pete the cat is our loyal sentinel who patiently keeps watch
welcoming in the new day.
—
‘each new day has a different shape to it. you just roll with it.’
-ben zobrist, american formerl MLB player
Jun3
Tag Archives: acceptance
Jun14
abstract mess.
getting ready in the morning
i made a quick decision
to throw one light piece of laundry
down the stairs
rather than carry the extra three ounces
down seven stairs to my washing machine
tucked away in a little closet
such a brilliantly lazy choice
i instantly realized my mistake
when it caught on a piece of art
hanging along the stairway
ripping it off the wall
sending it reeling
into another wall
creating a divot
the art tile on the wood
cracking in two
the nail lost deep in the carpeting
went down the seven stairs
now easy
with three ounces less
than i would have had to carry
stepping over it all
walked into my kitchen
flipping on the light
which answered me with a sudden ‘pop!’
a lightbulb had chosen that moment to blow out
i took in the spectacle of it all
sat down with a cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate, and a bit of music
another day had begun.
—
‘i think you have to let go of this idea that you can be precious about everything,
and let it be the abstract mess that it is.’
-ryan reynolds
Feb1
best way.
“the best way to get along with people is not to expect them to be like you.”
-joyce meyer
—
art credit- L Józef Wilkoń – Leopanter
Jan5
time runs out.
“It is easy to mourn the lives we aren’t living. Easy to wish we’d developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we’d worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga.
It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn’t make and the work we didn’t do the people we didn’t do and the people we didn’t marry and the children we didn’t have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out.
But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy.
We can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
—
in memoriam of r.s. – you will be greatly missed and thanks for the music
—
credits:
text: Matt Haig – The Midnight Library, 2020.
art: Grant Haffner – Into the night, 1978
Oct27
like books.
“we are like books.
most people see only our cover,
the minority read only the introduction,
many people believe the critics.
few will know the content.”
-emile zola
—
image credit: newton free library
Sep15
a really big family.
“i have a really big family.”
—
“families don’t have to match. you don’t have to look like someone to love them.”
-leigh anne tuohy
Aug15
mistaken orders.
the restaurant of mistaken orders employs waitstaff with dementia
and you can never be exactly sure what you will be getting.
below is a statement from the restaurant to potential patrons and to the world.
—
you may think it’s crazy,
a restaurant that can’t even get your order right,
all of our servers are people living with dementia,
they may, or may not, get your order right.
however, rest assured,
that even if your order is mistaken
everything on our menu is delicious and one of a kind.
this we guarantee.
“it’s okay if my order was wrong, it tastes so good anyway.”
we hope this feeling of openness and understanding
will spread across japan, and through the world.
—
We ask for your continued support of The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders in Tokyo, Japan.
Our mission is to spread dementia awareness and to make society a little bit more open-minded and relaxed.
—
“gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”
-lionel hampton
—
source credits: https://www.japan.go.jp/tomodachi/2019/winter2019/restaurant_of_mistaken_orders.html
the government of japan
Aug12
so what.
“sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years
when they could just say, so what.
that’s one of my favorite things to say. so what.”
-andy warhol
Aug8
pride.
ann arbor pride fest 2023
—
so happy to live in a city that takes pride in all people and celebrates everyone.
—
“festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, they increase creativity,
they offer opportunities for civic pride, they improve our general psychological well-being.
in short, they make cities better places to live.”
-david binder
Jun11
where does the rainbow end?
After their LGBTQ pride flag was stolen twice in recent weeks, a pair of Ann Arbor churches are responding the only way they know how — giving away more flags.
St Aidan’s Episcopal Church and Northside Presbyterian Church, which share a building in Ann Arbor, are launching a “Need A Flag, Take A Flag” event today. The event will feature 300 LGBTQ pride flags and allow anyone in need of a flag to take home their own handheld versions.
Although the event is in part a Pride Month celebration, the inspiration for it comes from the theft of the churches’ own flags. On April 3, church leadership received an email saying someone had removed the flag and thrown it into the bushes. On June 1, the churches reported the replaced flag had been stolen completely.
“I still haven’t found it,” said the Rev. Thomas Ferguson, vicar at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. The Rev. Jenny Saperstein, pastor at Northside Presbyterian Church, told Ferguson, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that whoever took it must have needed a flag. “She said, let’s answer this with something positive,” Ferguson said.
The churches, which often partner on social justice issues, will have 300 flags available and plan to order more if they run out. Launching the event on a Sunday allows the entire congregation to get involved with the advocacy, Saperstein said. “It’s really this church community that stands for that,” Saperstein said. “Not just the pastors.”
Hearing affirming messaging from churches is especially important for marginalized communities. “We’ll hope to change hearts and minds with love,” Ferguson said. “We’re not going away, and we’re not changing our stance here with the oppressed.”
—
Donde termina el arco iris,
en tu alma o en el horizonte?
Where does the rainbow end,
in your soul or on the horizon?
― Pablo Neruda, The Book of Questions
—
source credit: jordyn pair, mlive, ann arbor news
I didn't have my glasses on.... 