happy birthday to you

children learn to smile from their parents. (s. suzuki)

i can’t think of a better example than my dad — happy birthday to you!

thousand word thursday

the waves echo behind me. patience — faith — openness, is what the sea has to teach. simplicity — solitude — intermittency . . . but there are other beaches to explore. there are more shells to find. this is only a beginning. (a.m. lindbergh)

gift from the sea

it’s time.  tomorrow, i will be heading east, until i reach the shore.

goodbye to deadlines and proposals, commutes and traffic, meetings and conference calls.

hello to laughter and sandy beaches, late nights and bike rides, boardwalks and seagulls.

every year, i return to the shore, along with my family, to relax and recharge, to listen as the sea shares her secrets with me.  every year, it’s something different i find, and yet it’s always exactly what i need.

this year, i think it’s peace i seek.  a little bit of sacred, golden peace — plucked from setting suns and salty breezes and sand dunes.

enough to sustain and enough to share.

my gift from the sea.

thousand word thursday

light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. no matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. (t. pratchett)

happy thirty-four

love after love

the time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. eat.
you will love again the stranger who was your self.
give wine. give bread. give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
sit. feast on your life.

(derek walcott)

goodbye thirty-three

today is the last day of my 33rd year, and as an homage, i’ve pulled together a list of 33 things that i’ve seen and done and learned over the past year:

1. shared a shot of 100-year-old grand marnier.  twice.
2. visited the ‘burgh.
3. bought my first dSLR.  and then my second.
4. said more hellos than goodbyes.
5. spent a night under the roanoke star with lloyd dobler.
6. got a new job.  now considering another new job.
7. discovered beauty & truth in new and unusual places.
8. went to the national zoo for the first time since high school.
9. learned that wisdom means having more questions than answers.
10. spent a week in indianapolis, indiana.
11. met a new friend who i feel like i’ve already known for years.
12. had drinks in the milk bar at 6 lounge.
13. wrote one blog entry per day for the entire month of december.
14. discovered the joy that is the ‘twilight‘ series.
15. discovered the joy that is robert pattinson.
16. saw two rainbows.
17. tied up some loose ends.
18. learned a few new songs on the piano.
19. drank the cool aid and bought a wii.  and a wii fit.
20. cheered my steelers on to another superbowl victory.
21. was told by one of the world’s leading astrophysicists that i have “smart eyes”. fancy that.
22. learned that poor communication is usually at the root of all misunderstandings.
23. was told that i am a “textbook INFP“.  i took that as a compliment.
24. visited the george washington masonic memorial in alexandria, virginia.  promptly added it to my list of “creepy” places.
25. joined my country in voting for change.  yes i did.
26. started shooting in RAW.  haven’t stopped yet.
27. walked along the tidal basin under a canopy of cherry blossoms.
28. experienced the release of another new tori album.
29. traded in my prius for a new BMW.
30. redecorated my living room.
31. took a photography class.
32. said goodbye to my friend of 16 years.
33. was reminded that family and friends are what make life worth living.

it’s been a good year, filled with promise. goodbye 33, i’ll remember you fondly.

thousand word thursday

when you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. (chinese proverb)

redux

so i thought about yesterday’s post again, and i realized that i may be missing the point.

maybe repeating is the point.

i know enough of my life to realize that i’m always teetering between the highs and the lows.  the lows, as dark as they may seem, serve to reset things, to force a little introspection, and ultimately to put me back on track for the highs — the truly exhilarating highs.  and come they will, they always do.

i’d much rather have a see-saw existence of highs and lows than live with the steady, flat, even pace of contentment — completely lacking passion, excitement and course-altering revelations.  a life anesthetized.

no thank you.

it’s in these times of struggle that i find clarity.

i wouldn’t want it any other way.