JOY With New Eyes: 2007 - Defying Gravity

“Everyone deserves the chance to fly! And if I'm flying solo at least I'm flying free" ~ Wicked Stephen Schwartz

Happy New Year! This picture was taken on January 10, 2007, Kristen Marie's 30th Birthday. We have been having fun together and we are reading A Dog Life: Autobiography of a Stray by Ann M Martin. I've also begun reading The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, which was a graduation gift from Nan Miller: "though one may keep the wolves from one's door, they still howl out there in the darkness" (29). I think it's time to open the door!

January 5, 2007: We watched 10 Things I Hate About You a modern Taming of the Shrew, and both liked it very much! :) We headed north to visit Grammy and Grandpa. Here you are in one of your favorite spots on earth :)

and here is another:

I love this picture of you two at the Mystic Aquarium

And then there was our fantastic bus trip to New York City to see Wicked!!

January 13, 2007

January 17, 2007 - Me and Bob - Mom at the kitchen sink in the background, an angel over my left shoulder. On the drive back to NC I listened to some Bob Seger: Like wind on the plains, sand through the glass / Waves rolling in with the tide / Dreams die hard and we watch them erode / But we cannot be denied/ The fire inside"

January 21, 2007 "Oh joy! Rapture! I got a brain! How can I ever thank you enough?" Today began with The Wizard of Oz We pretty much hung out and enjoyed life together all day today. It was nice. I have to admit, I kind of hope we get some kind of weather that keeps us here tomorrow as well, but if we don't, we'll still enjoy the day - we always do :)

January 25, 2007 : "Something has changed within me / Something is not the same / I'm through with playing by the rules / Of someone else's game / Too late for second-guessing / Too late to go back to sleep / It's time to trust my instincts / Close my eyes: and leap!

The transition to single, homeowner, and college graduate all coming within a few months of each other has caused me to pause instead of "leaping" into some new "career" just yet. Instead, I decided to stay working as Media Services Assistant at the library at Meredith, even though it is a 20 hr a week job and there is no way I can sustain a living (or hold onto oir house) with just that job. So, I am starting a second job next Monday, Feb 5th as an office assistant for a photographer 20 hrs a week (afternoons).

January 28, 2007 "Hands" by Jewel "If I could tell the world just one thing / It would be: we're all OK / And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful /And useless in times like these / I won't be made useless / I won't be idle with despair / I will gather myself around my faith /For light does the darkness most fear ... I am never broken / In the end only kindness matters / I will get down on my knees, and I will pray...

Jan 29, 2007 "Kiss the Flame" by Jewel "I want a brave love, one that makes me weak in the knees... crazy, crazy love. One that makes me come undone at the seams... wherefore art thou, Romeo where have all the brave men gone? Show me one man who knows his own heart / to him I shall belong...

January 30, 2007

February 1, 2007 I continue to find new meaning in a favorite song from 1979:

"Turn the Page" by Bob Seger

February 05, 2007 I decided to read Og Mandino's God Memorandum for the next 100 days (and near the end of 2013, and that time I took you with me on the journey).

February 07, 2007 Lately I've been feeling a lot like those 20 somethings I am surrounded by each day. and realizing that that is okay. As long as I keep doing the things I have promised myself I would do. So, this evening I am also doing something I promised John I would do, scanning in old slides from Mom and Dad's wedding.

February 10, 2007 Springsteen's “No Surrender”

...Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold…

I'm ready to grow young again…/ No retreat, baby, no, surrender

I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies in my lover's bed

with a wide open country in my eyes/ and these romantic dreams in my head

Feb 10, 2007 I now choose to settle for nothing less and understand it is going to take some time to get there from here. I also realize that while it was precisely those feelings that pulled me through and helped me get to this point: a new beginning, and for that I am so very grateful.

Ahhh March 1st!! One of my very favorite days of the year…"It is the first mild day of March / Each minute sweeter than before / The redbreast sings from the tall larch / That stands beside our door. / There is a blessing in the air / Which seems a sense of joy to yield / To the bare trees, and mountains bare / And grass in the green field…And bring no book: for this one day /We'll give to idleness." ~ Wordsworth's "To My Sister"

March 02, 2007 We heard this song and we both felt God was speaking to us through Josh Groban:

Don't give up / It's just the weight of the world
When your heart's heavy I / I will lift it for you

Don't give up / Because you want to be heard
If silence keeps you I / I will break it for you

Everybody wants to be understood ... Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up / Because you are loved... I'll be there to find you

March 21, 2007 "Still 10" during lunch at school

This is the cake I made for your 11th Birthday Luau. It was a big hit and I had fun making it :)

April 22, 2007 Earth Day Walk at Meredith

"Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne at 5th grade talent show A.V. Baucom Elementary School - June 7, 2007

Ms. Cronk played "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts, her dedication to your 5th grade class. It was also one of the songs I'd chosen for the slideshow I created for that same occasion.

Mrs. Ward 1st grade

Mrs. Hayes grade 3

Miss Inman 5th grade

June 12, 2007 Saving a Starfish and Enriching Our Lives

There is an entire story that goes with these photos. I love that you can see the starfish in this one.

Here we are together walking on the beach. This may have been the day you told me not to "walk so silly" because you are "following in my footsteps".

Middle School Madness began July 9, 2007 at Salem Middle

July 13^th 2007 “The impulses that make a fool or worse of us in certain circumstances may be necessary for our happiness.” – Gertrude Atherton

July 31^st 2007 “Wisdom at times is found in folly.” – Horace

August 5, 2007

A journal from August 2007 mentions a song from an episode "Rescue Me" a poignant reminder of exactly when and how I knew it was time to move on - again... Hauntingly beautiful. Powerful.

Thursday, August 16, 2007 – end of an era… last Science Safari class. To celebrate, you wanted me to buy this really cool microscope you use with your computer, but it is $64.95, so we decided to get it for Christmas.

Sunday August 19, 2007
"The mirror is not you. The mirror is you looking at yourself."~George Balanchine

Aug 26, 2007 "Baking Fun"

Sept 1, 2007: I feel sad, nearly numb, but not quite, unfortunately, but at least it is a beautiful summer afternoon. You were at your father's and I feel completely unmotivated to do anything, And yet, I did go buy good food for myself at Whole Foods, including a yummy spinach pizza, which I devoured… and now I am reading Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

The cure for anything is salt water..... Our arrival at Wrightsville Beach Sept 14 842am

September 14, 2007

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me." ~ Isaac Newton

“You’re kooky But you’re all mine!!” you said that to me when we got to the ocean at Wrightsville Beach and I went right in the water, even before she did. I love it!! I also like what she said about our time together: “We savor it”

You made up a joke: "What do you call a sea gull who believes everything it hears? Gull-ible!"

It was raining for awhile shortly after we got there – but I think we both like that even more. The water temp is perfect and we’ve been swimming together the entire time, or just about. I made a couple of runs to the car to put our stuff back in it when it was raingin and to get it when I wanted to make us sandwiches for lunch – PBJ of course! Elizabeth just fed the seagulls her crust and lots of Ruffles

“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” ~ Victor Hugo

Sunday Sept 16, 2007 We returned home from a wonderful weekend at the beach. I am tired already at 7pm, but that is because I already cleaned up everything, got a few groceries, dropped off our film, made dinner, and cleaned that up too. The dishwasher is running and you were watching TV upstairs and I am on the porch loving the cooler weather. It is so “cool” that we squeezed in our beach trip right before a weather change to fall. The ocean was warmer than the air this morning when we went down one more time to say “goodbye” for now…

I want to bring the whole entire beach back for you. Instead, I promise to bring you back whenever your heart desires. And who knows, perhaps we’ll even head out on adventures to other beaches. With love, always xo your Mom, Jacquelyn Beth Law.

September 22, 2007 I went back to Wrightsville the following weekend and again the sunshine and the ocean were fantastic! Dinner Sat night was awesome and fun, and the awakening I had over the next 24 hours proved pivotal. I will forever be grateful for them in my life, but as much as I love spending time with each of them, it’s a poor substitute for a life of my very own.

On the way home, I heard a few songs on the radio that we quite powerful and helpful.
Melanie Doane - Saltwater: "...said goodbye for the summer / that to my surprise / has turned into a lifetime ... I miss the sea and I miss seeing you so / and I will cry my salty tears back to you. For as Amy Lewis taught me with a rather famous quote:

September 29, 2007 Self portrait

Monday Oct 1st 2007 5:49am We had a very nice weekend, esp. weather-wise. We were home nearly the entire time, which was nice, but I was also trying to catch up on yard work, paper work, laundry etc. I keep telling you, if you help me with chores, we can play together more often and/or just sit and relax and watch TV or a movie - plus we will be together doing the chores. I know you can't help me with my bill paying and checkbook balancing, but there are a lot of other things you can help with, even if to simply pickup after yourself. It was a good weekend though, and you did get to play with different neighborhood friends a lot of the time, so I am very happy about that. Back to school today for her next 9 week track-in.

There's a time for love and a time for letting go... Letting go, with peace

"Your new day is waiting, let go and let it begin." ~ Michael Bolton
October 21, 2007 - Halloween Costume has been chosen :)

Another self-portrait Oct 26th pm

Trebuchet at MC Sunday, October 28, 2007

October 29, 2007 "Love After Love: The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life." ~ DEREK WALCOTT

October 30, 2007 There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience, and that is not learning from experience. ~ Archibald MacLeish

Halloween:

We celebrated 11 years of living at 201 Sarabande Drive.

I'm doing okay and still learning a lot and still trying to find balance between work and play in my life. November 2, 2007 Nancy Pelosi: “Know your power.. follow your dreams, follow your passions.. so that you are ready and have the confidence and an education from Meredith College...Anyone who has a plan will be considered a leader”

November 2007 "Life is short, but childhood is shorter. Feed it well." I asked what the quote meant to you "Simple: "Fun" you added "can you tell Dad!?"

Tuesday, Nov 20, 2007 Life has been wildly crazy this year.... We had a difficult time transitioning to middle school which began in the summer because it is a year round system now. You have trouble keeping organized, especially having to switch back and forth between two homes.

Dec 3, 2007

Dec 6, getting our tree from Neighborhood Boy

Tree set up and ready for decorating before heading north for a visit with Grammy, Grandpa, Great Grandma Thomason, and to met your newest cousin, Ava Rose Lidestri AND... SNOW!!