--I KEEP LOSING IT

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."- Albert Camus

"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."- Albert Einstein

"It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong."- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

"Every life is a daily series of advances and retreats, intimate victories and private defeats, all measured not by grand events but by an awareness of the obstacles that have been overcome along the way."- Simon Baatz

“I can have that feeling sometimes of real joy in sadness, that kind of joy that you get from a sad song that’s got you crying your eyes out.”  Paul Thomas Anderson

“When we’re isolated, it becomes very difficult to know how much of your pain is specific to you—how low or high your threshold is for feeling sad or melancholy or just plain blue compared to other people.”  Paul Thomas Anderson

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many--not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."- Charles Dicken

"I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amidst the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail."- Charles A. Beard

"Most groups have a potential for greatness that never quite takes off. But every so often the right person comes along who can put together a handful of superb people, set an impossible goal, engage them in a holy war, and let them rip."- Jennifer Clark

“I feel like I’m just starting.”  Quincy Jones

--SO HOW ARE YOU NOW?

…The best kind of happiness is the kind that spreads.

…When is it time to knock down the whitewashed walls?

When is it time to beat the bricks like bass drums?

When is it time to risk your skull and all the squishy thoughts you hold so dear?

Why not go ahead and bang your head?

…To a greater or lesser degree, and manifesting one way or another, all human beings are afraid.  And some of us are so afraid that we dare not show our fear.  Sometimes we dare not even know our fear.  For fear itself is a terrifying concept to behold.

…Where no sea runs, the heart of the water pushes its tide.  Or so says Dylan Thomas

…The trick is to cut off the tears at the swell, but sometimes the tide is too hurried and rough.

…While I fear that we’re drawn to what abandons us, and to what seems most likely to abandon us, in the end I believe we’re defined by what embraces us.

…Life is all a matter of mountains and caves—mountains we must climb, and caves where we hide when we can’t face our mountains.

…Imagine a childhood of crushing loneliness, then imagine letting it slip away like dandelion seeds in the breeze.

…Without this sheet, I might be invisible.

…Wait a minute, cottage cheese?  Is that a joke?

…Here’s a happy poem I had published the other day:

https://inbetweenhangovers.wordpress.com/2018/01/25/grappling-by-len-kuntz/

…Some people act like they’ve never made a mistake.  Me, I make them all the time.  

…Some people never let go of Christmas, which is understandable to a degree.  But what about all of the other days?

…I want a life of wind on skin.  That’d be really nice.

…I’m looking for signs that I’m okay, but it feels like I’m ten degrees off.

  

…Sometimes palinoia gets the best of me.

…Sometimes I’m not as sad as I seem/sound.  It’s just that I’m drawn to sadness in the way that most people are drawn to beauty or joy.

…I knew this would happen.  I mean, I really wished it would happen, to be here again.

…How many chances does one person get?  I don’t know, but I guess I need one more.

…Don’t be mad at me.  It’s just fiction.  Or at least I think it is.

--I’M STRAIGHT UP FIXED ON YOU

…One of the best things ever has to be waking up feeling good, happy, and not knowing why that is.

…One in thirty births in the US are twins.  The odds are pretty good.  Too bad they weren’t for me, but it worked out quite all right anyway.  

…”If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”  Frederick Douglas said that.  He had no idea how right he was.

…The junk of our lives might not be junk.  Maybe we just need the perspective of time to appreciate that what was thought to be trash was actually gold with the dirt not washed off.

…Dogs and children are sensitive issues for me.

…For a while there I was freaked out about running out of time.  Now I’m okay with it, either way.

…The only other mammal that cries tears are elephants.  That kind of makes me love elephants.

…Penguins are also pretty fascinating.  They work so hard and love in quirky ways.  They’re loyal and great parents.  What’s not to love about penguins?

…”I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”  That’s Martin Luther King, Jr., and I agree with him.

…I know exactly where I’m going, said me never.

…Sometimes.  Always.  Never.

…”Thank you for noticing” is something most people like hearing.  I know I do.

…Those times it happened, it was kind of like I lost a heart and there was nowhere for the blood to go.

…I’m sorry for taking my eye off the ball.  That’s you.  You’re the ball.

…Always I walk up the same steps.  I push open the door and end up with you.

…Maybe I actually like being mad at myself.

…The bad guys know everything, but they have pretty lousy outfits.

…I think everyone sees their childhood through different lenses, different perspectives, but sometimes the truth is universal and unavoidable.

…Lately I’ve been trying to determine if the moon and stars disagree.

…Lately I’ve been thinking about the idea of self-sabotage.  Apparently, we all do it on occasion, but I am the master at it.

…What’re we doing out here, just sitting when we could be dancing?

…When you break it down, it’s really about the people on the inside, those who’ve broken through your skin and swim inside you.

…Sometimes the right kind of No is better than the right kind of Yes, but not usually.

…Everybody hides.  Everybody needs.  Everybody bleeds.  Everybody loves. 

...As for me, I am going to ask better questions and listen harder.

--TELL ME IT'S OKAY


...Lately, I've been thinking about the past, how there is no holding back.  No point in wasting sorrow.

...So try this.  The next time a sunrise steals your breath, or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, stay that way.

...You got my number, you can call on me.  You get in trouble, you call fall on me.  You get mad, you can take it out on me... Put it all on me...

...The marble the Michelangelo’s David was carved from was a hunk of marble he found in the trash.  Just goes to show you, one man's junk is another man's treasure, or can be with a little fortitude and imagination.

...It's raining at a slant here.  The strange thing is it's just switched from left to right without my knowing it.  And somehow, out my window there is a cone of gnats swirling in a lazy rotation despite the wetness.

...Life is a series of doors.  Sometimes you get to choose the door you walk through and sometimes you don't, but you still have to walk through the door.  Still, what really matters is what you do once you've walked through. 

...Sometimes I can hear my bones laughing at me, but lately I've taken to laughing right back with them.  It's a lot more fun that way.  

...True love means there is no deal breaker.

...Life is a bit like Stockholm Syndrome, or it should be.

...Every dream is beaten back accordingly and I am fine with that.  They've all been nightmares anyway, and I have no interest in being rescued.  There's no agency in that.

...The lake is so greedy, bloated slate-black this time of year, like a rippled, liquid chalkboard.  It takes all the rain it's given without complaint.  At night she sleeps with one arm over her forehead and the other wrapped around my waist. 

...Those things that remind us what a privilege it is to feel anything as strongly and as messily as you did when you were young--those are the things to hold onto.

...I've spent so much of my time, going out of my mind.  Tried so hard to be amused, but what you cannot gain you lose.

...Sometimes the night cuts through me like a knife, but today all I see is sun, even if she's been playing Hide N Seek all morning.

..."Everything's going to be okay."  It's not always, but that's the one thing you most want to hear when things look bleak.

...Everything's going to be okay.  I just know it.