About Me

Living life one dream at a time.

Words of the Wise

"What after all is a halo? It's only one more thing to keep clean."
-Christopher Fry, The Lady's not for Burning

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, 'I'll try again tomorrow.'"
-Mary Anne Radmacher

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more."

-Erica Jong

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the World. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you...We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us; It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-Nelson Mandella, 1994 Inaugural Speech

"Until this moment I had believed forgiveness to be a special virtue, a beneficence God expected of good people. But it wasn't that at all. Forgiveness was an instinct, a desperate impulse to stay connected to the people you needed, no matter what their betrayals."
-Monica Wood, My Only Story

"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days."
-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them—words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried when you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for the want of a teller but for the want of an understanding ear."
-Stephen King

"Have you even been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like 'maybe we should just be friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
-Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Kindly Ones

"Being always overavid, I demand from those I love a love equal to mine which, being balanced people, they cannot supply."
-Sylvia Ashton-Warner

"What I need is someone who will make me do what I can."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


"You know, when you crawl that far down into the abyss, you really shouldn't bring stuff back up with you. Some things are meant to live in the dark. Your blog is like one of those fish with no eyes. Only slightly more disturbing."
Monday, December 3, 2007

Nutshell philosophies

I was talking with my best friend, R, tonight. She's been going through a lot over the last year or so, and there have been stretches in which we haven't spoken at all...for months, even. As she lives in Pennsylvania, it's not like I can just drop in and check on her whenever I feel like it. But when one of us really needs the other, we're always there.

That's the great thing about best friends. You don't HAVE to talk all the time. You can always just pick up where you left off.

Over the last month or two, we've been catching each other more often, which is good. And tonight, we talked about what's been going on, what we've both been up to, and how bizarre our lives are. We came up with a few conclusions.

1. Everyone in the world really is fucked up in one way or another. Don't believe me? Think of the ten people to whom you are closest, and do the math. They all have their own special freakiness, don't they?

2. The key to life is surrounding yourself with people whose fucked-up-ed-ness you can identify with. Whose odd little tendencies are not only tolerable, but almost endearing? Those should be your friends, lovers, and confidants. Find them, hold on to them. Forever.

3. Everyone also has their own insecurities. They get us in a lot of trouble, don't they? We tend to talk about those ad nauseum, and focus on how we need to get past them. On the flip side, however, are the little vanities that are equally dangerous. We tell ourselves, "Hey, I can do this! I can make this (job, relationship, situation) work. I'm good enough to do this, and nobody can stop me!" What we tend to forget is that there are some things that can be done, but shouldn't. We confuse strength with stamina. Sure, you can do it....but can you do it for an extended period of time? And do you want to? (We focused mainly on relationships, but I have to be fair and apply it across the board. Really, though, think about how many relationships begin with an assumption that a person's idiosyncrasies drive you nuts...but you just know that you can put up with them if you try hard enough?)

4. Communication is a lot harder than it looks. Deciding how much to say is always the biggest issue, I think. You can't bottle everything inside forever, because it's likely to fester. You also can't just spew out every thought that comes to mind...because then you lose credibility and perspective. If you're always talking, then the important things get lost in the shuffle.

5. Remember, fun is the center of dysfunction.

6. If you can't make a decision, it's often best not to force it. Wait until you have enough facts, and a clear enough mind, to take a position. More often than not, the right answer will come to you, given enough time.

7. Ice cream is good for the soul.

8. A good friend is someone who sees you for who you are, and not what you present to the world. R made it a point to laugh after telling me that if she didn't know me better, she'd think I was some kind of superwoman. (I laughed, too. It's actually pretty funny.) "You work hard, you raise a child, you are always going to these soirées, board meetings, social events...and your house is always clean! If they only knew that you go home and lay awake all night with neurotic worry, and just how screwed up your view of the world is, their image of you would be blown." I love her for that, because she can say such things completely without malice - and my fucked-up-ed-ness is endearing to her (and vice versa).

9. The people we love can be taken from us at any time without notice. Cherish them. (I've been thinking of this one a lot lately. It seems I've seen more than my share of death and dying lately. I'd like it to stop soon, please.)

10. You can't always be you. Sometimes, life throws you curve balls, and it throws you off kilter. You have to adapt to the situation and deal with it...but you can't forget who you are in the process, because sooner or later, those inherent traits that make you you will find a way back in. No matter how you change and grow, some things just are. Hold on to them, because they're the reasons that the people closest to you love you.

Now it's time for me to go lay in bed and worry...lol. If you have a bottle of wine, feel free to stop by and share neuroses!

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