24 February, 2012

mind your manners

i am always saying "glad to've met you" to someone i am not at all glad i met. 
if you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

-jd salinger's holden caulfield,catcher in the rye



*photo breakfast at tiffany's

23 February, 2012

along the lines of courage


courage doesn't always roar.
 
sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying,  

"I will try again tomorrow."

                                             -mary anne radmacher





* painting more edvard munch

braving the blues


not every day is a good one. 

sometimes we just want to hide away, shirk responsibilities, stay in our pyjamas and lie around and wallow in our sorrows. sometimes as bad as this feels, it feels good to allow yourself to feel awful.

strength is not just about soldiering on in the face of adversity. there is courage in displaying your vulnerabilities. if you are feeling scared or blue or just floundering, it is okay to let people see that part of you. 

we are not judged by our loved ones in a single moment but rather in all our moments, good and bad, soft and hard, pretty and ugly. we are the sum of all these equal parts.

sometimes outside the sun is shining and the sky is clear blue, but inside us there is a tempest brewing…it may even feel like we are stuck under an umbrella of grey rain clouds that follows us around our day. courage is believing that even our storm will pass and we can and will get through this darkness and be all the happier for what lies ahead.
 
that is what I am telling myself today anyway...

*painting edvard munch girls on a bridge

22 February, 2012

social grace


 weirdos

sometimes we encounter awkward or gawky people. sometimes their manner makes us uncomfortable in return.

unless this person is some creepy guy relentlessly hitting on you in a bar, give them a break. 

instead of cutting them off and drifting away to other clusters in the party, why not introduce them into the fold?  problem solved. offer them entré into a group, make them feel at ease and fully a part of the action and relieve yourself of the burden of carrying the conversation.

people often treat others the way they have been treated themselves. set a good example. maybe if you treat an unusual person like a usual person they will react in kind.

maybe not, but at least you are not aping the weirdo…

17 February, 2012

xoxo

a kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
-ingrid bergman



16 February, 2012

never as good as the first time

who was your first love? do you remember the falling?
my very first love was john travolta.


oh how i loved him! in every incarnation. from the very beginning as vinny barbarino and danny zuko to what i consider his finest role as chili palmer in "get shorty"…i loved him so much I even went to the opening night of “twist of fate”. that is devotion i tell you. i have the soundtrack to prove the depths.
my adoration for travolta set a tone and a standard for the boys that followed. dark and swarthy won my heart every time. always beating out the surplus of scandinavian blondes that too closely resembled my brothers for comfort. and with the exception of just one, all my beaux were excellent dancers.
how did your first love impact the ones that followed?

14 February, 2012

glad alla hjärtans dag

i’ll chime in and add my two cents to the valentine’s day hype - after all it is not as if i ever shy from the saccharine on this blog. 
i am not a big observer of v-day but i do think it can serve as a reminder that we should celebrate love every day. and by love i mean love in all its variants…hetero, homo, platonic, romantic, filial, sibling… whatever…
Leo Buscaglia put it best when he said
“love is life. and if you miss love, you miss life.”

go forth and love. love freely and openly and without fear or hesitation. everyone deserves to love and be loved. no matter what form it may take.
xoxo
photo: paul newman and joanne woodward from LIFE magazine via old love

10 February, 2012

...get up and do your thing

it's the weekend...dance and sing
get up and do your thing
dance like no one is watching...smile because you know they will...

08 February, 2012

trippin'

some of my favorite friends are heading off on a road trip. after feeling a twinge of jealousy for the fun they are about to have, i got to thinking about road trips as a great allegory for life.
you may start with a map and a plan and all may go along accordingly…but we make choices when we make plans. when we chose one thing, we reject other things. we cannot experience every opportunity or know all possibilities. you never know where the other roads may have lead you…life is risky like that. you have to make choices and take what arrives.
sometimes there are surprises… unplanned incidents that delay our progress. and so we cope. we handle what comes our way with the best of our abilities in that moment. next time such an emergency arises, we are better prepared and less afraid. stronger and more assured.
sometimes the road is dark, rough and we feel lost. but still we go on…we use the tools we have to forge ahead, always trusting that we will find our way out or someone to help us get back on track.
when we are back in the sunshine and the sky is bright, remember to pay attention. feel the warmth of rays in our hair, smell the air and remember how colorful and exciting seeing new places and meeting new people can be.
too often we take the easy times for granted. the free-wheeling fun is the best part. we often work so hard at getting through hard times, we forget we can apply the same sort of industrious focus to enjoying the good. when we pay attention to those quiet moments, they speak volumes that we can carry with us forever.
***photo credit: wild strawberries, ingmar bergman