Word.

Warning: This is one of those stories that is seemingly many unrelated threads, but it IS going to come full circle.  I promise. 

You may recall this guy.  He showed up on my porch this past August.

I sat down on my couch, looked out my back door, and there he was. Chillin.

I looked into his eyes, and had that really long second. That second where you say...sometimes aloud, sometimes not, "What the f#*k am I seeing?"  He waited around just long enough for me to compose myself and take this picture. Then, like a streak of reptilian lightning, my visitor shot up the wall and out of my life. 

You might think that was enough reptile encounters for one person.

Well, just the other day, I unfolded a blanket and found myself in the middle of another really long second.  I saw what I identified at first as a large dried leaf.  By the end of the second, I discovered that the leaf  had little feet and a tail.  The leaf was a dead lizard. A regular, New Mexico lizard who crawled into my life, and died. 

I do not have a picture of that little guy.  That is because I freaked out, did the "gross, gross gross,"dance and flushed him down the toilet, followed by one more round of the "gross, gross, gross" dance, and some hand washing.

The continued presence of lizards in my mental landscape prompted me to investigate them a little further.

The pieces of research that resonated with me the most involved intuition, adaptation, regeneration, and a desire to simply bask in the sun. 

I also discovered that 2012 is the year of the Dragon. I was born in the year of the Dragon.  OH, and Kimodo Dragons can be as big as 11 feet and weigh like 300 pounds, and have been known to hunt humans. WHAT?!

Meanwhile, on another front, I have been working on finalizing my "word for the year".  This was a great idea I saw on facebook back around resolution time. The word I originally chose was "BREATHE".  I wanted time to sit with it, make sure no other word struck me.  

I have yet to find another that I like more. 

Breathe.

It is sound advice, it is necessary, it is simple.

Breathe.

AND, as if those two things weren't unrelated enough. My eighth graders and I have been working on our own "Personal Mission Statement".  The rough draft was due this past Friday, so I needed to finish my "example" for my students. 

I composed this short, hopefully sensical, and not copy write infringed, statement from the lyrics of various songs entitled Breathe. (There are a lot of them...if that tells ya anything...)

"All you touch and all you see, Is all your life will ever be.

If I just breathe and let it fill the space between,

I'll know everything is alright.

I found a place inside a sound.

I found grace and it's all around.

Breathe, keep breathing. Don't lose your nerve.

Cuz you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,

and life's like an hourglass, glued to the table."

 My Mission Statement for 2012. Word.