70. December 7

Finals Week!

Life is a little crazy, but I still manage to reserve time for the important things like free breakfast and karaoke at night, watching About a Boy with friends, and taking pretty pictures like this one.

The building to the right that you can't really see is my place of residence. 

My good friend Danni introduced me to this little poem, which I'll offer you as the quote of the day.

The Blue Between
By Kristine O’Connell George 

Everyone watches the clouds,
naming creatures they’ve seen.
I see the sky differently,
I see the blue between-
The blue woman tugging
her stubborn cloud across the sky.
The blue giraffe stretching
to nibble a cloud floating by.
A pod of dancing dolphins,
cloud oceans, cargo ships,
a boy twirling his cloud
around a thin blue fingertip.
In those smooth wide spaces,
I see a different scene.
I see those cloudless spaces,
I see the blue between.

55. November 22

Today's Gratitude List

(Continuing Until Thanksgiving)

1. I am grateful for beauty within the ordinary.
2. I am grateful for quotes and the definition they give to my thoughts.
3. I am grateful for dinner.
4. I am grateful for quirks and curiosities.
5. I am grateful for all those beautiful books I haven't yet read. I can read a lifetime long and still have more beautiful books ahead of me.
6. I am grateful for all of the trivia floating around in my head and for those people who keep adding to the stash.
   
7. I am grateful for perfume and how makes me feel pretty.
8. I am grateful for socks, particularly the pink fuzzy ones I'm wearing today.
9. I am grateful for a particular worry lifted from my mind. 

It rained again today. And it's raining now. But the clouds parted and rain stopped just long enough for me to get to lunch and back, dry. And on my way, I was greeted with this beautiful sky. You should have seen how swiftly the clouds were moving.

"Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music-the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."

~ Henry Miller

28. October 26

Yes, another shot of the sky.

The purpose of this blog is to take a picture for each day of my twentieth year that:

A. Tells something about my day, as to serve a photographic journal entry

B. Looks pretty

Well, that's the rough gist of it.

The story this picture tells?

Today was pretty uneventful.

But the sky looked cool. And I like autumn.

 "And some days all I do is watch the sky / Today was a good day..."

~Something Corporate, "Watch the Sky"

26. October 24

The bus station is not my favorite place.

I hate the wafts of cigarette smoke, the leery gazes of strangers, the scent of unwashed clothing and hair, and the filthy benches. Even if it is only a few crazies among the rest, the whole atmosphere makes my skin crawl. I always want to change into clean clothes after riding the bus home.

The bus station is not my favorite place.

But, when I get on the bus, and I see the regulars converse easily with one another, and I see their humor, their warmth, and their smiles, I feel deeply ashamed for my pride and embarrassed for my intolerance.

The bus station is not my favorite place. But, I suppose if I don't like it so much, I could always walk.

View from a bus station bench...

"There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up."

~ Bernice Johnson Reagon

24. October 22

Forgive me, but life was just too beautiful today!

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am! Life is just so good. To be young at this time and in this place is truly an unusually excellent experience. Occasionally I fear that life simply can't get any better, and that these really are the best years of my life. Its like that line from "Total Eclipse of the Heart," 

"Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years has gone by." 

But then I think of all that lies ahead of me and I am quite sure these fleeting years of youth are far from the most life has to offer. I look at my parents, at my brother and his wife, and at all the young couples I know and I think how excited I am to someday have the experience, God be willing, of being a wife and a mother. There are no two experiences I desire more than these.

I do not fear growing old, even if the later years of life seem to me now a little bit beautiful, bittersweet, and sad. I love what Agatha Christie had to say about those years,

"But there is a great deal left. Operas and concerts, and reading, and the enormous pleasure of dropping into bed and going to sleep, and dreams of every variety... Almost best of all, sitting in the sun--gently drowsy... And there you are again--remembering."

 I think... life in its entirety is beautiful beyond understanding. And I for one intend to relish every moment of it.

I am done rambling now and with great pride present the picture and quote of the day. And technically this quote will be the third in the post, but don't let his bother you okay? Consider it a bonus.

"Happiness is the ultimate realization that everything was, and is, exactly as it should be."

~ Paul from The Netherlands

15. October 13

Stuck in traffic, but who's complaining?

"You find beauty in ordinary things; do not lose this ability."

~ Fortune Cookie

12. October 10

Lunch, matinee movie, and... historic cemetery?

Yeah. Pretty awesome.

Thank you my sweet hostesses for that afternoon.

"However dark it may be here--there is no night in heaven."

~Epitaph on a gravestone

9. October 7

I woke up today expecting to find a day cold and gray enough to justify my cranky mood. Alas, life had other plans for me.

This is the sky that greeted me on my way to breakfast.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

~ Douglas Adams

4. October 2

Sunrise at breakfast. 

"...find joy in every situtation you are placed in." ~ Brian Emery, Ninja