life

as we were

In life, quotes on 29 January 2012 tagged as we were, joan didion with no comments

we are not idealized wild things. we are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. as we were. as we are no longer. as we will one [...]

i touch the future. i teach.

In life, moment, quotes on 28 January 2012 tagged 01.28.86, challenger with no comments

twenty-six years ago today, i was sitting in mr. quincy’s fifth grade class. on a media cart at the front of the classroom was a television broadcasting the launch of the space shuttle challenger, carrying it’s crew of seven. among them was christa mcauliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space. in an [...]

the longing

In life, poem of the day on 27 January 2012 tagged matthew sturges, the longing with no comments

it’s the Longing that ultimately undoes you. when it finds you, it gnaws at your bones and tugs at your chest. it fills you up inside and makes you dream dreams and it drowns you. the Longing keeps you in bed, clutching at your sheets while the world goes on outside. it smells like old [...]

risk your heart

In life, poem of the day on 26 January 2012 tagged louise erdrich, risk your heart with no comments

life will break you. nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. you have to love. you have to feel. it is the reason you are here on earth. you are here to risk your heart. you are here to be swallowed up. [...]

in blackwater woods

In life, poem of the day on 25 January 2012 tagged blackwater woods, mary oliver with 1 comment

Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation, whose meaning none of us will ever know. To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold [...]