Plateaus

 

Heroism

 

And that reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

Five years ago my mother was dying in a nursing home.  I visited her every day.

It was hard.  I felt like my role was to cheer her up and give her a happy break from the tedium, but all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball.

I would blast "Heroes" to give me energy, to remind myself that I didn't have to be heroic forever-- just for today.  Then I did what I needed to do.

Inspiration doesn't always come from wise old men sitting serenely on mats under trees.  Sometimes it comes from tall gravelly-voiced men covered with tattoos.

Aspirations

 

Only a Shape

 “An emotion was swelling in my throat. It took me a moment to recognize what it was. I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it.”  ~Madeline Miller, in Circe ©2018

Every Single Thing

 

I wished I lived someplace where people wrote things like this then hung it on a wall for everybody to see.

In East Texas all we get is profanity and crude drawings of genitalia.

Eff It After All

 

"Come, let us go.  Let us leave this festering hellhole.  Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable.  Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."  Dirk Gently, in Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, ©1987

My friend Mary, who just turned 80, liked that quote so much she wrote it on a piece of junk mail and used it for a bookmark.

And that, of course, reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

Happy Birthday, Tiny Tim

[embed]https://youtu.be/IlGOK-w14bM[/embed]

Today is Tiny Tim's birthday.  If you only know him for his campy, goofy songs, then please take a few minutes to play the song above.  You're in for a treat.

I really consider him a heroic, inspirational figure.   His was an odd dream-- he wanted to sing songs from the 1890s to the 1920s, in falsetto, in white-face, accompanied only by his ukulele-- but he persevered, he worked hard, and he made it come true.

He lived the life he wanted to live.  Who could ask for more?

Keep On Truckin'

For anyone having a bad day:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XleOkGsYgO8[/embed]

Full lyrics HERE.

I'm Going On

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENE1eWtW7e8[/embed]

Full lyrics HERE.

CeeLo Green is a treasure.  We're lucky to be alive the same time he is.

Goes right on in his kindness

"We must take time, take pains, have a plan, form spiritual habits, if we are to keep our souls alive; and now is the time to begin. A man to whom religion is a reality, and who knows what is meant by 'the practice of salvation,' keeps his balance, because the living center of his life is spiritual. He cannot be upset, not shaken. The same hard knocks come to him as to others, but he reacts to them by the central law of his life. He suffers deeply, but he does not sour. He knows frustration, but he goes right on in his kindness and faith. He sees his own shortcomings but he does not give up, because a power rises up from his spiritual center and urges him to the best."  ~Joseph Fort Newton

A Place That's A Little More Timeless

[embed]https://youtu.be/6ySLbSAFm4A[/embed]

At 3:59 she talks about how poetry creates a safe spot to view the world from.  I like that a lot.

Laugh Inside

I never really expected Charles Bukowski to say something inspiring.  :D

Here's to you!

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgoeZPHbg74[/embed]

I like this a lot.  :D

If/Then

"If you can’t beat fear, just do it scared."  ~Glennon Doyle Melton