If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
~Eihei Dogen

Happy Birfs Al

So today marks the birth of one of my favoritist (yea thats a word) people in the whole wide world. I met Allison about 9 months ago through my good friend Jackie (her roommate) and I instantly knew that we would become life long friends. At first we just spent weekends together loading up on pre-bar shots, uncomfortable cab rides, sweaty dance floors, and late night munchies. It was not until we started taking our regular Schuykill walks that I really got to know Al. This I cannot be more thankful for.

Allison is one of the most confident people that I know and I appreciate that she is (unfortunately) younger than me, but so much more aware of herself. She is just so extremely beautiful inside and out. There is never a time I am with her that I don't leave feeling that I deserve nothing but the best, and nothing short of it. She has taught me to feel what you feel, and not be ashamed of anything that makes your heart beat.

Along with being extremely confident I would say that she is absolutely positively one of the most genuine people that I know. There's no bullshit. She tells it like it is, treats you with respect, and makes you feel loved all in one. I know I can always count on Al for an honest opinion and a genuine answer. I love her for that.

I look forward to the rest of our years together. My experience so far, in Philadelphia, would not have been remotely the same without getting to know Allison. I am more than thankful to have met her and to have gained such an incredible friend, and roommate from afar.

All the mushy loveyness aside, I just love.love.love this bitch. She is awesome. If you don't know her...do everything in your power to do so. Promise it will be worth it.

Happy Happy Happy Births Allison!! I can't wait to celebrate your day with you tonight. Fuck the heat...here's to you lovey.

il bel far niente

The tattoo on my forearm...il bel far niente...the italian expression meaning "the beauty of doing nothing," is constantly questioned especially by people who don't know me at all. Sometimes when asked what it means I make up something ridiculous just to get a reaction. However, when I do tell people what it actually means, typically their response is "oh how depressing." How depressing, really? To a pessimist of course. To me...not so much.

The beauty of doing nothing is really the space between all the hustle and bustle of life. Learning to appreciate the down time with your family and friends, the time spent doing "nothing" is what is really important to me. These are the moments that matter.

I know a lot of people who spend so much of their time focused on money, money, career, career, you know, the American way, and I just can't understand why. What for? None of it matters. In the end, what will career focused success and money bring you? Absolutely nothing. Nothing but more desire to desire more. It never ends.

I decided a couple of years ago that I will not fall into this typical way of living and I will measure my success through my relationships with people and my experience in life. This to me is what truly matters because ultimately it will shape you into the person that you were meant to become. All the doing "nothing" will help create opportunities for me to understand what is important, and therefore in turn, what is NOT.

This may not be the way everyone thinks, and I completely appreciate that, however, this works for me. This is what makes me happy, and what helps me to realize that in the end ((whatever the end is)) I will have spent my time enjoying doing nothing. Nothing else matters. It never will. Not to me. Nor to anyone else willing to take a step back and really see, really feel, life as it is.


“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou.

"all I can do is be me, whoever that is"

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It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent

Last night, my friend suggested I check out My Morning Jacket’s version of Elvis’s Suspicious Minds. I was instantly given the chills and I even ended up tearing up towards the middle of the song. I’ve heard this song many many times before, and I know the lyrics, and I’ve never been moved in this way by it. I began thinking about music and I tried to pinpoint why we many have more powerful feelings or connections with particular songs. Is it the melody that catches us, the lyrics, the instruments, or even the artists themselves? I just don’t know…I guess it is a combination sometimes.

I got to work this morning and started talking to my music buddy Bob about this question. He definitely agreed that it is a combination of the above, but confirmed it is the melody that will catch him first. I am not sure if I 100% agree with this. I mean…this song in particular, Suspicious Minds, is pretty much sung in the same melody in both versions, a little different yes, but mostly the same. And never has it really hit me before. So is it the lyrics, or the way MMJ sang it that made me feel this way? I don’t know. I just don’t get it. Is there something that stimulates the mind that sends messages to make you feel this way?

So then I get to thinking about why certain types of music make you feel at ease, happy, sad, and so on. Have you ever heard a song that is really old and reminds you of a certain memory or feeling that you once experienced in time? I can pretty much go on forever with questions like these and I probably shouldn’t try to understand this, but I figure it is pretty healthy to fill my mind with such thoughts. Why did I not study music/art therapy in college…shit?!

The other day my friends and I had a discussion about why particular shows leave a more lasting impression than others. We probably could have talked about this for hours upon hours. There are definitely not right or wrong answers to any of these questions but I am just glad that I have people in my life that appreciate and love music the way that I do. So….I will continue to continue to think…and know that music is just, yea I said it, fucking rad.

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.

JUNIP

Amazing show.

My love for Jose Gonzalez has only grown.



she feels she needs to leave

when the fields are all covered in frost

and the dreams begin to breathe

opening the partly open locks



while the others start to disagree

on returning to rough and moving grounds

and if I should come to be relieved

would it be without you



she feels she needs to leave

to avoid a messy aftermath

alone between lines of anguished needs

rearranged to allow a newborn path



while the others start to disagree

on returning to rough and moving grounds

and if I should come to be relieved

would it be without you