“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations.”
~ Anais Nin
“Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually”
~ Lauryn Hill
“For to know nothing is nothing, not to want to know anything likewise, but to be beyond knowing anything, to know you are beyond knowing anything, that is when peace enters in, to the soul of the incurious seeker.”
~ Samuel Beckett
“The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
Rocks dont see it.
Bless and sit down.
Forgive and forget.
Practice kindness all day to everybody
and you will realize you’re already
in heaven now.
That’s the story.
That’s the message.
Nobody understands it,
nobody listens, they’re
all running around like chickens with heads cut
off. I will try to teach it but it will
be in vain, s’why I’ll
end up in a shack
praying and being
cool and singing
by my woodstove
making pancakes.”
~ Jack Kerouac
“Sensations are the great things, after all. Should you ever be drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations; they will be worth to you ten guineas a sheet.”
~ Edgar Allan Poe
“It was like that class at school where the teacher talks about Realization, about how you could realize something big in a commonplace thing. The example he gave–and the liar said it really happened–was that once while drinking orange juice, he’d realized he would be dead someday. He wondered if we, his students, had had similar ‘realizations.’ Is he kidding? I thought. Once I cashed a paycheck and I realized it wasn’t enough. Once I had food poisoning, and realized I was trapped inside my body.”
~Amy Hempel
“It’s not possible to advise a young writer because every young writer is so different. You might say, “Read,” but a writer can read too much and be paralyzed. Or “Don’t read, don’t think, just write,” and the result could be a mountain of drivel. If you’re going to be a writer, you’ll probably take a lot of wrong turns and then one day just end up writing something you have to write, then getting it better and better just because you want it to be better, and even when you get old and think, “There must be something else people do,” you won’t be able to quit.”
~ Alice Munro
“I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the grey flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain-side.”
~ Emily Bronte
Currently reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, and Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney.
Also reading The Oxford Book of English Short Stories, and The Granta Book of Irish Short Story.
All are excellent reads.
“The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head.”
~ Ian Mcewan
“My dear, In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. Truly yours, Albert Camus”
“The way our big cities change sucks. The beauty of cities was that they were edgy, sometimes even a little dangerous. Artists, poets, and activists could come and unify and create different kinds of scenes. Not just fashion scenes, scenes that were politically active. Big cities are getting so high-end oriented, business corporate fashion, fashion not in an artistic sense but in a corporate sense. For me that edgy beauty of cities is lost, wherever you go.”
~ Patti Smith
at 9:45 this morning
it is 41 degrees
and a steady rain
about 20 miles away
is the sleet/snow
line
it will stay in
the low 40s
come Saturday
morning it may
change to a bit
of snow
kick back
and relax
grab a book
any book
whatever tickles
your fancy
a good way
to pass the
time away
oh, the joy
of reading
“The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.” ~ Stephen King
Book, coffee, sitting in her favorite chair.
All the comforts in the world she could want.
“A successful novel should interrupt the reader’s life, make him or her miss appointments, skip meals, forget to walk the dog.”
~ Stephen King
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
~John Lennon*
*Died: December 8, 1980
“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it.”
~ Jim Morrison*
*Born: December 8, 1943
“As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can”.”
~ John Muir
“No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds – November!”
~ Thomas Hood
Stormy morning
Lots of rain
A good day to
sit and read a
good book or two
Also indulge in
black coffee
The I am presently
reading is: And Then
There Were None by
Agatha Christie.
Another book that I am
also reading is: The
Collected Stories by
Amy Hempel.
I’m a Type 2 Diabetic, and have been for the last four years, and I will not let it get the better of me.
Photo by Alesia Kozik: https://www.pexels.com/photo/letter-tiles-on-the-purple-background-6836296/
Photo by Lorraine Steriopol: https://www.pexels.com/photo/hanging-message-board-9123139/
Photo by Lauris Rozentāls: https://www.pexels.com/photo/planet-earth-first-poster-on-a-concrete-post-3302183/
“When you’re reading a novel, I think the reason you care about how any given plot turns out is that you take it as a data point in the big story of how the world works. Does such-and-such a kind of guy get the girl in the end? Does adultery ever bring happiness? How do winners become winners?”
~ Elif Batuman
“Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.”
~ Gary Snyder
“The way our big cities change sucks. The beauty of cities was that they were edgy, sometimes even a little dangerous. Artists, poets, and activists could come and unify and create different kinds of scenes. Not just fashion scenes, scenes that were politically active. Big cities are getting so high-end oriented, business corporate fashion, fashion not in an artistic sense but in a corporate sense. For me that edgy beauty of cities is lost, wherever you go.”
~ Patti Smith
“The place of stillness that you have to go to write, but also to read seriously, is the point where you can actually make responsible decisions, where you can actually engage productively with an otherwise scary and unmanageable world.”
~ Jonathan Franzen
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
~ Joan Didion
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
At 7:00 a.m. it was 1 degree below zero, with a wind chill of 18 below.
Suppose we wake up and see that what we thought to be this and that, ain’t this and that at all?
-Jack Kerouac
Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.
It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.
~ Henry David Thoreau
same shit different day
same shit different month
same shit different year
and it goes on and on and …
A Pondering Mind 
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