Quotability

inspiration for T minus 2 weeks...

"Love is never finished, and life is never as clean as the stories we tell ourselves. If that robs us of a certain resolution, perhaps it’s enough that those moments let us sit back and look at one another and say: we almost didn't make it, but we got here. Now let’s keep going."

Daniel Carlson, from his film review of Before Midnight

(photo from Vogue, July 1940)

Joy by Zadie Smith

Read this essay by Zadie Smith discussing the difference between pleasure and joy:

"Occasionally the child, too, is a pleasure, though mostly she is a joy, which means in fact she gives us not much pleasure at all, but rather that strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight that I have come to recognize as joy"

(photo via weheartit)

Quotability

"Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit."

Bern Williams

 

 

(Photo of the Lake Michigan Sunset at J and P's wedding)

 

Quotability

"So, my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?' If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way.

Do your thing and don't care if they like it."

-Tina Fey, Bossypants

(photo via Cup of Jo)

Quotability

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

Nelson Henderson

(photo by Jose Villa via Oncewed)

Quotability

"But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Carl Sagan

(photo of the East Coast from space by NASA)

Quotability

"I just love individuals who never stay still. With all the potential that everyone has and our limited time in this world, we owe ourselves nothing less."

C. Sy

On the home stretch of the completion of my first block of medical school. I already passed my first class. Anatomy ends Friday. See you on the other side.

(space view of night and day - photo source unknown)

Quotability

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

Mary Ann Radmacher

PS. I took this photo of the London Eye back in 2008 and used this Polaroid software on it!

Stage Fright

I really have nothing to say during the closing hours on the eve of my first day of classes. I'm calm but tired, nervous but hopeful, ready but so not ready. I remember reading Connie's poignant thoughts as she was about to embark on her own journey to law school and I recall being so moved at her fear, longing, and hope. These are emotions that I too now know.

It is so crazy to think that these were her feelings from only about 11 months ago. In less than a year, my little bear has changed so much and, to put it lightly, she has kicked absolute ass (top of her class, Law Review, etc., etc.). If I am but a fraction of the woman she is, I will be living a dream.

"Tomorrow is the beginning of an odyssey that will change my life, and I am feeling very small indeed."

Conmonster

Quotability

"Optimism is always a risk worth taking."

Cynthia B. Padnos, in the 2011 Michigan Engineering Commencement speech

(Photo by Jenny Phebe)

In Solidarity

But although my ankles hurt and the backs of my legs ached, it felt very good to be moving, and to be free, and to feel the night air on my face and the grass on my legs, wet from the dew. I know my sister was happy too. She was whistling under her breath. Once when we stopped to rest, she dug her toes into the earth at the edge of a field and smiled. When I saw her smile, I felt strong enough to carry on.

Chris Cleave from Little Bee

Congratulations to my sister for earning her first paycheck as a working woman. It's been a rough transition for all of us. For her, most of all.

Quotability

Not so cheeky:

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

The Bishop of London in his Sermon from the Royal Wedding

photo by Juttamoi

Quotability

Happy thoughts, happy life to you today!

"The thoughts you sow become the life you reap."

my yoga instructor

(Photo via weheartit)

Perspective

After I sent my sister an angry text about how the blueberry muffin I had been saving for myself was eaten by our clueless father, she, in true fashion, replies:

"Dun be sad... You'll be skinnier for it. And that will be better in the end. :-)"


(photo via Allrecipes)

Quotability

"...But, in the long run, in the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against that assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities, which we group together under the name of character; and if between any two contestants, even in college sport or in college work, the difference in character on the right side is as great as the difference of intellect or strength the other way, it is the character side that will win."

Theodore Roosevelt

Happy Birthday to Jenny, one who overflows with intellect, strength, and character.

(photo of Natalie Wood in NYC by William Claxton, 1961)

Fitzgerald

I'm currently reading through The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald that I borrowed from the library. I'm making my way through them slowly and relishing every detail. Fitzgerald has such a seemingly effortless way of setting a scene with his carefully crafted words. For me, his lyrical language has been the epitome of great American writing ever since I first read The Great Gatsby in my 10th grade English class.

Anyway, my reading material appears to have found me at the perfect time. As I'm in a Fitzgerald state of mind, news is breaking out everywhere that Carey Mulligan has just been cast as Daisy Buchanan in the Baz Luhrmann-helmed version of Gatsby. She'll be playing opposite to Leonardo DiCaprio's Gatsby and Tobey Maguire's Nick. The casting, though, is really of minimal concern to me. I am generally wary of when my favorite books are made into movies (so, no, I won't be dressing up for the midnight showing of Harry Potter tonight), but sometimes I'm more than pleasantly surprised. So I'll keep an open mind about this as long as it is as gorgeous and heartbreaking as it has always been in my imagination and that it preserves my favorite line in the book (and perhaps one of my favorite lines in all of literature):

--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--

(all photos from the 1974 movie) 

Quotability

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold."

Zelda Fitzgerald

Grateful for this recent stretch of days in which I got to see some close friends, play like it was 2008 in 2 major cities, and rock the vote. I'm also on the precipice of some big things... As Michael Scott says on the Office (Olympics episode) with tears in his eyes, "My heart is very full."

(quote via the Neotraditionalist, photo by Carrie Patterson via Oncewed)

"And still the box is not full"

I devoured John Steinbeck's East of Eden the first time I read it. Swept up in its grandeur like the dry dust in the Salinas Valley wind that Steinbeck depicts, I must have missed the beautiful dedication page. It was evidently a note Steinbeck wrote and attached to the mahogany box he specifically carved to hold his epic manuscript. He sent these things to his old friend, Pascal Convici.

A favorite high school English teacher once told me that she never re-reads a book because "there are too many good ones still out there." But repeat readings appeal to me in their freedom: freedom to savor words and revel in their beauty, freedom to find those little gems one discovers only after the thrill of literary expedition wears off. These books that become like old friends.

Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, "Why don't you make something for me?"
I asked you what you wanted, and you said, "A box."
"What for?"
"To put things in"
"What things?"
"Whatever you have," you said.
Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts-- the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.

John

(photo by Dani Padgett)

Quotability

Have an inspired week!

(from weheartit)

Suiting Up

"You're considered superficial and silly if you are interested in fashion, but I think you can be substantial and still be interested in frivolity."

Sofia Coppola

I'm sitting at my new desk, a little early for my new position that I officially start in about 45 minutes. I must confess, my two biggest concerns last night were "What do I wear" and "What's for lunch". Fashion and food, people. Have I ever been concerned with much else?

(photo by The Sartorialist)

PS. Some of the biggest perks of this new job is that I'll be seeing a lot more of her, him, and Katie!