haven't seen any friends since August, so we're due for some socializing. (And if you happen to have kids who could play with my 1-year-old and/or 4-year-old, that would be awesome, too.) :-)

let kids play

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I've said this before: kids really need time and (mental) space to play. And we parents need to chill out on overscheduling our kids.

This is a great article on Quartz that looks at stress in young people and the rising rates of depression in our youth.

My hypothesis is that the generational increases in externality, extrinsic goals, anxiety, and depression are all caused largely by the decline, over that same period, in opportunities for free play and the increased time and weight given to schooling. 

another happy dance around the world

I enjoy living under a rock, but I somehow missed this video that came out four years ago. In any case, it's an awesome follow-up to my favorite video of all time.

Enjoy.

unfurling

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You know that intoxicating, exhilarating feeling you get when you're falling in love with someone or something new? Where you feel like you've been crumpled up into a tight little ball all of your life and can finally spread your wings and be you and free and open and larger than life and part of the universe at large?

I found it.

For now.

I've fallen in love before, felt this high before, and then life gets in the way, and I lose it again. Well, I'm a little older and a little wiser now, and I'm hoping I'll get to enjoy this flight a little longer this time.

And where is this magical feeling? Funny enough, it has been inspired by my first MOOC (massive open online course) that I'm taking with the University of Iowa. Yes, they're considered the bastion of creative writing in the country, etc., etc., etc. And the fiction course has already been both illuminating and fun. But the real spark for me is the combination of actively writing while also being part of a writing community.

It's like being a frog in a duck pond for years and then discovering other frogs. I've finally found my tribe, and we are a wonderfully quirky bunch. We make jokes about Oxford commas, exalt in a beautiful phrase, and delight in making sentences richer or tighter or more compelling. We bang our heads, drawing the famous trio of body fluids (blood, sweat, and tears) as we struggle to translate the inklings in our heads that feel so magnificent into concrete words that will hopefully also make sense to other people. And maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to write something that someone else will recognize as the truth.

I've connected with one writer so far who I'm already calling my MOOC BFF, and she alone has made my experience as a student once again so much more entertaining and more inspiring than I expected or thought possible. Having someone along for the ride, even if I've never seen her face or heard her voice or know what race she is or anything else, has given the solitary writing career a warmth that I didn't realize was possible. We are connecting as writers first and foremost, and that is an amazing validating experience, too. Thanks, Heather. I've only "known" you online and only for a few weeks so far, but you've already made a positive impact in my life.

So, I tried one career after another, "dating" usually for about four years, and now, I think I've found the One. I'm hoping to finally settle down and commit to being a writer. 100%. No more excuses or distractions.

And from this dream cloud I'm floating in, filled with love and light and enthusiasm, I wish this feeling for everyone. I'm working on a screenplay and hoping to finish it this month. Then, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo and hope to write the novel version of the story in November. And then I have another previous story that I hope to craft into both a novel and screenplay. So, I've made my public commitment and now have to live up to it.

What makes you come alive? What would you do if time and money were no object? What can you do right now/today/this week to inch closer to your dream life? Let's make it happen!

I'm fired up! The sky can't hold me! Want to join me? Let's go!

biking in vegas

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The internet never ceases to amaze me.  Even as an occasional blogger, I've connected with lovely people and groups I wouldn't have met otherwise and feel very lucky to still be a part of this nebulous but huge, growing and very active community.

One recent connection is with Bridget, who has discovered joy in biking around Las Vegas.  Not what one usually associates with the glittering, play-all-night, what-happens-there-stays-there city.  But it turns out she isn't the only one.  This New York Times article also talks about his experience on one of these newer trails.

And here's Bridget, my first guest blogger.  Welcome, Bridget!  Thanks for finding me. :-)

Biking in Las Vegas has never been better!

There were times when I used to spend so long at the gym that I would be there until 9 at night.  This was after working the entire day and getting off at 5.  I hated how there were so many people in the gym, sweating and cramped together.  It always reminded me of an animal running around in a cage.  However, I did not realize that there was another way to exercise.  Other people felt that riding a bike outside, going for a run, or exercising without a gym was great, but I felt this was not a good idea due to pollution being an issue outside.  It was not until I moved to a new place that I discovered the workout regimen a person has would vary depending on what city they live in.  This is why moving to Las Vegas was a revelation for me.  I realized that instead of it making me an indoor person when working out, the opposite happened.

Las Vegas at first was intimidating to me in the terms of working out.  Where in the world was I going to go in order to exercise there?  Not only was it incredibly hot outside, there was also a large amount of people walking around outside, both drunk and sober. Sin City did not seem like the best place for a workout regimen.  However, I realize now that Las Vegas does in fact have great places to work out!  They are outside in some of the most natural settings that you will be able to find.

drowning doesn't look like drowning

I just came across this article on Slate and thought it was really informative.  As summer approaches, let's hope being informed keeps us and our little loved ones safe.

A lifeguard keeps watch on opening day of the newly renovated McCarren Park Pool on June 28, 2012, in Brooklyn, New York.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine; what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their 9-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know—from 50 feet away—what the father couldn’t recognize from just 10? Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.

what a dad/son/photographer

These girls are adorable, and the story is pretty touching (from boredpanda):

If you are tired of posed, stiff and cheesy family portraits, then take a look at these incredibly creative pictures taken by Jason Lee.

Jason who is a wedding photographer started taking photos of his two little daughters back in 2006 when his mom was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The girls were constantly sick, with colds and coughs so he couldn’t always bring them to visit their grandmother. Jason wanted her to be able to see her granddaughters without catching their kid germs so he started a blog where his mom could see what was going on in their lives.

Most of the ideas come from his daughters – eight-year-old Kristin and five-year-old Kayla. Jason says that they are never-ending source of ideas.

Lee is a really talented photographer in his own right (you can see his photography website here), but it's really the spirit of fun and whimsy of this collection that I love.  Here are some of my favorites.  Enjoy!

the world's largest salt flat, bolivia's salar de uyuni (with lots of funny photos)

In all of my travels, Salar de Uyuni stands out as one of the most incredible things I've seen.  To say it's the world's largest salt flat at over 4000 square miles just doesn't mean much.  It's kind of neat to see it from space:

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But to bring the numbers to a more human level and give the Salar de Uyuni a more apt description, it looks like a never-ending plain of perfectly flat, perfectly white snow.  And like much of Bolivia, it's around 12,000 feet above sea level.

There's so much salt, even the buildings are made of salt bricks, like this little one:

wordle

Okay, enough of the New York Times, right? Right.

So, here's something I discovered that I now love: wordle.

You can write something, paste in text or link to a website, and it will make pretty, colorful word clouds for you. The frequency of the words determines their size, and you can change the colors, fonts, orientation, etc.

This wordle above is from a recent post. So, you're probably thinking, that's great that you can now have word clouds (whoop dee doo), but what does one do with such a thing?

Well, as a writer, you could see which words you're using the most in your work. Which is important. It's a fun way to make sure you don't use juicy vocabulary repeatedly (no one wants to read about someone's pulchritudinous menagerie again and again-- or even once, really). Or you can catch the use of wimpy words like 'sort of' or 'actually' or other weakening fillers. I just did a search for 'felt' in the novel I'm working on and got rid of as many as I could (a great feeling). But back to word clouds.

You could also:

a. write a love note to someone and have it be all artsy fartsy,
b. break up with someone with a wordle and let them figure it out by using words like 'goodbye,' 'cheater' and 'leaving you' (just kidding-- please don't do that), or
c. procrastinate and hit 'Randomize' again and again until you get the desired combination of font, color and orientation while you should really be doing something else.

Not that I would know anything about that last one. Cough, cough.

But really, you could paste in your favorite poems/stories/chapters/articles/etc. to see which words are used most frequently (and then share the resulting word clouds with loved ones) or even make word art ransom notes, if you wanted to spice up your next kidnapping. You know, if you were an art-loving kidnapper. So, as I was saying, the possibilities for creative time-wasting are endless.

Have fun!

scavenger hunt nerds unite!

Google and Virgin America are teaming up to bring us the world's first Day in the Cloud Challenge, where earthbound and airborne alike can compete in a one-hour scavenger hunt.

I have no idea what we'll be looking for, but it's an interesting way to push both Google apps and in-flight internet. So, here's what awaits you if you do well:

Become one of the top scorers and we'll set you up with your own personal "Year in the Cloud," complete with a brand-new HP netbook and 1 terabyte of Google Account storage for your photos and mail—all of which will come in handy when you fly free for a year on Virgin America with complimentary WiFi.

Now, I know lots of you are great with trivia and scavenger hunts and will really mangle any chances I would have had of winning, but here's to good karma.

Let me know when you win lots of free goodies.

A painting (in photos)

I got two blank canvases as a gift last spring, and I thought it might be fun to share the process.

So, my brother is into fantasy, and I had planned on opening a bakery called pixie cupcakes, so I figured it would be a natural fit to make a pixie painting.

I've never taken a painting lesson, and I just guess my way through, but it's fun. If you haven't tried painting and are even mildly interested, I'd say give it a shot. If I can do it, so can you.

As you can see, the wings aren't painted in this photo yet. (I forgot to take photos of the finished painting before I gave it to him. Oops.) They are basically every color you see on the canvas, with a layer of silver over them, and I trust your imagination to finish off the job.

Once the front of the canvas was done, I painted the sides orange so my bro wouldn't have to frame it if he didn't feel like it.

So, there you go. A painting. It took me about a weekend to finish it.

Your turn. Have fun!

Everything is possible

Or at least, it's the title of both of these videos, which are pretty neat in very different ways.

The first everything is possible shows what happens when people try to do crazy and/or impossible things-- and actually pull it off. Complete with "Unchained Melody" remix and "Con Te Partiro" ending. (You can always turn the sound off if those aren't your thing.)


And here is a mesmerizing commercial entitled "everything is possible" of penguins flying.

Okay. It's beautiful 'footage,' but it isn't real. Here's how they made it, and here's BBC's April Fools' ad, "Flying Penguins on BBC Documentary," putting it all together. And it sounds like several British media outlets joined forces with the BBC (or perhaps fell for the joke), including the Telegraph, to break the 'miracle in evolution' story.

abc lists some other entertaining April Fools' jokes from 2008, including U.K. Chancellor Alistair Darling scratching lottery tickets in response to the weakening economy in this priceless photo:

and French President Sarkosy undergoing Stature Augmentation Treatment so as to be taller than his wife.

I was pretty impressed with how large in scale these were, and I think we need to step up our April Fools' efforts this year. Anyone with me?

The serious need for play

I came across this Scientific American article, The Serious Need for Play, and it made me very happy. The article covers some pretty heavy stuff (how most murderers never played as children), but it also links free play to a number of positives, including creativity and intelligence. So, if play makes us smarter, more sociable and more creative, what are you waiting for? Go out and play!

The original caption: One study found that kids who played with blocks scored higher on language tests than kids who had no blocks. Perhaps the children with blocks simply spent less time on unproductive activities such as watching TV--but the end result was good for them in any case.

And as if the New York Times were reading my mind this morning, here's an article on the necessity of recess.

Serendipity berries work!

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Last night, I tried a real serendipity berry for the first time, and the result was amazing. I had a 'miracle fruit' tablet first, and I downed slice after slice of lime, lemon and grapefruit like they were candy. Salt and vinegar chips never tasted so sweet. I drank vinegar and enjoyed it. At our little miracle berry party, some people even said the lime and lemon slices were too sweet.

I tried the real berry later and was, unfortunately, not as impressed. This could, of course, be due to the fact that they were frozen in transit and delivered in dry ice. If I had any special properties, I'd probably have lost them after freezing and thawing, too.

The effect was supposed to last anywhere from half an hour to two hours, but for some people, it seemed to last an even shorter amount of time. And for $1+ a pop, it isn't something one would necessarily do that often. But wow, it is something to be experienced.

As the writer of the serendipity berries blog, I felt I had to share where one could purchase said little miracles. So, no, you won't find any in the international foods aisle of your local grocery store, but you can order them online here. Enjoy!

happy dance around the world

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding

This is my favorite video of all time. When I first discovered it, I cried and emailed it to all seven hundred people in my contacts list. (Who those seven hundred people are, I have no idea, and I will most likely never email them all at once ever again. I just hope it brightened their day.) I could go on and on about why I love it or just let it speak for itself. Right.

So, the question is: do you know where all of those places are? How many countries can you name?

Here is an infuriating, addicting time suck of a geography quiz that you will regret starting. But tempting nonetheless, no? Want to waste more time? Here is a totally ridiculous, outdated and not entirely useful song that was (I think) meant to be instructive. And here is a list of countries and capitals, because I was suddenly struck with the desire to know them all again, too.

Now, the next question is: how many of these countries have you been to? What are some of your favorite countries/cities/places that you've visited? And why? (I used to hate the follow-up 'why' question. But see how useful it is here? If someone said because the _____ hiking trail has this awesome species of tarantula, I'd say thanks and probably avoid that hike.) More importantly, where do you want to go? And what inspired you to want to go there?

My friend, Catherine, has a friend who got a car in India and drove all the way to South Africa so he could have visited 30 countries by age 30. I know, I know-- it isn't just about keeping score. After all, a trip to New York or Los Angeles doesn't at all = 'knowing the U.S.,' even though you've technically visited and can then 'check it off.' But it's a fun challenge nevertheless, and I admit that I look forward to adding more countries to my 'been there' list. And places like these. Ahh, travel.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

"May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view... where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you." - Edward Abbey

Jumping for joy (and the right to vote)

Lest people think this blog is all depressing stories, all the time, here is another photo essay. A 100% happy one. Seeing people jumping makes me happy, and I hope it brightens your day a little, too. Enjoy!

Yay for Election Day! Here's more silliness:

Republicans are red,

Democrats are blue,

Even though I'm 100% OBAMA,

No matter how you vote, I'll still love you.

Serendipity berries for everyone! Now, go out and VOTE!

"Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote."

- William E. Simon