Chill

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget he is someone today.

~ Stacia Tauscher

- - - - - 

This is Zak. I get to go see him in a few weeks. 

The other night I was texting with him. Here is our exchange:

And Kirk sent me these:

Butterfly

Butterflies... Flowers that fly and all but sing.

~ Robert Frost

- - - - - 

Sometimes we choose good names for things - like butterflies. Way better than "oleo flappers."

Chair

If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

~ Shirley Chisholm

(Yes, I know I've used this quote before. I like it.)

- - - - -

Me: Last night I had a dream I was in Washington, D.C. at the House of Representatives and they were choosing where they were going to sit.

Leslie: I don't think it works that way.

Me: I know. It was a dream. Anyway, most of the people I talked to were really nice and seemed to like me.

Leslie: Were you handing out corndogs?

Me: NO. SOMETIMES PEOPLE IN CONGRESS LIKE ME EVEN WHEN I'M NOT HANDING OUT CORNDOGS!

Attention

Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.

~ Epictetus

- - - - -

I like paying attention to what little kids pay attention to. Aurora is curious and soaks in a lot of things.

She also is quick to respond to others. Sometimes so quick to respond that she doesn't fully collect the information she needs before she answers. For example...


BOOM!!!!

Leslie: Aurora, are you okay?

Aurora: Yeah

(Pause)

Aurora: I just hurt my arm a little.

Attention

Give you fullest attention to whatever the moment presents.

~ Eckhart Tolle

- - - - -

If you don't pay attention, you increase the likelihood not only that you will miss things, but that you can make mistakes. For example, if you're not careful, you could confuse an instapot with a neti pot. That would be bad.

Music

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.

~ Plato

- - - - -

I am training myself to be inspired by music. More specifically, to be inspired by the music at award shows. More specifically still, music they play when you've talked too long on an award show and they're trying to get you off stage. 

That way, when my day comes - as surely it will - I will be ready and motivated to just keep going even after my time is up for my acceptance speech. I know you're excited for this.

Me, too.

Paths

The obstacle is the path.

~ Zen Proverb

- - - - -

I started this blog ten years ago today. I was in a really difficult place in my life and I wanted a creative outlet that was just for me so that I could laugh and try to train myself to pay attention to the moments and things in life that bring laughter and beauty every day. These are the same things we easily overlook when we are depressed or anxious or struggling.

The obstacles and challenges I was facing inspired me to write this blog. The obstacle was the way the forward. Without the situations I was in, I wouldn't have looked for a way to write and use my photography in creative ways. 

But ten years later, what is the result of the blog? Has it made me a happier person? Has it really trained me to focus on positive things and moments of beauty? And what about other people who have happened to stumble across my blog - has it helped them? Has it inspired them to pursue joy and a positive sense of being rather than wallowing in negativity and self-pity? And by touching individuals, has it transformed the world so that it is a better place?

Yes. It has done all of those things.

Curious

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

- - - - -

I think lying is usually wrong. Maybe not "lying in wait." 

Unless you're "lying in wait" to mug somebody. Or really to commit any crime.

Unless you're committing a crime of vengeance in a movie. I sometimes like movies like that. Also, how'd you get a role in a movie??

Miracle

Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.

~ C. S. Lewis

- - - - -

Miracles snap you out of the hum drum-ness of life. They bring you to sharp, almost painful attention on certain moments of amazement. Like a whip - CRACK! - and you can never again not see what you have seen and not know what you have known. Like a whip - you are focused on specific point. Like a whip. A miracle whip.

Dog

Hark! The dogs howl! The sleetwinds blow;

The churchclocks knoll: the hours haste, 

I leave the dreaming world below.

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

- - - - -

I like dogs. Especially medium and big dogs. I really want a dog. I think that Leslie and I agreed that we will get a dog after I get tenure.

Leslie says I should name the dog tenure. I don't think I want to do that because we'd end up calling it "Tenny" for short. Then people would think we named our dog after Alfred Lord Tennyson. And that seems kind of pretentious. 

Pig

As for meat, I'm not going to become vegetarian. I'm telling you that right now. I want me a steak. I want me a pork chop. I want me a lamb chop, even a piece of duck every once in a while.

~ Sharon Jones

- - - - -

Know how to tell it's Sunday? If you live near Ingles, your yard smells like ham.

That or look at a calendar.

seats

I like playing blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.

~ Mitch Hedberg

- - - - -

This is one of my favorite places to sit. It is away from things. I get too wound up with work and the self-contrived stress of life that I feel overwhelmed and anxious. But being here I forget about those things and remember that the world is a bigger place than work.

I love my job. 
And I love time away from my job. 

Communication

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

- - - - -

Sometimes when children don't have language for things like, "I'm hungry," or "I'm tired," or "I'm scared," or "I don't like your rules," they act out because they don't know how else to tell us those things.

Sometimes adults do the same things.

Happiness

Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him.

~ Friedrich Nietsche

- - - - -

I had a conversation with my friend Kurt one time. We decided that we agreed that it is much harder work to be happy than to be unhappy. It takes effort - it doesn't just happen. 

If we spend our lives letting things "just happen" to us without taking any small measure of control that we might be able to claim, we lose. 

Not that Life is a game.

Well, technically it is a game. A board game where you are forced to get married.

Like a cult. 

Not sure where this was actually headed.

Gifts

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.

~ Desmond Tutu

- - - - -

And if you operate under the assumption - as I do - that God has a sense of humor, well - watch out. Just because God has a sense of humor, it may not be exactly the same as yours or mine. Some of the things that make God chuckle may not be funny to us. 

Ampersand

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off of you.

~ Maya Angelou

- - - - -

This ampersand has got it all backwards.

Wait, I mean the ampersand is backwards. The messages are actually pretty nice.

Sleep

Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world.

~ Heraclitus

- - - - -

Given what my friend Heraclitus said, I'm not sure if that saying, "If you snooze, you lose" is actually true. 

Language

All you can do is try to be less crap at English.

~ Jason Dixon, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

- - - - -

I like language a lot. I like to play with words to create new things.

For example, I'm going to write a story about a person who knows another person. (pause) Stay with me. I know the plot is weak at this point, but there is more.

Anyway, one of the people is named Sam. But then the other person gets a concussion and forgets Sam's name and everything about Sam.

I'm going to call the story "Samnesia."

I know that the title is the best part of the story, but I don't care. And you're not literature critic, so shut up.

And if you happen to actually BE a literature critic, shoot me an email and let me know what ideas you have for a good rest of this story.

Sponge

It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me; it won't come back.

~ Peter O'Toole

- - - - -

I feel the same way about black licorice.

Impossible

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

~Friedrich Nietzche

- - - - -

Sometimes when I do a blog I have a photo and then find a quote. Sometimes I find a quote and then look to pair it with the right photo. In this case, I have had the photo for a while. 

When I read this quote, though... Wow. It really struck me.

I can get sucked into negativity and complaining. While that may serve as a release in the moment, in the long term it just makes me feel worse. That's not to say that one should avoid pointing out injustice or cruelty. The point is to take action - and complaining is not action.

Like I complain about fruitcake sometimes, but do I take action to change it and eliminate it? I do not. That isn't productive.

Also, in the scheme of the world today, fruitcake is pretty low on my list of concerns.

Shoe

Let your dreams outgrow the shoes of you expectations.

~ Ryunosuke Satoro

- - - - -

The wooden shoe kicks the milk,
The milk spills on the floor.
The mother grabs the sweeping broom
And chases brother out the door.

His wooden shoes go "Cloppity Clop Clop"
As crying and yelling he runs.
Mother hits him in the head and shoulders
His arms and legs and buns.

The neighbors they all gather round
To laugh at the funny scene
But stop when mother looks at them
Because she is so mean.

Cloppity Clop Clop
Stoppity Stop Stop
When mother has the broom in hand
There is neither pity nor stop


So... sometimes - as I've shared - I write my blogs in advance. I wrote this one a couple of years before I posted it. I had to look up this poem to make sure I made it up. I did.

I didn't really probably have to look it up. I mean, have you read the poem here? If so, you know no one else would have written it.

Moon

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.

~ Carl Sandburg

- - - - -

By the time this posts, I will be on vacation. I won't have my phone on. I won't be on a computer. I will be reading and writing and resting and swimming and having conversation about things other than work. I fail a lot when it comes to appreciating the things around me.  I get too caught up in doing things for my job or to immersed in social and other media. 

I know I'm not alone in that. I think a lot of people struggle with these things too.

In fact, they're probably way worse at appreciating the things around me than I am. Mainly because of them aren't around me. 

I appreciate that.

Gratitude

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, won, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experiences of living every moment with love, grace, and gratitude.

~ Denis Waitley

- - - - -

I think we should be thankful throughout the year, not just during Thanksgiving. I try to appreciate things I see in my daily life, when I'm driving around aimlessly, when I'm traveling with intention. Like the photo here. I'm thankful I saw it. And I'm grateful I don't live across the street from the people whop ut up this display. 

Why?

"Daddy, why do people have to be dead?"

~ Stephen King

- - - - -

If that kid asked me, I'd say, "One reason, kid: Zombies." 

I think that might inspire the kid to read a lot about life and also it might inspire the kid to quit bothering me because I'm busy.

I try to be inspirational for future generations.

Time

In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning.

~ Carl Sandburg

- - - - -

History repeats itself. I forget that sometimes. If you want to know what happens after now, look at what happened after the last time that was most like now, then you'll know.

Other things are like this, too. If you want to know how your mom will react to a profanity-infused rant, think about how she responded the last time. I suspect it wasn't good - unless it was about that one person. You know who I'm talking about. If it's about them, then you're probably okay.

Fallen

I have been enlightened. I have fallen into poetry and it has swallowed me up.

~ Keith Haring

- - - - -

I once fell into a snow pit and it almost swallowed me up. Not really. It was just hard to get up in my snowmobile suit. Plus I was quite short then. 

Chips

Let the chips fall where they may.

~ Idiom

- - - - -

My dad taught us to play poker from a very young age. He used to give us all $1.00 in pennies and we would play until someone was out of pennies. You got to keep all the pennies you won. 

That's how I paid for college. I was really good.





Note: This may be true or not, but it is NOT a lie. Poker players don't lie. They bluff.

Walk

The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.

~ Jane Jacobs

- - - - -

God's on your side...


                                              walk.


God is on your sidewalk.

Farm

No race can prosper 'til it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

~ Booker T. Washington

- - - - -

Being born and raised in Iowa instills a sense of respect for agriculture in kids - even if they didn't grow up on a farm. Everyone is connected to farming. Everyone knows at least a little bit about corn and pigs and hay. Everyone understands farming is hard work. Everyone understands the role weather plays in farming. Everyone knows Old MacDonald had a farm.

Moon

Yours in the light by which my spirit's born: - you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.

~ e. e. Cummings

- - - - -

But you are not all of his glow sticks, so keep your ego in check.

Vacation

Vacation, all I ever wanted.

Vacation, had to get away.

Vacation, meant to be spent alone.

~ The GoGo's

- - - - -

A logic puzzle...

IF vacation is meant to be spent alone, and 
IF "Vacation" is a GoGo's song, and
IF Leslie's nickname is GoGo,

THEN:

What the hell, Leslie?!!

Service

Always render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.

~ Og Mandino

- - - - -

I wouldn't think people would need assistance wrecking garages. Isn't that a natural skill for most people - even if we don't tap into that skill set all that often?

Fixing

I believe there's a kind of hope because the breakdown and repair are happening simultaneously.

~ Katherine Bigelow

- - - - -

So the name Seymore comes from St. Maurus who was known to have cured a number of people throughout his life. He didn't cure any cars, but I think it's just because there weren't cars around. I bet he could have cured cars. I can't vouch for this garage, but with a legacy of St. Maurus, it might be a good place to go.

Also, "Seymore's Optometry Shack" is a good name for an eye doctor, I think. Well, maybe not the "shack" part, but I haven't seen the place yet, so I don't know if it's a shack or not.

Dinosaurs

The dinosaurs never knew what hit them.

~ Michio Kaku

- - - - -

I don't think it would bother the dinosaurs to know that we now use them / their images for candy dispensers. From what I've read their brains were too small to even really understand what that means.

Rapinoe

Be honest about how you approach failure. Don't just be critical of yourself, because that can be self-serving. Approach it honestly, assess your performance, assess the areas where you have fallen short. Correct them and move on. Don't dwell on it. Don't hold on to it.

~ Megan Rapinoe

- - - - -

I saw a headline yesterday that said, "Megan Rapinoe Steals the Show at the Women's World Cup Parade."

(pause)

The show was literally for her and her team. And if it was a male athlete who won the awards for most goals and best player, I don't think that would be the headline. 

I think whoever wrote that headline should not just be critical of themselves, because that can be self-serving. They should honestly assess their performance, assess the areas where they have fallen short, correct them and move on. 

Faces

What you feel inside reflects on your face. So be happy and positive all the time.

~ Sridevi

- - - - -

When I sit in public and work on my blog, I know I talk to myself. And I make faces at myself. And I laugh - sometimes a little too loudly for cultural norms or the social expectations of the venue where I am writing.

But I don't ever, EVER make faces at a face of Ava Gardner on a stick.

Because I forgot my face of Ava Gardner on a stick at home.

dammit.

Unknowns

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

~ Voltaire

- - - - -

We do hide things in words. Like the secrets, mysteries, and hidden staircases in Nancy Drew books. Things hidden. Things concealed. Things unknown. 

Also, it would be cool if behind these books was hidden a journal of Nancy Drew's thoughts. Then that Voltaire quote would be true on so many levels. 

Or if it wasn't a journal of her thoughts, maybe a sketchpad. Then we could see what Nancy Drew.

Floating

She was a mind floating in an ocean of confusion.

~ Caroline B. Cooney

- - - - -

So there was this kid's soccer team trapped in a flooded cave that got rescued. I was listening to the news about it and the reporter asked this other reporter guy if they would have to teach the boys to scuba dive in order to get out of the cave.

The guy's response was, "Yeah - that's an idea they've floated."

I'm not a reporter.  I was a journalism major for a few semesters. I don't remember a course specifically on word choice because I think that was something they talked to us about in every course. I'm not sure that "floated" was a very sensitive word choice in this situation.

The last thing those boys needed was to be reminded of Pennywise the Clown.

Why?

That's why we're here, after all, to help others.

~ Carol Burnett

- - - - -

One of the ways I try to help people is not buying them things like this. 
You're welcome, people.

Cafe

And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for a while is just bliss.

~ J. K. Rowling

- - - - -

I wonder how many J.K. Rowlings wandered off to the Slabtown Cafe with notebooks ready to see where it took them only to find the Slabtown Cafe closed and a no trespassing sign on the door? I wonder how many stories and characters and fantasies and dreams and worlds and ideas we lost because the Slabtown Cafe closed?

I don't know the answer, but someone should write a book about that. They could call it "The Cafe of Lost Dreams" or "Dinner Specials" or "Closed." I don't think they should call it "The Slabtown Cafe" because people would think it was a cookbook with a lot of ways to cook canned, processed meat products.

Of course, someone could write that book too. I would make it available only in hardcopy, though. If you sent it electronically, people would probably think it was just Spam.

(pause)

I would say I am sorry, but we both know that isn't true.

Past

When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

- - - - -

When I am tired, I look at people from my past with whom I don't have closure or dogs available for adoptions. Neither of these are good things to do when we are tired. 

Movies

I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was eight, working in a snack bar watching four features a week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.

~ Twyla Tharp

- - - - -

I think I would have loved to grow up in a drive-in theater. Maybe I did. Maybe I was in fact Twyla Tharp in a previous life. I know that's complicated because she's still alive, but I'm a complicated person.