Tagged: puttingwordstogether

03
May
2009

DON’T COUNT EVERY HOUR IN THE DAY, MAKE EVERY HOUR IN THE DAY COUNT

It’s the evening of the 3rd day of the 5th month of the year. It feels as though it was simultaneously just Christmas a moment ago and as if it is just around the corner. If the year continues at this speed, it IS just around the corner. Time boggles me, often. It’s so …heedless. It takes no heed. Had to stop and go look up the etymology of heed. It’s word that seems to get used a lot without people ever stopping, ironically, to take heed as to what it really means: it means “to pay attention, to give...

28
Apr
2009

IT DOESN’T MEAN I KNOW YOU’LL NEVER GO, ONLY THAT I WISH YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO

I’m missing people today. I’m missing places and the way we used to be. I’m missing old songs and old friends and old clothes. The beauty of spring is always pierced with sorrow: I so fiercely love and cherish every second of its too-ephemeral newness. I miss my family and my mom and god, my dad. Damn it, dad. I shouldn’t be missing you; you should STILL BE HERE. People move in and out of our lives, they flower and sprout in our hearts where the uprooting will hurt the most, and often we let them wither and fade away...

10
Feb
2009

THE KEY TO IMMORTALITY*

Is there anything better for the soul than affirmation? It makes you feel all bubbly and weird; a champagne flutter of silly goodness. Hard to keep your feet on the ground when your mind is percolating and fizzing with good feeling. Affirmation is best when it’s made up of little things: a spontaneous embrace from a usually non-romantic loved one; a genuine glad-to-see-you smile from a child; a positive and unexpected comment from your boss on the work you’ve been doing; an exclamation of wonder over something you’ve created. My good friend Debbie was here last week during my family-free...

18
Jan
2009

THE MORE WE WRITE THE LESS WE DIE*

I read Post Secret via my RSS feed every Sunday. Sometimes I can’t relate to some of the secrets that are posted, but most of the time I am touched, moved, amused or saddened by the things that people confess to. This one, posted today, struck me cold and silent for a moment. Isn’t this SO TRUE? I can’t grasp it either. I can’t fathom the fact that I won’t live forever. Can you? We talked about it a bit at book group on Thursday night, though the central focus was, of course, on books, and the central anguish in...

02
Jan
2009

NOT FISHING, JUST PONDERING

Liz: *grimacing at Martin* YOU! Get in bed! *stands up and zombie chases him into his bedroom* Martin: *laughs all the way* Liz: BED! NOW! Martin: I’m not scared of you! I’ve got a…*looks wildly around, grabs the first thing at hand* …a BOOK! Liz: *stops short, puts hands on hips, mocks* oooo…knowledge is scary! Liz & Martin: *giggle madly* I’ve been thinking about trying to write a post a day for, I don’t know…a week? A month? The whole year? I don’t think it will happen, though, and I’ve actually come to the conclusion that I get more comments...

04
Dec
2008

WE NEED NOT THINK ALIKE TO LOVE ALIKE*

Why are we friends? We’re so different! You come from another state, another country, another culture. You’re older than me; you’re younger. You’re religious, and you—you’re political. You’ve made choices in your life that I can’t fathom. You’ve had things happen to you that I can’t relate to. You’ve done things I couldn’t or wouldn’t or wish I dared to do. You don’t have any children. You have too many. You don’t want any. You’ve got a baby; your kids are grown. You believe in things I could never swallow. You believe in things that go against my grain. You...

03
Nov
2008

WHEN WAS IT? AH! WHEN WAS IT NOT?*

Once upon a time. Once. Really? Only once? Those words denote the beginning of a story but do you see how they hold the end in their hands? It was but it is no longer. Once it was, but now, it’s not. Once but never again. I wonder who used the words for the first time and if they knew what a weight they were investing them with. If we dwell too long or too often on what once was, how can we enjoy what we have now? What to do? How to capture and hold those ephemeral onces in...

08
Oct
2008

AS CHARGED

For some reason, I’ve been musing about guilt lately. When it comes, when it stays, why I feel it, why I DON’T, in any particular situation or circumstance. Some things I feel guilty about but that doesn’t stop me from doing or saying or thinking them. Other things I don’t feel guilty about at all until they are pointed out to me from a different perspective. Feeling guilty is different from having regrets, although the two are sometimes so close as to be practically incestuous. But they’re fundamentally different things, and though I might feel regret about something I said...

31
Aug
2008

IT’S BETTER TO WANT WHAT YOU HAVE THAN TO HAVE WHAT YOU WANT

It’s funny how envy works. Listening to the good news of a friend makes me envious sometimes. Not in the sense that I wish it were MY news, but just in the sense that I wish I had news, too. Even when you have things just fine, excellent in fact, it’s a weird feeling to find yourself envious of someone else. Not because you want whatever it is they have going on, but because they’re so excited about it and that feeling of excitement is such a rush that you are reminded of how fun it is. It’s much easier...

23
Jul
2008

EVERY DAY IS A JOURNEY AND THE JOURNEY ITSELF IS HOME*

Bring up moving in conversation and it jump-starts things. People either love to do it or hate it with a passion, it seems. Even talking about packing and/or unpacking in conjunction with a trip raises all sorts of sympathetic flutters and groans of compassion. I’ve always liked packing and unpacking. There’s something very Christmassy about it. When it’s for a trip, packing is like wrapping up presents to give to yourself during vacation or traveling. And when it’s for moving, unpacking is all about opening great big boxes of presents you haven’t seen in awhile, and giving yourself the gift...