Search Parameters

On my first field school my professor made sure we knew what we were looking for, especially when we were walking across the fields looking for things. We had already learned how to spot debitage (waste material from making projectile points) but looking for things like rock shelters, and windbreaks is a little different and if you aren't looking for them because you are too busy looking at your feet for a tiny flake of obsidian you will miss them, despite how big they are. You have to keep your search parameters open.
On the Nauvoo dig, I was sometimes amazed at how much people didn't see when we asked them to screen the dirt. I would help them and immediately pull out a chip of earthenware or a piece of glass from the dirt they had been staring at for minutes. I kind of felt guilty, but really it was just because I was more used to what I was looking for, I already had the search parameters down.

A piece of Native American pottery, that pretty much looks like a rock.

Just like it is easier to find bits of glass in dirt when you know what to look for, I think other things are like that as well. When I looked for miracles I found them. When I looked for reasons to be annoyed, I found them. Perhaps the problem is not so much in what is around you, but what you are looking for.

Unmet Friends

I grew up taking the bus to school both in the morning and the afternoon. Before I could read I would generally sit by myself and watch people or the window. After I learned to read well I read most of the time.
One day on the bus, one boy, who had never been in any of my classes, he might have even been a grade ahead of me almost left something on the bus. "Steve" I called "Is this yours?" He grabbed it, and then looked at me and said, "How do you know my name?"
At Nauvoo there is a set of 40 Performing Missionaries who act, dance, and play instruments in several different shows and activities. 16 are in the band, 4 do stage crew type things, and 20 are the primary dancers and actors. While I was in Nauvoo I went to about a dozen performances with them. I got to know them in an observers way, and I even talked to a few of them individually at some points. But not really. It just reminded me of the school bus. Telling people about them I could say, "oh yeah, I really liked that Elder, and that Sister is pretty cool." And yet, I actually have no idea. Especially because they were always acting... I've had other situations like that at school (in college as well) and church. I gain this sympathy for random people, and occasionally think "I could be their friend." Then it never happens, but if I do think about them, I think of them fondly like a toy I grew up with but haven't played with for years (not object like, but yeah). Unmet friends I guess.

Historic Archaeology

One of the things I enjoyed most about my most recent dig is that it was Historic Archaeology. Which means the artifacts were super diverse. Not just chert flakes and groundstone like I saw at my other digs. It was also really neat because it was in Historic Nauvoo. We got to dig up little pieces of china, glass, brick, and square nails and then we would go off touring the historic sites and see the very same things, just whole. I don't think I have ever paid attention to china in my life until I was picking up tiny pieces of it.

Glazed brick I found. It means it was overheated in the baking process.

A brick walk outside the historic Willard Richards home. The two vertical bricks in the right corner are glazed at the bottom corners.

My sister talks about "connection" with her kids. Basically connecting a recent experience with something else. I felt myself doing that a lot, and it was fun.

A little man from a piece of earthenware I found.

A full plate found in the Browning Gunshop. Someone at the dig found one of the same men that are in this plate.

I found this piece of bright blue earthenware at the Samuel Smith home site.

The bright blue of the previous piece matches the dark blue plate in the background. The tumblers on the table are the same pattern as some of the glass fragments I found. This setup is in the Wilford Woodruff home.

Thanks for bearing with me as I geek out over this, but it was really exciting to make all these connections and just find such a variety of artifacts that these people used.

Sacred

I heard once that three different things can make a place sacred. The Spirit, Blood or Sweat or at least that is what I remember. I think sacrifice should fit in there somewhere. The Spirit meaning spiritual or holy experiences, blood meaning death, and sweat meaning hard work.

Nauvoo is an amazing place because it is sacred for all three reasons. It is a place where thousands of Latter Day Saint converts sought refuge from mobs, and then many died from malaria. Under the direction of the latter day prophet Joseph Smith a modern temple was built with great sacrifice. There angels visited, and in this city modern revelation was received.

For all these reasons Nauvoo is a sacred place. There are some places (and times) that are sacred for only one of these reasons. Churches for spirit. Cemeteries for blood. School for sweat. But when they all come together in one place and time it makes it all the more powerful.

Wildlife

I am spending June in historic Nauvoo! I have already spent almost a week here. In the evenings I have spent some of my time walking about and have seen more wildlife than I have seen for some time and was kind of excited.

2 Skunks

Tons of Canada Geese and Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds. Which I love!

Lots of Robins

A nest of Baby birds

2 White Tailed Deer

Cute little Bunny Rabbits

A mother turtle laying her Eggs (really close to our house)

And for domesticated I have seen quite a few horses and a barn cat.

Ownership

I have never had anything against dandelions, and I suppose I still don't but this summer when I looked out on the lawn and saw them blooming everywhere it kind of annoyed me and I thought “I can do something about that.” So I did. For the last two weeks I have spent between 15 and 25 minutes pulling dandelions out of the lawn. I'm surprised at how well it actually worked. When I started I stayed within a ten foot radius crawling around on my knees, last time I did it I spent quite a bit of the time walking around looking for them. Which brings me to two main points. First, small and simple things are effective, even just for a few minutes a day. Second: Ownership. Feeling ownership over something makes a big difference and that ownership can come from chance, or choice. Before when my Mom asked me to pick dandelions I did, but it was more just a chore than me actually caring how things would work out, and whether I got rid of them all or not. This time because I choose to care, I did. I find that to be the case in a lot of situations, it's kind of amazing what a difference it can make. When I feel ownership I tend to be more diligent, I care more, and I'm more responsible. So here are two other examples:

Toy Bank: My brother picked it out for me and gave it to me for Christmas when I was about seven. It makes me sad when my nieces and nephews make the door fall off or clog the coin chute, and other toys that we have around some equally old and equally remembered but never “mine” I don't care about quite as much.

Driving Across the Country with my Sister: I've driven (or perhaps more appropriately ridden) across the country numerous times but this time with my sister I did a little less than half the driving, I got one of the two hotel keys every night, and when I wasn't driving I was appeasing children or navigating. I felt more invested and more proud of it as an accomplishment than I have on other trips.

VAK

My brother let me borrow a book called Pushing Up the Sky by Lee Donaldson and Jonathan Rand. Usually I am wary of such books, but as I read it I realized it wasn't so much a self-help book as a self-awareness one. I would place it in a similar category as the well known Love Languages books (although I haven't read those). 
After reading it all, discussing it, and thinking about it, I decided that these type of books shouldn't necessarily be taken as complete truth, or a solve all for all your questions but more like one more set of tools for my human analysis repertoire. 
So, a little about the theory: Everyone has a Personal Operating System that is how we process information. First we acquire it, than organize, and finally value it. There are three main ways of doing all this: Visual(seeing), Auditory(hearing), Kinesthetic (feeling/doing). The authors put forward the idea that each person has a dominant way of doing all three steps. Such as acquiring information visually(1V), organizing it through talking and hearing(2A), and place value on the information depending on how we feel about it(3K). I decided this is my personal operating system (VAK). But you could also be KAV, AVK, KVA or any other combination. 
The part I found most fascinating is how some things about myself that I have noticed actually fit into these principles. Instead of it being just a weird quirk it means something deeper about myself. Such as how I need to talk ideas through before I act on them or understand myself what I was thinking. This is a common characteristic in 2As. I process information by listening/talking about it. Or perhaps even odder, the thing I always hated most about gym class was not playing the sports (which I usually enjoyed) but the idea that when you play sports people focus on watching your body (not your face) and that made me extremely uncomfortable (hand over the baggy clothes please). This actually makes sense in the context of my being a 3K. Motion and emotion is powerful to me, and sharing it easily makes me uncomfortable.
The other thing I found interesting was how no one completely fits into one category for each section (at least that seems highly unlikely) but we are often more dominant in one over another. But in all actuality that makes us more adaptable.
Anyway. I found it all pretty fascinating and can't do it justice in two paragraphs, but oh well. The problem is I'm not sure I am particularly effective about actually applying the things I learn, to make me a better communicator. . .