Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Heart space

"Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you’d be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become." --Commander Chris Hadfield, from space

Saturday, December 29, 2012

musings...

“There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say "It is yet more difficult than you thought." This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” 
― Wendell Berry

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Because you had to give names to everything you found, and make logos for bad ideas, and change your car every two years and wake up early for conference calls, and it turned out to be no progress at all / just a shadow festival / because of that you will have to learn to look at the sky again, you will have to learn to eat food that grows where you live again, you will have to learn to touch what you make
 -robert montgomery

(get to it!:)

Friday, January 6, 2012

amen.

Not the intense moment (from The Four Quartets)
By T. S. Eliot
(1888 - 1965)
 
Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

-- from Four Quartets, by T. S. Eliot





Thursday, December 29, 2011

word-of-the-day: arpeggi / arpeggio



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ar·peg·gio

noun \är-ˈpe-jē-ˌō, -ˈpe-jō\ plural ar·peg·gios

Definition of ARPEGGIO

1: production of the tones of a chord in succession and not simultaneously
2: a chord played in arpeggio

Examples of ARPEGGIO

  1. The guitarist warmed up with a few simple arpeggios.

Origin of ARPEGGIO

Italian, from arpeggiare to play on the harp, from arpa harp, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German harpha harp
First Known Use: circa 1724

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arpeggio
http://east.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harp

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence

The break is over....thoughts / quote / poem for the day:  

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann:
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

---Max Ehrmann, 1927