Stick with it to the end…
Riding Metro North. One Car Short.
December 8, 2017 by 51 Comments
Thursday morning.
33°F. Feels like 23°F.
Out the door at 4:50 am to catch the 5:01.
Dark.
Directly across the street: new Neighbors. Young and DINK. First things first. No curtains up, yet bright, white lights were carefully hand strung and evenly distributed across their bushes. The evergreens throw shadows on the front door. I pause. What was that? That softening, that load lightening ever so slightly. ‘Tis the season.
I board train. No open seats. At 5:01 a.m.? Conductor announces that the train is one car short and apologizes. $15.25 for a one-way Peak ticket to Grand Central (Yes, Peak at 5:01 am.) $15.25 and you get the privilege of standing. And standing for 55 minutes. Sigh.
I stand in the aisle, as the vestibule overflows with commuters. I set my bag down between my legs, grab the seat support, being careful not to brush against the passenger sitting in the seat. I hover over him. He feels it. Nobody likes this.
We’re five minutes into the commute. I’m restless. I’m tired. I’m anxious. I’m not going to make it. [Read more…]
T.G.I.F.
September 22, 2017 by 22 Comments
T.G.I.F.
September 15, 2017 by 17 Comments
So I say to you.
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:
Like a tiny drop of dew,
or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.
— Buddha, from the Diamond Sūtra
Notes:
- Diamond Sūtra: “A copy of the Chinese version of Diamond Sūtra, found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century by Aurel Stein, was dated back to 11 May 868. It is, in the words of the British Library, “the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book.” (Source: Wiki)
- Photo (via Your Eyes Blaze Out)
How to describe the way these two waves of reality, the world and dreams, meet, do battle
July 30, 2017 by 18 Comments
How to describe the way these two waves of reality, the world and dreams, meet, do battle, fail to reach agreement, conclude short-lived treaties that are immediately broken, how at dawn they stare at one another incomprehendingly, begin to build bridges again by evening, and then once more turn furiously upon each other, with a passion mixing love and hate, and afterward, drift to sleep by the side of a highway leading nowhere, on an embankment where weeds grow with their heady scent.
~ Adam Zagajewski, Slight Exaggeration: An Essay (April 4, 2017)
Notes:
- Photo by gosia janik (Madrid, Spain) with Dreams @ Gosia & Fernando
- Related Posts: Adam Zagajewski
Riding Metro North. Est-ce-réel?
July 28, 2017 by 34 Comments
It came Monday afternoon, an Amazon order. Tall, soft and plastic, the kind that you would see end up with other marine debris choking the life out of Nemo in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Calm is stenciled in 80 point font on the cylindrical container. “Natural Vitality Natural Calm Calmful Sleep Magnesium Anti Stress Extra Sleep Support, Organic, Wildberry, 16 oz.”
Bullsh*t. No chance this works but desperate people need to take desperate…
“Natural Vitality Natural Calm Calmful.”
Seriously? Really? Who writes their copy? What idiot would buy something with this lead?
I yank off the seal, tilt, then look down inside. The soft, white pillowy substance slides to one side and then the other. Contents may settle. Product sold by weight not volume“. It has settled below the half way mark. $28.49. Bullsh$t. Shysters. At least get it above halfway. [Read more…]
Lightly child, lightly.
June 15, 2017 by 18 Comments
Notes:
- Quote Source: Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (via Hidden Sanctuary)
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- 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.
May 11, 2017 by 9 Comments
But words light up in the head
To take their deep place in the darkness,
Arcing quickly from image to image
Like mica catching the sun.
~ James Dickey, from “A Letter,” Falling, May Day Sermon, and Other Poems
Notes:
- Quote Source: Memory’s Landscape. Photo: Philippe conquet
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- 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.”
It’s been a long day
May 9, 2017 by 22 Comments
People who dream when they sleep at night know of a special kind of happiness which the world of the day holds not, a placid ecstasy, and ease of heart, that are like honey on the tongue.
~ Isak Dinesen, from Out of Africa
Notes:
- Photo: Steve McCurry’s Blog with the Art of Friendship – boy sleeping with cow in Katmandu Nepal. (thank you Horty!)
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
Lightly child, lightly.
April 27, 2017 by 37 Comments
In a dream I am walking joyfully up the mountain. Something breaks and falls away, and all is light. Nothing has changed, yet all is amazing, luminescent, free. Released at last, I rise into the sky … This dream comes often. Sometimes I run, then lift up like a kite, high above earth, and always I sail transcendent for a time before awaking. I choose to awake, for fear of falling, yet such dreams tell me that I am a part of things, if only I would let go, and keep on going. “Do not be heavy,” Soen Roshi says. “Be light, light, light – full of light!”
– Peter Matthiessen, from The Snow Leopard
Notes:
- Quote Source: Thank you WhiskeyRiver. Photo: Philippe conquet
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- 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.”
