Can't Keep

Can't Keep -- Ukelele Songs Eddie Vedder

Attitude

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

--Winston Churchill

Random Act of Kindness

“Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person.”
-- C. Neil Strait

Protection

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.
— Jonathan Safran Foer

Into The Wild

Into the Wild is a 2007 American biographical drama film directed by Sean Penn. It is an adaptation of 1996 non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer based on Christopher McCandless and his travels across North America. 

The film stars Emile Hirsch as McCandless with William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his parents. 

The songs on the soundtrack were performed by Eddie Vedder.

In 1990, Christopher McCandless, a college graduate from Emory University, rejects a materialist and conventional life. He destroys all of his credit cards and identification documents, donates nearly his entire savings of $24,000 to Oxfam, and sets out on a cross-country drive in his well-used, but reliable Datsun to experience life in the wilderness.

No Ceiling -- Eddie Vedder

James Baldwin

 

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive."

James Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist.

• Go Tell It on the Mountain (semi-autobiographical novel; 1953)
•  The Amen Corner (play; 1954)
•  Notes of a Native Son (essays; 1955)
•  Giovanni's Room (novel; 1956)
•  Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (essays; 1961)
•  Another Country (novel; 1962)
•  A Talk to Teachers (essay; 1963)
•  The Fire Next Time (essays; 1963)
•  Blues for Mister Charlie (play; 1964)
•  Going to Meet the Man (stories; 1965)
•  Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (novel; 1968)
•  No Name in the Street (essays; 1972)
•  If Beale Street Could Talk (novel; 1974)
•  The Devil Finds Work (essays; 1976)
•  Just Above My Head (novel; 1979)
•  Jimmy's Blues (poems; 1983)
•  The Evidence of Things Not Seen (essays; 1985)
•  The Price of the Ticket (essays; 1985)
•  The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (essays; 2010) 

Conquering the Fear

Illusion Number 5:

The illusion that others are better, stronger, or wiser than you are -- with its painful self-doubt and insecurity -- is born of the false perception that you are here on earth to be like someone else.

Illusion Number 4:

The illusion of limitation -- with its fear and sense of frustration -- is born of the false perception that the only resource available to you in the moment of challenge is what you already know as being possible for you to do.

Illusion Number 3:

The illusion of regret -- with its seemingly inescapable grief and guilt -- is born of the false perception that by reliving some past painful moment, you will be empowered to resolve it.

Illusion Number 2:

The illusion of discouragement -- with its bitterness and blame -- is born of the false perception that it's possible to succeed in life without learning through your "failures"

Illusion Number 1:

The illusion of feeling useless or otherwise insignificant in life -- with its heartache and sorrow -- is born of the false perception that the true measure of your worth is determined by what others agree it to be.

Illusions

The next time that a piece of your life breaks off and falls away, try to remember that what is Real cannot be lost, and then give thanks that what is false must always prove itself so.

Guy Finley

Five Great Illusions Keeping You From Letting Go

Round Rock

'Round Rock' 

by Michelle Huneven.

It's a book i was sorry to finish, I missed the characters when they were no longer in my life.

Read it!

The small California town of Rito, situated in the San Bernita Valley, is the kind of place that attracts dreamers, like the early settlers who made fortunes as citrus farmers. It's also a place where people seem to wash up after life's wrecks. Take Red Ray, a successful lawyer who bought the old ranch called Round Rock in an effort to save his marriage, only to find himself abandoned by wife and child when he takes to the bottle again. Or Lewis Fletcher, the Ph.D. candidate who makes his way to Round Rock after waking up one morning in a detox center. Or Libbie Daw, living in a housetrailer on a piece of land where her architect husband planned to build their dream house, until he left her for another woman. Ray finds his own redemption by setting up and running a treatment center for alcoholics at Round Rock. The centre of the novel, he is also Lewis' salvation and Libbie's refuge. Huneven's remarkably confident first novel is strengthened by a strong sense of place and a cast of vivid characters.

Habit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.
Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need." 

Paolo Coelho

In A Rut

Work Life Love

Work

Life

Love

Tired

I'm tired of being shot down

Alone

If you want to be alone, be alone. Why surround yourself with senseless chatter? It's time to walk on your own again. You don't need those crutches anymore.

Wasting Time

“Anything you're good at contributes to happiness”

Bertrand Russell

Be Afraid

“Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.” - Grace Hansen

In Hiding

I shut and lock the front door.

No way in or out.
I turned and walked the hallway, and pulled the curtains down.
I knelt and emptied the mouth of every plug around.
But nothing's sound.
Oh, oh. Nothing's sound.

I stayed where my last step left me.
Ignored all my rounds
Soon I was seeing visions and cracks along the walls.
Oh. They were upside down. Oh. Oh.
I swallow my words to keep from lying.
I swallow my face just to keep from biting. I, I...
I swallowed my breath and went deep, I was diving. Diving.
I surfaced and all of my being was enlightened.
Now I'm...

I'm in hiding. 

It's been about three days now since I've been aground.
No longer overwhelmed.
And it seems so simple now.
It's funny when things change so much, it's all state of mind.

I swallowed my words to keep from lying.
I swallowed my face just to keep from biting. I, I...
I swallowed my breath and went deep, I was diving. I was diving.
I surfaced and all of my being was enlightened.
Now I'm...

I'm in hiding. I'm in hiding, I'm...
I'm in hiding, I am, oh. I'm in hiding
I'm in hiding yeah. I'm in hiding, I am...
I'm in hiding.

Eddie Vedder

In Hiding 

I'm Fine

Unfortunately for me, I go for men who put themselves first.

Now that’s fine, sometimes, but not all the time. It mean’s my main priority is them, and their main priority is…them.
So now it has to change. I will not waste another minute of my time on people that won’t give me a second of theirs.
It’s hard to keep thinking you’re enough, when people just seem to give up on you.

I’ve got to do this how the men in my life have done this, and put myself first.
No more relationships, just me time.
This will be my hardest challenge yet.

Stolen words but shared sentiment, thank you Ally Jade.

allyjadetakesphotos

Desperation

 “You must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it. Thoreu said, ‘Most men live quiet lives of desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that, break out!”

-dead poets society

Present Tense

do you see the way that tree bends?
does it inspire?
leaning out to catch the sun's rays
a lesson to be applied
are you getting something out of this all encompassing trip?
you can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets, oh
or you can come to terms and realize
you're the only one who can't forgive yourself, oh
makes much more sense to live in the present tense
have you ideas on how this life ends?
checked your hands and studied the lines
have you the belief that the road ahead ascends off into the light?
seems that needlessly it's getting harder
to find an approach and a way to live
are we getting something out of this all-encompassing trip?
you can spend your time alone redigesting past regrets, oh
or you can come to terms and realize
you're the only one who cannot forgive yourself, oh makes much more sense to live in the present tense

Mike McCready 

Present Tense