Friday, February 13, 2009

birthday wishes on valentine's day


February 14th
. . . . .


Happy 150th Birthday, Oregon! Image and video hosting by TinyPic







..... and Happy 27th Birthday, Dex!







You both have a huge part of my heart. It's my fervent wish that you will "meet" some day in the future.



Dex graduated from law school in the Philippines in 2008 and has dreams of attending Lewis & Clark College School of Law in Portland, Oregon, to obtain an
LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law.
Lewis & Clark's LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law offers excellent preparation for practicing, teaching, or policy-making in the environmental and natural resources law field. Our dynamic program draws lawyers from across the country and around the world, who consistently give the program high marks for its breadth, depth and educational excellence. Our environmental law program is ranked #1 in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. We also provide outstanding staff support to our LL.M. students as well as one-on-one access to our renowned faculty members.

To honor both Oregon and Dex here's a poem by William Stafford, Oregon Poet Laureate from 1975-1989. As noted in the partial bio below, he taught at Lewis and Clark College from 1948 until his retirement in 1980!


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An Oregon Message
by William E. Stafford


When we first moved here, pulled
the trees in around us, curled
our backs to the wind, no one
had ever hit the moon—no one.
Now our trees are safer than the stars,
and only other people's neglect
is our precious and abiding shell,
pierced by meteors, radar, and the telephone.

From our snug place we shout
religiously for attention, in order to hide:
only silence or evasion will bring
dangerous notice, the hovering hawk
of the state, or the sudden quiet stare
and fatal estimate of an alerted neighbor.

This message we smuggle out in
its plain cover, to be opened
quietly: Friends everywhere—
we are alive! Those moon rockets
have missed millions of secret
places! Best wishes.

Burn this.



William Stafford..... (more about him here)
was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1914. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Kansas at Lawrence and, in 1954, a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. During the Second World War, Stafford was a conscientious objector and worked in the civilian public service camps . . .

. . . In 1948 Stafford moved to Oregon to teach at Lewis and Clark College. Though he traveled and read his work widely, he taught at Lewis and Clark until his retirement in 1980. His first major collection of poems, Traveling Through the Dark, was published when Stafford was forty-eight. It won the National Book Award in 1963. He went on to publish more than sixty-five volumes of poetry and prose. Among his many honors and awards were a Shelley Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Western States Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry. In 1970, he was the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (a position currently known as the Poet Laureate). . .
-poets.org

Places to learn more about this beautiful place:





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Dex's blog,
Thirty-Thousand Fishes, was one of the first blogs that spoke deeply to me when I started blogging a year ago this month.

Perhaps in the future I will write about the journey of our hearts, a journey crossing years and miles of ocean between the Philippines and Oregon, that has come to my saying this...........Happy Birthday, son. I'm joyful to have heard your voice and laughter on the phone as you enjoyed breakfast to begin your special day!

[Note: I keyed the incorrect year when I originally posted this and have corrected it from birthday #26 to #27. In the meantime, Dex has written his birthday post at his blog.]

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graphic and bottom photo: tinypic.com

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12 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy birthdays Dex an Oregon - funny they are both so young :)
and a happy blogaversary to you - you are so youg too!!!
Have a wonderful Valentine day!

Looking to the Stars said...

I had never heard of William Stafford. Thank you for introducing him to me. I loved the phrase "pulled the trees in around us". I hope Dex achieves his dream, keep me posted. Beautiful blog, thank you.

The Acolyte Tao said...

Happy blogaversary!
Its also my grandmother's birthday, and my cousin's! And my best friend's mom's birthday!
I guess its a day of celebration eh? =P I like Valentines day because it means I have about a month until my birthday!

Namaste!

Lydia said...

@Buddha- Thanks for all the good wishes. My blogoversary isn't until the 25th and I got ahead of myself by mentioning it. It seems weird that a year ago this day I had no idea of or plans to create a blog!
I hope you are doing something special with your "3 girls" for Valentine's Day.

@Looking to the Stars- I hope Dex reads your comments!
Yes, Stafford was quite the poet. He gave the commencement speech at my first husband's graduation from law school. Even then, without knowing anything about him, I knew I was hearing a great one....

@Acolyte Tao- Thanks! My blogoversary is on the 25th and I'll probably make a post about it then. Wow, you sure do have a lot of people to celebrate on Valentine's Day; fun. :)

So, you'll be 18 on what day in March?.........

deus ex machina said...

thank you for this, mom. You may never be physically present but your thoughts, your love always linger here in my heart. looking at bright prospects for scholarships so I can enrol in the program hopefully by next year. I am more than enthusiastic about their environmental law program.

btw, the breakfast could have waited if not for the bad signal and the unbearable noise at the Chinese restaurant. thank you for the call, mom. It completed everything.

Dex

Lydia said...

@Dex- You sound contended at the end of your birthday.

It truly is a possibility that you and Oregon will celebrate your birthdays together one year in the near future! :)

Rhiannon said...

I wish Dex the very best. It's a small world at times isn't it? I have a blog friend in Singapore..one of the nicest people I could ever know..he and his family. It's been almost 4 or 5 years now we've stayed connected.

I hope you and Dex get to meet one day "when" he goes to university there in Portland..and what a wonderful career to start in..law in relation to environment.

I did not realize it was Oregon's birthday today...I really did not..I learned something today I didn't know..about time!!

I'm much further south than you are...about an hour away from the border to California.



Rhi

Lydia said...

@Rhi- Thanks for your good wishes for Dex. The more people who "think" him on his way to realizing his dreams, the better!

How special that you have a 5-year friendship with the folks in Singapore.

The big birthday bash for Oregon has been mainly centered around the Salem area, with lots of press coverage. But the celebration is supposed to be ongoing throughout the year, so maybe there will be an exhibit coming your way or some other event planned. My husband lived in Brookings on the border of CA/OR in his boyhood, maybe somewhere near you. I was familiar with all the Oregon except that southern end until we went to Brookings a few years ago. It was nice but I do prefer the north/central coastal areas.

Wayfaring Wanderer said...

Your blog anniversary! Isn't that a crazy milestone to contemplate.

And Happy Birthday, Dex!

I'm gonna share something with you. A cousin of mine from the Philippines just moved with her fiance to the US. Of all the places in the world she moved to TN. Not only is she in the same region as me now, but it's only a 1 1/2 hour drive away!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that freaking crazy!?!?! We have plans in the works to meet one another very soon. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to meet one of my Filipino family members! I didn't know when that day would come.

Lydia said...

@WW- I am so excited for you about your cousin moving so nearby. That is true serendipity. This will be a huge thing in your life, Jess. It’s meant to be! Can’t wait to learn more about her and your visit together.

Yes, the blogiversary is really a special kind of feeling. I wanted a new look for my blog for the actual day, but am not sure if I'll have time now to figure that all out.

coeline said...

I already saw Dex's blog... And from it, I still felt inspired, starting off with the soothing music he embedded on the homepage, down to the poem and birthday post me wrote.

He must be really a nice and gifted person

Lydia said...

@coeline- Well, yes, I think he is nice and gifted. His blog is a special place. I think it's fascinating the way our blogs become a part of us. Your own blog is already full of sparkling intelligence, fun, hope, and other good things. :)

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