tonight's the night...

Neil Young said it perfectly to Howard Stern...

"Some days you got it, some days you don't.

You want to preserve that day that you don't

for posterity for everybody to look at.

Some days I'm just not myself,

it just doesn't feel like me…

it's the cosmic weather.

You can't always have it

which makes you appreciate it so much

when you get it 

and that is what life is all about  - 

it's so beautiful…

the way it keeps changing."

Don't spend so much time trying to change
in this 'new' year.

Focus on appreciating
all that is right
and all that isn't
and let the ebb and flow
allow you to live your way
into your new self
one day at a time.

Happy New Year friends and followers.

~L~

a-dorn; verb

a-dorn: verb

- to make more beautiful or attractive.

At this time of year it's an ornament to a tree.

It's Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald on your record player.

Maybe it's fresh powder on the window sill.

Nothing says 'tis the season like these embellishments.

But what about how one adorns another?

The garnish of Love?

If we have nothing else to decorate,

if we are bereft of impressive objects

or even a tree,

the beauty that adorns the season 

lies within your perception of 

what your spirit can hold.

It's wrapped inside the dilemmas of what to buy,

whom to tip,

how to divide up time with family,

where to hide the presents,

whom you are with and without this holiday.

All these little frustrations 

are actually blessings in disguise

that adorn each of us 

to one another.

All you have to do is see it.

Envision the ones you miss to highlight the ones you're with.

Arrange the imperfections of the ones you love

into a ball of mistletoe and stand underneath it.
Adorn the atmosphere with a kiss.

Recognize pain and suffering and adorn it with Love.

These are our gifts to one another.

Although it's been said,

many times, many ways,

Merry Christmas to you.

Thank you for adorning my writing
with your acknowledgments.

~ L ~

go ahead, judge me

If you've never been judged in any sort of 

competition,

do yourself a favor and sign up for it.

In light of yesterday's Cross Fit competition,

I had the pleasure of being judged and being the judge.

Pleasure, you ask?

Here's why:

You walk into a room. 

You're already nervous.

Your stomach hurts, 

your nerves send charges of tingles down your arm 

into your fingertips.

You're alone.

It's just you and the odds in a big crowded concrete room

full of cold alloyed steel,

large black rigs,

cannonballs of iron plastered with numbers 

you'd rather pay to get out of there than lift

and you've never felt lonelier.

Suddenly your soul searches for something to envelop the pain,

to occupy the harsh void of comfort.

I signed up for this?

You cling to every word of instruction

but you can't dredge up focus.

You feel the throb of your pulse in your eyes

as you notice the pencil that's about to 

record your flesh, blood and sweat onto a piece of paper.

Meet your judge.

As if you're not already not feeling human enough,

there's one who will remind you.

You've never met,

but you already fear him.

Please, you beg silently,

help me.

My vulnerability is at your mercy.

Take it and redeem it for compassion.

The bell rings, the clock starts.

Your body moves,

your muscles contract,

but all you feel is the purge of your weakness

that's about to set your new

personal record.

Because someone is watching you,

judging you,

your naked self 

camouflaged by the courage you simulated

when you signed up to be judged in the first place.

Please, you plead,

it's just me.

Be with me when you judge me.

Feel yourself in me.

We're the same.

The judger is watching.

I feel you,

he thinks to himself.

I've been there.

Keep going.

Your every effort is noticed.

He can't tell you,

but he wants you to hear him.

You do.

Because he is 

your

 own 

reflection.

The judge is the awareness of the judger

and the opposite is also truth.

One is a great teacher if the other will listen.

Don't live life without wanting to be judged.

Stare at it, instead, with a good solid look in the mirror.

Nothing can teach you more

than what you fear is your worst enemy.

The bell rings.

The weight drops.

Your muscles release.

The pencil's put down.

You walk away,

better for being judged.

~ L ~

the next time you feel empty...

If you punched me in the face,

you wouldn't beat me up as much

as I beat myself up

for not having the creativity flow out

of my body and into my fingertips

as it usually would.

All this blank space.
No words to write.
No ideas to ponder.

"Start over"
I tell myself.
"Find what you used to find,"
"Go where you want to go with it"
I say.

But I've been so damn concerned
about the edges,
the crust,
the beginnings and endings,
the past and the future
that I forgot where the hell I am.

But
I'm
Right
Here
In
The
Middle

Nothing reminded me more of that
than the match I lit
to light a candle.

This flame

that is always right here

within me.

It was the trigger

that reminded me to 

take inventory.

What's inside?

 Above all else,

I am an intricate design,

a big beautiful mess, actually,

of atoms that make up the

planet that I'm spinning on in the

middle

of empty space.

The middle.

The middle of consciousness.

Here I am.

I had to lose myself to find myself.

The very thing that was holding me back

is now helping me out.

If I am the light,

who would I be without the Dark?

And all of this space

in the 

middle

that I thought was empty,

is actually just

potential space to be

full.

And there's no better prescription

when you're feeling 

without edges, or middles

or knowing where the hell

you begin or end

than a jar of matches

to fuel your potential.

Match your flame to your blank space,

strike a nerve

and 

light up.

I dare you.

~L~

lesson from a boy

I have a fast car.

At least, that's what my 6-year-old son thinks.

In reality I drive an SUV not conducive to winning races.

There are always cars in front of us.

But no matter where we are on the road, 

what lane we're in, 

or how many other cars are around us, 

we're always in first place.

I look around and there's two cars ahead of me,

one on either side and some behind.

But clearly, in his mind, its just us.

"Yessss mom we're winning."

Little mind, big thoughts.

I want to be right there with you, buddy.

I'm putting my mind right up next to yours

where you can show me what it's like to 

think yourself to your destination.

You've arrived 

because your state of mind
is wherever you want it to be.

Love from a mom who cherishes these lessons from her son.

~ L ~

pulling up

I woke up this morning

feeling particularly feeble,

with a tinge of defeat

and a side of fear.

The New York Times glared at me

with its front page blazoning 

disease, suffering, fighting...

I felt small.

If I can change the way I'm thinking right now,

I thought -

can I change what happens in my small,

small world

where I'm just one ripple in the atmosphere?

Surely I can do that.

What if everyone could?

Small, low, scared,

I laced up my shoes.

Like a glove.

Walked into my gym,

tied a

CHAIN

around my waist 

with a 5-pound weight...

the weight of my world

plus 5 extra pounds of someone else's shit.

GET UP, LT.

GET UP!

Chin up over the bar to count.

Over and over 

until I could say that I was truly

truly

with nothing left.

Lighter, 

bereft of fear and doubt.

And then I realized I need to let go of some things.

Simply because they are too heavy

to carry 

without my shoes on.

That's big stuff.

~L~

clarity

That moment when

everything is clear

because 

nothing is certain…

~ L

risk forgiveness

"To survive it means you have to take risks,

for the jungle can be a very 

unforgiving place."

~Bear Grylls

Ah, true, true.

But how lovely the risky jungle looks
to the soul trapped inside the confines 
of their own unforgiving mind.

Imagine the risks

of letting go.

~ L ~

Loyalty...

… is when the only thing on the other side of this door

is me.

And he's waiting by it.

~ L

who's got you?

"Nobody believes in friendship.

People talk about it,

you see it on TV.

People drop by 

or go to the doctor together.

No one eats alone.

But most people are alone.

Thats the thing about friendship - 

it's a lot rarer than love.

Because there's nothing in it for anybody."

~ From the motion picture "Are You Here"

If that doesn't make you think twice about relationships….

~ L ~

flawed

I've been avoiding 

wearing this "L" necklace 

that I bought myself

because it got twisted around

and I couldn't untangle it.

Days went by

and I stared at the same tangled necklace

in my drawer.

I decided I like it better since it's not so smooth.

It's knot doesn't clot the pathway around my neck.

It's just a flawed beautiful chain with a letter that's

Tangled.

And fitting.

~ L ~

A lesson from the moon

Not surprisingly,

something interesting is happening in the universe tonight.

 During the predawn hours 

of August 13, 2014,

the most anticipated meteor shower of the year 

will be visible in the sky.

The problem?

It will have to compete with an unusually

BRILLIANT MOON

since an extra-full moon occurred just 

two days before the meteors' performance.

A little competition for these shooting stars.

But no worry, the brightest ones will still shine through.

Very impressive, 

night sky,

challenging your particles that collide with our atmosphere to 

overcome and outshine

the brightest moonlight.

We will be watching

and learning from your lesson.

Make light out of darkness.

Make beauty out of destruction.

Collide with our emotions

and help us

set the brightest examples.

Goodnight, Moon.

~ L ~

Ups and Downs and IN-BETWEENS

"The boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most."

~ Russell from the movie UP

Dealing with the ordinary passage of time

is a precious virtue that can only

be learned through experience.

You don't know what an hour feels like

until you've agonized in pain for the entirety of one.

You can't feel a mile 

unless you've limped one with blistered heels.

You can't dread or anticipate the feeling of a broken heart

unless it's been bestowed on you before.

And because of that,

you appreciate the next hour or mile or ordinary day 

with no pain for what it is - 

the beauty of life itself.

The boring in-betweens of pain and euphoria.

The plateaus between the peaks.

This is where the true soul of gratitude lives.

In between the guts and the bones of the good and bad,

the happy and the unhappy,

the milestones and the set-backs.

If the pain and the happiness are the rehearsal,

the exercise of what's in the middle is

the true gift of being in the moment.

Practice this in the finite moments of time

that comprise most of your life.

The Tuesdays,

the Julys,

the noons,

the middles.

~ L ~

take the bull by the horns (repost)

Taking almost a month off of blogging,
it's hard to know where to pick back up.
So many thoughts in my mind
that don't know how to be sorted.

So I decided to look up what I posted exactly a year ago 
at this time and found a post with a lesson
quite fitting for my dilemma:

If you're a regular reader of my posts, you'll know that I have a slight obsession with beginnings and endings, entrances and exits. 

Today is the beginning of August. 

Or shall I say the exit from July?

So what comes to mind to post today is from an excerpt from a book I'm reading. 

"Wild" by Cheryl Strayed. 

A true story. 

A woman, broken in every sense of the word,

Lost, lonely and completely ALONE, 

Decides to give up everything she owns and hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to Washington State,

with nothing but a pack and some hiking boots. 

On the 5th day of her three-month journey, 

She encountered a massive Texas Longhorn Bull. 

She closes her eyes as she finds and blows the orange whistle as loud as she can. 

She opened her eyes and and the bull was gone....

"I considered my options. 

There were only two and they were essentially the same. 

I could go back in the direction I'd come from, 

Or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go. 

The bull could be in either direction since I hadn't seen where he'd run once I closed my eyes. 

I could only choose between the bull that would take me back 

And the bull that would take me forward. 

And so I walked on. "

Ah, the choice of going backward or forward....

AND

the power of that choice. 

Every day holds that choice. 

Happy exit into entrance. 

~L

worthy

Thanks to a recent post from a friend on 

social media,

I literally stopped dead in my tracks when

I read this sign above.

Such a simple yet powerful message 

about a topic not often talked about.

If I asked you if you've ever been on the receiving end of 

getting no message in return to sending one,

I'm sure most of you would say,

 (( as my grandmother often says ))

"Does a bear shit in the woods?"

Yes, of course.

It is even worse than getting a dreaded negative message 

because it leaves you 'hanging' with the potential 

for any to come at all.

No message is a

big, GIGANTIC
 empty space for negative

assumption potential.

No message in return

says 

I don't care,

I don't want to deal with this now,

You're not important,

I'm too busy,

I don't want to hurt your feelings right now

so I'm going to leave you hanging 

onto the empty space I've created

by leaving you with

the lamest form of communication

possible…

Nothing.

No message
is also a message.
A very shitty one, at that.

To all the corporations out there,
the friends,
the old friends,
the job potentials,
the angry parent,
the bitter son,
the embarrassed student,
whoever you are -

They are worth an answer
and you are worth a response.

~ L ~

Dear Sir, I salute you.

This past weekend,

on National television,

a little girl sang the national anthem.

It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard -

such big feeling coming out of such a small being.

As the camera panned out and across the the baseball field,

I noticed that a grown man was weeping.

I wish I could tell him what that meant to me.

Me, the one among millions

who saw him remove his cap,

bow his head and close his eyes.

I don't know what his moment was about,

he could have been in pain from loss, 

or maybe he was overcome with emotion from the words of our

nation's anthem.

"Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there."

I don't know,

but I do know I was right there with him.

I felt his emotion as I, too, was moved 

in this moment.

This goes out to all the men and women

who have the courage to show their feelings in front of others,

in front of their peers, their children, the nation.

To weep is universally understood

and yet so misunderstood as weakness.

We don't know each other, Sir,

but I acknowledge you 

and I salute you.  

And I'll say a prayer for you tonight,

after I say one for those who 

aren't aware they live in the

home of the brave.

~L

perspective (do try this at home)

To some this may look like just a pair of rings hanging from a bar.

To an ape its an easy shot to the next tree.

To a gymnast it's a chance at gold.

But to me,

these rings are golden circles of opportunity 

with barbed wire wrapped around them,

a seemingly impossible means to an end.

To swing from below with such tightness in my core,

to whip my hips up to the base of them with such precision,

to snap my chest to replace my hips so fiercely 

that the movement can barely be taught - only felt

from so many trials and errors.

To then push myself up with all my might

and then swoosh back down and do it all over again

with equal or better precision….

…..I'm so close after a month of practice.

But I'm stuck.

So i got down on the floor 

and stared up at them from a new perspective,

this time shifting my mind to see them in a new light.

I thought,

if I can't get on top of them at this point in time,

let me get under all the way.

Let me feel vulnerable from below.

Let them feel me in their shadow.

Then,

suddenly the barbed wire went away.

The opportunity is there and the 

fierceness with which I want this opportunity 

is slowly chipping away at fear and intimidation.

Maybe we should all look at our 'problems' 

this way.

Get under them and understand them 

from all angles.

More to be revealed on this process :)

~ L ~

re-demp-tion; noun

/ri'dempSHen/

I always feel compelled to write on Day 1 of each month.

Redemption Day.

I think of them as 12 mini New Years

such that I think of Mondays as 52 microns of those.

The archaic definition of redemption is 

the action of buying one's freedom.

What freedom have I purchased today?

Forgiveness of the present.

Allowing this moment to be is 

my modern-day freedom, 

my salvation,

my (( ri'dempSHen )).

"Forgiveness of the present is even more important than

forgiveness of the past.  If you forgive every moment -

allow it to be as it is - 

then there will be no accumulation of resentment

that needs to be forgiven at some later time."

~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

So what does one do with the second day of the month, the year,

the third day and so on?

There's some power in that space,

that BIG empty space that people mistake for the need to fill up.

This vail of an illusion is replaced in theory

with the fact that all empty space has the potential 

to remain empty or to be occupied (( with clutter )).

The space has a choice.

You are the space.

Your.

Choice.

Keep the potential open for love, growth, clarity, joy.

~ L ~

*sweet risk

As I sit across from my friends

whom I'm close to at this point in my life -

at 35 years old,

time plays in slow motion for several moments…

Mouths are moving slowly and 

smiles are like stills of old favorite pictures

and I wonder to myself,

"Will you still love and respect me 

the times our relationship grows sour?"

When you love me at my worst, 

there's something very sacred about that.

It's easy to be a friend to a friend.

But can you love amidst the thunder?

Can you still respect a foe?

So I proceed with caution because it's worth it either way,

the bittersweet risk you take when you 

open up a door.

~ L ~

a lesson in Forgiveness

This woman rests her hand on the shoulder

of the man who killed her father and three brothers

in the genocide in Rwanda two decades ago.

"He did these things with other people,

but he came alone to me and asked me for pardon.

He helped me build a house with a covered roof.

I was afraid of him……but in my mind I feel clear."

Remember Viviane Nyiramana's story

the next time you're holding a grudge.

Likewise, remember the courage of this man

Francois Sinzikiramuka

when you're too proud to say I'm sorry.

~ L ~

(photo by Pieter Hugo.)

surrender to the song

You can't help how a song makes you feel,

just as you can't help who or what you love.

You know this because you take the back seat

when the song comes on and suddenly you surrender to it's effect on you

because

(((  THERE IT IS  )))

Maybe it's a whole album.

One song.

One chorus.

One phrase.

Whatever it is, it's a ton of bricks when it hits you.

It sneaks up behind you in a taxi cab radio and knocks the wind out of you.

You get goose bumps on the airplane when you can hear it through 14D's headphones.

It sets you back on your run or it pushes you faster as it 

takes you back in time.

It's more than just any old song.

It's the rhythm of two heartbeats,

one is always mine, 

the other is Yours.

You, of course, the one whom I've connected with at some point in my life.

The point at which the song entered my mind

and never took exit.

You,

the smell of pancakes and syrup from my childhood,

the intersection I always stared at from the backseat of the car,

the time when I was conquering the world,

the times I felt ravaged by the venom of your casually cruel disdain.

You,

the first awkward slow dance,

the girl in the mirror staring back at me in 1985,

the lonely summer nights of my teenage catastrophe,

the punch that I got back up from.

You

are the song's effect on me.

So I have to say,

thank You for bringing me back to you every now and then.

For pulling me back like an arrow

so that I can now shoot forward with fervor.

Thank You for reminding me that you were once there,

and that now you're only a memory.

I've adjusted your volume,

as the punch was too loud at times,

and so ferociously fond at others.

Whisper the memory softly

as I walk the tightrope of fabric we've woven together.

Always remembering your presence and your absence,

teetering back and forth on this rope of time,

pancake of mine.

For all the miles of time between us,

you're still dancing around in my memory,

even as this new girl that I see in the mirror.

~ L ~

this word in my dictionary: dis-en-gage, verb

dis-en-gage;  verb

/ disen' gaj/   -  to separate or release (someone or something) to which they are attached or connected.

I overheard this word being used today in a conversation.

The man said to his wife,

"Honey, simply disengage yourself from her and engage yourself with the one whom you do get along with."

That word replayed in my head in slow motion, backwards and in fast forward all at once.

I was dissecting what it means to me,

Disengage: VERB TO HELP YOUR SANITY

"To detangle yourself from the web of any relationship that is either unfulfilling, toxic or disappointing. By doing so, you allow space to ENGAGE in the ones who do the opposite."

This will come as a relief for those of us who tend to over-focus on what we're not getting from someone in our lives, whether they're a sister, aunt, parent, friend, etc.

This doesn't mean that you should run away from uncomfortable relationships, and in fact, it means the opposite. By disengaging a bit, you are allowing yourself to take a step back from the magnification of the symptom of the issue at hand and refocus on the bigger picture - the nature of the problem itself.

If the problem is that you have given all that you can and the other will not even give you an inch,

then you must disengage and refocus.

Where do you place this focus upon?

Ask yourself which relationships ARE working well, 

the ones that ARE making you feel good, and 

love the crap out of those people.

Engage in what makes you feel best.

Tell people how much you appreciate them.

Place your focus in all these right places.

I can't get enough of this lately.

Maybe this is why I heard this word come out of his mouth in slow motion like this:

D  i  i  i  i  s  s  s  s  e  e  e  n  n  n  g  g  g  g a  a  a  a  g  g  g g  e  e e e 

Cross-examination complete.

Engagement in progress.

~ L ~

a LITTLE advice for a BIG Monday

 

Pushing your limits

while no one else is around...

 

 

That's where it's at.

 

 

Try pushing yours even a half inch one way or the other.

One less bite, one more rep,

one more block,

flip your hair with more flare,

dress up for no reason,

hug that bitch that you can't stand,

cook a fancy meal for one.

 

Do all this especially when no one else is around

because wherever you go...

there you are!

 

And what a better person to impress.

 

~ L ~

 

 

 



take care of your parts

This past weekend was the 35th anniversary of my birth, 

and quite honestly it was the best one yet.

I couldn't ignore, however, the fact that the whole weekend

something else was also on my mind - 

being at a friend's funeral last month.

It would mark the anniversary of her death.

Her perception of her world - her mind - took her own life.

And I thought,

wow, the power of the mind.

It really IS the operating system of the human body.

You could feed this operating system all the good thoughts, 

love and stimulation to keep it going - and it will. 

It keeps going even if it's jaded by another.

Unless it's sick.

And the heart.

It pumps blood through your veins 

even when you don't feel like you can move one more inch.

It keeps going even when you give up.  

Even when it's wounded by another.

You could feed it all the love and healthy food and exercise in the world and it 

wouldn't stop beating.

Unless it's sick.

Whether you have a sick heart, foot, lungs, brain, blood,

or whether any of these things feel heavy inside,

take care of these parts that can't live without each other.

The parts are not you. 

You are the parts.

It's up to you.

Assess what you can change and what

someone else can help you change.

Accept what you can't.

Let people love you.

Love them back.

I came into the world on the 9th day of March in 1979.

It was a Friday.

I'm sure someone also broke their foot that day, 

was hurt by another, 

passed away in their sleep,

got married,

got divorced.

Every day that I celebrate I also try 

to remember what else is going on in this world around me.

I'm aware.

I try to overcome as best I can, and if I can't,

I know that at least I love with all my heart.

In celebration, in honor and in memory 

of all,

in sickness and in health,

~ L ~

I was always so quick to deny help at the grocery store.

I don't need help, I thought.

I am capable of taking my own groceries out to my car.

But my entire outlook changed yesterday,

as something made me accept the help

of a nice older gentleman.

"Which way to your car," he asked.

Surprised at my own compliance, I replied

"This way."

I started walking out to the car briskly as I often do,

and turned around to realize he hadn't even left the store yet.

I went back inside to find him.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but my legs aren't working well today.

I could tell you my sob story, but it's not necessary.

You'll have to forgive me for being slow."

"Are you sure you want to come outside all this way?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," he said.

"The day is beautiful and I am lucky I can still walk.

So if you can be patient with me, I would love to help you."

Sure, I thought.

Sure I will walk with you,

at your own pace.

In fact, take me with you at this pace.

Lead me into your slow stance with time.

Time really did stand still.

I thanked him for letting me walk with him 

and for teaching me more than he could know.

It was an exchange I will never forget.

Slow down and breathe more.

It reminded me of something Abraham Lincoln once said,

"I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."

It's Monday, walk slowly and pay attention to this day 

instead of swiftly jumping to Friday.

~ L ~

the emotional taboo of loneliness

You can be in a crowded room and feel the loneliest you've ever felt.

Or you can lay in bed at night and feel the lonely cage of darkness envelop your emptiness.

Either way, 

the most recent issue of O Magazine points out that

at any given time at least one in five people suffers from 

loneliness.

Even more startling, 

feeling lonely regularly can increase your risk of mortality up to 45%.

In fact, all the research says that the people you encounter on a regular basis who appear to be anything but lonely are the very ones who suffer the most.

Come on, you've been at a party with a forced smile pasted on your face

and all the while you're aching inside, 

longing for the empty space of your own solitude

because it's far less painful to be physically alone

than to feel alone in a sea of chaos.

You fumble around in your purse.

There's gotta be a bandaid in here somewhere for this.

Ah, there it is.

Your phone.  The screen that's doesn't see you.

The people on the other side who are unaware of your pain.

Your face relaxes because for one brief moment you don't have to pretend.

This is because loneliness comes from within

and can be triggered even in the most social of situations.

Moving to a new city, starting a new job, 

breaking up, 

or, as the growing phenomenon of social media grips its tentacles on socialization,

it could even be feeling so far apart from what the rest of world is doing.

All my friends are getting married and having babies.

Everyone else looks so happy.

People accomplish so much more than I do.

Intrigued with this taboo of a topic,

I did more research and found a very recent article from the Guardian 

that says loneliness is a new epidemic, even more deadly than obesity.

But connections and relationships with others carry some risk, right?

Less risk than a heart attack without, guaranteed.

If you've ever acknowledged a bout of loneliness within, congratulations.

Use this as your vehicle to transport your way out of what easily develops into a chronic state.

Assess what makes you feel this way.

Recognize triggers that bring about this feeling.

When do you feel loneliest?

Admit it. Talk about it.

Then,

stay in touch.

Reach out to others.

SAY HELLO.

Join people doing things you don't usually do on your own.

A dodgeball tournament - what? SURE.

These are all acts of doing, not undoing or hiding.

"Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.

~John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

Preserve the quality of your daily interactions with others
and salvage your distant relationships with friends and family.

~ L ~

the love story of flowers and bees

Something I ingest each day is the result of love in nature.

How sweet.

I realized this after I stared at the bee pollen
I put in my smoothie this morning
 and wondered how these tiny sweet yellow pebbles are made.

When a bee visits a flower, it plays a game of give and take.

It gathers pollen and mixes it with some of the nectar in its honey sacks.

This love dust is extracted ever so sweetly
and then scattered on other plants nearby,
 therein giving them life.

Bees also take pollen back to their hive,
where it is shared with the family,
and altered to create it's tiny imperfect pebble shape.

The flower needs the bee, and the bee needs the flower.

He needs to eat.  She needs to spread her blooms.

He needs shelter.  She needs wings.

Ah, the mutualistic relationship.

The beauty of he and she.

They and we.

Flower and Bee.

You.

Me.

I'll be the buzz if it makes you bloom.


~ L ~

Despite the backlash (no pun)

of Taylor Swift's Grammy performance last night,

I must add my two cents.

Ladies, 

show me another woman who can

sit like that on a stage in front of millions of viewers worldwide,

rock out on the piano while throwing her head back and forth,

sing her heart out completely in OR out of tune,

spill her guts out on the floor in truth,

not give a shit if it was so personal and in fact was proud it was,

and all the while

 maintain such elegant composure,

keeping her clothes on,

such class,

such towering beauty

that you just want to reach into the TV and 

grab the vulnerability from her spine

and inject it into your veins.

Period.

The embodiment of beauty is the risk taken 

despite the outcome.

~L~

ugly tomatoes

I walked by this bowl of tomatoes in my kitchen yesterday

and thought wow those are smashingly ugly.

I was so drawn to their mismatched obscurity

and thought woah that's awfully bold 

to be in the same bowl together, all of you.

So I took a picture of them and put it through a filter.

What doesn't look good through a filter?

Now look at this beautiful bowl of tomatoes!

(( insert sarcasm here ))

What's behind your filter is MUCH more interesting, 

than the pretty picture

you spent all that time rearranging.

Now, how about a little raw selfie?

#nofilter

#beautiful

#truth

#vulnerability

Perhaps that's what drew me to you at the Green Market this morning,
little vulnerable assortment of intrigue that you are.

Food for thought on a Sunday morning.

~ L ~