May 2012
25 posts
“We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life…It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.”
—
The Opposite of Loneliness by Yale Daily News columnist Marina Keegan for the class of 2012 commencement.
She died in a car accident several days later at age 22.
(via caro)
If we did have a word for that, the word for unloneliness, it would include the opposite of tragedy and loss. Never having to lose people who have words like these, who have potential. Go read the whole thing. I remember feeling this way at 22, feeling like I was leaving the incredible world I’d built and not knowing if I’d ever get it back. I didn’t, but I’ve built many more worlds since then, and I hope I keep remembering that the best days aren’t gone. I hope I keep finding worlds full of people who will laugh heartily and sit around campfires and talk and sing late into the night. I hope that sense of belonging to a tribe never leaves my life. Even if the tribe is just two or three of us. Even if it’s only the one that I create myself.
(via chels)
Play
Leaves Always Turn Green
Mercy Bell
Leaves Always Turn Green (new demo!) - Mercy Bell
This song I wrote inspired by my friends Mike & Tiffany Sanders who requested a song about “hope”. :)
Lyrics
Sittin in an airport bar I’m
drinking the thousand miles between us
ain’t nothin’ a beer
can’t solve.
A one way ticket
to some money I know I need it
but it’s a life that ain’t worth living
it ain’t nothin to sing about.
The man beside me
sees me sad
asks if I need a friend.
He pulls up a chair
and buys him drink
says “I got an ear to bend.”
Chorus:
“Don’t you worry
Ain’t nothin’s worth your worry
the sparrows keep returnin’
from Mexico each year.
Keep on keepin’
your eyes on that horizon,
in my 60 years of livin’
the leaves always turn green.”
Says “I’ve fought my
share of battles
cancer, drugs, and cheaters
they’re devils in disguise.
But the sun comes up, and the sky is blue
Beatles songs sound just as new
if you can only manage to keep alive.
And I know it seems
like there ain’t no tomorrow
and hope is in a drought.
but you’ll be surprised
if you open your eyes
things to sing about.”
Chorus
“
My worst habit is I get so tired of winter
I become a torture to those I am with.
If you’re not here, nothing grows.
I lack clarity. My words
tangle and knot up.
How to cure bad water? Send it back to the river.
How to cure bad habits? Send me back to you.
When water gets caught in habitual whirlpools,
dig a way out through the bottom
to the ocean. There is a secret medicine
given only to those who hurt so hard
they can’t hope.
The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.
Look as long as you can at the friend you love,
no matter whether that friend is moving away from you
or coming back toward you.
Don’t let your throat tighten with fear.
Take sips of breath all day and night,
before death closes your mouth.
“When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow.”
—based on old Native American prophecies
“The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so.”
—Ray Bradbury on creative purpose in the face of the storm of rejection. (via explore-blog)
Play
2:37
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
—
(via explore-blog)
drinkin'jam time folks
ay ay cap’n!it’s been a while. new songs on the way. yip yip. here that mercybell? write write write!
“…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
—Julian of Norwich
