housekeeping::

He would pick up eggshells, a bird’s wing, a jawbone,
the ashy fragment of a wasp’s nest.
He would peer at them with the most absolute attention--
and then put them in his pockets,
where he kept his jack-knife and his loose change.
He would peer at them as if he could read them.

- Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

read this book. please. read. read. this book.

:: detroit + beckett ::

there were not many steps.
i had counted them a thousand times.
both going up.
and coming down.
but the figure has gone from my mind...
memories are killing.
so you must not think of certain things.
of those that are dear to you.
or rather you must think of them.
for if you don’t there is the danger of finding them.
in your mind, little by little.
that is to say.
you must think of them for a while.
a good while.
every day.
several times a day.
until they sink forever in the mud.
that’s an order.


– Samuel Beckett

-- don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. b.dylan--

the air is crisp.
and the sun is setting earlier.
and earlier.
each evening.

so i'm...

letting my toes sink into their last few patches of grass.

plucking baby tomatoes off the vine.

basking in warm light through sheeted windows.

and embracing the temperature as it drops.


i whisper to the winds.

welcome fall.

i'm ready for the sweaters. scarves. boots. and pumpkin lattes.
you bring.

: image + lyric + quote :

just enough dark to see/ how you're the light over me.

- "the dreamer"
the tallest man on earth



write hard and clear about what hurts.

- ernest hemingway



it takes courage to grow up
and turn out to be who you really are.

- e.e. cummings



i want to stand as close to the edge as i can
without going over.
out on the edge you see all the kinds of things
you can't see from the center.

- kurt vonnegut

- ernest hemingway
"a moveable feast"

::: random/weekend shots + musings.

...

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

- Robert Browning

...

Bee - fondness - perfume - cord
crumb- fool's gold - jumping voyeur
soldier ease - solstice strip.
purple quadrant - open gown.
microned matter
martyrdom quince
grapeshot micron.

- from the diary of frida kahlo

...

love this.
how i wish i could have been there in harlem that day.

...

love this, too.
i'll take one of everything, please.

...

i stand like a fool,
seeking a past that vanished ...
but night is wise and mighty
wiser than I, wiser then day.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...



ps:
that shop in the last photo is my absolute favorite.
please. if you're ever in detroit.
find this gem.
enter.
and fall in love.

::: words that struck me & images from around here...

you can’t beat death
but
you can beat death in life...


- charles bukowski
"the laughing heart"

::: things that speak to me...

{transposed garage & garden. diana camera}




"i'm finding my peace. and forgiving myself for those things i've never done."

- willy tea taylor
"cattleman"


++++++

I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.

Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around

as though with your arms open.

And thinking: maybe something will come, some

shining coil of wind,

or a few leaves from any old tree—

they are all in this too.


- mary oliver


+++++


and this gorgeous. gorgeous. video.

:: says the man who ran 365 marathons in 365 days...

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.

If it be a few ragged huts-- it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

WALT WHITMAN, "Song of the Broad-Axe"

:: i live in a place where i can ride my bike...

{images via weheartit}

i've decided it doesn't matter that
i don't live in the heart of downtown.
or on the gorgeous countryside.
or in a quaint small community.

i'm going to start riding my bike.

i've been desiring to.
been dreaming of a place where things were close enough to bike to.
then i realized...

there's a starbucks 1/2 mile from my door.
a target 1 1/2 miles past that.
a yummy middle eastern restaurant in the same parking lot.
a bookstore across the street.
a bagel shop in eye-sight.

and it wasn't until i read the quote above that i realized.
wait.
i can ride my bike.
i just don't.

here's to rectifying that.

& to two-wheeled, earth-happy travel :)

:: real courage...

i read this book furiously.
and often.
and it never, ever ceases to amaze me.
and humble me.

this is one of my favorite passages.

:: summer afternoon, summer afternoon ::

{image via wehearit}

gearing up for a weekend at work.


but maintaining some inspiration and sanity by:


planning a few awesome trips

listening to bouncy summer tunes

finishing a novel

writing

picking fresh veggies from my garden for a summer salad

and imagining i'm gazing out the window from that cozy desk above.




enjoy every single second of the weekend!




Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

:: and I quote

"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

~ Anais Nin

:: and i quote

“Finish each 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;
begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

weekend pictorial::

a few images taken throughout my weekend.

Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.

- Edith Wharton

stillness & grace:::

when despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
and I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. for a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

- wendell berry

{via the habit of being}

a beautiful passage for fall. may we all rest in stillness and grace.

:: the perfect place

{via the beauty file}


I wanna take you to the rock
I wanna jump right in
And see what that big ocean's got...

I'm feeling the pull
Dragging me off again
I'm feeling so small against the sky tonight


- the swell season

and i quote:::

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose the ventures before us.
- Shakespeare

a passage that has moved me since highschool. i can still remember hearing it for the first time.
i was speechless.
it continues to have this effect on me.

and i quote:::

THERE WERE NOT MANY STEPS.
I HAD COUNTED THEM A THOUSAND TIMES,
BOTH GOING UP AND COMING DOWN,
BUT THE FIGURE HAS GONE FROM MY MIND.
MEMORIES ARE A KILLING,
SO YOU MUST NOT THINK OF CERTAIN THINGS...
OF THOSE THAT ARE DEAR TO YOU.
OR RATHER, YOU MUST THINK OF THEM
IN YOUR MIND...
LITTLE BY LITTLE.
THAT IS TO SAY,
YOU MUST THINK OF THEM FOR A WHILE, A GOOD WHILE,
EVERY DAY, SEVERAL TIMES A DAY...
UNTIL THEY SINK FOREVER IN THE MUD.
THAT'S AN ORDER.

- SAMUEL BECKETT

this is a passage that has spoken to me for years. the inner battle of the author is palpable. but in the end--as with all of us-- he comes to realize that we must hold our memories dear. we must cherish those whom we love. and those who love us in return.