[0273] inspired at 6 ante meridiem

We sometimes find ourselves crushed under the burden of a thousand inward sighs. We go from place to place, from task to task, from conversation to conversation, in a rhythmic motion that becomes second nature - often at the expense of true connection. It's easy to get lost in life's ebb and flow, easy to let her take you for a ride while you close your eyes and drift off. But it's important to try and never become a passive bystander or witness your own life through the perspective of a drowsy child. To have experienced fully means to have experienced the same thing a hundred different ways at a hundred different times.

I am guilty of becoming this passive bystander - to whom every feeling, every idea, every choice started to feel commonplace. But then I met him, who added kindling to the diminishing ember in me. Who has gently shaken me out of my slumber. Whose eyes have coaxed me to look deep within myself and then back at him, urging me to remember him from a past life. Connection, no matter how big or small, is a thing of beauty because it awakens you from your passivity. You experience the same early morning sun on your skin, but differently this time. And differently again the next day. It is a renaissance, not just presently, but in every moment. 

[0272] vive la résistance, vive les enfants de la révolution, vive la femme

[0271] Make you think of anything in particular?

Joe told Michael he could take Sam's wallet. Michael walks up to Sam and grabs his wallet, and Sam stands up and says "What the hell?!" Michael says "No, no. It's okay, Joe told me I could take it, I got in a car accident and need some money. Joe is the biggest kid on the block." Sam says "Well you can't have my wallet. Give it back." to which Michael replies "I'll give you your wallet back if you sign this contract stating I can have half of what it is in it." Sam says "I'm not going to sign that, it's MY wallet, I'm not giving you consent to take ANYTHING out of it." Michael cries to Joe, who provides Michael with a gun to wave at Sam. Sam still refuses, so Michael shoots Sam's son in the face and then points the gun at his wife. "Just negotiate with me. This is simple. I'm really nice. I just need some money for a new car. All you have to do is sign that I can have half of what is in this wallet." Sam says "Fuck you."

[0270] Orchard

A man sits in an orchard, fruit trees full and vines plump

He has his head on his knee; his eyes are closed.

His friend says, "Why stay sunk in mystical meditation when the world is like this? Such visible grace."

He replies, "This outer is an elaboration of the inner. I prefer the origin."

Natural beauty is a tree limb reflected

in the water of a creek, quivering there, not here.

The growing that moves in the soul

is more real than tree limbs and reflections.

We laugh and feel happy or sad over all this.

Try instead to get a scent

of the true orchard.

Taste the vineyard within the vineyard.

- Rumi

[0269] Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness.

[0268] Home

"Even the home you reside in now was once an uncharted territory. Home is where you take yourself. Home is Earth. Home is the love of your life. Home is a stranger. Home is the night sky. If you can accept these truths that coexist with one another, the more adaptable you make yourself in a world that is, above all else, impermanent, and the better adjusted you'll be. So when you pack your favorite book, you carry your morning ritual and nightly regimen with you, when you haul a talisman of your hometown, sleep in your college sweatshirt, stow away cards with your mom's perfume on them, you feel at home because anywhere is home."
- Brianna Wiest

[0267] Impossible

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
- The White Queen, Alice in Wonderland

I won't say I'm as feisty as the White Queen, but there are two "impossible" things I believe to be very possible.

Aliens aren't impossible. A part of me likes to believe we aren't the only life form in this universe. By alien I don't mean green big headed creatures. The universe and its galaxies are so vast. It could be bacteria, a plant, some sort of amoeba. Who knows. All I know is that we are but a spec in this giant vacuum and it doesn't hurt to remind yourself of that every now and then.

It's not impossible to be in love with two different people. Societal constructs are what make the idea of loving in stereo questionable. But why is it so hard to grasp the concept? Love for your parents is often in stereo yet that seems perfectly normal. Perhaps the skepticism with the romantic version has something (everything) to do with the institution of marriage... I'll save that one for later.
[I use the word "stereo" metaphorically in this instance. Stereo is defined as "combining form."]