One of my favorite poems

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!

They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

New Song Lyrics - Stranger

When I look at your eyes
there is something familiar
There's something reminiscent
I remember of your figure

Did I used to know you
Were we once close?
I think I used to love you
You're the stranger I miss the most

I flip through photo albums filled with us
Why is a strange man posed next to me?
Could it be that you were some else
And I dropped from your love to apathy?

I sacrificed myself so I could save you
but you only saw that I let you free
I'd hoped that you would learn to grow
but 'fore two fortnights you've replaced me

When I see the friends we used to share
and I peek a glance into your room
There's hollowness that fills me
My emptiness, I feel it consume

Are you sure we've met before?
You address me as if we're acquainted
but surely you're alien to me
What happened before was all tainted

You'd think I know better than to trust
a man who says he's capable of change
He won't reform his faulted ways
He'll just turn completely strange

When I look at your eyes
there is something familiar
There's something reminiscent
I remember of your figure

Did I used to know you
Were we once close?
I think I used to love you
You're the stranger I miss the most

Oh how I miss you sometimes
I'm sorry - have we met?

It's Never Too Early to be Thankful

Yesterday as I rode on my bike to class (too late to walk), I noticed a guy making a mad dash across the bridge. As I pass him near HJG and whizzed on my way to class, he called out, "I could use one of those right now."

Touché

My bike is fantastic. Most bikes are pretty nifty creations and mine is extra. It is sleek and lightweight, sturdy and trusty, fully equipped and utterly perfect in every way. I am a very lucky girl to have such a nice bike. 

This reminds me to be grateful.

A friend of mine I've recently visited isn't super religious but she says grace every time she eats. There are blessings in Hebrew I can say for food, but I've never taken the time to learn all of them. I only know the ones for bread and wine on the Sabbath. My project for this week - learn them all and start using them!

I also want to remind the universe that I am thankful for everything else too.

I have such wonderful family. This is something I used to take for granted a lot. Parents are supposed to be loving and supporting. Siblings are supposed to be your best friends. The sad truth is most are not and that's something I've learned more and more about recently. I love my mother and my father and my sister more than anyone else in the world and I would gladly give up my life for them if it were ever necessary. Without them, my world is not the same. They give me courage to face everything and I always that whether or not I've faced it successfully, I have a warm, loving place to come back to. Whenever I am scared I have guidance. When ever I am lonely, I have home. Thank you to my family. 

This is not to say anything less about the family my friends have made themselves to be. There are people in this world who are not related to me in any way and yet, they have chosen to bond and connect with me. They too offer warmth and support and have taken me into their lives with love. Thank you to my friends.

Thanks for the roof over my head, the food that I eat, the clothes in my closet, the blankets on my bed, for the color of my eyes, the warmth of the sun, the teachers who really teach, and for learning how to be wise.

Last but not least, I really like (this blog brought to you by) my computer and the internet. So thanks for that too!

Please

Pacing

Pacing

It seems like my life is out of control - speed wise.

Everything is coming so fast! I'm having the same shirking feeling that I felt when I first learned how to drive.

I started with a minivan in a parking lot. I lifted my foot off the break and the car lurched forward and even though I gripped the steering wheel, I didn't know if I knew how to turn it properly in order to avoid the curb. Furthermore, I was in a huge minivan and as I learned to drive I always had to be conscious of its big tail and cumbersome body.

Well I seem to be picking up a lot of things to do, stacking up bulk items in the trunk of my metaphorical minivan. There are certain activities and commitments I deem necessary to my career (and since I am going into such a difficult field, anything that can be roughly construed as helpful ends up categorized as necessary). Then since I am spending so much time working, I hate denying myself pleasure activities which I why I refuse to quit ballroom club even though it is completely unnecessary and why even in my busied state I am looking to work in a greenhouse. I need time for plain old fun.

So here I am, with so much stuff in the drunk of my minivan, it's spilling into the drivers area. Sometimes I need to break and I find that something has slipped beneath my foot that prevents me from pressing down.

Full speed ahead.

The biggest problem is I often feel weary as if I don't have the energy and capacity to handle everything I've taken on. I'm just rolling down the highway with cars going 70mph behind me and I'm frankly, running out of gas, yet I find myself able to run on empty sometimes. It is a gift that it keeps me from crashing but I don't know what the long term effects nor do I know how long I can keep it up.

But there is also the issue of perspective. The sides of the roads are in my life become blurry. I don't have time to look at them and I certainly can't turn around and look back.

Well then, it appears that I am most definitely not in control.

So should I be enjoying the ride?
I think so.
Where to?
Disneyland?
If my road is going where I really want it to, maybe I'll end up at Nickelodeon!

Dana

ps. My life is going so fast, yet my running is pitifully slow. I need to train a lot more if I hope to run a decent 5k for the upcoming turkey trot. Did you know that wild turkeys are actually very fast animals? Must must must keep up!

This is a beautiful stream that flows as fast as nature commands - I wish to be free flowing like the river!

Destiny

One Love, One Aim, One Destiny
Peace

I saw this window in the early fall at the Namaste Cafe in New Brunswick, NJ. It is an important place to me. The cafe is the in the renovated second story of the George Street Co-op, a small market of health food. I used to go with my mother all the time when I was little. 

Seeing the new second story reminded me that things consistently change and grow. A place I remembered from my childhood did not wait for me to come back. It is thriving without me and has become a new place with a new aura.

The window in particular sparked me and touches on something that has concerned me of recent. The window says mentions aim and destiny. I often think about the path I've taken and whether I've taken this path because I have been pushed toward it. I worry that supporters of my art, wanting to help me, pushed me in that direction, when I could have easily become passionate about another field. Given that I am so frightened about making a life with my art (as I have decided to do), it is easy for me to doubt if I'm in the right place.

I am afraid that although my dedication is there, my focus is not. I pray for aim so that I may never lose sight of what I want. 

Namaste. The light in me sees the light in you.

Mountains Writing Piece

The mountains are soft, she argued. They stand tall, blanketed in a cozy layer of snow, furs of trees coating them. They are enveloped by clouds. Everything about them is soft, including their slow descent to the valley.

No, he persisted, mountains are sharp. They are sharp like the stinging point of the needle leaves of the pine trees. They are jagged as they jut out, scraping the heavens. Their edges are serrated, their cliffs severe, and their descent to the valley anything but gentle.

That's not true, she said. They are soft like the cotton ball clouds that surround them. The downy froth that smoothes everything.

Smooth? He asked. Have you ever seen a mountain? Are the rocks that project out of the surface smooth? Are the menacing concave crevices of the glacier smooth?

Yes, she said, they are smooth.

No, he said. Everything cuts sharply out of the mountain.

Like what? She asked.

Like the trees. He replied.

Well, that doesn't mean anything, she retorted. The hairs on your face jut out of your skin just as the trees jut out of the face of mountains but that doesn't make your cheek any less smooth.

Eh, he considered, rubbing his face. I guess you make a point there.