winter

{ via }

shit girls say.

spot on.

my so called life.

pumpkin spice latte

ahh fall.

brand new day

Used to love this song....lost it...re-found it.
So nice:)

road not taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

alive

Sometimes I forget I'm alive,
but then the air,
laps at my face;
stings the wet.

And it's a beautiful feeling
remembering all the hope,
all the emotions
so near your, always.

something beautiful

the giving tree.

via.

I feel ya.

forever open

sure

though my ears are numb

sure

face smashed to the glass

sure

eyes set straight.

not much to count on,

not much to hold.

anything assured

tries to slip away

be sure

face determined

sure

all unspoken

sure

now forever open.

cotton fields.

Such a fascinating plant.

everyday people

I am no better and neither are you
We're all the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me
You know me and then
Still can't figure out the bag I'm in
I am everyday people

the habit of inferiority

taking time

I guess I've been thinking about this for a while, but *this* article really confirmed it.

My computer broke down for a bit and to be honest I wasn't too disappointed.

I had plans to get a typewriter and I even drove an hour away to see one

(that had already been purchased, sadly), but all in all it was actually quite

 liberating not having my laptop around me all the time.

I used the family computer, but without all my *favorited websites and

 pictures to fiddle around with I didn't linger as much as I usually do.

So, now that I have my laptop back I'm....well I don't quite know.

I'm glad (because the screen is much bigger), but also I realize how much time I spend with it.

The addition of Pinterest to my life has  made everything different as well.

I notice it with myself and with others, that we feel like we have to be constantly entertained.

Whether it's our phones with internet, or checking updates from people it just seems over-kill after a while.

I don't feel like I have to go to the extreme of completely removing myself from this technology-filled world,

but I do feel like I have to be constantly aware of my time.

It's one of those things that you don't usually think about until it's gone...

until you've spent an hour or two on the internet and realize that you really didn't do anything.

It's such a hard balance, keeping up with what's going on and trends in whatever circles you follow,

and then just living as well.

If we don't put in the effort to make sure we're present in each moment, then we'll regret it;

we'll regret decisions we made and then at some point it will become a life of regret.

Hopefully not to this point:

"I would prefer to be able to say: 'I am satiated, 
what is given to taste in this life, I have tasted.'
But I am like someone in a window who draws aside a curtain
To look at a feast he does not comprehend."

Czeslaw Milosv (A New Province)

stranger/home

where are you stranger

where are you home.

are they different

or just when alone.

the smell of the grass

and the light on this page

what do they say

of lost and unafraid.

trite to look in

or better to search.

only one Divine

sometimes too close for words.

wait for the moment

when the leaves define the clear.

make sure you listen

sounds drifting in the air.

tree-time.

{ via }

we go together like..

{ via }

wisdom

Wisdom cries out in the street;

in the squares she raises her voice

At the busiest corner she cries out;

at the entrance of the city gate she speaks:

"How long, O simple ones,

will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers

delight in their coffing

and fools hate knowledge?

Proverbs 1:20-22

9/11

one of the scariest/heart-breaking pictures from that day..

aging

"Old age and aging is a time of great gathering and sifting and reaping the rewards of forgotten 

and neglected experience. This is possible for everyone..

Contemporary society worships youth, it worships strength, it worships image; it has a whole ideology 

of externality and it has no refined sense of the subtlety of the soul, the secrecy of the heart and 

 especially it has no sensitivity of these interim regions where the great gatherings happen in human life."

john o'donohue

Been thinking on this..

hating the fact that I subscribe to contemporary thinking a lot of times.

But it's always bothered me the way older generations are treated,

and the way that they're dismissed so often as not having value or a worthy opinion.

Most of the time I think it's just because their opinion is full of the wisdom that's gained and not just found,

which in turn makes those who desire it jealous and sometimes apt to making the wiser feel silly with dismissal.

But also I think that people don't want to take time with someone who they 

don't feel will tell them exactly what they want to hear.

People don't want to hear what wisdom would say in their decisions; 

they only want justification to keep doing the things they are doing and progress from there.

It's just sad then that the people who could be helping you grow 

and have a fuller view of life are cast off like nothing.

sunday.

book review of anna karenina.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Coming into this book with really no knowledge of what it was about, or much about Russian literature in general, I was extremely surprised and happy about how much I enjoyed it.

There are many story lines going on and at some points they don't quite seem to line up, but the brilliance of it all is how they come together in the end. The contrast of the two relationships, the meaning in which both couples take their lives, and life in general just makes this book so easy to relate to.

What is most impressive about this book is the subtlety in which the meaning is written, which is why it is so long, but Tolstoy is still able to establish such a profound impact from seemingly abstract details of day-to-day lives.


View all my reviews



This really was a brilliant book; I would definitely recommend it.
I just wish there were more books so well thought out and thoroughly researched. You can't just read and few pages and figure it out because there's so much that goes on that you couldn't account for. It just makes it all seem so much more real, because that is more how life is. Not just a story written in a day, from one point of view and with one meaning or gem or wisdom.

where o where

not how it seems.

When I got enough confidence, the stage was gone.
When I was sure of losing, I won.
When I needed people the most, they left me.
When I learned to dry my tears, I found a shoulder to cry on.
And when I mastered the skill of hating, somebody started loving me.

This is life.

-anon.

with feist

when isn't her voice beautiful?

little things.

"i still get wildly enthusiastic about little things...

i play with leaves. i skip down the street and run against the wind." 

leo buscaglia.

law/virtues

a bit of my morning reading today.

..sometimes its just nice to be reminded of the things we already know, or thought we knew..

This means a few things to me..

the law, νόμος, as in the binding command passed from generation to generation, 

rule producing a state approved of by God,

the Mosaic law..

This use of law is very black and white

what is written in the Old Testament,

and there doesn't really seem to be much freedom in it.

But Jesus' law,

the "laws" that Jesus passed to us,

how to live our lives in love towards others,

they're much freer and full of life rather than seeming constricting.

This is not to say that the law was bad...Paul addresses that in the next verses as well..

He says that because of the law he understood sin and:

"It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin,

 and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure." 7:13

I really like how Marguerite Porete says it, in poetic form

Virtues, I take my leave of you forever,

I will possess a heart most free and gay; 

You service is too constant, you know well.

Once I placed my heart in you, retaining nothing;

You know that I was to you totally abandoned;

I was once a slave to you, but now am delivered from it.

I had placed my heart completely in you, you know well.

Thus I lived a while in great distress,

I suffered in many grave torments, many pains endured.

Miracle it is that I have somehow escaped alive.

This being so, I no longer care: I am parted from you,

For which I thank God on high; good fro me this day.

I am parted from you dominations, which so vexed me.

I was never more free, except as departed from you.

I am parted from you dominations, in peace I rest.

little things

.

time..

{via}

removed

I read a quote from someone that described me/my situation exactly...

And that's quite rare, most of the time you'll read something that resonates or is close to what you're thinking or feeling...but this was completely spot on.

She was talking about how she doesn't completely engage where she's at..with going different places, and knowing that she'll only be in one situation for a little while she doesn't commit to things one-hundred percent.

This is precisely my problem.

I don't know exactly what I'm going to do or how long I'll stay in one place, so I rarely put the "whole me" out there.

I guess it's a guarding tactic, but sometimes in the midst of doing this I know that I want to get to know people better. I know that I don't want to be distant; I'd rather them get to know the real me and vice-versa.

But there's also the conundrum of how to act in new situations when you're put off for acting how you normally would.

Not wanting to lose sleep or your mind seems to be unpopular...

Now, I'm quite introverted so it doesn't bug me too much, but every once in a while I want to feel like I'm not the "other one."

And...instead of blaming it on the situation, I know that I should be who I am and participate where I want to...not just when I'm feeling lonely or put-off...but just because I want to.

oh life.

{my computer. durbanville, south africa}

patience

I would love to live like a river flows,

carried by the surprise of its own unfolding

-John O'Donohue

Oh it sounds so wonderful...having patience, allowance, and forgiveness with yourself and your life.

But it really doesn't feel wonderful at all, it actually hurts to do what is most natural.

Another paradox, of course, that our lives should flow with the experiences that we have been given but not fretting over what could or might happen. We are, in a way, subject to the things that we can't control, by how we react.

just do it.

.

{susan sontag}

spontaneous song

.

talent.

michigan.

.

This is Michigan...

Did you know it looked like this?? Because I didn't, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

famous painting..redone modern style

{-aa.tumblr.com}

romantic vs. sentimental

"I'm not sentimental--I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know,

is that the sentimental person thinks things will last--the romantic 

person has a desperate confidence that they won't."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

question of the day:

why have my mom and I not done this yet...?

indian patterns.

via {honestly}

ridiculous.