Monday, October 10, 2005

Art of Gracious Living

For the past 2 1/2 years I've had a discussion group called "Art of Gracious Living."

The description is as follows:
This is a community of people dedicated to living life to the fullest - through art, journaling, creative pursuits, gathering friends together, cooking, making home a wonderful place to be whether for ourselves or a whole family, introspection and questioning, and venturing beyond our safety zones. This is the place to be reminded to appreciate the little moments that make up a life, about taking the road less traveled and enjoying every step.

I have wrestled with this group - let the membership rise but still only have a few people posting; tried to make it a smaller group but everyone must post; etc. etc. etc. I do not understand the purpose of being in a discussion list if you don't want to "discuss."

Last night I had decided to disband the group. Today I've decided to open it up to new members and see what happens.

Jan. 19 will be the three year anniversary. At that point I'll decide which way to go - keep it, delete it, who knows what.

If it's of interest to you... you can join at yahoogroups.

More Real

Disasters are always more real to us when it's a place we've been to or that we can relate to. All the news from Guatemala has me reeling because I've been to Lake Atitlan, which is where the hard hit village of Panabaj is.

When Matthew and I were in central America a few years ago, we spent a day on the lake, visiting some of the sites there. This was not a town we visited, but the area was beautiful.

Traveling in less touristed areas is always lovely for that very reason - fewer tourists. Of course, you also spend more time getting from point A to point B because there isn't the infrastructure for it.

Officials are saying they will simply declare some towns to be graveyards and leave them. That is a beautiful sentiment in some ways, and yet horrific at the same time.