In my mind this morning...

Tirana, Albania: 06:00 Laying in bed, light peeking through the window. Silent but a bird and a car here and there. Surprise at the strong hairy legs in the surrounding beds. The UK girls turned out to be two polite quiet guys from Wisconsin and one girl from the UK. Nary a snore through the night. I read two pages, fell back asleep. 08:00: Still quiet. Time for writing. Thoughts drifting. Ideas swishing.

I'm still getting the hang of traveling and not working. I feel my brain to restructure and settle and I know this is good for me.

The Waking - Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

The man in the arena

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be wiht those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

-Theodore Roosevelt, 23/4/1910

(Thank you Ursula, for sharing this with me.)