Darkness and Silence and the Dead of Winter

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

~ Helen Keller

"Every time I see you in the world you always step to my girl"

I am so very much in love with the new song "Step" from Vampire Weekend's new album, Modern Vampires of the City.

The lyrics are brilliant, and playful, and silly.....

***

Ancestors told me that their girl was better

she's richer than croesus, she's tougher than leather

I just ignored all the tales of a past life

stale conversation deserves but a bread knife

***

wisdom's a gift but you trade it for youth

age is an honor - it's still not the truth

we saw the stars when they hid from the world

you cursed the sun when it stepped to your girl.

maybe she's gone and I can't resurrect her

the truth is she doesn't need me to protect her

we know the true death - the true way of all flesh

everyone's dying but girl - you're not old yet

***

The gloves are off, the wisdom teeth are out

what you on about?

I feel it in my bones, I feel it in my bones

I'm stronger now, I'm ready for the house

such a modest mouse

I can't do it alone, I can't do it alone.

Every time I see you in the world

you always step to my girl.

Here's the video, have a little looksee:

Hey Folks, it's Officially Winter!!

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

 Happy solstice!

Happy Winter Solstice

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.  

~Andrew Wyeth

Happy Solstice!

Food for Thought...

"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there"

(via advertisers without borders)

The Goal.

"The goal is to cultivate in our hearts the concern a dedicated mother feels for her child,

and then focus it on more and more people and living beings.

This is a heartfelt, powerful love.

Such feelings give us a true understanding of human rights

that is not grounded just in legal terms,

but rooted deeply in the heart."

~ The Dalai Lama

(via Elephant Journal)

Dreaming of Summer...

 To make a prairie it takes a clover

and one bee,-

One clover, and a bee,

And revery.

The revery alone will do

If bees are few.

~Emily Dickinson, Nature XCVII

Moment of Reflection

Life can be found only in the present moment. 

The past is gone, the future is not yet here, 

and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, 

we cannot be in touch with life.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Water Meditation to Calm the Mind

"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths."

~ Etty Hillesum

Have you ever taken the time to watch waves dance in the sunset? 

It's meditative, and completely mesmerizing. 

I took these pictures on my recent canoe trip, and just looking at them now brings me back to that ethereal, dreamlike state.

Midweek Moment of Contemplation

"Seventy-five percent confident will do nicely. Seventy-five percent is a goodly amount. Remember, we say that a flower is blooming whether it is in half, three-quarters, or full bloom." 

~Clarissa Pinkola Estes, from Women Who Run With The Wolves.

If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies...

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. ~Maya Angelou

Come As You Are

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. 

I will meet you there"

~ Rumi

It's Monday Morning... Make a wish

"I wish I could play little league now. I'd be way better than before"

~ Mitch Hedberg

I hope you had a restful weekend, and that you have a good start to your week.

Personally, I feel like crawling back into bed right now, and I'm wishing weekends lasted until Tuesday....

aw well, happy Monday to you : )

A bit of light and color for you Monday morning

The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color.

~ Hans Hofmann

I hope you had a gorgeous weekend.

Happy Monday to you.

oxo

Good morning, today is going to be a good day!

"How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew"

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pause, breathe, go slowly, smile

"Life is available only in the present moment." 
- Thich Nhat Hanh

I hope you have  a peaceful start to your week. If you feel stressed or overwhelmed... pause & take a breath. 

Thought of the Day

Acknowledging the good 
that is already in your life 
is the foundation for all abundance


~ Eckhart Tolle

It's good to be home

How I love lazy Sunday Mornings. Oh, there's nothing like your own bed after days on the road.

In the words of Joni Mitchell...

Last night I couldn't sleep

Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here Carey

But it's really not my home

My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet

And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne

Lovely lyrics: I'm still

photo credit: Candace Meyer

I'm in love with the lyrics to this Great Lake Swimmer song. It came out a year ago, and I'm still not sick of it (which is amazing, because I've listened to it a lot!). The Great Lake Swimmers, if you don't already know them, are a beautiful music group out of Toronto. You should definitely check them out. Here are the gorgeous lyrics to their song, Still:

I'm still tuning myself to the great key, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still mining for light in the dark wells, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still a frequency swaying, a leaf in the wind, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still searching for whispers in between yells, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still swimming in harmony, I'm still dreaming of flight

I'm still lost in the waves, night after night

I'm sill an arrow unshot, fixed in a bow, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still a fire unlit, ready to go, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still loaded and waiting, with anticipation to fly

I'm still studying the patterns in the night sky

I'm still a note that's unplayed, ink on a page, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still a cry in the night, lonesome and high, I'm still, I'm still

I'm still tuned to an instrument of greater and unknown design

I'm still looking for direction, some kind of sign

I'm still tuning myself to the great key, I'm still, I'm still

You can listen to the song below:

Hello Little Spring Bird

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson, excerpt from "Life"