There’s a lot worse ways to spend 12 minutes than listening to this. I know I’ve posted some of them before, but this is new stuff and that voice is hauntingly beautiful and strong. Enjoy!
First Aid Kit: Tiny Desk Concert
Been digging this a lot lately: No Regrets by Forest Sun
After my breakup I stopped shaving my legs. I’m not sure why I stopped, but I have some theories.
I think a part of me was scared to face being alone, but also scared to face another relationship. Dating is the pits. It’s the worst! It sucks to have to be a big phony just to get past the first few dates. And don’t bother telling me to just be myself. NOBODY is who they really are on a first or second date. Sometimes it’s more like six months in before you can finally pee with him in the house. Once you get to the place where you barge in the bathroom while he’s shaving, drop your panties and cop a squat on the toilet — THEN you can say you’re being yourself. But that doesn’t come for years sometimes. YEARS. Who has years to give to get back to that again? It’s a daunting task, I’m tellin’ ya. Look at your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend right now and tell them you love them.
So I think part of me was convinced that if I didn’t shave my legs I would less tempted to try to entice anyone of the opposite sex. Or same sex, for that matter. In my weird, mixed up brain I somehow thought having hippie legs would be such a turn off and I would feel so UN-sexy that I would manage to avoid interactions with men altogether.
But I was also pissed. Oooer, I was SO pissed! And, again, my brain managed to justify it thusly: I’ll show them. Men are pigs and they like smooth legs and screw them and everything THEY want, I’m growin’ it out, emmer effers!! Right? Cause that makes sense somehow?
But most of all I think I was just lazy and was like, “OH thank GOD it doesn’t matter if I shave tonight.”
Fortunately, I couldn’t stand it anymore and started shaving again. Cause, really, ewwww, I can’t stand the feeling of hair on my legs. I have NOOOO idea why I’m telling the internet this. But I said I would post tonight and this is it. This is what’s on my mind. Yep. Okay, then. Goodnight!
‘A hurt so small,’
Say you,
‘A thread of grey
On blue,
So slight a thing
Less than a wild rose sting
Nothing at all.’
And yet,
When thrushes call,
Or winds awake
And sigh – and sink –
And fall –
Into the evening’s grey
I think –
And think
This small heartbreak
Will wear my life away.
Marion Angus—from The Turn of the Day (Edinburgh: The Porpoise Press, 1931), and included in The Singin Lass: selected work of Marion Angus, edited by Aimée Chalmers (Polygon, 2006)
My oldest turns 18 next week.
I’m having a hard time with it.
I thought I would be ready by now. I’ve had nearly 20 years to get there.
But I suppose that’s something you can’t ever be ready for.
I’m a lucky mom because he’s a good, kind-hearted boy. He’s talented and creative, funny and caring. He’s sweet and thoughtful and cares about people so much it’s a detriment sometimes. He loves his little brother like a house on fire.
Which is a good thing because his little brother loves him too. He idolizes him in the way that only little brothers can.
See that look right there? He’s been looking at him like that since he was born.
I am blessed and grateful to have them in my life and while I am sad looking back at these pictures, I am also happy to have such a goldmine of good. I worry, of course. He starts college in the fall and soon he’ll be off on his own, forging his own way.
And that is how it should be, regardless of how it rends my heart.
I quite like this:
| When Hades decided he loved this girl he built for her a duplicate of earth, everything the same, down to the meadow, but with a bed added. Everything the same, including sunlight, Gradually, he thought, he’d introduce the night, A replica of earth He waited many years, Doesn’t everyone want to feel in the night That’s what he felt, the lord of darkness, Guilt? Terror? The fear of love? He dreams, he wonders what to call this place. A soft light rising above the level meadow, but he thinks
by Louise Glück |
||
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low but the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit…
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many failures turn about
When we might have won had we stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow…
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out…
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
Edgar A. Guest
(One of my all-time favorites)
Took some pics in the Cascade Mountains, it’s absolutely beautiful up there. One of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been, it quiets my mind and sets my soul at ease every time I visit. I’m very lucky to live so close to such magnificent views. Saw a lot of eagles during this trip, but didn’t have a suitable lens to capture them. Shame, but I have them all up here in my noggin.
The pictures aren’t great — I desperately need to follow through on my goal to take some courses — but here’s a few anyway.
When cell phones first started gaining in popularity way back in the dark ages, I resisted the trend. I remember thinking they were a passing fad and I had lived my life quite well up to that point without one and would continue doing so. I don’t remember what happened to change my mind, but I’m most definitely a convert now. My phone is my lifeline and with two teens in the house, I would dare say it’s not a luxury, but a necessity.
Still, when smart phones came along a few years ago, I had the same resistance. I didn’t need a smart phone, I had a laptop and a desktop and that would just be overkill. But then work became more demanding and I needed to stay more connected while traveling. I broke down, upgraded to a smart phone and joined that craze as well. Second verse, same as the first.
Now I can’t imagine life without my smart phone either. The convenience and security alone are worth their weight in gold –which is about how much it costs to maintain a wireless account with unlimited data usage.
However, it has only been very recently that I discovered another use for my smart phone outside of work email, navigation and a tip calculator when I can’t brain so good: weight loss. That’s right; your phone can help you lose weight. Skeptical? So was I. But let me explain:
Over the past few years I packed on the pounds. Stuck in an unfulfilling relationship in which I was deeply unhappy, I ate my feelings. Emotional eating took hold and as my waistline grew, my desperation matched it. Then, last year, I decided enough is enough. I tried fad diets and various health plans, saw my doctor, saw a shrink, saw my waistline continue to expand. I started looking into ever more creative ways to get the weight off. My doctor recommended the Duke Diet and I started finding success there right away. (Excellent program, I recommend it!) While it was effective, it was hard going it alone. I knew I had to get some external motivation going, in addition to feeding my body the right balance of carbs and fats.
Then I turned to my phone. I’m down about 50 lbs since last August and feeling so much better. Breaking free of a toxic relationship helped, but that wasn’t enough alone. Here are three apps I use the most to help me meet my goals, hopefully if you’re in the same situation these tips will help you too.
1) Evernote – Journaling is a big part of success in weight loss and that’s where Evernote comes in. Evernote is a note 
taking software packed with useful features to help you remember just about anything. I use it to record my meal plans, goals and milestones. I use it to record stumbling blocks I encounter along the way so I can easily access them when meeting with my doctor or therapist. If I am out and about and hear about a healthy recipe from a friend, I can jot it down in Evernote and refer to it later. I upload photo notes with progress pics to help inspire me along the way. I recently snapped, uploaded and posted a photo of me wearing jeans that are now two sizes too big. Because Evernote syncs automagically in the background, that photo note is now accessible on my smart phone, my tablet, my desktop and my laptop. No excuse now not to be able to see, instantly, results and motivation. It’s easy to use and best of all, free.
2) 
Water Your Body – Every time my weight loss starts to fall off, I examine my water intake. I have a bad, lifelong habit of not drinking enough water and to be honest, it’s hard for me to even remember to get the water in. Water Your Body is a simple (and free!) tool to help me remember to drink, drink, drink! You input your weight and the app tells you how much you should drink in a day. Input your glass size and every time you drink a glass, tap the screen and it will add those ounces to your daily intake. It has a built-in alarm that goes off every hour and will. NOT. STOP. until you …water your body. Many times I’ve been buried in work, hunched over my desk like a fiend in my office when that alarm starts sounding. It brings me back to reality for a minute, reminds me to get up and walk around a bit and, of course, get another glass of water. Just tap the screen to indicate you’ve put another glass in and the alarm goes quiet for another hour. Of course you can cheat and tap the screen anyway, but cheating yourself seems to be very counter-productive here. There’s a graphs and reports page that tracks your water intake and weight loss. I’m a visual person so that’s a handy tool. I love seeing the line on the weight graph go down and down and down…
3) Eating right, being mindful of what you’re putting in your body and drinking water are
all keys to success with weight loss. But fat that melts away and turns to flab and loose skin isn’t so hot. That’s where exercise comes in. There are a lot – and I mean A LOT – of exercise apps out there. I’ve seen apps that simulate a zombie invasion wherein your smart phone navigation acts as a guide to outrun the zombies. I’ve seen countless exercise reminder apps and gimmicks. However, the one that works best for me is a simple app called Step Counter Free. It’s a super basic app that does one thing, count steps. When I go out walking I turn it on and put it in my pocket and forget about it. It tracks the number of steps I take, miles walked and calories burned. Not super heavy on features, but I like that about it. I wanted something easy to set up, easy to use and easy to read. There is, however, a history button that will allow you to look back at your progress. Simple and effective and once again, free!
That’s it, those are my top three lifelines to weight loss. There are tons more out there and if you’re struggling to drop a few pounds I highly recommend you look into these I’ve listed here and others. They won’t lose the weight FOR you, but they are invaluable tools to help you on your way. I’m all ears (er, eyes) if you’ve stumbled across any that have helped you, please share. Good luck!
