Journal entry, Oxford England 2001
#TBT to a journal entry** (in its rough form!) when I was living overseas and traveling in England to give a few research talks. The world was a scary and unknown place in the initial weeks post 9/11, irrevocably changed in a way we didn't yet understand. I was giving a talk at Oxford University and they put me up for the night in the coziest dorm room in a building straight out of a Harry Potter movie. Having just come from the busy streets of London, I couldn't wait to get outside for a quiet morning run in this magical place. Along the River Thames I found beauty and peace in a time of uncertainty and sorrow.
September 17, 2001
Oxford, England
A new morning in a new place...it is so peaceful and beautiful here. I slept like a rock in my room in the castle and woke to hear the sounds of birds - foreign and exotic, outside my tiny windows. The sun shone through the tops of the trees in a clear blue sky - beckoning me out from under warm blankets and into the crisp morning air.
The air felt like fall in Minnesota yet there was green all around me. I tried to stretch the sleeves of my light jacket over my fingertips. Yet once my body began to move, the chill was gone and an infusion of beauty and life took its place. I found the entrance to the Corpus Christi Meadows down a long narrow and gated path. At the end of the shaded path the meadows opened up revealing new paths to explore, fresh air to take in all around.
I followed the path to the right along the River Thames. The path was shaded with heavy brush and trees - light breaking through at various spots. The birds sang to me, little critters rustled in the brush as I crunched past them on the dirt path. A rower in a single shell moved gracefully through the water as I listened to the familiar whoosh of the oars. Her coach bicycled next to her on the path along the river - "Use your legs and body for power, your arms just to follow through!" she called.
I passed other runners, cyclists, walkers, had a face-off with a fox across the river. Saw grey squirrels, geese, ducks, crows, and other animals I only heard but couldn't see or recognize. The town was so quiet in that early morning hour. As I turned for home, I caught glimpses of the amazing old buildings of Oxford University through the trees, spires reaching high - a fortress waiting quietly for my return.
The English gardens surrounding the college are so simple and natural - stone paths and gray wooden benches worn with the elements, flowers crawling up the old walls and spilling over the top. In its simplicity and naturalness it is more beautiful than any crafted, orderly garden. Its untidiness and disdain for confined boundaries its charm.
How do I get in these places? Am I really here? The day awaits - a new world will unfold before me. So lucky.
**I promised myself I would not edit these journal entries, they have to exist as is and as what they are - hastily scribbled words of events in my life I never want to forget.
September 17, 2001
Oxford, England
A new morning in a new place...it is so peaceful and beautiful here. I slept like a rock in my room in the castle and woke to hear the sounds of birds - foreign and exotic, outside my tiny windows. The sun shone through the tops of the trees in a clear blue sky - beckoning me out from under warm blankets and into the crisp morning air.
The air felt like fall in Minnesota yet there was green all around me. I tried to stretch the sleeves of my light jacket over my fingertips. Yet once my body began to move, the chill was gone and an infusion of beauty and life took its place. I found the entrance to the Corpus Christi Meadows down a long narrow and gated path. At the end of the shaded path the meadows opened up revealing new paths to explore, fresh air to take in all around.
I followed the path to the right along the River Thames. The path was shaded with heavy brush and trees - light breaking through at various spots. The birds sang to me, little critters rustled in the brush as I crunched past them on the dirt path. A rower in a single shell moved gracefully through the water as I listened to the familiar whoosh of the oars. Her coach bicycled next to her on the path along the river - "Use your legs and body for power, your arms just to follow through!" she called.
I passed other runners, cyclists, walkers, had a face-off with a fox across the river. Saw grey squirrels, geese, ducks, crows, and other animals I only heard but couldn't see or recognize. The town was so quiet in that early morning hour. As I turned for home, I caught glimpses of the amazing old buildings of Oxford University through the trees, spires reaching high - a fortress waiting quietly for my return.
The English gardens surrounding the college are so simple and natural - stone paths and gray wooden benches worn with the elements, flowers crawling up the old walls and spilling over the top. In its simplicity and naturalness it is more beautiful than any crafted, orderly garden. Its untidiness and disdain for confined boundaries its charm.
How do I get in these places? Am I really here? The day awaits - a new world will unfold before me. So lucky.
**I promised myself I would not edit these journal entries, they have to exist as is and as what they are - hastily scribbled words of events in my life I never want to forget.
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