sun day

i have these moments, instances, experiences, when i am overwhelmed with a zesty adoration for life and specifically, the one i'm currently having.

like this morning making scones while the sun poured in.

the walk home

"we shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

t.s. eliot

the unbearable weight of unknowing

sometimes i think of the seeming infinity of possible knowledge, (war, art, philosophy, politics, environment, poetry, religion, the intricacies of our human relationships), and it feels impossible for a lifetime.

it seems insurmountable that someone so small and mortal could get anywhere beyond the surface.

pretty things

"the dress must not hang on the body but follow its lines. it must accompany its wearer and when a woman smiles the dress must smile with her."

madeleine vionnet

"the best accessory for any frock, is jeremy and a lip lock."

jennifer sorrell

reading and writing (an affair)

"how does the reading feed into the writing, and vice versa? continually, continuously, promiscuously, in a million ways.”

philip pullman

writing.

"all that i hope to say in books, all that i ever hope to say, is that i love the world."

e.b. white

the trail

there is nothing, nothing, like a walk in the woods.

mindfulness.

"this being human is a guesthouse. every morning is a new arrival. a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

welcome and entertain them all! even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honourably. he may be cleaning you out for some new delight.

the dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond"

the guesthouse - rumi - 1207-1273

beauty.

"go outside, to the country, enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer. go outside and try to recapture the happiness within yourself; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy".

anne frank, the diary of a young girl

little blue dot

they're all in the same plane. they're all going around in the same direction. it's perfect, you know, it's gorgeous, it's almost uncanny.

astronomer geoffrey marcy describing the solar system

little and big

"a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars"

walt whitman

learning

" i have no special talents. i am only passionately curious."

albert einstein

marilyn

"she was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence."

arthur miller

the illusion of being alone

"solitude is only a human presumption. every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot. every choice is a world made new for the chosen".

'prodigal summer' - barbara kingsolver

a truthism.

the dictionary is full of words that i don’t know which means my life’s been full of missed opportunities to win at scrabble.

just a spoonful

"i've always been interested in the perfect spoon. it is delectable in a multisensory way: the appearance, the balance and feeling as you pick it up off the table, then the sensation as it touches your lips and you taste the contents."

bill moggridge, director of the smithsonian national design museum, new york city.

yeah, what she said.

"you lose your fear of failure in a great way if you improvise a lot, because you mostly fail when you improvise…it’s freeing to fail and you realize that you didn’t die."

tina fey

edie enchanted

"...she's the most elusive and the most difficult to capture, and i was in her presence masses of times, but i'm left with a visceral impression, not a vocal one that i can communicate because she changed lives of anyone she knew back then with her shimmering presence. it is like taking something ineffible. you know, tinkerbell is always represented just by a light on stage and a little tympani in the orchestra. there's no person in there. it's just a little baby spot that goes around."

rene ricard

just because you’re an atheist, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t love for things to have reasons for why they are