And I said I know it well.

Good morning!!  This song, to me is like a glittering white Christmas in late July. It's relatable and brutally honest.  It aches.  It's filled with hope.  It also sparkles, shines, and lights up my world, as I know it. When I heard this live, it was probably literally one of the most gorgeous things my ears had ever come across in my long history of seeing live music. Have I mentioned that I'd like to  marry Bon Iver for writing and singing the way he does? I think I may have.  ;) Enjoy.

"Well I met you at the blood bank
We were looking at the bags

Wondering if any of the colors

Matched any of the names we knew on the tags

You said, "See, look, that's yours!

Stacked on top with your brother's

See how the resemble one another

Even in their plastic little covers"

And I said I know it well

That secret that you know 

But don't know how to tell

It fucks with your honor

And it teases your head

But you know that it's good girl

Because it's running you with red

Then the snow started falling

We were stuck out in your car

You were rubbing both of my hands

Chewing on a candy bar

You said, "Ain't this just like the present

To be showing up like this"

As a moon waned to crescent 

We started to kiss

And I said I know it well

That secret that we know

That we don't know how to tell

I'm in love with your honor

I'm in love with your cheeks

What's that noise up the stairs, babe?

Is that Christmas morning creaks?

And I said I know it well."

Photo source: here

Living in color, part deux.

I had so much fun with this particular post back in late May, I thought I'd do a follow-up.  Sometimes us crazy humans forget how alive we are in this pulsating universe, and how incredible it all truly is.  Let's run with it for a bit..... shall we? ;)

"I just think that some things are meant to be broken. 

 Imperfect.  Chaotic. 

 It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know?  

There have to be a few real holes in the road. 

 It's how life is."

-Sarah Dessen

"I find it hard to believe you don't know the beauty you are. 

 But if you don't, then let me be your eyes."

-Velvet Underground

"Those who fear imagination condemn it; something childish they say,

 something monsterish, misbegotten.  Not all of us dream awake.

  But those of us who do have no choice."

-Patricia Mckillip

"Look again at that dot. That’s here.

 That’s home. That’s us.

 On it everyone you love, 

everyone you know,

 everyone you ever heard of, 

every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. 

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, 

thousands of confident religions, 

ideologies, and economic doctrines,

 every hunter and forager, 

every hero and coward,

 every creator and destroyer of civilization,

 every king and peasant, every young couple in love,

 every mother and father, hopeful child,

 inventor and explorer, 

every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,

 every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” 

every saint and sinner in the history of our species 

lived there-on a mote of dust

 suspended in a sunbeam." 

Carl Sagan

"When you come to the edge of all you know,

you must believe one of two things:

either there will be ground to stand on,

or you will be given wings to fly."

-O.R. Melling

"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity 

to create, to overcome, 

to endure, to transform, to love, 

and to be greater than our suffering."

-Ben Okri

"When I dream, 

I sometimes remember 

how to fly."

-Neil Gaiman

"Now you're here and everything we touch explodes,

 bursts into bloom, or burns to ash.  

History atomizes and negates

 with our every shared breath. 

 I need you like life needs life.  

I want you like a natural disaster. 

You are all I see."

-Henry Rollins

"I saw the sky and sea and sand and the flickering flames of bonfire through my tears. 

 All at once, it rushed to me with tremendous speed, 

and made me dizzy.  It was beautiful.  

Everything that happened 

was shockingly beautiful, 

enough to make you crazy."

-Banana Yoshimoto

"Gasping for air and sanity.  

Moon and stars and clouds and night. 

 Out of breath and breathless. 

 Pillows and sheets and blankets and you.

  I will drown in this bed."

-Unknown

"There is a language older by far and deeper than words.  

It is the language of bodies, of body on body, 

wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone.  

It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory.  

We have forgotten this language. 

 We do not even remember that it exists."

-Derrick Jenson

"And as we let our own light shine,

 we unconsciously give other people 

permission to do the same.  

As we are liberated from our fear, 

our presence automatically liberates others."

-Marianne Williamson

"Life is eternal. 

 We have stopped for a moment

 to encounter each other,

 to meet, to love, to share. 

 This is a precious moment. 

 It is a little parenthesis in eternity."

-Paulo Coelho

Photo source: here, & here