Thursday, May 31, 2012
Passage
by John Brehm
In all the woods that day I was
the only living thing
fretful, exhausted, or unsure.
Giant fir and spruce and cedar trees
that had stood their ground
three hundred years
stretched in sunlight calmly
unimpressed by whatever
it was that held me
hunched and tense above the stream,
biting my nails, calculating all
my impossibilities.
Nor did the water pause
to reflect or enter into
my considerations.
It found its way
over and around a crowd
of rocks in easy flourishes,
in laughing evasions and
shifts in direction.
Nothing could slow it down for long.
It even made a little song
out of all the things
that got in its way,
a music against the hard edges
of whatever might interrupt its going.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Excerpts from "How to be Perfect"
by Ron Padgett
Get some sleep.
Eat an orange every morning.
Be friendly. It will help make you happy.
Hope for everything. Expect nothing.
Take care of things close to home first. Straighten up your room
before you save the world. Then save the world.
Be nice to people before they have a chance to behave badly.
Don't stay angry about anything for more than a week, but don't
forget what made you angry. Hold your anger out at arm's length
and look at it, as if it were a glass ball. Then add it to your glass
ball collection.
Wear comfortable shoes.
Do not spend too much time with large groups of people.
Plan your day so you never have to rush.
Show your appreciation to people who do things for you, even if
you have paid them, even if they do favors you don't want.
After dinner, wash the dishes.
Calm down.
Don't expect your children to love you, so they can, if they want
to.
Don't be too self-critical or too self-congratulatory.
Don't think that progress exists. It doesn't.
Imagine what you would like to see happen, and then don't do
anything to make it impossible.
Forgive your country every once in a while. If that is not
possible, go to another one.
If you feel tired, rest.
Don't be depressed about growing older. It will make you feel
even older. Which is depressing.
Do one thing at a time.
If you burn your finger, put ice on it immediately. If you bang
your finger with a hammer, hold your hand in the air for 20
minutes. you will be surprised by the curative powers of ice and
gravity.
Do not inhale smoke.
Take a deep breath.
Do not smart off to a policeman.
Be good.
Be honest with yourself, diplomatic with others.
Do not go crazy a lot. It's a waste of time.
Drink plenty of water. When asked what you would like to
drink, say, "Water, please."
Take out the trash.
Love life.
Use exact change.
When there's shooting in the street, don't go near the window.
Quote of the Day
“Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round – remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.”
- James Corbett
- James Corbett
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
I'm Going to Make This Place Your Home
I love the idea of this song from a parent to their special needs kiddo:
http://youtu.be/bfRya-P4ffk
Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
http://youtu.be/bfRya-P4ffk
Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Settle down, it'll all be clear
Don't pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Quote of the Day
"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, May 28, 2012
Letter Home
I love you forever
my father's letter tells her
for forty-nine pages,
from the troopship crossing the Atlantic
before they'd ever heard of Anzio.
He misses her, the letter says,
counting out days of boredom, seasickness,
and changing weather,
poker games played for matches
when cash and cigarettes ran out,
a Red Cross package—soap,
cards, a mystery book he traded away
for The Rubaiyyat a bunkmate didn't want.
He stood night watch and thought
of her. Don't forget the payment
for insurance, he says.
My mother waits at home with me,
waits for the letter he writes day by day
moving farther across the ravenous ocean.
She will get it in three months and
her fingers will smooth the Army stationery
to suede.
He will come home, stand
beside her in the photograph, leaning
on crutches, holding
me against the rough wool
of his jacket. He will sit
alone and listen to Aïda
and they will pick up their
interrupted lives. Years later,
she will show her grandchildren
a yellow envelope with
forty-nine wilted pages telling her
of shimmering sequins on the water,
the moonlight catching sudden phosphorescence,
the churned wake that stretched a silver trail.
my father's letter tells her
for forty-nine pages,
from the troopship crossing the Atlantic
before they'd ever heard of Anzio.
He misses her, the letter says,
counting out days of boredom, seasickness,
and changing weather,
poker games played for matches
when cash and cigarettes ran out,
a Red Cross package—soap,
cards, a mystery book he traded away
for The Rubaiyyat a bunkmate didn't want.
He stood night watch and thought
of her. Don't forget the payment
for insurance, he says.
My mother waits at home with me,
waits for the letter he writes day by day
moving farther across the ravenous ocean.
She will get it in three months and
her fingers will smooth the Army stationery
to suede.
He will come home, stand
beside her in the photograph, leaning
on crutches, holding
me against the rough wool
of his jacket. He will sit
alone and listen to Aïda
and they will pick up their
interrupted lives. Years later,
she will show her grandchildren
a yellow envelope with
forty-nine wilted pages telling her
of shimmering sequins on the water,
the moonlight catching sudden phosphorescence,
the churned wake that stretched a silver trail.
The Joke That Got No Laughs
by Hal Sirowitz
You should have enough courtesy
to laugh after I tell a joke, Father said,
even if you don't find it funny.
You might find it funny later.
It's like you're giving me
your laughter in advance. You
shouldn't be asking me to tell you
where the punch line was. It's
always at the end & my joke
was no exception. I apologize if I
didn't tell it as well as I had heard it.
Or maybe it was the audience
that was at fault. You just didn't
get it. It might have been too low brow.
Maybe I should just find another family
to tell it to. I chose mine because
of the convenience. But I might have
done better if I had told it next door.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Quote of the Day
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
- Herm Albright
- Herm Albright
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Quote of the Day
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
- Mark Twain
- Mark Twain
Friday, May 25, 2012
Quote of the Day
For many of us the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for money, but in our fear--fear of insecurity.
- CS Lewis
- CS Lewis
Takin' it to the Net
This past weekend we had the opportunity to go see our friend, Anthony Lara, play in a tennis tournament.
We caught Anthony's final match-up that went a grueling 3+ hours straight.
Annie was glued for a good portion of the time.
As is becoming more and more common at these events, we ran into people we know like our friend, Devin Eshelman, who played in the tournament the day before.
Of course Annie wanted to get in on the action. Here I am holding her back while she yells at me in protest.
So we compromised with a game of catch.
Anthony ended up placing second in the singles tournament and loaned Annie his trophy to take home as inspiration. What a guy!
Dreaming of future tournaments . . . .
In A Dark Time
by Theodore Roethke
In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood—
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks—is it a cave,
Or a winding path? The edge is what I have.
A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is—
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.
Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Quote of the Day
"Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by decrease in bitterness"
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
People Who Live
by Erica Jong
People who live by the sea
understand eternity.
They copy the curves of the waves,
their hearts beat with the tides,
& the saltiness of their blood
corresponds with the sea.
They know that the house of flesh
is only a sandcastle
built on the shore,
that skin breaks
under the waves
like sand under the soles
of the first walker on the beach
when the tide recedes.
Each of us walks there once,
watching the bubbles
rise up through the sand
like ascending souls,
tracing the line of the foam,
drawing our index fingers
along the horizon
pointing home.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Quote of the Day
"Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds."
- Benjamin Disraeli
Monday, May 14, 2012
Wherever You Are
by Jeffrey Harrison
When I kissed you in the hall
of the youth hostel we fell
into the linen closet laughing
twenty years ago and I still
remember though not very often
the taste of cheap wine in your mouth
like raspberries the freckle
between your breasts and the next day
when we went to Versailles I hardly
saw anything because I was looking
at you the whole time your face I can't
quite remember then I kissed you
good-bye and you got on a train
and I never saw you again just
one day and one letter long gone
explaining never mind but sometimes
I wonder where you are probably
married with children like me happy
with a new last name a whole life
having nothing to do with that day
but everybody has something like it
a small thing they can't help
going back to and it's not even about
choices and where your life might
have gone but just that it's there
far enough away so it can be seen
as just something that happened almost
to someone else an episode from
a movie we walk out of blinded
back into our lives
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Quote of the Day
You can never do a kindness to soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Quote of the Day
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
-Chinese Proverb
-Chinese Proverb
Quote of the Day
“Oh, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”
- George Eliot
- George Eliot
Monday, May 7, 2012
Quote of the Day
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
- Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Quote of the Day
"The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
- Benjamin Franklin
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Quote of the Day
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness."
- Seneca
- Seneca
Quote of the Day
"The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down."
- T S Eliot
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Quote of the Day
Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side.
- CS Lewis
- CS Lewis
Friday, May 4, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Quote of the Day
A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to Hell than a prostitute.
- CS Lewis
- CS Lewis
Quote of the Day
I have learned that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more
- CS Lewis
- CS Lewis
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Quote of the Day
"Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?"
- John Keats
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