longer days.

but the short ones are good, too.

Hurray for the Riff Raff

happy thursday, y'all

i just. i mean. it's just that. i love the beach boys.

Ear Candy: Lord Huron

Does this work?

Does this make the music go? ::: Townes Van Zandt – Two Hands

Hi, Holly!!!!!

So this past week my deardear friend Holly visited and let me know the unknowable: she still checks my blog. THIS ONE! This lonely, neglected ole thang. Y'all.... that's friendship. That's love.

This one goes out to you, Hau-lala.  XOX

kitchen karaoke

just let it happen.

on honest feedback

Mr. Higginson,-Are you too deeply occupied to say if my verse is alive?
The mind is so near itself it cannot see distinctly and I have none to ask.
Should you think it breathed, and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude.
If I make the mistake, that you dared to tell me would give me sincerer honor toward you.
I enclose my name, asking you, if you please, sir, to tell me what is true?
That you will not betray me it is needless to ask, since honor is its own pawn.

-------
Emily Dickinson to Thomas Higginson, 1862

all day.

Central Ave. 2007

Patience and Kindness: the Sequel

My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered the interruptions were my work.
-Henri Nouwen

on (im)patience. on kindness.

If you stop to be kind, you must swerve often from your path.
-Mary Webb

you know it would

like a million particles of water

This morning
two mockingbirds
in the green field
were spinning and tossing

the white ribbons
of their songs
into the air.
I had nothing

better to do
than listen.
I mean this
seriously.

In Greece,
a long time ago,
an old couple
opened their door

to two strangers
who were,
it soon appeared,
not men at all,

but gods.
It is my favorite story--
how the old couple
had almost nothing to give

but their willingness
to be attentive--
but for this alone
the gods loved them

and blessed them--
when they rose
out of their mortal bodies,
like a million particles of water

from a fountain,
the light
swept into all the corners
of the cottage,

and the old couple,
shaken with understanding,
bowed down--
but still they asked for nothing

but the difficult life
which they had already.
And the gods smiled, as they vanished,
clapping their great wings.

Wherever it was
I was supposed to be
this morning--
whatever it was I said

I would be doing--
I was standing
at the edge of the field--
I was hurrying

through my own soul,
opening its dark doors--
I was leaning out;
I was listening.

----------
Mockingbirds by Mary Oliver

together

"Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together."
-Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of

for what it's worth

Morning Commute

So on the way to work I heard these two songs IN A ROW. It was..... awesome.

yeah. It was a good day.

Reach for a Peach

Ear Candy: Kishi Bashi

Ear Candy: First Aid Kit

Via Dorisse: Community

 
"It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community – a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth."
-Thich Nhat Hanh

test 1-2, 1-2

Oh yes. This is happening.

Ear Candy: The Sweetest Thing

JJ Grey & Mofro w/ Toots Hibbert

seashell eyes, windy smile

cherries. brew-pops. beautiful barns. dancing. singing. always travel with a swimsuit. fotos by Jules Rappo

Happy birthday, Bobby Z.

24 is the new 24

Happpyyyy birthdayyyy tooo YOUUUUUU::::: 

HAPPy BIRRRTthhhHHDAYYYY TO YOUUUUUuuuuuuuu::::::::::

HAPPYYYYY BIRRRTHDAY, deeeearrrr PATTTCHHHWORRRRKKKKKK!!!!!!!! 

HAPPPPYYYYY............. 

...........BIIRRRRTHDAYYYYYYYY............. 

TOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

YOUUUU!!!!!!!! 

........AND..... 

MANYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

MORRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

oh. Just because you're 12 timezones away you thought I couldn't embarrass you? WRONG. Love. You. Mean. It. Hope it was the best one yet.

Ear Candy: My Girls/ Boys

oh wow. Taken by Trees covering Animal Collective :::



And the beloved original :::



yum.

beauty

95 years young.

ex libris: The Tiger's Wife

My grandfather and I stopped at the bus station, and the elephant passed, slow, graceful, enchanted by the food in the young man's hand. The moon threw a tangle of light into the long, soft hairs sticking up out of his trunk and under his chin. The mouth was open, and the tongue lay in it like a wet arm.

"No one will ever believe this," I said.

My grandfather said: "What?"

"None of my friends will ever believe it."

My grandfather looked at me like he'd never seen me before, like he couldn't quite believe I was his. Even in our estrangement, he had never quite looked at me that way, and afterward he never did again.

"You must be joking," he said. "Look around. Think for a moment. It's the middle of the night, not a soul anywhere. In this city, at this time. Not a dog in the gutter. Empty. Except for this elephant - and you're going to tell your idiot friends about it? Why? Do you think they'll understand it? Do you think it will matter to them?"

He left me behind and walked on after the elephant. I stood with my hands in my pockets. I felt my voice had fallen through and through me, and I couldn't summon it back to tell him or myself anything at all. The elephant was moving forward along the Boulevard. I followed it. A block down, my grandfather had stopped beside a bench, was waiting for the elephant. I caught up with him first, and the two of us stood side by side, in silence, my face burning, his breath barely audible. The young man did not look at us again.

Eventually, my grandfather said: "You must understand, this is one of those moments."

"What moments?"

"One of those moments you keep to yourself."
-Tea Obreht

image

yowsa.

This Josh Ritter video was made using 12,000 pieces of construction paper. so good.

Via Dybs: thought we'd call him sonny

Ear Candy: Long Way Home

sandpaper and silk.

via christi: rumours

played at just the right time.

Via Julia: one corner

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
-Aldous Huxley

photo info

The Wheels of the World

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.
-H.G. Wells

Via Becca: The Peach Kings

The Peach Kings - "Thieves and Kings" from Paul Trillo on Vimeo.

Restless Fugitive

oh, willy mason. what a dreamboat. download this song for free here.

Xtreme Lawn Games

There was snow on the ground in Charlottesville earlier this week - which I totally support - but which also brought to mind some lawn games I'm crushing on :::

First up: Lawn Jenga



One of my roommates expressed a very legitimate concern about the safety of this game. I can't really speak to that. But I can speak to how awesome it seems. I think it might require a rubber mallet and possibly a ladder. Perhaps not having a ladder would be a built-in control/ safety precaution? Regardless, as someone with a pre-existing height handicap, I'm pro-ladder.

And now onto: Backyard Scrabble



Especially appealing to the far-sighted, backyard scrabble takes words with friends back where it should be: oversized, outside, and requiring you to do your own math. Supersized dictionary not included.

get some air

I worry - really worry - about the kids I take care of at school falling out of trees, and breaking their arms. I don't let them run with sticks because I don't want them gouging out any eyeballs. Not even one.

I happily let them fall in puddles, and get hit in the face with soccer balls because it teaches them so much, [when to - ahem - duck; the importance of paying attention; why a good pair of boots is invaluable; how/why to stop a game and make sure your friend and/or classmate who drives you nuts isn't hurt] but I would never notinamillionyears let them hang out of a train like this.

But the girl in this photo looks like she knows how not to fall out of that train, and there are probably a world of things things that have prepared her for that. I don't think I'm too strict with the kids. I don't think I hover. But thank goodness they do things - at home, far away from me, and sometimes under my care - that push their limits. They're learning real risks and rewards while they're young and their bones (though probably not their eyeballs) mend quickly.

same-same

“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.”
-Albert Einstein

Via Terra: Tune Yards

Ear Candy: Fun

oh, dang. worth clicking thru to youtube.

for the thrill of it all

Are you feeling a lack of neon in your life? Has it been years since you teased your hair? Do you find yourself taking the synthesizer for granted? If you answered yes to at least two out of three of these questions, please call the Hall and Oates hotline: 719-266-2837


What was that number again?? 719-266-2837



But Paige, don't you have a history getting yourself on weird call lists?


I'm sorry. I'm not currently available to answer that question. Please direct all inquiries to: 719-266-2837



Is calling this phone number hard to handle? Like the flame that burns the candle? The candle feeds the flame?



Yes. Yes, it is. 719-266-2837

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

How old am I you ask of me? One year younger than I used to be :::::



and maybe one year closer to this :::


and still not very far from this :::

Hope it was a wonderful day! xoxoxo

Happy Valentine's!

via LPF Likes

ask me

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

- William Stafford

via debby: i'm not kidding

gonna warm my bones

i didn't even know i wanted an owl

until just now.

you get what you need -

- when you need it.

Sunset at Gloucester - Winslow Homer