ANA

CHRISTY

CINDY

FRANCISCO

GABRIELA

JESUS

PORFIRIO

ROBERTA

SARA

SHAWN

Goals and Expectations

When you are sitting all by yourself, you would think that you hear nothing, but you don't. Surrounded by stillness, unending quiet, you hear noises [that] you normally wouldn't. Sometimes at night when sleep is eluding me I listen. Then I identify different noises and what they are. Right now there is the scratch of pen on paper and the swoosh that your hand makes when it moves across the page. Then there are the noises of people, cars, and critters that are moving through their day.

My goal of this week is to find an inner quiet, one where I can listen to the noises around me and just listen. I have met a lot of new people just yesterday (today's Monday) and I haven't gotten to know them yet. Another goal of mine is to listen to the people that I have just met and not fill up their silences with my noise.

Wilderness Haiku

Christy went to pee,
She tried to find a nice place
It was not five stars

My Background and Wilderness

I regard wilderness not as something you camp in, or hike [through], but as areas that no one sees except by accident. I have had several camping trips, through school and with my family, and most of the places that we stayed in were campsites that had been set up. What I think passes for wilderness in those places [are] trails through empty land. That kind of makes me think that the land is unmapped and is really true wilderness.

Right now is the ultimate peaceful time. I can see stars, exactly as I can see at home. but the one constellation that I can see clearer is Orion. And it happens to be my favorite. Way back when (6th grade) we were learning about Greek mythology, and my favorite goddess happened to be Artemis. To make a long story short, Orion was Artemis' lover, and her twin Apollo (god of the sun) got jealous. [Apollo] sent a big scorpion after [Orion], who was a superb hunter. But this time he lost.

Anyway, it had the affect of making Artemis angry with Apollo (he thought it would make her pay more attention to him) and to make it all better he put the constellation of Orion into the sky. Whenever she was lonely at night she could look up and see him. But here's the kicker...he put the Scorpion (Scorpio, duh!) into the sky also. Whenever Scorpio is on the horizon, Orion is opposite, running from the foe he could not defeat.