Showing posts with label kindness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindness. Show all posts

02 June 2011

lions, and tigers, and bears!

I have seen three snakes these past 30 days, easy.

The first: dead and flattened on the road in front of my house (right by my mailbox). (sad).

The second: alive and slithering, in my front yard. I was sitting on a blanket, reading, and it popped up from a hole right in front of me.

The third: a big long scary black one in the middle of the bike path, sunbathing on the concrete. I nearly crashed into Avery, going around it.

I've also been attacked by beetles in my sleep.

And was bitten by a spider in my sleep last night (have the battle wound to prove it).

Fished a (giant! 3 inch long! .5 inch thick! zebra striped!) slug off my kitchen floor the night before (the second one!)

And some dark, indistinguishable creature (either a big cat or a raccoon) has scared the dickens out of me twice, scampering past on my front porch, while I've been scrambling for keys.

(Nattada and I are strong, and not too squeamish. It's our home, and we can share it with the critters/elements; it's a lesson, I think, in recognizing that we are big and small in a world that is at once big and small).

On the plus side, there is a family of deer living in my back yard. They keep nuzzling outside my window. I see them often.

And I found a four leaf clover by the same mailbox where the snake was smushed.

Also on a moderate tangent, I've been floored/humbled lately by the number of people (including strangers) who have looked after me lately. There is certainly a lot of sadness in this world, but there is also a lot of kindness. Yeah, a lotta kind kind, baby.

18 May 2011

Words by Sharon Van Etten
"Holding Out"
FROM: Because I was In love

I was floored
by your humble outlook on the world
around you,
who and all you are.
I was floored
by the way you take me
seriously,
even when I'm joking.

Damn, damn, damn, damn.

I'm not tired and I'm tired
of not calling out
on the street I was holding out
Holding out,
'cross the table I was holding out,
trying to find a lover like that.
Holding out,
like the wind I was holding out,
staying still,
hoping no one else would see me.
Hoping calm,
replacing silence, drying palms.
Do I need a reason to hold you now?
'Cause I'd hold you now,
yeah I would hold you now.
One night,
And all I need is one more day.
Holding out,
for something that feels okay,
and the right thing to do is wait.

Holding out,
holding out,
holding out for you.

I am strange,
Believed in fairy tales at a young age.
Circumstance,
now I kick myself in the pants.
And then you came to me
in a faraway way,
and I'm bringing you something
I want you to have,
it's the biggest part of my heart
that I still got.

Hoping arms--
no--
Holding out
I'll be holding out.

holding out.
I'll be holding out,
holding out.
Holding out,
holding out for you.

15 May 2011

On being unkind to yourself//and dreaming in reverse.

(Cause I sure can be unkind to myself)
(We can all be unkind to ourselves).

photos by Tom Chambers--dreaming in reverse collection. View it here.

Someone like you- by Doug Paisley.

I've seen you stumble
I've seen you fall
I've seen you brought down, feathers and all
Picked yourself up for the ones that you call
Your best friends.
I know you've been fighting
What we can't see
Sometimes it takes many faces to be
It takes a time and a place to be free
But in the end

Who would be so cruel
To someone like you
No one but you
Who would make the rouse
For the things that you do
No one but you.

I woke up this morning
Looked at the sky
I thought of all of the time passing by
It didn't matter how hard we tried
'Cause in the end

Who would be so cruel
To someone like you
No one but you
Who would make the rouse
For the things that you do
No one but you.
---
*This was hauntingly-beautiful at Nelsonville Music Festival, where Cheyenne Marie Mize sang duet, and played violin. Cheyenne and Doug both have Daytrotter Sessions where you can legally download samples of their work, unplugged.

15 April 2011