1. Early this morning I bought John Lennon's Double Fantasy, and it provided the a remarkably uplifting and also calming commute [a half-hour walk] soundtrack, which was much-needed because pre-Lennon-listening I was having a complete panic attack about work.
George has been and will always be my favorite Beatle, but John's music digs so deep, and his voice has such a cheerful quality about it, even when he's singing about the depths of despair. He definitely comes in a very close and triumphant second on the Mari's Master Fave Beatles List.
Two great songs: Listening to "Watching the Wheels" always makes my life feel epic and exciting, and if "Dear Yoko" does not make you want to dance and sing...I hereby reserve the right to de-friend you immediately.
2. Ate a refreshingly simple and nourishing dinner of spinach, tomato, and feta frittata. This is one of my all-time forever and always favorite meals, but I always forget to make it. Tonight I completely remembered, and enjoyed all its deliciousness while looking up Fresh Prince episodes on youTube.
3. A Chile friend remarked, about his post-Chile life, that work was boring and difficult but the guitar was keeping him sane. I try not to think about Chile too much because at this point I really cannot even let myself go there--it will make me crazy-nostalgic and super emo if I do--but it gently reminded me of how the guitar-playing of others often kept me sane while living there. I spent a lot of my first couple weeks in Santiago crying in my bedroom--homesick and anxious as all get out--but I cherished those first freezing nights when Seth would bring out his guitar and play soothing music with sweet simple messages of general good-cheer and auspiciousness.
What keeps me sane now? I think. Hm. Unplanned conversations with Kristina on the couch. Planned times with honest, confident, and fashionable friends who make me laugh. Long walks with lots of music. Music in general--my most treasured posession. Writing [in my journal] and reading [funny books, good magazines]. Cooking [frittatas] and eating [healthier]. Churching and praying [for peace]. Emailing my [witty, lovely] mom, and receiving her [enchanting, encouraging] emails. Reading blogs about families [I have never met]. Sleeping [deeply, for more than 6 hours at a time].
Good night, dear hearts.
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3 Signs of Grace
Inspired by Three Beautiful Things, I am setting out to record three signs of grace I see most every day
My More Wordy Blog
For, like a grain of fire
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power --
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,
Until, in the amazing light of April,
Surcharging the religious silence of the spring,
Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret
Too terrible to bear.
Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light,
While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men,
Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire.
(Thomas Merton)
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power --
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,
Until, in the amazing light of April,
Surcharging the religious silence of the spring,
Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret
Too terrible to bear.
Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light,
While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men,
Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire.
(Thomas Merton)
For here we are so blind and foolish that we never seek God until he, of his goodness, shows himself to us. It is when we do see something of him by his grace that we are stirred by that same grace to seek him, and with earnest longing to see still more of his blessedness. So I saw him and sought him; I had him and wanted him. It seems to me that this is and should be an experience common to us all. (Julian of Norwich)
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