Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Flowers

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change." - Buddha


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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.



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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.



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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.



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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.


Monday, December 26, 2005

Resolutions


It was you who picked the pieces up
When I was a broken soul
And glued me back together...

I don't want to hurt you...
I will not do it anymore...
- The Perishers "Sway"

I've been thinking a lot about New Year's Resolutions and how some of us might think that it's completely pointless to write down a list of things we want to do to improve our lives, when the chances of following through on them are next to non-existent. But maybe that says something about your strength of character. Resolutions shouldn't be meaningless, but often, they are. They're little wishes that we have --- things that we see in ourselves that we think we should correct because we can see the way we look in other people's eyes.

Whether it's losing weight or joining the gym or something more thoughtful like being nicer to our siblings, they're all ways in which we know we can improve as people.

After all, nobody's perfect.

Ben Franklin, ever the wise man, once said, "How few there are who have courage enough to own their own faults, or resolution enough to mend them."

So, maybe resolutions are more about finding the courage to make the changes necessary to make our lives fuller and more meaningful.

There's something about the aftermath of death that makes me reflective of my own life.

I think about the Tibetan book of living and dying, where it is written: "Bereavement can force you to look at your life directly, compelling you to find a purpose in it where there may not have been one before."

I've been reading more of Thomas Lynch's "The Undertaking" and there was something really interesting that he wrote about how the dead don't care; that a funeral and the rites associated with it are for the living; that we must view the body and put it under and look to the heavens to feel as though there was a proper end to the story of someone's life.

Some food for thought.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Lanterns


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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.
Goethe's final words: More light. Ever since we cralwed out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry: "More light". Sunlight. Torch light. Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and foot candles. Light is metaphor. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Rage, rage against the dying of hte light. Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on, the night is dark and I am far from home, lead thou me on. Arise, shine, for thy light has come. Light is knowledge...light is life...light is light.
- Chris Stevens, "Northern Exposure"

Footprints


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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.
I liked this picture mostly because the sunlight was really weak and there was this one footprint in the snow and it was kind of messed up...sort of like in life.

Evergreens


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Originally uploaded by Anonymous Writer.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Early Morning

Someone once joked that I'm "obsessed" with death.

As if I was some morbid person who thought constantly about dying and slept in a coffin and hung out in cemeteries. And he based it on the fact that I'm a big fan of "Six Feet Under", taoism, Thomas Lynch, and thinking about death.

But the thing is, I'm not obsessed with death.

Well, not just death.

I like considering what life means, as well. Because, didn't someone once say that the unexamined life isn't worth living?

In examining life and death, you walk away with a much more complete sense of what life might mean to you on an individual level. Or at least that's what I think.

But it's early morning.

What the fuck do I know?
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