I read an article in Spinner magazine written by Rosie Thomas and it brought me to tears. Here is a piece of it,
I felt small and insignificant and embarrassed. “I was so brave once,” I thought, and now I was so afraid. It’s hard to describe to someone what anxiety feels like: I felt like I was invisible and the world around me looked so normal and I just couldn’t find my place in it anymore. Nothing made me feel better — escaping my body would have been my only relief — so all I could do was endure it.
There are times in life when we can’t get around what we are going through, when there aren’t any side roads or backdoor exits or short cuts, and all we can do is get through it. I think of fishermen on a boat when the storm is coming — it’s too late to turn back, so all they can do is hope for the best, tie everything down and pray that they endure.
My anxiety was with me all day long. I would wake up with fear and panic in the early morning and it just never went away.
I feel this way right now. It has been such a strange few years. I just sort of lost myself in this dark isolated place within my own mind. And if I had a nickel for every time I’ve thought, “I was so brave once”… it is almost as if it has become the motto to my self-berating for not being “so brave” right now. I think often we forget how much health can affect us and how, at the end of the day, we must find value in our intrinsic worth, which is not and cannot be tied up with anything we do or anything outside of just exactly who we are…
So, thank you Rosie for sharing this with us and for being so brave in doing so. And for coming back to all of us fans. You are enough, even if you don’t sing again. You’ve touched my life for so many years–I’ve felt so connected to your music, the lyrics. Your voice has soothed me in so many dark hours and celebrated with me in so many happy, sunny ones. Thank you. Really, thank you.
If I place my hope in all things that pass away
What have I shown for myself?
If love shows her face, and my life’s out of place
Will I be kind to myself?
Where, where will I go from here?
If it’s all about timing
Then I’m right where I should be,
And there’s no room for regrets
But often times I find
That my thoughts play in rewind
And won’t free me from the past
So, where will I go? Where will I go? Where will I go?
If my life had its way
Oh how simple it would sway
Like wildflowers in the fields
I wish I could learn from the flowers and the ferns
How to take things as they come
And how, how will I grow?
Oh how, how will I grow?
Oh how, will I grow from here?
Aching, longing
Save all your hands for me
‘Cause I won’t share them
With anything, anyone, no
I grew from you
Branches from a dying tree
But I could save you
If only you looked for me
You can’t break me
I’m a piggy bank on the floor
Watch all my spare change
Roll out the door
Watch all my spare change
Roll across the floor
Watching me through
Your glass door…
Save your smile for
Everybody else you see
‘Cause I don’t want the
One that you make for me
You can’t break me
I’m a piggy bank on the floor
Watch all my spare change
Roll out the door
Watch all my spare change
Roll across the floor
Watching me through
Your glass door…
Your door…
The more that I’ve tried
The more that you’ve pried
Yourself away…
I have posted a couple times addressing this question. What has Obama done so far? You can read those here and here. But… I stumbled upon a fantastic site that answers that question simply—over and over and over again– What the F*** has Obama done so far dot com. Obama has done so much for our country. He cannot fix all the years of damage the last administration did but he has done a lot towards repairing so many national wounds. From healthcare reform to rights of all people to corporate responsibility—Obama has been working hard for all of us…these are just a few examples the website cites…
For Women…
For Children…
For minorities…
For gay rights…
For students…
For Human Rights (and for restoration of political legitimacy)…
For science and research…
For the disabled…
For the veterans and their families…
For the elderly…
For the unemployed…
For the fiscally conservative (and the next generation)…
For the geeks, even…
And as I said above, these are just a few of the examples of What Obama has done so far… in one term in office. I would say he has done an outstanding job so far.
There are a lot of myths about redheads. I guess that will happen with any specific grouping of people, right? We like to think in terms of groups, classification, stereotypes. I read that bees sting redheads more than other hair colors. I am not certain I believe this. Anyone know of a scientific study that supports this claim?
Red hair is a genetic mutation. A genetic mutation I am thankful for. And no, this picture is not of me but worth sharing all the same. Long live the redheads.
After finding the website, I Wrote This For You dot me, I immediately bought the book, of course — titled after the website: I Wrote This For You by Pleasefindthis. And in it, I found some of the most beautiful, raw snippets of thought prose. One of the passages that stands out to me right now is titled, “The Static On The Line”. It says,
Don’t talk to me like you know me. Talk to me like you love me.
Incredible, eh? So, why not? Why don’t we talk to people like we love them, like we adore them? Why are we often harshest to those we are closest with? He writes about this on his blog too, in a post titled “The Closeness of Shadows” where he says,
You still believe you’re allowed to hurt the people who love you more than anyone else.
Why is that? =/ That is so sad. Let’s stop, shall we?
