Breathing, walking, having real hair.
Just look at us.
~ Rachel Khong, Goodbye, Vitamin: A Novel
Photo: Patty Maher
Tag: alive
Happy New Year!
Take a breath…
Don’t swallow the sun
The moon isn’t bright enough…
I promise I’ll be a better person this time next year.
If you’re reading this…
Congratulations, you’re alive.
If that’s not something to smile about, then I don’t know what is.
― Chad Sugg, from “Swallow the Sun” in Monsters Under Your Head
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you Julian in his post “Stop. And Focus” @ juliansummerhayes.com
- Photo: Henrik Purienneh (via ninipoppins)
- Post inspired by: “I am grateful for what I am & have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence.” ~ Henry David Thoreau, The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau: Volume 2 1849-1856
- And inspired by this Haiku: “new year’s eve – / in the echo of fog horns / another voyage starts” ~ Keiko Izawa (via Lit Verve)
Sunday Morning
It’s enough just to listen to music, to keep asking questions for which there are no answers, to remember paintings seen in a museum, to note the earth’s quiet at dusk, birds’ voices in May, to shiver at the thought that they’re alive, that the gleam of each new dawn is an endless promise.
~ Adam Zagajewski, Slight Exaggeration: An Essay (April 4, 2017)
Notes:
- Art: “Bird of Joy” by Brazilian street artist Luis Seven Martins L7M. (via YourEyesBlazeOut)
- Related Posts: Adam Zagajewski
Should? Must is different.
When we choose Should, we’re choosing to live our life for someone or something other than ourselves. The journey to Should can be smooth, the rewards can seem clear, and the options are often plentiful.
Must is different. Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. It’s that which calls to us most deeply. It’s our convictions, our passions, our deepest held urges and desires — unavoidable, undeniable, and inexplicable. Unlike Should, Must doesn’t accept compromises.
Must is when we stop conforming to other people’s ideals and start connecting to our own — and this allows us to cultivate our full potential as individuals. To choose Must is to say yes to hard work and constant effort, to say yes to a journey without a road map or guarantees, and in so doing, to say yes to what Joseph Campbell called “the experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
Choosing Must is the greatest thing we can do with our lives.
~ Elle Luna, The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion
Source: Brain Pickings, The Crossroads of Should and Must
Good Friday
I woke up in the morning
and I didn’t want anything,
didn’t do anything,
couldn’t do it anyway,
just lay there listening
to the blood rush through me
and it never made any sense, anything.
~ Richard Siken, excerpt from Straw House, Straw Dog from Crush.
Source: To escape from the commonplace of existence. Photo: Laura Schaeffer via eikadan