Too Many Branches from My Tree

Books, church, fitness, friends. All good things. All worth mentioning. 

I started reading East of Eden. The story line just picked up with a love triangle... I think. I can't remember why a friend recommended this 900 page novel, possibly within the context of Sarte's play No Exit, but I can't be certain. 

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Mentorship exists because success exists. Every excellent program from my past offered mentorship, and in so doing, offered success. I am not one of those lucky, happy few who walk through doors into piles of success. I chase after it, and am left feeling abandoned and listless without it. 

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Church can be infuriating. As I sit, listening, tracking the contradictions, possibly playing out the confrontation discussion that will never happen because pastors are people too, I grow desperate. Desperate to leave, to argue, desperate to belong, desperate for reconciliation. Never make critical life choices from a position of desperation. It flatters no one. 

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Fitness, personal health, all related hobbies, are important to me. I swam 2.5 miles on Sunday, mostly as a last goodbye to the triathlon season that was my most recent (dangerously expensive) hobby. Now I am storing my bike in the shed behind my tiny house, and moving back into Gym-rat life. Transitions, small or big, indicate seasons. The forests burn in August, marking the last of summer, the commercials plaster back-to-school trends, and September arrives too early with an unexpected crisp. But to me, it marks the coming of my birthday. 

Tomorrow I leave to go camping in Glacier National Park with a friend who I have not seen for over a year. Friendship keeps my world tilted properly on it's axis.

And here is a song about a tree & love.