“what we write should surprise us, the way life surprises us.”
-marty rubin
Jan30
Jan29
listening.
—
image credit: squee.com
Jan28
learn.
—
quote credit: john holt
Jan27
out of stone.
“i believe that one defines oneself by reinvention.
to not be like your parents.
to not be like your friends.
to be yourself.
to cut yourself out of stone.’
-henry rollins
—
credits: Chad Knight digital sculpture, right brained, wild child
Jan26
defendant.
after making the decision
to challenge my traffic ticket
(I’m innocent, for the record)
my scheduled hearing
has been adjourned twice.
in today’s mail
I received the new date
for my next potential hearing.
I had to laugh
when I picked up the new envelope
(for the third time now)
and it once again clearly read:
Defendant
just above my name
with the court address In the return corner
I have to wonder
just what major crime
my mr. rogers sweet and friendly mailman
thinks I may have committed?
‘we find the defendants incredibly guilty.’
– mel brooks
Jan25
lunar new year.
“hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.”
-harry emerson fosdick
happy lunar new year 2020
the year of the rat
—
image credit: Natalie Schloss
Jan24
beneath.
Beneath The Sweater And The Skin
How many years of beauty do I have left?
she asks me.
How many more do you want?
Here. Here is 34. Here is 50.
When you are 80 years old
and your beauty rises in ways
your cells cannot even imagine now
and your wild bones grow luminous and ripe,
having carried the weight
of a passionate life.
When your hair is aflame
with winter
and you have decades of
learning and leaving and loving
sewn into
the corners of your eyes
and your children come home
to find their own history
in your face.
When you know what it feels like to fail
ferociously
and have gained the
capacity
to rise and rise and rise again.
When you can make your tea
on a quiet and ridiculously lonely afternoon
and still have a song in your heart
Queen owl wings beating
beneath the cotton of your sweater.
Because your beauty began there
beneath the sweater and the skin,
remember?
This is when I will take you
into my arms and coo
YOU BRAVE AND GLORIOUS THING
you’ve come so far..
I see you.
Your beauty is breathtaking.
—
Credits: Author: Jeannette Encinias, Studio Yuki Photography, Thank you Russ Thomas
Jan23
stardust.
Scanning electron microscope image of one of the clumps of presolar grains, or stardust. Image via Janaína N. Ávila/EurekAlert!
Ancient stardust in meteorite is older than Earth
Grains of stardust – particles left behind by star explosions – in an Australian meteorite are now the oldest known material on Earth. A new study suggests this stardust came to be long before our sun ever existed.
As the saying goes, we are all made of stardust. It’s true. The elements in our bodies – oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and so on – are made in the thermonuclear furnaces of stars. When scientists speak of stardust, or cosmic dust, they’re speaking of the leftover tiny particles from dead stars that exploded as supernovae. This stardust later goes into forming new stars, planets and moons, including those in our own solar system. It goes into the solar system’s debris, the asteroids and comets, and ultimately meteorites, or rocks from space that find their way to Earth’s surface. Now scientists at the Field Museum in Chicago have found the oldest known samples of stardust in a meteorite that landed in Australia. The meteorite is estimated to be 5 to 7 billion years old. The stardust samples are the oldest material ever discovered on Earth. This dust is even older than our solar system.
The new peer-reviewed study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 13, 2020.
—
credits: SPACE – Paul Scott Anderson, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Earth Sky, Chicago Field Museum, Phillip Heck
Jan22
grandiloquent.
we all know that person
who uses pretentious words as a means to impress
which generally results in the opposite effect
like when someone uses the word ‘grandiloquent’ in a sentence.
—
GRANDILOQUENT
part of speech: adjective
origin: latin, late 16th century
definition:
speaking or expressed in a lofty style, often to the point of being pompous or bombastic.
related words:
sentence examples:
Even though Rick did not understand the grandiloquent words, he still used them to impress his wealthy friends.
When I heard the salesman’s grandiloquent speech, I knew he was trying to make the car deal sound better than it actually was.
—
“i am trying to impress myself. i have yet to do it.”
-shia labeouf
Jan21
conscience.
