rest, apple.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinion drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become." ~ Steve Jobs.

Whether you are an Apple fan or not, I think words like these are so very, very important.

other people's words (again, again)

"It's such an amazing privilege that for a few years of your life your job is to be a student." ~ Regina Spektor.

I kind of really hope my whole life has that job, in one way or another. It's a pretty amazing thing, isn't it? To learn.

It is--absolutely--the greatest form of self-improvement I ever did know.

(I found the quotation in this little interview, here).

who are you?

"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive-- the risk to be alive and express what we really are." ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

I think it's true. And I think it's a theme I am seeing a lot of, lately.

What, really, are you?

Perhaps a better question is who?

And perhaps an even better question is of right now?*

*I don't think we are stagnant--we are something different at all times of the day and in every situation. And that, I suppose, is part of our charm.

just a thought...

or rather: a few beautiful words.

"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 up of layers, cells, constellations." ~ Anais Nin.

I don't think deciphering those constellations will ever be a task complete but oh, I am trying.

What an image.

on explaining a little

I guess you could say this is how I feel about this little space I have going on here.

"It is the museum of reminders that life has been good."

And maybe few will find grandeur in that---but I certainly do---and, well, I find hope. Because at a time when I am reminded over and over again of our mortality (and I simply, simply, don't know why---it's this fearing thing, I suppose. This thing I keep returning to---then worrying for---then evaluating), I really hope this little space grows and grows over years---becomes packed with the things I have done, seen, felt, created, remembered and loved.

And that last one---that love---is the real grandeur---and the real, real explanation for it all.

(Quotation from Lynne Bertrand, via The Scrapbook Lady).

ten years on

I have thought for hours about how I could sum up today---this day that has been so plastered across newspapers and television screens, radio waves and web pages. And d'you know what? I found it---I found it perfectly summed up in another person's words.

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." - Martin Luther King, Jr

Updated: a friend just sent me this link about the quote I used---and I am a little bit embarrassed for getting it so wrong. But d'you know what? The words are just as apt---just as important---just as perfect for this day.

But here, in his words (for real this time), is another perfect sentiment:

‎"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

the gathering

"Gatwick airport is not the best place to be gripped by a fear of flying. But it seems that this is what is happening to me now; because you are up so high, in those things, and there is such a long way to fall. Then again, I have been falling for months. I have been falling into my own life, for months. And I am about to hit it now." Anne Enright, The Gathering

something i want to live by

The other day I posted a new mantra and it was all about self-belief---something I want to start living with.

Well, today I found these words---things I want to start doing.

"Before you act, listen.
Before you react, think.
Before you spend, earn.

Before you criticize, wait.

Before you pray, forgive.

Before you quit, try."

Thank-you, Hemingway.

You sure know how to use verbs to really invoke action.

other's wisom

"Perhaps we don’t like what we see: our hips, our loss of hair, our shoe size, our dimples, our knuckles too big, our eating habits, our disposition. We have disclosed these things in secret, likes and dislikes, behind doors with locks, our lonely rooms, our messy desks, our empty hearts, our sudden bursts of energy, our sudden bouts of depression. Don’t worry. Put away your mirrors and your beauty magazines and your books on tape. There is someone right here who knows you more than you do, who is making room on the couch, who is fixing a meal, who is putting on your favorite record, who is listening intently to what you have to say, who is standing there with you, face to face, hand to hand, eye to eye, mouth to mouth. There is no space left uncovered. This is where you belong." - Sufjan Stevens

Are there wiser words on love?

summing up (how other people do)

I like quotations.

I like them a lot.

Especially when I come across one which is absolute perfection in summing up my thoughts on the stage I am at in life.

And Anais Nin has done it. (And one day I will read it contextually, not just find it online).

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

I guess you could say that this has been my story for the last six months or so. But I don't want it to be my story for the rest of my life---the one where I take the more painful risk; the one where I shelter or brace myself against the safety of only the things I know.

I am glad I have found the words for it---soon I will formulate them into my own.

Happy Saturday!

other people's words

A few sentences on the romance of reading.

"Your head is empty, he continued, the hours slip away. From your chair you wander through the countries of your mind, and your thoughts, threading themselves into the fiction, play about with details or rush along the track of the plot. You melt into the characters; it seems as if your own heart is beating under their skin." - Flaubert, Madame Bovary.

other people's words (again, again)

Whilst trawling the internet today, I came across this quotation---and I knew I wanted to share it. It is long, but it is beautiful.

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes." ~ Rosemary Urquico

(Source: Una Bella Vita, A Beautiful Life).

everything will be okay

"It will all be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."

(Found via SwissMiss).

on other people's words

"I’m better when I’m writing and I’m more considered and I’m more humane. You’re trying to write about other people. You’re not always thinking about yourself. In life, people are egotistical, vain, they’ve got things they need to do or want to do, or ambitions. When you write, if you’re doing it well, you give up a lot of that. Negative capability, supposedly, is what it’s called. And when it goes well, that’s what it feels like. To let go of all your striving, all your sense of self, and kind of let the world in…It’s very hard to be a really genuinely selfish and terrible person and write generous and interesting prose. It doesn’t happen that often." ~ Zadie Smith.

I love her, by the way---even though a lot of people sometimes don't think she is writing about anything at all. But she is---she is writing about people and their beauty---in all their different forms.

other people's words

I have said it before but I will say it, quite happily, again.

Sometimes there are moments when only the words of others will do. Only they will comfort us, only they will illuminate aspects of the world we do not ordinarily see.

Today it is this.

"What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realised, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realising our dreams, master the lessons we've learned as we've moved toward that dream." Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

Let's apply it.

Let's continue to realise, then follow our dreams. Let us reach the end even when the odds don't appear to be thrown in our favour. Because they are, you know.

on other people's words

Every so often I will read or hear or find quotations that sum up my day. And usually they do it with more eloquence and more grace than I could ever dream of doing.

Today it is this one.

"If you have ever loved something so much that you ache when it is gone, then you know."

Casey Lefante, Love Letter.*

I guess sometimes it really is that simple.

*Its source can be found here.

on perfection

"One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."

Chuck Palahniuk, 'Fight Club'*

Maybe little more needs to be said than this - except, perhaps, how true it is.

And yet.

I have been thinking a lot about perfection lately and about the individual ideals we are always striving for. Striving is good; it is healthy. But sometimes I think we all beat ourselves up a little bit if things don't quite make it. And maybe I see this most in relationships and in the little wobbles they encounter.

The other day I read another quote about perfection and about how it is actually the act of looking past the imperfection. The idea stuck with me; made my vortex of appreciation widen a little. I don't know what perfection means - and it doesn't seem like anyone does - but I think this is a good way of looking at it. Because maybe if we notice the imperfections diminish, we have reached it. But maybe this can only be achieved by embracing them in the first place, by nourishing them. Because then we won't find them imperfect; we'll simply find them worth loving.

*Fight Club is amazing. And apparently the book is as good as the film.