A few lovely things for today, when I’m packing up to head back to AZ and planning a few stops along the way.
A few lovely things for today, when I’m packing up to head back to AZ and planning a few stops along the way.
I was creeping around on Amazon last weekend, I can’t even remember what I was looking for, but I had some new book recommendations based on recent purchases. I fell down the recommendation rabbit hole, but eventually found some excerpts from a book, I Wrote This For You, that I loved.
As per usual, I spent the next two hours reading everything I could find by the author, but I will probably still end up buying the book. A few of my favourite quotes below:
“Forget about your lists and do what you can because that’s all you can do. Phone up the people you miss and tell them you love them. Hug those close to you as hard as you can. Because you are always only a drunk driver’s stupidity, a nervous shopkeeper’s mistake, a doctor’s best attempts and an old age away from forever.”
“You’re just another story I can’t tell anymore.”
“We clutch that picture to our hearts because we expect each other to always be the people in that picture. But people change. People aren’t pictures. And you can either take a new picture or throw the old one away.”
“This is my skin. It keeps out the rain and words I’d rather not hear like “I’m tired” or “I’m fine” or “We need to talk.” This is my skin and it’s thick. This is not your skin. Yet you are still under it.”
“To you, it was just picking flowers. To them, it was a massacre.”
“I’ll see you at your funeral, if you’ll see me at mine. I’ll wait at the edges for your ghost to rise (until the end of time). We’ll find someplace nice to haunt, an abandoned beach house filled with memories of summer sunburns. Children will giggle as we tickle their feet at night and they’ll never know the bad dreams we fight. We’ll make our own heaven.”
“As your body cuts through the air, think of only the things that made you smile, the people that made you love, the ideas that made you strong. Remember, those things will never happen again but they cannot unhappen.”
“I read what you leave in public spaces. The songs you reference. The quotes you quote. I know it’s about me. I can feel you thinking of me.”
You can get the book here. Also, I just got this in the mail last week and I am SO excited about it. Give me all the books.
I came across a poem by Nayirrah Waheed last weekend, and immediately set out to ready everything she had ever written. I ordered her book of poetry, Salt, and I can’t wait for it to get here.
A few of my favourite lines:
i have always been the woman of my dreams
i am mine before i am ever anyone else’s
my mother was my first country, the first place i ever lived
what can i do when the night comes out and i break into stars
stay is a sensitive word we wear who stayed and who left in our skin forever
I came across this poem just before the holidays, and I really liked the message, especially the last few lines.
My mom always says “You can’t control what other people do”, as in, it doesn’t do you any good to stress and get upset over the things other people do, the only thing you can control is yourself and your actions, so just make sure you are doing what you need to be doing.
Or to put it another way, I was talking to my brother while I was in Mexico and he said “My kindergarten teacher told us something on the first day of school that really stuck with me, she said ‘Just worry about yourself’ so that’s what I do”.
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
‘Mend my life!’
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognised as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
-Mary Oliver
“Barn’s burnt down —
now
I can see the moon.”
-Mizuta Masahide
A few lovely things for today, when I’m enjoying my gypsy summer (currently back in California), but also trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
A few lovely things for today, when it’s 93 degrees. It’s only March and it’s already too hot to wear clothes. Summer is going to be a fiery hellscape.
Have always loved this poem. “So was I once myself a swinger of birches”.
Birches
Still have one more post to share from our Mt. Rinjani adventure, but for today, some Bukowski. I shared some more passages of his that I like here, as well.
Long walks at night–
that’s what good for the soul:
peeking into windows
watching tired housewives
trying to fight off
their beer-maddened husbands.
– Charles Bukowski
Came across some of Warsan Shire’s poetry last week, and immediately spent the next four hours reading everything I could find, and then ordering her book on Amazon.
I have a crush on her, for real. Like, it’s a problem.
Excerpt:
“you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.”
― Warsan Shire
loveliness. 