help me rhonda, in a big way, you know? how in sinead o'connor's name am i supposed to write a blog about all that has been happening? well, i don't have to. you can read robin's! that was a joke. i have been pretty bad at jokes recently, so that may not have gone over too well. let me know.

first things first: i am entirely 100% squiggly happy here. it's such a nice feeling. what's so wonderful about NZ is that i don't feel like i have to choose anything. i can live in a big city and still have hikes, volcanoes, white and black sand beaches 20 minutes away. i can live a world away and still talk on clear phone lines. i don't have to decide between wanting to live near the mountains or near the ocean. i can have a modern, practical life that still respects this planet without having to live in africa. i am so grateful to feel like i don't have to make any decisions for a while on what i want the most because it is all available. i get to have all the options - a life buffet, really - and NZ is encouraging me, shouting good things always in the affirmative.

there has been a cute overload at gilly and greg's. ms. banty, the least naughty of the chickens, just had five baby chicks! there are three black ones and two cream colored ones! one of the babies died. rip, miss you everyday. on top of that, tomorrow we get four new baby calves! and we get to bottle feed them! and look at their inch long eyelashes! i am excited.

i didn't really see this coming, but i have truly enjoyed being around the animals on this farm (minus the chickens. NEVER the chickens). with different kinds of animals being in such close proximity, i have been able to watch them in a way i never have. i am discovering the entire world of beauty that is wrapped up in an animal's eye. the golf ball size amber looking eyes of the horses, the universe dense black of the sheep's bulbous eyes, the almost too-human eyelids covering the chicken's flat eyes. as not a particularly animal-loving girl,

***HAPPY NEW DAY IN MY TIME ZONE!*****

i had always classified animals as an entirely different category of life, but once i started studying their eyes, they have begun to look so human to me. how can i not have empathy for a creature who can look me in the eyes?

another animal i have been in close contact with recently: dolphin! this sounds almost too beautiful to be true, but yesterday (could it have been only yesterday?!) robin and i were traveling on the northeastern shore beach hopping when we came to a beach reserve called something that phonetically sounds like "taffranooey," but includes a "whp" combination in the spelling, so who knows. on this near deserted beach full of giant rocks and carved out caves and tiny bays and the kind of blue water that crayola realized was "cerulean," but better than anything else on this beach were the three wild dolphins that were swimming around in a calm bay! after we stood on the shore taking pictures of these three performatory dolphins for a few minutes, we realized we would be dummy monsters to not get into the freezing cold water to swim with the dolphins. i have never witnessed such incredible power and incredible restraint in an animal. we were standing waist-deep in our clothes with dolphins swimming so close to us we could literally put out our hands and touch them. it was such unusual magic. what creativity nature possesses in its ability to wow me at every moment of every day. standing with numb legs and an exploding smile watching dolphins felt like a sigur ros song.

this one, in fact:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L_DQKCDgeM

i can't get over this life right now. all it needs is much loved and adored visitors to enjoy it with me.

love,
maggie