Tag Archives: acceptance

Jun25

look for the whole person.

Posted on June 25, 2026 by beth

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The Sun (Solen) by Edvard Munch, 1911

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“If you write, fix pipes, grade papers, lay bricks or drive a taxi – do it with a sense of pride.

And do it the best you know how.

Be cognizant and sympathetic to the guy alongside, because he wants a place in the sun, too.

And always…always look past his color, his creed, his religion and the shape of his ears.

Look for the whole person.

Judge him as the whole person.”

-rod serling

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The Sun is a departure from Munch’s darker themes, focusing instead on themes of light, life force, and energy through intense, radiating colors.

It is a monumental work, measuring approximately 4.5 meters high by 7.8 meters wide, originally created for the Oslo University assembly hall.

Apr30

oubaitori.

Posted on April 30, 2026 by beth

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none of the flowering fruit trees in the ancient idiom

are in this photo

but some of my native plants are doing as they please

blooming and flourishing at their own rate

“Oubaitori” comes from the kanji, (Japanese characters), that symbolize four flowering trees: cherry blossom, plum, peach, and apricot. It’s an ancient idiom meaning that people, like the flowers on those trees, bloom and flourish at their own rate and in their own way. The overall takeaway: Don’t compare yourself to others, instead, celebrating your inherent uniqueness.

I’m on it.

Jun3

roll with it.

Posted on June 3, 2025 by beth

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pete the cat is our loyal sentinel who patiently keeps watch

welcoming in the new day.

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‘each new day has a different shape to it. you just roll with it.’

-ben zobrist, american formerl MLB player

Jun14

abstract mess.

Posted on June 14, 2024 by beth

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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.

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‘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.

Posted on February 1, 2024 by beth

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“the best way to get along with people is not to expect them to be like you.”

-joyce meyer

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art credit- L Józef Wilkoń – Leopanter

Jan5

time runs out.

Posted on January 5, 2024 by beth

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“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.”

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in memoriam of r.s. – you will be greatly missed and thanks for the music

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credits:

text: Matt Haig – The Midnight Library, 2020.

art: Grant Haffner – Into the night, 1978