2% milk

2% milk is so important to me that when I open the fridge and accidentally grab the 1%, I somehow find the energy to put it away and find the 2% that's buried in the back. 

Quote of the Day

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, then suddenly, you are doing the impossible.”

St. Francis

Chasing the Sun by Sara Bareilles

It’s a really old city 
Stuck between the dead and the living 
So I thought to myself, sitting on a graveyard shelf 
As the echo of heartbeats, from the ground below my feet 
Filled a cemetery in the center of Queens 

I started running the maze of 
The names and the dates, some older than others 
The skyscrapers, little tombstone brothers 
With Manhattan behind her, three million stunning reminders 
Built a cemetery in the center of Queens 

You said, remember that life is 
Not meant to be wasted 
We can always be chasing the sun! 
So fill up your lungs and just run 
But always be chasing the sun! 

So how do you do it, 
With just words and just music, capture the feeling 
That my earth is somebody’s ceiling, can I deliver in sound 
The weight of the ground 
Of a cemetery in the center of Queens 

There’s a history through her 
Sent to us as a gift from the future, to show us the proof 
More than that, it’s to dare us to move 
To open our eyes and to learn from the sky 
From a cemetery in the center of Queens 

You said, remember that life is 
Not meant to be wasted 
We can always be chasing the sun! 
So fill up your lungs and just run 
But always be chasing the sun! 

All we can do is try 
And live like we’re still alive 

It’s a really old city 
Stuck between the dead and the living 
So I thought to myself, sitting on a graveyard shelf 
And the gift of my heartbeat sounds like a symphony 
Played by a cemetery in the center of Queens 

You said, remember that life is 
Not meant to be wasted 
We can always be chasing the sun! 
So fill up your lungs and just run 
But always be chasing the sun! 

All we can do is try 
And live like we’re still alive 

All we can do is try 
And live like we’re still alive

This song is my inspiration. So is Brave. 

Morigan

Morigan is my friends niece. She is about 14 months old and was born partially blind. Her vision is limited to a few inches from her face. 

As I held her yesterday, I watched her as she stared cross eyed into space. She followed a pattern: she would be silent, waiting for someone to make a funny noise, then she would laugh and make funny noises back. She got so excited that she would grin so hard she shook.

I was wearing a black and white polka dotted blouse the day I meet her, and as I held her she would grab my blouse and pull her head close to it. Consequently bringing the fabric into her range of vision. When she saw the strange patterns on the fabric she would laugh and scream from excitement. She continually did that over and over. Pulling her face close to my shirt. Pulling away from it and laughing. Then repeating again.

Eventually she moved on to my hair. It was so fascinating that she decided she would taste it. That didn't turn out well but at least she knows what strawberry blonde hair tastes like. I bet not a lot of people do.

Even though she couldn't see well, she was not lost. She knew where she was and who she wanted to be held by. She still had a personality like no other. She loves being upside down and she loves polka dots. 

14 month old Morigan taught me a lesson yesterday. She taught me that even in our trials we can still grow and progress. Her eye sight may not progress, but she will still be able to progress in many other ways. 

If—

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

Friend.

For a church activity some wonderful ladies came and talked to us about marriage and dating and what it was like for them. They then continued to give us advice. One lady simply said that we should let boys into our life as if we were taking then under our wing. They need to be "nurtured" just as we do. We should let them be our friends until we KNOW we don't want them around anymore. They are sensitive just like we are. 

So I've decided that I need to be kinder to guys. Especially ones who are brave enough to express their feelings for me. I shouldn't enter a relationship, but it would be positively wrong for me to turn them away completely. I will simply be their friend. 

Quote of the Day

A good analogy of knowing what something is about versus actually doing something about it.