My dear friend O gave me a collection of short stories. This one in particular by Jonathan Safran Foer keeps returning to me. Somewhere between a poem and prose, it explores the span of a relationship and the details we choose to remember, the actions we wish to revise. Hope you enjoy it. * * [...]
This TED talk by Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati is one of the best I’ve seen. I’ve watched it several times, and each time something new still strikes me. “One cannot contribute unless one feels secure, one feels big, one feels: I have enough.” “To be compassionate is not a joke. It’s not that simple. One [...]
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal [...]
I’m reading Pleasure Dome, by Yusef Komunyakaa. I found this one especially moving. Once the Dream Begins I wish the bell saved you. “Float like a butterfly & sting like a bee.” Too bad you didn’t learn to disappear before a left jab. Fighting your way out of a clench, [...]
“Nothing just happens.” “Everything just happens.”
A cover of The Scientist, by Willie Nelson Yes, it’s the song from the Chipotle commercial. Yes, it’s a cover of a Coldplay song. Yes, it’s good.
“One of the most difficult things to say to another person is, I hope that you will love me for no good reason. But it is what we all want and rarely dare to say to one another – to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends, and to strangers. Especially to [...]
I love this quote from a letter David Foster Wallace wrote to Mary Karr. More about the relationships of their generation of writers in this New York Magazine article. I think that quote sums up the gift of having great people in your life.
The title is from Plainsong, a really lovely novel I read recently about how we’re shaped and anchored by the places we’ve been. I’m thinking of it as I ride the train from New York to Boston, two places that make up the bulk of my childhood. Looking out the window, I am feeling nostalgia [...]
I’ll close this year out with a lovely poem my good friend sent to me today. If you like it, pay it forward. Don’t forget to be kind to yourself and others. See you in 2011! – Lily P.S. This poem reminds of another I love. Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye Before you know what [...]