TXDrtGrl

“Love is not about possession or titles, it is about acceptance of one person for who they are”.

- Anonymous

I would love to credit to the person who said this, but it is a very dear friend of mine, and they said it to me in a moment of encouragement. I think it is beautiful.

I think that friendship is a very powerful thing, more sustaining than passionate love. It carries you through much of the times in your life where compassion, not passion, are needed, if not required.

The last year of my life has been filled with moments and people that have lead me to the place I am today. I have been blessed and humbled by these experiences. Tonight I celebrated the graduation moment of one of my dearest friends, as she has now finished her Masters and enters the professional world as a speach therapist. It was so rewarding to share that moment with her.

It is times like these that remain imprinted in our minds forever, and bring richness to our lives.

There is nothing like returning to a place

That remains unchanged

To find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

- Nelson Mandela

So I spent Thanksgiving with my parents and my sister this year in Lampasas. This is the view from their front porch. the colors are so beautiful, and the light was ethereal. The glow lasted for hours.

So you are were worried about being cold. How is 29 degrees and a little bit of sleet to wake you up? This is the north end of our survey area this morning. Burr. Let us just say, there are no facilities there, you have to rough it. Brrrrrrr.

Find. Wow. Walked up a hill yesterday, found a perfectly disarticulated exotic goat, my friend Rachel who knows her zoology suggested it is a Spanish goat. He picked this place to go to die, his kin were a few hills south of here.

My neighbor noticed I was back in town, and commented that he was glad I survived the holiday. I said, yes, it was good to get back to normal. He then said “every day is a holiday if you are living it right, you don’t need a special day to celebrate.”

Amen to that.

Today I had the absolute honor of viewing the Colha collection that is currently stored in Austin. The most amazing ceramics from northern Belize (in my opinion) and I got to handle them! This was really helpful for me to visualize what whole vessels would look like - if I had them - in my deposit from Blackman Eddy.

I hope to go back in the spring and review the colleciton more closely and examine the slip and the paste more closely.

It has been a good Thanksgiving so far, I ate so much pie yesterday, will probably have more this evening. I think I need to go pick on the kids some more!

We were greeted by this sunrise last week over Dallas. It was cold but the colors were magnificent and worth the chill!

I love my family, my mom and my sister have made 5 huge pies for thanksgiving. Now keep in mind, there are 5 adults and 3 kids attending this thanksgiving dinner. Of course, that means pie for breakfast, etc.

I have already had a piece of mincement-apple, a kind I normally don’t eat but it was so good, and not too sweet. Yummm!

I don’t think I could be much closer to Louisiana, yet still be in Texas. Well, maybe, but that is where I am heading tomorrow. It should be clear, cool and sunny, so I look forward to doing survey in that weather.

Today was a good day for some research, made progress on several thesis chapters, and look forward to wrapping up those three in the next week. Then it will be on to the “Research Questions and Methodology” section, as well as a detailed discussion of the ceramics in the deposit, and of course, the stratigraphy.

Sounds exciting? Stay tuned!

Sunrises are the most amazing thing, because you don’t know what to expect. For a sunset, you can look at the sky and anticipate what you are going to see when the sun goes below the horizon.

Today was the most beautiful one I have seen in a long time though, it was about 6:45 am, and we were driving across the big river that divides Texas and Oklahoma, the Red River. It was cold, so there was fog in the lowlands and rising above the trees. You could see glimpses of color from the leaves changing, red, orange, yellow, and a pale green as the leaves start to die. The sun rising in the sky put a soft glow on the land. The sky itself was aqua blue, with bands and tendrils of clouds reaching out from the horizon, rose and amber in the dawn light.

I did not have my camera (for whatever reason) but it left such an impression on my mind.