72. December 9

Hey world, today was a good day to be alive. It started with a misty morning, clean from Tuesdays rain, that broke into a crisply sunny day. I finished my finals. To celebrate the end of the semester, my roommate treated me to barbecue and educated me on the differences of eastern vs western North Carolina barbecue. The restaurant featured a fabulous live bluegrass band consisting of a fiddle, a mandolin, an electric bass, a banjo, and an acoustic guitar. And in a bit I'll wrap up the evening by reading The Age of Innocence.

Sometimes, I worry I won't ever be able to do all I want to do with my life. There are so many places I want to travel to, so many books to read, so much music to hear, so many things to try... Days like today remind me there is time to live and be. No rush. What happens, happens. And if you're given the opportunity to enjoy bluegrass and barbecue, run with it.

I didn't take many pictures today. I would have liked to have photographed the bluegrass band, but the whole night felt too laid back to pull out the camera. I kind of liked this shot, even if I've already photographed this path half a dozen times...

So I don't believe in "other lives" in this sense, but I thought this quote was a beautiful description of the chaotic swirl of human experience. 

"There will be other lives.
There will be other lives for nervous boys with sweaty palms, for bittersweet fumblings in the backseats of cars, for caps and gowns in royal blue and crimson, for mothers clasping pretty pearl necklaces around daughters' unlined necks, for your full name read aloud in an auditorium, for brand-new suitcases transporting you to strange new people in strange new lands.
And there will be other lives for unpaid debts, for one-night stands, for Prague and Paris, for painful shoes with pointy toes, for indecision and revisions.
And there will be other lives for fathers walking daughters down aisles.
And there will be other lives for sweet babies with skin like milk.
And there will be other lives for a man you don't recognize, for a face in a mirror that is no longer yours, for the funerals of intimates, for shrinking, for teeth that fall out, for hair on your chin, for forgetting everything. Everything.
Oh, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that's not how it works. A human's life is a beautiful mess."
~ Gabrielle Zevin (Elsewhere)