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It’s been a long day

September 18, 2019 by 31 Comments

I remember, I remember … I closed my eyes. Eyelids are really just flesh curtains. Your eyes are always “on,” always looking; when you close them, you’re watching the thin, veined skin of your inner eyelid rather than staring out at the world. It’s not a comforting thought. In fact, if I thought about it for long enough, I’d probably want to pluck out my own eyes, to stop looking, to stop seeing all the time. The things I’ve seen cannot be unseen. The things I’ve done cannot be undone.

~ Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

Photo: Mulholland Dr. 2001 (Naomi Watts) via i wanna see your eyes.  Related Posts: It’s been a long day

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It’s been a long day

August 22, 2019 by 25 Comments

Welcome to the world of reality — there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth — actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested… True heroism is you, alone, in a designated work space. True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care — with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.

— David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

 

Photo by patty maher.  Quote: Thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels. Related Posts: It’s been a long day

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Lightly child, lightly

August 1, 2019 by 13 Comments


Often I imagine the earth
through the eyes of the atoms we’re made of—
atoms, peculiar
atoms everywhere—
no me, no you, no opinions,
no beginning, no middle, no end,
soaring together like those
ancient Chinese birds
hatched miraculously with only one wing,
helping each other fly home.

~ Dan Gerber, “Often I Imagine the Earth” in Sailing through Cassiopeia

Notes:

  • Poem – thank you The Hammock Papers.  Photo: Curtis Moffat Study, Woman Sleeping (CA. 1920) via see more
  • 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.”
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It’s been a long day

July 25, 2019 by 22 Comments

Someone’s life,

their attainments

(forgetting that nine-tenths of it is lived on the inside)…

~ A. K. Benjamin, Let Me Not Be Mad: My Story of Unraveling Mind (Dutton, June 11, 2019)

Photo by Jamie Schafer via (aberrant beauty).  Related Posts: It’s been a long day

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Lightly child, lightly

July 25, 2019 by 18 Comments

i will wade out

till my thighs are steeped in burning flowers
I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air

Alive
with closed eyes
to dash against darkness
in the sleeping curves of my body

~ e. e. cummings, from “Crepuscule” in Dreams in the Mirror: A Biography of E.E. Cummings by Richard S. Kennedy

Notes:

  • Poem – thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels.  Photo credit.
  • 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.”
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It’s been a long day

June 5, 2019 by 25 Comments

“I surrender,” I said, first under my breath. Then again, a little louder, “I surrender.” I saw a bird, and another one. Objectively, I was in a beautiful place. Objectively, my body had been strong enough to take me out here. It was the subjectivity, the comparison with where I thought I should be, that hurt. “I surrender.” I didn’t need an answer. I just needed to breathe. To, once again, find meaning in the simplest moments.

~ Eva Hagberg Fisher, How to Be Loved: A Memoir of Lifesaving Friendship. (HMH Books. February 4, 2019)

Notes: Photo by Alexandra C. Axelina via EyeEM (via Mennyfox55).  Related Posts: It’s been a long day

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Driving I-95 N. Above the World.

May 23, 2019 by 18 Comments

Step out of the office. 15 hours and counting…

A slow walk down an empty hallway,

and a slower walk to an empty garage.

Ride home.

8:15 pm, cruising up I-95 North.

Traffic, frictionless.

Waze est. of travel time: 23 minutes.

David Crosby, “Carry Me” is on repeat.

Carry me, carry me
Carry me above the world
Carry me, carry me, carry me.

Waze: 10 minutes to Home.

Body races ahead

and eases into bed

slides under the covers

sheets, fresh, cool

seconds drip, unhurried

in ether, adrift, rising

above the world

Home, Home at last.

Notes:

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It’s been a long day

March 20, 2019 by 13 Comments

I am only a little better at giving in than I used to be,
at slowing down,
at sitting still.

But progress is progress.

~ Pam Houston, Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country 

 

Notes:

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It’s been a long day

March 5, 2019 by 15 Comments

 

Why all this huffing and puffing,

as though you were carrying a big drum

and searching for a lost child.

~ Chuang Tzu, (369 BC – 286 BC) from The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu Translated by Burton Watson

Notes:

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It’s been a long day

February 26, 2019 by 30 Comments

I remembered the fearless, confident boy I used to be back then…I didn’t miss him. I only, sometimes, missed the high spirits that often used to seize me when I was ten. Would there ever be an event in my life that would catapult me back into that ecstatic, silly lightheartedness, even if only for a moment?

~ Benedict Wells, The End of Loneliness: A Novel (Penguin Books, January 29, 2019)

Notes:

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