.breaking.

some words that struck this week...

"what breaks your bones is not the load you're carryin'

what breaks you down is all in how you carry..."

.remedy.2.

more music on re-play...

Music was my refuge.  I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou

1988 - The Centennial

After the Storm - Mumford and Sons

Autumn Leaves - Eva Cassidy

Beth/Rest - Bon Iver

No Rest - Dry The River

The Same Way - The Damnwells

.remedy.

It's no secret that music is an integral part of my everyday life. It shouldn't be a surprise to me that it has been like salve on an open wound this week.


After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~Aldous Huxley

 Scattered Black and Whites - Elbow  

 Follow You Down to the Red Oak Tree - James Vincent McMorrow  

When a Heart Breaks - Ben Rector

  

Homage for the Suffering - Matthew Perryman Jones

111411

sometimes it's easier to use someone else's words.



You were once a boy in tattered jeans
With skin dark by the sun
Eyes so wide and deep with reckless dreams
To carry you along

You were always talking 'bout the sea
The brilliant mystic view
You never seemed to shrink from mystery
That was life to you

And you would find a resting place
Where stars would light the room
And trees would bend with sacred grace
Beneath the silver moon

 I see you in this height so sad and sweet
Your spirit burning bright
I know He whispers still in places deep
With flaming words of light

And you would find a resting place
Where stars would light the room
And trees would bend with sacred grace
Beneath the silver moon

fav

82111

from the road trip. Somewhere in the Appalachian mountains.

81811

.MFA. Boston.

During my trip to Mass, Amy surprised me with a trip to the MFA. I went insane and took a TON of pictures...surprise, surprise. Here's one I love, mostly because I love marble. and details. and fabric.



more pictures coming....obvs.

To VA Beach! ...then Boston

It's the beginning of day 2 of the road trip to VA Beach with Chelsea. Yesterday was exhausting, but so much fun! Just wanted to share a couple of pictures from the road.

This first is actually at the start of the trip at Chelsea's house...I'm on a flower kick; what can I say?


this one is in Kansas, close to the Missouri border.


More fun (and probably pictures) to come.... (c:

.bright as yellow.

All this crazy weather has resulted in some really lovely foliage. I've been going a bit crazy with the flower pictures.

Here are a few...

.open arms for broken hearts.

I'm really loving this song right now.

The build and the break...the melody...the strings...that voice. Above all, the words.

If all music could be this extraordinary...

Open Arms - Elbow


You're a law unto yourself
And we don't suffer dreamers
But neither should you walk the earth alone
So with finger rolls and folding chairs
And a volley of streamers
We can be there for tweaks and repairs
Should you come back home
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
Tables are for pounding here
And when we've got you surrounded
The man you are will know the boy you were
And you're not the man who fell to earth
You're the man of La Mancha
And we've love enough to light the street
'Cause everybody's here
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
The moon is out looking for trouble
And everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle
And everyone's here
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Come home again
The moon is out looking for trouble
The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle
The moon is face down in a puddle
And everyone's here

.happiness is.

Isn't it funny that the times in our lives when we focus more on (or are at least more aware of) happiness is when we are surrounded and saturated with grief? Like the C.S. Lewis quote about faith “We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it's there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to use it.” While most of us would rather be happy than depressed, don't we take it for granted most of the time?

In the past 6 months, I've never had the question "What makes you happy?" asked of me more than I have in my life.

Some of you, at least, know the grief in my life and have shared with me, supported me and picked me up. The nature of my dad's disease requires a certain level of expectancy and just two years ago I struggled with watching my father deteriorate, knowing all the while that it was just the beginning.

After months of hospice and being told more than once that he wouldn't live through the night; after saying good-bye so many times I've lost count and letting go every single day, I am exhausted. The word doesn't seem large enough, but it's all I've got. My patience has been stretched and strained, my strength has been pushed to the brink and I've come face to face more than once with the person I truly am. It's been the toughest, most meaningful learning experience I've ever had and maybe ever will have.

It's defined me and I'm still learning what that means.

In all of this, though, what brings me back from the edge is to find the little things that make me happy. Reading, writing, talking with friends, crying with friends, laughing with friends, hugs, tea, solace, promises...music, driving with my windows down, walking in the rain, smiles on strangers, tossing a frisbee, jumping jacks, singing, hair cuts...reminiscing with my dad...crying with my mom.

There is happiness in the smallest most insignificant seeming moments. There is happiness in the sad moments. There is happiness in the loud and quiet.

We just need to look for it.


“I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” ~Martha Washington

music in the middle: Ben Howard

a little piece of lovely from watch.listen.tell.

voices: pure. cello: rich. guitar: left-handed. performance: raw.

love.







I will do my best to be posting on Fridays again.

friday phonics: v38 - covers

Just wanted to do something different this week, so I thought I'd post some of my fav covers. (c: I do love it when a band can take a bad song and improve it or take an amazing song and put their own story in it. Covers can be fantastic or they can be fail...here are some of the former.

First off, how about some Elbow coving Massive Attack. Yes please.


I really love it when an artist or band can take a heavy metal song and strip it down to it's bare bones. Here's Justin McRoberts doing just that to NineInchNails' Head Like a Hole. Brilliant.
(the album version of this has some really fantastic piano on it, but I wanted to post the live version here)


I love love love love love this cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean by the Civil Wars. So good there aren't words.


Then you have the freaking talented Punch Brothers taking on the Strokes. Here's their mind-blowing cover of Reptilia.


Finally, I wanted to share the project that kind of prompted the idea to share covers. Peter Gabriel recently decided to do a covers album of a pretty wide range of artists, both veterans and newbies...it's pretty amazing. But he didn't stop there, the whole idea was for him to cover all of these bands on an album called "Scratch My Back..." and in turn all of the artists he covered would cover a Peter Gabriel song on a second album called "...and I'll Scratch Yours". Beautiful.

Here is his cover of Bon Iver's Flume.


...and here is Bon Iver's cover of Come Talk To Me




If you have the time, here is a little documentary on the project with thoughts from both Peter Gabriel and Justin Vernon. It's pretty great.

if you needed me

If I needed you would you come to me, would you come to me, and ease my pain?
If you needed me I would come to you; I'd swim the seas for to ease your pain

In the night forlorn the morning's born, and the morning shines with the lights of love.
You will miss sunrise if you close your eyes; that would break my heart in two