Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

"We've hardly begun to search," she says. "The space that we're looking through is nine-dimensional. If you build a mathematical model, the amount of searching that we've done in 50 years is equivalent to scooping one 8-ounce glass out of the Earth's ocean, looking and seeing if you caught a fish. No, no fish in that glass? Well, I don't think you're going to conclude that there are no fish in the ocean. You just haven't searched very well yet. That's where we are."
-Jill Tarter via Fresh Air

photo by Neil Folberg

Stardust

"We are made out of stardust. The iron in the hemoglobin molecules in the blood in your right hand came from a star that blew up 8 billion years ago. The iron in your left hand came from another star. We are the laws of chemistry and physics as they have played out here on Earth and we are now learning that planets are as common as stars. Most stars, as it turns out now, will have planets."
~Jill Tarter via this fantastic Fresh Air interview

photo from here

Taylor Mead

via Half Gallery

Love

Thanks to Hollie for posting this sweet story.

"A devoted farmer painstakingly planted a tribute to his late wife, Janet, using 6,000 oak trees to etch out a giant heart in the middle of his field in South Gloucestershire, England. Howes, 70, and a gardener spent weeks planning and setting out each oak after his wife died suddenly 15 years ago. He planted the fledgling trees across a six-acre field after carefully marking out a heart shape in one half of the grass, with the heart pointing in the direction of her childhood home. The stunning crop was captured in its full beauty after a balloonist sailed over the farmhouse and photographed the field from the air."
 
via here

Skate or Die

My friend Lauren is involved with this film and the project needs money to move forward.  They have a Kickstarter and only have 14 days left to reach their goal! 

Swimming Studies

I read a review of Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton and got the chills.  She is an illustrator and used to be a competitive swimmer.  This book is a mix of words and drawings, and this specific exerpt hit home for me.  I get the same feeling every time I step onto a track, and still dream about practices and races.


“I still dream of practice, of races, coaches and blurry competitors,” she says. “I’m drawn to swimming pools, all swimming pools, no matter how small or murky. When I swim now, I step into the water as though absent-mindedly touching a scar. My recreational laps are phantoms of my competitive races.”

Happy Birthday Woody Guthrie

He would have been 100 today!  Wish I could be celebrating his day here.

*image from here

Friday Music Muse- Fly High by Woody Guthrie

Thanks to brother Mark for sending this music our way.  

Even if you aren't as obsessed with Woody Guthrie as I am, I think you'll still love this album.

Thanks to my love for sending me these words while circumnavigating our church/Great Lake.

Fly High
 

Words by Woody Guthrie

I am flying on this plane
Back into your arms again
And my eyes are sad and cloudy
And my teardrops fall like rain.

As I look down past my wind
Flying home to you again
On the clouds I see your picture
While the engine sings your name.

I’m flying high, up in the sky
But my heart keeps looking for you
All around, down on the ground.
On every hill, in every house
I see your face in every window, down below.

I am thinking, flying here
Of those arguments we had
Of the times we slammed our door
And said, goodbye, goodbye

I walked away a dozen times,
I drove away a hundred more,
But all the trains and all the buses
Brought me back here to our door.

I’m flying high, up in the sky
But my heart keeps looking for you
All around, down on the ground.
On every hill, in every house
I see your face in every window, down below.

I’m flying high, up in the sky
But my heart keeps looking for you
All around, down on the ground.
On every hill, in every house
I see your face in every window, down below.
I see your face in every window, down below.

*photo by John Cohen

Row

 We bought a kayak and have been rowing around Lake Michigan.