A new look

So you can see what I've been busy with today.

It was a rainy afternoon, so I started messing around on the computer, and finally got around to finishing a redesign I started awhile back. The maze symbol is a Hopi symbol representing the rebirth from one world to another. I first came across it about 15 years ago, reading Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon, his account of a cross-country trip where he avoided major highways, following those roads that appeared on the maps as blue lines. In Utah, he met a Hopi college student, and explains the maze like this:

It's lines represent the course a person follows on his "road of life" as he passes through birth, death, rebirth. Human existence is essentially a series of journeys, and the emergence symbol is a kind of map of the wandering soul, an image in process; but is also, like most Hopi symbols and ceremonies, a reminder of cosmic patterns that all human beings move in.

I guess it just struck me at the time because I was trying to figure out who I was and realizing what a twisted journey life can be. So when the book jacket slipped off and I saw the embossed maze on the cover underneath, I grabbed a piece of paper and made a pencil rubbing. I've kept that all these years, pinned to a bulletin board, and thought it would make a great symbol to go along with the blog title. A little bit of Photoshop work, and it's a nice graphic element.

Anyway, that's the new look.

Today is Independence Day in the U.S., and I've just been relishing my independence from work today, doing not much of anything. Well, I did throw in a load of laundry, and worked a bit in the garden before it started raining. Dad was going to come over for grilled hot dogs and then a trip into town to see the big fireworks show, but he wasn't feeling well this afternoon. So I made myself a hotdog dinner, worked on the blog some more and listened to all the fireworks going off around the neighborhood. I'm not sure I'll go into town for the show. There's a heck of a lot of traffic to deal with, and I do have to work tomorrow. Sounds like there will be quite a show here anyway, so I'll probably just sit out in the yard and watch.

Happy Fourth, everyone!