Another daily thought

This one comes from another blogger. Kirbanita, who writes over at Take Joy, uses this as her header:

"In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter, war spreading, families dying, the world in danger, I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover. —Wendell Berry "

I need to remember that. That I can figuratively sow clover while all the bad stuff swirls around me.

Last week, I had a student stop in - this was someone who had taken Biostats from me last year - and thank me for teaching her how to do chi-square analysis (not all intro stats courses get to that, believe it or not), because she had to do chi-square as part of a genetics lab and it was easier for her because she already knew it. (This is also someone who told me that the second-year chem course she took was easier for having had soils lab, where I expected everyone to know what all the glassware was)

I also heard back from all my letters-of-recommendation people. They are all willing to do it; in fact two people (who don't know each other) remarked they would be "honored." (Honestly, I sometimes think other people see things in me I don't see in myself.)

And one of the people on CPAAG has put out a call for warm things for a women's shelter near her. I have a warm but plain scarf I knitted that I realized I had no use for (and was probably too bulky for the Red Scarf Project). So I'm going to send that off. And I'm going to check in the box where I put things that I knit "just to knit" and not that I would use - stuff I save for gifts and such - to see if there's anything else appropriate. The thought that my efforts may go to warm a person far away (in Canada, actually, where it gets a lot colder than it does here) makes me feel a little better about how this semester is going: by mailing that scarf off I will have done at least one tangible useful thing for someone.

I'm still waiting to see if the trash-off is going today; it's wet out but not actually raining. I have to run over there in a few minutes to see if they're set up for it or if they're postponing until next week. I kind of hope they do postpone; for one thing, it's miserable to pick up wet trash, and for another, if we do it next week, the Green Club will have met and the trash-off will be more publicized. (And I can take what remains of this morning and start assembling the promotion portfolio.)