--I AM HERE, LISTENING

…You should see the lake right now.  It’s about as still as it’s ever been, a dark blue mirror reflecting back the evergreens, some house lights glowing like hot coals, rooftops and boats.

…On Wednesday I go to Boston for AWP, a writer’s conference.  11,000 people will be there.  The world needs more readers and fewer writers, don’t you think?

It should be a lot of fun, as well as a good chance to meet many of the people I only know via the internet.  Plus I’m reading on Wednesday and Friday night, and that’s always a lot of fun.

…A lot of people hate Monday.  Not me.  I like the idea of beginning something, a fresh start, a new week.

So here are some things to ponder:

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.”
― Sylvia Plath

-"A lot of us wear braces on our teeth.  It's what sets us apart from the Europeans."

-"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting." Ryan Meeks

"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down."

--Woody Allen

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln

-"The human life is all one thing, like a blad3 tracing loops on ice: a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow."

-"Words make a difference."

-"Telling stories seemed a natural, inevitable process, like clearing the throat."

-"By telling stories, you objectify your own experience.  You separate it from yourself.  You pin down certain truths.  You make up others.

-"But this too is true: stories can save us."

-"In a story, which is kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world."

-"The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hopeing that others might  then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make the spirits in the head.  There's the illusion of aliveness." --Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried"

"We are worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is." Brené Brown

"We tend to make courage too dramatic. Courage is often doing

something simple, unpleasant, or boring again and again until we get it down pat. People who are physically challenged and who have the determination to get around their handicaps are great examples because their courage makes them test their limits every day." Dave Thomas

"Let's go get the world while there's still some of it worth getting."

"The best way to honor your life is to perform every act with ceremony.  Don't do sloppy work.  Tie your shoes carefully.  Comb your hair carefully." -- Bonnie Nadzam, "Lamb"