mover, mudar...qual devo usar?

português tem duas palavras que significam (bem, em maneras diferentes) em inglês "to move." uma delas, mover, provavelmente significa "to move" mais literalmente que a outra enquanto mudar significa mais "to change."

ainda tem a idéia.

uma de meus amigos melhores acaba de mover pra virginia. ainda não posso acreditar-lo. ela vai fazer uma vida nova lá com trabalho novo, amigos novos, um lugar novo, etc. e quando ela moveu, fez mais que mover...ela començou uma mudança em a vida dela também.

então, talvez estas palavras são mais iguais que diferentes. não sempre se precisa mover pra mudar, mas sempre quando muda, alguma coisa move também. e isso pode ser só sua percepção, pelo menos.

something to think about... :)

appreciation from the outside

i don't have a lot of time to really sit down and write out everything about this topic right now, but i wanted to put it out there and see what you guys think...

talking to some friends the other day, a comment came up in response to my nomading to the effect of (and jokingly, but it makes you think), "so your own country isn't good enough for you?" i then replied with the fact that you appreciate it a lot more when you're not in it. i got some looks, ha ha :)

i've never hated my country or been unhappy here because i was here exactly. but i guess until i left did i never really realize what exactly about the u.s. makes it the u.s. and what's great about some of those things. there are other places in the world that i can see myself living for awhile one day, all for different reasons. there are some things, though, that are pretty awesome about here too :)

no country is perfect, of course, and the u.s. has its faults as does every other. and of course, there is more than one right way to do things, we are not the best (as people around the world sometimes think we think of ourselves). especially in light of the events of this week though, i am very proud to be american, and i think that no matter how much i feel the need to leave sometimes, it's not because i don't like my country or because it isn't good enough for me :)

a change of scenery isn't necessarily a bad thing, right? :D

pieces

i feel my pieces coming together :)

ok, that sounds weird. but really, even though i'm one person, there's lots of different things that make me tick and experiences that have made me who i am. i think today is a good example. today hasn't really been a really different or exciting day in comparison to any other, i guess. but it's complete. and it's comfortable. and i've felt amazing :)

i have minestrone in the crock pot. my second favorite soup only to my grandma's italian wedding soup with mini meatballs and escarole that we always eat on christmas :) as a more everyday kind of soup though, the one i grew up with in the winters when i was little, that's minestrone.

incense, acoustic music with soulful lyrics, candles, and relics of my travels, my friends' travels, and my family's travels surround me. it's cool to think that you can have a little piece of the world beyond you with you all the time :) they're simple things, really...a piggy bank from chicago, wooden figures of a sea turtle from costa rica and the cristo from rio de janeiro, a small bottle of cachaça from salvador, a tree stump candle from alaska, a woven bracelet from ecuador, native american sculptures from new mexico and incense from the grand canyon...random. they make me comfortable though, somehow. my environmental textbooks and language dictionaries are strewn across the room (of course, could i ever have a completely clean room?). and it's reaaaallllly cold outside. reminds me of ny. my other second home besides brazil :)


i know i should be working and learning about the wonders of microbial process modeling.

mas que lindo, que incrivel parar e apreciar sua vida por o momento só :)

the moment

sometimes we get lost in living.

being in the moment, experiencing it for what it is in taste, smell, color, shape, texture is valuable. this is what makes the memory, not the actual event. why is it that a smell can bring you back to a split second in time as if you were there? why is it that a song that brings you through a difficult time can still make you cry years later? what does your body know that your mind cannot in that moment, and why is it so much stronger?

why don't the cycles match up?

why does an observer see everything and understand so much more clearly than the person experiencing that moment first hand? and why can't we have both, even when we think we do?

omnipotency is frightening, and a part of that is omniscience. it's too much for one person, for any person, and even with the help of others we still don't believe entirely what we didn't experience for ourselves. it's more fun that way, granted, but i think there's something to be said for stepping back from the moment, just for a little while.

i think somewhere within yourself you always knew, or know, what's right and wrong for you. you can feel it when you walk into a room, you can sense it in the body language of others. it's believing it that's the trick.and somewhere along the way, knowing lots of things become less about knowing them and more about prioritizing them. and that's the real decision.

you always know, somehow. it's accepting it and finding the strength to initiate it, that defining action that probably involves some sort of self-sacrifice.

my decisions are rapidly approaching. deciding on that self-sacrifice right now and how much sacrifice it might involve for others.

i almost don't even feel like myself.