—IS IT INSENSITIVE FOR ME TO SAY, ‘GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER SO I CAN LOVE YOU?’

 

 

…Hey, Wednesday, is it you?

I think so.

I miss you.

But I’m getting here late.

I wrote some new pieces, but they need a bit of shoe polish, so maybe I’ll post them on Friday or Monday. 

Until then, here are some things I like for the middle of the week when the sun is feeling cocky and winking at you…

 

“When I had my kids and was with them, attending to them, you know, I’ll admit I’d sometimes think, ‘But I could be writing a song right now, instead. Something classic.’ And then I’d think to myself that songs—the really great ones—they last forever, man, they’ll be there for all time.’ Yet at the same moment, right then, I also thought, ‘My kids, you know, they won’t be here forever. There’s only so much time I get with them before they’re gone, or I am.’ And so, I thought, ‘To hell with writing songs right now, great or not. These are my kids. Mine. My kids. And they’re right here. Right now.” Bruce Springsteen, Renegades: Born in the U.S.A. 

  

“I don’t remember the film. But I remember the feelings.” Amour

 

“Love is not an exclusive relationship with another person; love is the quality that arises when we are in contact with our inner being, with our authentic self, with the meditative quality within, with the inner silence and emptiness. This inner emptiness is experienced by others and is expressed on the outside as love. This love is not addressed to a specific person; it is a presence and quality that surrounds a person like a fragrance.”  Swami Dhyan Giten

  

“I have pasts inside of me that I did not bury properly.” Ijeoma Umebinyuo

 

“Forgiveness is just another name for freedom.” Byron Katie

 

"I have never been very chronological or linear in my thought process. And in my way of working I listen and follow, and the form gathers, and I go from there. I revise continually as I write. I work ahead, far ahead if I am inspired. Then I return and untangle the mess and find a pattern and keep going, then circle back when I return, sort of like weaving, or sketching then filling out the image, or in the case of story writing, the narrative. Still, I am aware of rhythm. There is rhythm and timing, and the best storytellers have rhythm. And rhythmically I prefer to swing!" Joy Harjo

 

"All my life I have lived and behaved very much like the sandpiper just running down the edges of different countries and continents, looking for something.” Elizabeth Bishop

 

“He cared way too much about everything.” Morgan Neville, on Anthony Bourdain

 

“A writer needs only two things: a fascination with words and a fascination with nearly everything else.” D.A. Powell

 

“My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire...to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups... I want to speak to their souls.” John Coltrane

 

“They may call me a sinner, but I am at peace with myself.” Brigitte Bardot

 

“Without promotion, something terrible happens: nothing.” P.T. Barnum

 

"I have squandered my resistance

For a pocketful of mumbles

Such are promises

All lies and jest

Still, a man hears what he wants to hear

And disregards the rest"

   The Boxer, Paul Simon

 

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” Mark Twain

 

“You need only be a scarecrow for poems to land on.” Muriel Rukeyser

 

“Somewhere under the hurricane a sea turtle rows through silence.” Alicia Suskin Ostriker

 

“And it’s beautiful. Maybe too beautiful. Maybe, sometimes, we miss the flaws more than we think we should.” Nancy Stohlman

 

“I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.” Georgia O’Keeffe