Tag: Change

a certain forward-tilting sense of self—the feeling that we are still becoming

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Most of us alive today will survive into old age, and although that is a welcome development, the price of experiencing more life is sometimes experiencing less of it, too. So many losses routinely precede the final one now: loss of memory, mobility, autonomy, physical strength, intellectual aptitude, a longtime home, the kind of identity derived from vocation, whole habits of being, and perhaps above all a certain forward-tilting sense of self—the feeling that we are still becoming, that there are things left in this world we may yet do. It is possible to live a long life and experience very few of these changes, and it is possible to experience them all and find in them, or alongside them, meaning and gratitude. But for most of us, they will provoke, at one point or another, the usual gamut of emotions inspired by loss, from mild irritation to genuine grief.

— Kathryn Schulz, Lost & Found: A Memoir (‎Random House; January 11, 2022)

Notes:

Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

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December 29, 1941.

I’m at the age where I cease to reform my tastes:

I accept what I find—within—without shame.

— Patricia Highsmith, “Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995.″ Anna von Planta (Editor). (Liveright, November 16, 2021)

Notes:

  • Side Note: Patricia Highsmith was 20 years old when writing this in her diary entry. 20 years old! And here I am…still workin’ it…
  • New York Times: 9 New Books We Recommend This Week
  • Photo credit

Tuesday Morning Wake-Up Call

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There is a magnificent quiet that comes from giving up the regular order of your life.

— Ann Patchett, from “These Precious Days” in Harper’s Magazine, December 9, 2020

Take a moment to read the entire essay: “These Precious Days.” Long, but worthy. Patchett’s bestsellers include Bel Canto (2001) and The Dutch House (2019), The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2020.

Lightly Child, Lightly.

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You can never have too much sky.

You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad.

—Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street

Notes:

  • Photo: DK & Daybreak. Feb 11, 2020. 6:25 am. 21° F, feels like 14° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.
  • Quote: Thank you Beth @ [Alive On All Channels]
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

Lightly Child, Lightly.

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I looked at the photograph he had shown me, the shadowy ridged declivity in the blasted planetary surface…I felt change far beneath me, moving deep beneath the surface of things, like the plates of the earth blindly moving in their black traces.

— Rachel Cusk, Transit (Picador; December 19, 2017)

Notes:

  • Photo: DK. Daybreak. 6:10 am, February 3, 2021.  27° F., feels like 16° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”