—SHAKE IT OFF, SHAKE IT OFF

 

 

…I’m a little loose, but at least I can hold onto a glass with one hand. So, there’s that.

 

…When I have a blue day, I just usually swallow it. I swallow hard. It’d be best to talk to someone, but I’m still shy about sharing my feelings. even at this late date.

 

…You can’t hate Trevor Noah, you just can’t. There are lots of others, but not Trevor.

 

…Sometimes it’s awfully hard to find your way to Yes.

 

…Come to think of it, people who are usually dicks aren’t all that bad if you’re able to take a couple of breaths first.

 

…Don’t we all die hundreds of times before we actually die?

 

…Who really knows the purpose of suffering?

 

…Getting older, those minutes flickering by, it’s best to use each one well.

 

…Maybe I don’t even know why.

 

…Sometimes, during conversation, it’s just okay to listen.

 

…It’s ironic how a near-death experience can bring people closer together.

 

…“If we keep looking back, we will die in a way and there is still some living to do.” Paul Lynch, Prophet Song

 

…What you take with you is always the things that can’t be replaced.

 

…I had lunch with one of my best friends the other day and he was telling me about a friend of his who had bought a bottle or Leonetti wine, (extremely expensive) years back, but they hadn’t opened it. My friend said, “I’m coming over tonight, I’m bringing pizza and we’re drinking that fucking wine. What are you waiting for?”

That’s a good mantra for life: What are you waiting for?

 

…It’s important to choose your questions carefully.

 

…You can poke all the holes you want, but I’ll still be right here.

 

…"Hey, I am learning what it means to ride condemned.

I may be breaking up. I am doing 85 outside the kingdom

Of heaven, under the overpass and passed over,

The past is over and I’m over the past. My odometer

Is broken, can you help me?"

- Terrance Hayes

 

…Everything seemed so much easier when I was younger. It’s harder now, but it’s still good.

 

…You know you’re aligned when you tell your best friend ELO is going on the road and his response is “Holy Shit,” and then he’s bought tickets and made travel accommodations before you’ve even brushed your teeth. 

 

…If I could be remembered as a good listener, that would be enough.

 

…Most all of my writer friends are scoring, and I’m genuinely happy about that.

 

…Sports matter. They do. I’m sorry, my liberal, writer friends. But, they change the atmosphere. They create a distraction. They make you root for something bigger than yourself. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, they even make you feel young again.

 

…There are a lot of things I don’t want to know about, and I’m sure the feeling is similar when it comes to me.

 

…I’m probably always going to be the guy who has the last drink, instead of the last word.

 

…I called one of my best friends the other day. The conversation lasted over an hour. I might have spoken six sentences, and that was okay.

 

…If there’s a way out of this, I still haven’t found it.

 

…“There’s nothing you can do to make me love you less,” is a Biblical quote, but I love it nonetheless.

 

…We can’t live in a world of indifference, or if we can, we can’t.

 

…I know I know I know, I need to lighten up, but sometimes it’s hard. 

 

…Some of those country songs—man, they take you out at the knees.

 

…I think it’s a macho, or a youth thing, not to like country music. And that’s a shame.

 

…What I never figured out was how some people can bury it, and never have a trouble further. Jelly. 

 

…A lot of times I’m still in that strawberry field, knees on stones, or else up on a ladder with a roped bucket over my shoulder picking pie cherries. I’ve learned that I’m grateful for that.

 

…I don’t believe in ghosts, but I often hear, and see the silhouette of Lucy, when I sleep in her room.

 

…If you think too much about your sins, the ones you’ve committed, you're basically doomed. It’s best you give yourself grace and realize you are human after all.

 

…Can it be true? I’m actually going to see Jeff Lynne twice in less than a year.

 

…It’s so late, I might not never get it right.

 

…I wonder where all of the stars are hanging out tonight, because they’re not here.

 

…I wish I could be an extrovert, or a faux extrovert, as I was at N, but that doesn’t work anymore. I actually think I was sad when I was at my brightest, but I just brushed it off.

 

…When you’re hurting, don’t your friends come to get you real soon, to keep you out of the gloom?

 

…Thank God for best friends.

 

….I’m not always writing to you, and if you think I am, I sorry. But there’s an unknown that knows me pretty well.

...I'm talking to you.

 

…You watch someone die, and there’s no going back from it. It’s an end, and hopefully a new beginning.

 

…I think Pen Pals is one of the best things ever. Just to hear something, from someone, something honest, well, that goes along way.

 

…I’m trying to check myself when I get angry or annoyed. I’m trying to think what triggered it, who triggered it. And if I love them, I’m trying to set it aside.

 

…We can’t always get what we want, or deserve, but we can always reach out our hand in humility, and hope someone clasps it.

 

…I get lonely all the time, but I really wouldn’t want to be on the phone ten-hours a day.

 

…I’m really not sure what Jesus is going to do with me when he sees me, Him or Peter.

 

…“Make a place to sit down.

Sit down. Be quiet.

You must depend upon

affection, reading, knowledge,

skill – more of each

than you have – inspiration,

work, growing older, patience,

for patience joins time

to eternity.

…"Accept what comes from silence.

Make the best you can of it.”

– Wendell Berry

 

…I wish people wouldn’t fuck with you, like play juvenile mind games with you. The world is already blurry enough.

 

…That life over there, that was someone else’s.

 

…Tomorrow is a new day. And aren’t we so lucky for that?