Sep 05

Library 2.0 Toe in the Water

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Just as recently as three months ago I was writing about my non-techie foray into understanding RSS and some Firefox add-ons recommended within my virtual circle of blogging friends. Since two months ago, my job now is fully involved with working the Information Desk and trying to take a crash course in the world of 2.0. Each day I learn a little more and while I have yet to start leaving comments, I’m finding it immensely helpful to learn from reading other librarian blogs such as Free Range Librarian, The Shifted Librarian and The Other Librarian.

My current favorites on my newbie 2.0 toes in the water include:

I must be at least skimming the surface with my Flickr badge, Twitter, MyBlogLog, and Library Thing on my brand new WordPress blog. I truly enjoy dabbling in these kinds of content and social networking. As the town I work in struggles to balance their budget and the library is eye-to-eye with the proverbial chopping block, my personal goal is to seize the 2.0 day and strive to inject a modern relevance of content in this changing world for libraries.

Sep 04

Touching on the Tagline – girl on a road

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Rainbow on Bike Path - Photo by Sharani
Rainbow on Bike Path - Photo by Sharani

I have given this blog the tagline “girl on a road” and thought a slight word of explanation might be timely while the blog is new. As is true with many of us, you could say that I have been traveling on a road figuratively and literally for some time now. Viewing the horizon of life through this lens came into focus when my meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy offered me the spiritual name “Sharani” which is the literal word for road in Bengali. I surmised that it was not a coincidence that shortly before receiving this name I had written a poem that ended in the stanza:

God for God’s Sake
Mantra breath
No other road
to ignorance death

The figurative aspect of the road travel lies in the context of journeying on a spiritual community or “path” for the last twenty odd years as a student of meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy. I find it fosters unfolding hopes and dreams to become a kinder inhabitant of the planet and a closer friend to God found inside myself and in the world around me.

The literal part lies in the fact that I have also been a girl actually on the road if I stop to ponder some of my far-flung travels and sharing of cultures across the globe. I love to take pictures when on the road and my travel diaries include places such as Singapore, Turkey, England, Bali, Scotland, Malaysia, Paris, Java, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Hawaii and climes closer to home such as Seattle, Chicago, Arizona, Martha’s Vineyard, California, Victoria and Vancouver.

Ferron – called the female Bob Dylan by some and “cowgirl meets Yeats…a thing of beauty” by Rolling Stone – is one of my favorite folksingers and some of the lyrics to her song “Girl on a Road” are calling out to me in this blog post. Just this excerpt alone shows the serious poetry in her lyrics. She is emphatically one of Canada’s crown jewels of folk singing.

I don’t know what it’s like for you but here’s what it’s like for me… I wanted to turn beautiful and serve Eternity and never follow money or love with greasy hands, or move the earth and waters just to make it fit my plans. My eyes would be the harbor, my words the perfect place for a girl on a road…

I did my best to follow the calling of my soul. But, it’s like that first guitar I played…at the center is a hole, at the center is a…longing… that I cannot understand as a girl on a road…

But if music be a boulder, let me carry it a long while. Let it turn into a feather, let it brush against my smile. Let the life be somewhat settled with the life that song has made. Let there be nothing I am longing for in some plan I may have made, in some story quickly written during a long forgotten time as a girl on a road.
Ferron “Girl on a Road” c1994

Sep 02

Another Reason to Love Rhode Island

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Jamestown RI Sunset - Photo by Sharani
Jamestown RI Sunset - Photo by Sharani

I was looking for a fun outing with a friend of mine from the Sri Chinmoy Centre for the beginning of Labor Day weekend. Living in New England near beautiful vacation destinations such as Newport, Rhode Island and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, we decided against going to some of these familiar haunts. We feared that many others might be trying to enjoy the last weekend of summer before school starts by going to the beach or other popular locations. A day trip to Boston also beckoned but with colleges on the verge of beginning it seemed foolish to go anywhere near Harvard Square, etc.

She asked where I had taken my parents whenever they came to visit from Michigan and Arizona. I thought of Jamestown – a small island between the southern Rhode Island coast and Newport. I said let’s go to Wickford first and then bring a picnic dinner to eat at the Beavertail Lighthouse and Park in Jamestown. Spontaneously I added, “let’s watch the sun set at the lighthouse.”

My friend had never been to Jamestown or the lighthouse and it had been a while since she had visited Wickford so our itinerary was set. Before we knew it, a short half hour drive brought us to Wickford, a town on the ocean’s coast with all the charm and flavor of Martha’s Vineyard or Bristol with many houses bearing historic plaques dating them back to the early 1800′s and cottage gardens spilling over with flowers.

Monarch on Flower - Photo by Sharani
Monarch on Flower - Photo by Sharani

Because I am in seventh heaven when photographing the likes of flowers, butterflies and other aspects of nature, my friend quickly lost me to paparazzi mode in front of a delightful cottage garden of flowers. Then further down the road I encountered a monarch butterfly and bumblebees and finally had to ring my companion up on my mobile phone so she would know where I was – crouched over in front of the monarch for at least 20 minutes.

Once we hooked back up, I finally switched into shopping mode and couldn’t resist some of the sale items at Green Ink where they sell a wonderful line of comfortable linen clothes called “Flax”. I bought this wonderful jacket and after we got frozen hot chocolate drinks at Wickford Gourmet (their brownie was featured on Rachael Ray’s cooking show on television) we were finally ready to drive to the Beavertail Lighthouse.

Beavertail Lighthouse, RI - Photo by Sharani
Beavertail Lighthouse, RI - Photo by Sharani

When we arrived at the lighthouse and its surrounding park, we joined others who had the same idea. People were perched on portable camping chairs and many had their cameras out. As the time for sunset approached, people arrived in droves and sat facing the horizon across the bay where the sun would bid farewell to the day. Most left as soon as it set. When I said let’s watch the sun set in Jamestown at the lighthouse, I was only guessing that this might be a picture perfect spot for a sunset. Boy was my intuition right about that!

We headed home shortly after night fell and marveled that yet again a treasure chest of delights awaits the explorer in the wonderful state of Rhode Island.