June things.

A list of June things 
I'd like to see more of:

potted plants.
daytime moons.
momentum. 
outdoor folk music.
strawberries.
collaboration.
salt water.
courage.
hammocks.
simplicity.
spotify.
summer rain.
red-coral sunsets.
tiny cabins.
old books.
possibilities of spontaneity.
wild, western landscapes.
sleep.
remembered dreams.
campgrounds.
days without time.
walks at dusk.
drives to nowhere/everywhere.
less waiting.

And more gorgeous music like this.... 
to melt into:

If people were seasons.

illustration by Lizzy Stewart

I have decided that if people were seasons

you would be summer. 

The way you burn as hot as the sun itself

while seeking naked truths.

Celestial like the solstice,

always bursting into bloom.

Don't mourn moments.

Don't mourn memories, people and moments for long. 
You may think they're gone, 
but they have stayed inside your body. 
Stories are the maps we've drawn,
 rolling alongside breath,
 strung around our tissue,
 pulsing with our heartbeats.

Painting greenery gold.

Already feeling the breezy beginnings of the most beautiful seasonal shift: summer's slow exhale into autumn, painting greenery gold and sunsets vibrant. August through October is so sweetly comforting. 

photo source: my phone and pinterest

June symphony.

The soft symphony of crickets and humid air begin the slow slide into summer. Hoping June lingers a bit longer this year as it is such an elusive month, always swept away much too soon. Hope mingles with green that this summer will be known as that summer, the summer that remains locked in memory later on as each new June arrives.

"To the gypsy that remains faces freedom with a little fear

I have no fear, I have only love

And if I was a child

And the child was enough

Enough for me to love

Enough to love"

Powerful progress.

 It's a Saturday evening on the last day of June.

 Lately, I've been working hard at existing peacefully in the space between where I am and where I want to be.  I bought a juicer to whip up vibrant and alive food creations to fill my body with nutrients because I believe there is healing in eating intelligently.  I frequently release every toxin and insecurity from my being in the Bikram yoga room; eyes stinging from sweat, muscles straining deep in the stretches, while the teacher's voice fills my ears with the continuous dialogue that "this will change everything." 

I spend time breathing in the humid air that defines the summer here, noticing memories that sometimes reemerge from my years as a teen in Rhode Island.  Some are hauntingly painful, some so sweet I'm swept away into that teenage wonder once again when I am seventeen, there was so much time to live every dream imaginable, and so many places and people to fall in love with.

I'm with my dogs as much as possible, often glimpsing a reflection of myself in their soulful eyes, which catches me off guard enough to notice and improve on certain things. I'm grateful for their honesty.

 I throw myself into my real, idealistic work, giving every last fiber of my mind until my energy wanes, reaching further than that dip any type of caffeine could save, until another day is gone. I push, and I push, and I push to create a world that I can inhabit and truly, truly accept and love as my own. 

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world.

Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.

All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."

George Bernard Shaw

  These days fly. They fly into where I hope my aim is pointing.  And when the day pulls you in so many chaotic and confusing directions, face your heart, reach for it, put it back into your chest, and tell yourself that this is what's important.  All we can do my friends, is continue to do the right things, to throw yourself into what drives you, to dare greatly, and to bring forth the intention of where you want to be... physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, and something powerful can happen.

Speaking of powerful...
this is one of my all time favorite trance tunes.
It's progress, hope, and this moment
wrapped into a masterpiece of sound.

Photo source: here

Bloom.

"The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory, and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful."
-Milan Kundera

I'm not certain as to whether or not my fascination with country settings is rooted in my long history of horseback riding or if there is simply something so beautifully peaceful about the idea of a hill country setting that I cannot help but long for it.  It's probably a little of both or maybe neither; maybe it comes from another place deep within me that I'm still mysteriously unaware of.  Either way, I cannot get enough of farm and field visuals particularly when pretty music is involved.

Needless to say, when I first saw this perfect video
 I wanted to live inside of it.
The Paper Kites.

"In the morning when I wake

And the sun is coming through

Oh, you fill my lungs with sweetness

And you fill my head with you.

Shall I write it in a letter?

Shall I try to get it down?

Oh you fill my head with pieces

Of a song I can't get out

Can I be close to you?

Can I be close to you?

Can I take it to a morning

Where the fields are painted gold

And the trees are filled with memories

Of the feelings never told?

When the evening pulls the sun down,

And the day is almost through

Oh, the whole world is sleeping,

But my world is you

Can I be close to you?"

Photo source: here and here

That summer afternoon.

We drove through the golden landscape and hills,
 the wind in our hair and road stretched before us, 
where adventures, creative urges, and epiphanies
 awaited us that summer afternoon.  

We were tipsy
 off one another
as though the sunlight and fresh air 
we invited to fill our lungs 
was actually wine.

I was happy.




Photo source: here

Sparks fly.

Good morning!! :)

On this beautiful Monday in August I'm going to post a little song I find to be magical that is acutally completely out of the ordinary than the typical music in my blog. I think every woman (or perhaps man) on earth can relate to this song either in our past or present. The thing about Taylor Swift is she brilliantly captures the yearning, confused, thrilling innocence; relatable hyper- romantically pained streak, and heart's beautiful turmoil we all had while we are in those growing stages in songs presented in what she refers to as "open letters."  These emotions followed many of us long into adulthood, when we are more removed from naiveity with years of experience and wisdom accompanying us on this journey through life.  Taylor can be an unflinching reminder of our youth, seeming to squeeze every fan's hand reassuringly a though her honest lyrics, while quietly reassuring them they're not alone in their insecurities. 

Have a lovely summer day. :)

"Speak now or forever hold your peace,' the words said by preachers at the end of wedding ceremonies all over the world, right before the vows. It's a last chance for protest, a moment that makes everyone's heart race, and a moment I've always been strangely fascinated by. So many fantasize about bursting into a church, saying what they'd kept inside for years like in the movies. In real life, it rarely happens.
 Real life is a funny thing, you know.  In real life, saying the right thing at the right moment is beyond crucial.  So crucial, in fact, that most of us start to hesitate, for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.  But lately, what I've begun to fear more than that is letting the moment pass without saying anything.  I think most of us fear reaching the end of our life, and looking back regretting moments when we didn't speak up.  When we didn't say 'I love you.' When we should've said 'I'm sorry.' When we didn't stand up for ourselves or someone who needed help."
-Taylor Swift

"Get me with those green eyes baby 
as the lights go down
Give me something that'll haunt me
when you're not around"

Photo source: here

Happy being someone.

Good evening....

I just wanted to pop in and say hello and happy July!! I hope you had a great 4th  and you got to do the things you enjoy with the people you love... simply enjoying being someone. I'd also like to add on an unrelated note that I'm completely disgusted by today's Casey Anthony verdict. Sometimes a girl just wants to believe in the power of true justice but I suppose if that's not possible in this moment, at least we can still believe in the powers of effort, tea, wisdom, energy, old books, chocolate, karma, love, music, possibility, the ocean, radiance, ancient trees, summer and hope.

And sleep. So, so ready for sleep.

I love this song by Faded Paper Figures, as it instantly puts me in 
that sweet summer state of mind.

"North by north— lest we have to settle down
we can sail without the wind in this town
Things that London never saw
Northern winters start to thaw;
To islands on the sea,
lands I’ve never seen,
things will get calmer—follow me.

You said a long long time ago
you were happy being someone
Let's go far far far from home
I'll be glad to be with someone

Land pneumonia, your engines in repair;
plant begonias, and orchids in your hair.
Continents all made of clay
Dreamers leaving every day
To islands on the sea,
lands I’ve never seen,
things will get calmer—follow me.

Someone told me you had oceans in your eyes
Cold as shadows over European skies
Coasting out the shallow day
Leaving London in decay
To islands on the sea,
lands I’ve never seen,
things will get calmer—follow me."

Sweet dreams.

Photo source: here

Upward over the mountain.

"Life is a question of nerves and fibres, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams. You may fancy yourself safe and think yourself strong. But a chance tone in colour in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you once had loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line in a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had once ceased to play..

I tell you it is on things like these

that our lives depend."

-Oscar Wilde

Morning. :) Sometimes for reasons unknown aside from the obvious, I dream of the Blue Ridge mountains. Something about mountains has always made me feel safe, and having been on the edge of these southeastern mountains more than once this year for various occasions such as my drive from California to Massachusetts and recently Bonnaroo, I now stand fascinated by the stunning ribbons of road, small mountain towns, curves, plunges, rivers, wildlife, history, cabins and overall artistic passion of the area. There's a sort of magic that radiates that land, and it tugs at my heart as if there's a subtle pull luring me back there to really explore and immerse myself into the hiking, local stores and camping in that summer mountain air.

Something about this sweet Iron & Wine song transports me to the lovely area where a land filled with the allure of outdoor adventures, bluegrass music, southern hospitality and winding romantic roads so often calls to me. :) I think that sometimes we all have places that tug at our hearts in ways we're not always uncertain of, but I know that we should listen and follow where we are quietly lead to.

Have a beautiful June day, and keep on keepin' on. ;)

"So may the sunrise bring home where it once was forgotten.

Sons are like birds, flying always upward over the mountain."

Summer's calling.

Ahh my friends.... summer is here. 

 It's really a time when we should all slow down a bit.  Staying busy can be good for us but only to a certain point.  If you're not yet feeling that sweet, slow summer vibe, maybe these images and words will inspire this evening. :)

"This is June, the month of grass and leaves... 

already the aspens are trembling again,

and a new summer is offered to me."

-Henry David Thoreau

"I want to be magic.  

I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile.

I want to be under a tree or on a hill 

and marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing.

I don't want to pretend to be magic anymore.

  I want to be magic."

-Charles de Lint

"I was never really insane except upoun occasions

when my heart was touched."

-Edgar Allen Poe

'

"I am at one with a sea of sensations,

glitter, silk, skin, eyes, mouths,

desire."

-Anais Nin

"At any rate, let us love for awhile, a year or so,

you and me.  That's a form of divine drunkenness 

we can all try."

-S. Scott Fitzgerald

"It's because everything must end 

that everything is so beautiful."

-Carine Rotifeld

"It was time to move on,

to dance with life again."

-Jacqeuline Winspear