Have a Ball

May your weekend be shiny and bright!

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

O'Hare International Airport
November 2014

Sister Love

Last night at dinner a friend mentioned that she liked to read.  I said, "So do I!" (perhaps a little too nerdly emphatic) and we launched into a conversation about recently read books:  thrillers, biographies, sports training, and Scandinavian authors.  She mentioned she gets a lot of suggestions from her sister and of course, so do I.

This morning, my sister is on my mind and I'd like to give a special nod of appreciation to the older sisters who teach us, the younger sisters who sometimes act like big sisters, and the middle sis who always seems just so practical.  Special thanks for sharing all those books.

The Band Elwood, The Band

The Ryman,
June 2014

This Friday photo brought to you by:

• a 10 person band
• hearing your name shouted across a parking lot five minutes after arriving to the city
• free parking as a result of the above
• one desperation hot dog, three reading waters, a soda, and caramel corn (though maybe not in that order)
• an opening act which reminded you of Hardly Strictly (without the Solvang Strand)
• feet with dancing blisters
• four hours in the car for four hours not in the car
• a 2:00 a.m. Hey Jude singalong and a 7:30 a.m. conference call
• choosing memories over spreadsheets

Have a great weekend!  Happy reading! 

Seize the Today

Happy Friday from the Poetry Foundation and Billy Collins:


Today
Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

Piping Hot

A few weeks ago, I was lost in Space (Center).  Hope you find yourself lost (in a good way) this weekend.

"Like most astronauts, I'm pretty sure that I can deal with what life throws at me because I've thought about what to do if things go wrong, as well as right. That's the power of negative thinking.”

Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Space and Rockets
March 2014

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days

It's a month packed full of birthdays including one of our very own GBC tomorrow.  A Wednesday mantra with good wishes for a year of blessings:

Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love

- Rumi 

Man, I Feel Like A(n Old) Woman

I still have yet to start the next book.  I had a block of time this morning but used it to maniacally finish a baby blanket.  I can't describe the feeling I had when I finished the pattern only to read I needed to CROCHET the edges.  I had one crocheting lesson about five years ago and I had my mom's old crochet hook.  Not much in the way of assets but paired with a few you tube videos, it happened.

[It is at this point that I would like to apologize to my mother for all the clothing patterns I selected and asked her to make for me when I was younger, saying "This looks easy. I'm sure you could do that."]

The baby blanket looked easy but I'm now having a glass of reading water as a reward.  It was a brutal last hour and let's just say the pattern was tweaked a wee bit in order to reduce the amount of hand-cramping from crochet.  Egads.

Hope you have had a great weekend!  I am happy that I got to spend time with GBC P@1ge.  There's no one else in the world with whom you'd rather prep last minute for a party.

Ring in Spring

This week I have said "yes" to every opportunity.  It's made me exhausted, but wow, what a fun week it's been.

Happy Spring!

Try new things.

Table with a View

Friday reminder to celebrate moments of relaxation and 4th birthdays.  Best wishes to our growing youngest reader and hope you all have a happy Friday!

Pura Vida
Costa Rica, February 2014

Grateful

This is the weekend I tend to take a moment to reflect on the 2013 reasons to be thankful. Over the last week however the singular thought was "gratitude".

This year I felt there was a big distinction.

Maybe it is the normal byproduct of aging, maybe it is the last minute vacation trip turned memorial, maybe it was holding a small child who gave implicit trust, or simple appreciation that I won't tolerate crazy in my daily life.  My core list includes a gratitude that I'm not afraid to take risks and that I love to read.

You have your list too, and I hope you had a moment this weekend to celebrate good fortune (and good books).

Sunsets with No Internet

A Friday photo a few days late....

Hope you have had a story-worthy weekend.

Santa Monica
August 2013

I Go Out Walking After Midnight

I've had a small hiatus from writing.  During that time I was reading, traveling, and walking in the woods.  Between trains and planes, I devoured four books over the journey.  (More to come later on those).  For now, the memories I'm holding onto are my walks in the woods.

For hours, I'd follow small trails, hoping I was on the right path and eager to see the small yellow signs which had my destination village.  These signs also had a small snowman on them which I never quite managed to make out.  I didn't see any snowmen.

Since returning, I've had Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and Thoreau's Walden mulling around in my brain.  The item which sticks with me most:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life..."

- Henry David Thoreau

Giddy up

Today I went horseback riding.
My horse's name was Lovey.

GBC P@1ge asked me if I believed in signs.
I think the answer has to be yes.

What the World Needs Now

It is the last night of my third decade.  The urge to wax philosophic is there but has been suppressed by a third glass of reading water.

As I sit in this little cottage with only sounds of nature (note to self: purchase or invent an iphone4 to iphone5 adapter for in room players), there are a number of thoughts on my mind but one resounding theme.

It is the stuff of songs, poems, youth, and bad texting.  It is painted on billboards, etched on school bathroom doors and whispered through parting hugs. A word never said, a word used until dull.

Love.

Love big and offer love to everyone you meet. One life. Make it full.

Lucky One

My day was extended by two hours.
I was enrapt by Alice Sebold's Lucky for three hours. 
I had reading water in the afternoon and then a nap.
I had a vacant middle seat.
I drove along the coastline and saw the ocean. 
I had an apple waiting for me in my room and instead ate my favorite cookie that I'd packed.
I've had kale and quinoa and sang aloud to the car radio.

It's felt like Saturday and I'm happy. 

Make a Wish II

It's that time in the rotation of the earth where I like to pass along the best wishes to those having birthdays and in particular our very own GBC P@1ge.

I hope the next turn is filled with

• A full and fun year of book-reads
• Long walks with a cool breeze
• Warm socks
• A good film season
• Yarn which doesn't make you swear when knitting
• Soft tree blossoms that fall like rain as you pass by
• Another suitable season of Downtown Abbey
• No shortages of reading water
• Delightful coffees and impromptu chats
• Entertaining dinner parties
• Vivacious laughter
• Every yoga pose
• Road trips
• Love

Hope the week surpasses all expectations!

A Quick Note

If October was poetry month, this month is shaping up to be music month as I am finding my inspiration from songs, new bands, and a bit of live music.  I've even had my hands on a piano, but haven't found the "key" to this renewal.  Autumn in full force? Training for fun rather than racing? Suppressed desire for caroling?   Someone quoted yesterday that you always remember the way that people make you feel.  Maybe there's something to that, but I'm trying not to think about it too much.  (That side of the brain is always way too active.)

What's inspiring you today?

As You Wish

Last night on the way home from the office, I heard this interview with Mandy Patinkin on NPR's All Things Considered.  Was he tired of uttering his oh so famous line?  No.  It still makes him smile.  Me too.

This week my sister had sent me a link to this Think Geek shirt.  Yesterday morning, I suggested to friend that she use a "to blave" line in a wedding speech.  All roads lead to Wesley?  So last night, I settled in to watch the movie during it's 25th anniversary year and pondered in which box my 25th anniversary book was packed.

What do you Mean?

With the Olympics and my own personal voyage, I someone missed the Long List announcement of the Man Booker Prize at the end of last month.  Occasionally a baker's dozen, this year we have a proper list of twelve.  My first click (no surprise to some of you) was Swimming Home by Deborah Levy.  The site's descriptive "Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams."  Count me in (when Amazon has stock).

In another award-winning news, GBC T1m celebrates another 365.25 days around the sun.  We wish him a day filled with sci-fi books, board games, great food, and family hugs.  Cheers!

Momentarily

I needed something from The book of Awesome today.  Neil Pasricha's selections of 1000awesomethings can be pretty inspiring and never fails to make me smile.  I flipped through the book and the website nodding to myself that the moments noted were pretty good (fresh cut grass, burst of cold air on a hot day, perfect pancake stack) but they weren't exactly what I was looking for.

Then I saw this #1 entry and I thought, "that's very close...but not quite."

So what about #2:  Remembering how lucky we are to be here right now?

Yes.

Life is so great that we only get a tiny moment to enjoy everything we see. And that moment is right now. And that moment is counting down. And that moment is always, always fleeting.

You will never be as young as you are right now.

So whether you’re enjoying your first toothpicked turkey cold cuts and marveling at apples from South Africa, dreaming of strange and distant relatives from thousands of years ago, or staring into the blackness of deep, deep space, just remember how lucky we all are to be here right now.

                             - Neil Pasricha, 1000 Awesome Things