pleasure – Live & Learn

Being lost to time, alone

November 2, 2014 by Live & Learn 19 Comments

I woke this morning thinking about a friend who died three years ago of cancer of the brain. She spent her last months reading books, packing her painfully swollen head with words that she would soon be taking into silence. From under her turban her blue eyes shone. I thought it peculiar that she would use up what little time she had left on learning, that she didn’t want to be outside in the last of her seasons, an autumn and a winter, the cheerful yellow leaves, the immaculate snow, but I had forgotten— how could I have forgotten?— how much pleasure there is in being lost to time, alone with a book.

~ Ted Kooser, November. The Wheeling Year: A Poet’s Field Book

Photograph Source: Danielle Nelson

Filed Under: Books, Inspire, Life, Photography, Poetry, Quotes Tagged With: alone, Book, Cancer, Gratitude, Inspirational, Photography, pleasure, Poem, Poetry, Quotes, Reading, solitude, Ted Kooser

Lurching. Lurching. Lurching.

September 30, 2014 by Live & Learn 16 Comments

This Believer of Convenience warily tiptoed into Sam Harris’ new book titled Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. I’m a 1/3 of the way in. He’s managed to settle under my skin, burrowing into my consciousness. I’m deeply ambivalent about the message. The polarity of my emotions is stark – it’s as if I’m split in two. I drift in and out of darkness and I find myself empty in my quiet moments of contemplation. I’m certain that this wasn’t Sam’s objective with his Guide. Yet I find it impossible to disagree with certain messages, such as yesterday’s post titled Carpe Momento. And another this morning which I’m sharing below. I’m leaning heavily on F. Scott Fitzgerald to function: “The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function” – – as I need to function, I need to function. Here’s Sam Harris with another one of his “pow, right in the kisser” messages to me:
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: acceptance, consciousness, God, Pain, Peace, pleasure, Quotes, Religion, Sam Harris, spirituality, Success, want, wrong, yearn

My escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant

August 29, 2014 by Live & Learn 17 Comments

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head.

― Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies ( Picador, 2006)

Credits: Image – youreyesblazeout. Quote: Journey of Words

Filed Under: Inspire, Life, Photography, Quotes Tagged With: Book, Books, comfort, escape, Inspirational, Paul Auster, Photography, pleasure, quiet, read, Reading, still, stillness, stimulant, words

The tick-tick-tick

July 4, 2014 by Live & Learn 9 Comments

How can this human life
be anything other than astonishing?
The tick-tick-tick of pleasure’s ignition

~ Sigman Byrd, “The Beginner”

Credits:

Photograph: Jayesh Modha, Fireworks photo taken on July 4, 2013 at Coeur D’ Alene Lake, Spokane, WA
Poem Source: Sensual Starfish
Sigman Byrd website and bio and book: Under the Wanderer’s Star.

Filed Under: Inspire, Life, Lit, Photography, Poetry, Quotes Tagged With: astonishing, Fireworks, Gratitude, ignition, Inspirational, Life, Miracle, Photography, pleasure, Poem, Poetry, Quotes, Sigman Byrd

Bang our very bones to roust our own souls

June 12, 2014 by Live & Learn 22 Comments

Unless we learn to let experience play upon our inner lives as on a finely tuned instrument, we will try to manufacture inner intensity from the outside, we will bang our very bones to roust our own souls. We crave radical ruptures when we have allowed the nerves of our inner lives to go numb. But after those ruptures— the excitement or the tragedy, the pleasure or the pain— the mind returns to what it was, the soul quicksilvers off from the pierce of experience, and the kingdom of boredom…begins the clock-tick toward its next collapse.

~ Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer

Photograph: Beza17

Filed Under: Grow, Inspire, Life, Photography, Poetry, Quotes Tagged With: acceptance, bones, Christian Wiman, flow, inner, inspiration, Pain, Peace, Photography, pleasure, Quotes, souls, tattoo

Believe this may be undershooting

May 15, 2014 by Live & Learn 38 Comments

Ham & Cheese Omelette
Bagel w Cream Cheese
Cheesy scrambled eggs
Cheesy quiche
Cheddar Cheese Scones
Cheese croissant
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Triple Cheese Pizza
Macaroni & Cheese
Cheeseburger
Crackers & Cheese
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
Cheesy Broccoli & Cheddar Soup
Cheesy Lasagna
Parmesan cheese on all things pasta

I need to get something to eat…

Source: Living in Maine

Filed Under: Life, Quotes Tagged With: bake, bliss, cheese, cook, eat, Food, Funny, hungry, joy, pleasure, Quotes, true

Pleasures

January 24, 2014 by Live & Learn 15 Comments

The first look out of the window in the morning
The old book found again
Enthusiastic faces
Snow, the change of the seasons
The newspaper
The dog
Dialectics
Taking showers, swimming
Old music
Comfortable shoes
Taking things in
New music
Writing, planting
Travelling
Singing
Being friendly.

~ Bertolt Brecht, “Pleasures”

Sources/References:

Bertolt Brecht Bio
Photograph: Melanie Lawson via Mythology of Blue.
Poem: Thank you Schonwieder. .

Filed Under: Lit, Photography, Poetry, Quotes Tagged With: Bertolt Brecht, Book, Gratitude, moments, Peace, Photography, pleasure, Poem, Poetry, Quotes, Reading

If only for a second

December 16, 2013 by Live & Learn 46 Comments

20 cancer patients participated in a unique makeover experience. They were invited to a studio. Their hair and makeup were completely redone. Here’s the outcome.