You know that Dream you have, Girl?

Image by alles-schlumpf via Flickr

Stumbled upon my friend's FB profile the other day... she passed away shortly before her 40th birthday (breast cancer)... and wall post after wall post after wall post of people wishing her a happy birthday in heaven was powerfully humbling and awakening all at the same time.

No time like the present, eh, to do those things that we always intended to do.

Tears Etched the Stone

Something never before
felt nor seen.
The weight of which
crumpled your knees
with what's supposed to be;
a week's wage of woe levied by tax.
Eyes opened to the decree:
close enough to touch
but not to hold.
Paid in tears--
salt etched the stone--
of two minds,
hard-headed each
for love and logic.
Blind justice
awaiting a life sentence
of work,
or the worse,
disregard.
In which case we can only
burn the book
of us.

19/52: Then We Came to the End

19/52: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, 1/5 Stars
I can hear the whispers from under the weight of my mouse. When I touch it, they stop. I roll it around in an attempt to squash them... FOREVER... sorry, sometimes I get a lil' crazy... SQUASH THEM because there are many of them and they grate on my consciousness to the point that I can't think--CAN'T THINK AT ALL--and I want to jump up on my desk in the middle of the day and stomp--STOMPSTOMPSTOMPSTOMP--this damn mouse into the ground and all the way to CHINA!

Okay, that paragraph I just wrote was infinitely more interesting than the entire 384 pages of this book. It was written, to me, in the vein of A Confederacy of Dunces, but ends up far from that mark.

READ MORE!

Book #19 = Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, 1/5 Stars
Book #18 = On the Beach by Nevil Shute, 2.5/5 Stars
Book #17 = Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White, 3/5 Stars
Book #16 = The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright, 4/5 Stars
Book #15 = The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #14 = Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss,
Book #13 = Captivate! by Adam Nisenson, 2/5 Stars
Book #12 = Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 3/5 Stars
Book #11 = Maggie by Charles Martin, 4/5 Stars
Book #10 = The Dead Don't Dance by Charles Martin, 3/5 Stars
Book #09 = Duma Key by Stephen King, 2.5.5 Stars
Book #08 = Every Woman Has a Story by Daryl Ott Underhill, 2/5 Stars
Book #07 = Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin, 3/5 Stars
Book #06 = Maybe (Maybe Not) by Robert Fulghum, 4/5 Stars
Book #05 = The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, 1/5 Stars
Book #04 = The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis, 2/5 Stars
Book #03 = Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour, 3/5 Stars
Book #02 = The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, 3/5 Stars
Book #01 = Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, 3/5 Stars

Follow us at the Twitter hashtag #52bks52wks!

See last year's list of 53 books...

Thoughts that didn't want to be poetic...

A close friend said to me a few weeks ago, "I'm still working on myself." I was struck by the obvious: of course you are. To me, it's the nature of life to be constantly learning, reading, thinking, working on one's self. I want to understand how to run a better brainstorming session. I want to read more about story-telling. I want to be a better writer. I want to improve upon the strength that my shoulder and my ear often lend to others struggling with life's decisions.

Image by nerovivo via Flickr

Yes, I think we should all be "working" on ourselves.

The problem arises when working on yourself gets in the way of decision-making. When working on yourself becomes an excuse for inaction. Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that this particular friend is in that position... maybe, maybe not... but I recommend to all that a position of allowing decisions to make themselves is no strong position at all. In the circumstance of indecision--do I want to do this or do I want to do that--

Oh hell, just say it and stop being verbose...

If you can't decide what to do about a decision that demands complete commitment, then the decision has already made itself. And, once you've accepted that reality, then the whole world of opportunity--a world meant for your happiness--opens up to you. The world will cease to be so suffocating; color will return with breath.

From Truth

Another sun sets on solitude
Miles away from here
From truth
A minute becomes an hour
Inside the flash
That says good night

Uphill to Peace

The Path to serenity
Fraught with danger
(Yesterday)
Remnants of Nature’s tendrils
Graveled the way
Nary a snail or worm
Ventured under my careful gait
“Why do you go that way?
When I go this way?”
No answer came.
No one to hear.
Uphill to peace
Even-with-Carter-on-his-knees-
Drawing-lines-on-a-map
Between-right-and-wrong.
Ascension to an accomplishment
Head falls on feathers
Critical eyes stooped on bedposts
“What say you?”
Before judgment passes
Sleep defers to another life.

18/52: On the Beach

18/52: On the Beach by Nevil Shute, 2.5/5 Stars
:::spoiler alert:::
Nuclear war is bad.

I've always been an avid reader and I am quite sure I read this book when I was in junior high school. The librarian discovered my interest in apocalyptic stories and then flooded me with every survivor, submarine, world-ending book that she had in the school library. Good times. Anyhow, in the 50s and 60s, this book would have been a shocker, I'm sure, but we've grown up playing Global Thermo-Nuclear War with Joshua WOPR, so it's no big deal to conceive total annihilation. And now, for your morning coffee...

READ MORE!

Book #18 = On the Beach by Nevil Shute, 2.5/5 Stars
Book #17 = Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White, 3/5 Stars
Book #16 = The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright, 4/5 Stars
Book #15 = The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander, 3.5/5 Stars
Book #14 = Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss,
Book #13 = Captivate! by Adam Nisenson, 2/5 Stars
Book #12 = Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 3/5 Stars
Book #11 = Maggie by Charles Martin, 4/5 Stars
Book #10 = The Dead Don't Dance by Charles Martin, 3/5 Stars
Book #09 = Duma Key by Stephen King, 2.5.5 Stars
Book #08 = Every Woman Has a Story by Daryl Ott Underhill, 2/5 Stars
Book #07 = Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin, 3/5 Stars
Book #06 = Maybe (Maybe Not) by Robert Fulghum, 4/5 Stars
Book #05 = The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, 1/5 Stars
Book #04 = The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis, 2/5 Stars
Book #03 = Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour, 3/5 Stars
Book #02 = The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, 3/5 Stars
Book #01 = Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, 3/5 Stars

Follow us at the Twitter hashtag #52bks52wks!

See last year's list of 53 books...