Harvest Moon-you

Harvest Moon-you
are Septemeber rain on my
tongue
as i stand open and
adoring,awake and enamored,
drops of you from.sky.to.skin--
sink into
me

why must we keep

why must we keep

time and make plans for Days

we’ve never met and maybe we

are being rude when we assume that

these Days even want to listen to us when

we demand that They come and go at

this time and for this long and in

this way (east

westeastwest)because who

are we to tell Them how to do their

job;trust

when people act like their birth months

january: optimistic, determined, a dreamer
february: charming, mellow, idealistic
march: driven, brave, radiant
april: encouraging, curious, hopeful
may: outgoing, indecisive, golden
june: adventurous, positive, understanding
july: passionate, fearless, free
august: logical, blunt, thoughtful
september: calm, comforting, caring
october: pleasant, protective, opportunistic
november: romantic, enchanting, unpredictable
december: sincere, familiar, warm

100 things that make me happy

1. glitter

2. waking up with the sun

3. making lists

4. people named Kyle

5. how the eyes of a portrait will always follow you 

6. the word “surrender”

7. caffeine

8. having a full tank of gas

9. wearing other people’s clothes

10. hugging people i just met

11. being barefoot

12. mac n cheese

13. thursday days that aren’t really a thursday

14. buying new pens

15. daydreaming

16. the 17th of every month (my lucky day)

17. Caboose’s laugh

18. when people tell me im just like my mother

19. may 26, 2012

20. the way my grandma smells

21. day moons

22. when people find out i drive a prius

23. stealing traffic cones

24. how everyone’s house has its own smell

25. Courtney’s living room

26. holding my sister’s hand

27. Elvis Presley in a green sweater

28. watching movies during the day

29. when i find out someone loves to read

30. brushing my teeth

31. chasing the moon

32. other people’s handwriting

33. Barham Boulevard

34. conversation with strangers around a slightly out of tune piano

35. Tulsa at night

36. Tulsa during the day

37. when a Peter Pan quote fits perfectly into a conversation

38. 2006

39. memorizing people’s kitchens

40. getting the right answer to a math problem

41. seeing scary movies in the theater

42. when someone tells me they look up to me

43. living in the now

44. natural lighting

45. knowing people’s favorites

46. creme brulee

47. colors that can only be found in someone’s eyes

48. the G chord on an acoustic guitar

49. when people dont lip sync

50. when my puppy sounds like a kitten

51. when people act like their birth month

52. Catherine’s hugs

53. getting texts from people telling me to look at the moon

54. odd numbers

55. being unpredictable

56. catching both 7:17s

57. the thought of one day having a library in my house

58. knowing people’s stories

59. having things to look forward to

60. pockets

61. proving people wrong

62. free chips and salsa

63. when you wake up and realize you have the whole day ahead of you

64. when people ask what your middle name is

65. finding the perfect gift for someone

66. people with big vocabularies

67. knowing the world is so much bigger than me and my problems

68. freedom

69. finding things you forgot you lost

70. old people on park benches

71. nicknames

72. catching every green light

73. frozen peaches

74. balconies

75. pets with human names

76. surprises

77. baseball games

78. blue walls

79. people watching

80. hearing people smile

81. seeing people play with their dogs in the car at stoplights

82. watching movies in elevators at 4 am

83. the color gold

84. ee cummings

85. having a clean room

86. going to open houses on sunday just because

87. singing old songs in Jordan’s car

88. when someone calls me their best friend

89. “im proud of you”

90. underlining in books

91. being a teenager

92. when the sun shows off

93. driving to Dark Blue by Jack’s Mannequin

94. sunflowers

95. sushi

96. feeling alive

97. visiting friends at their work

98. falling leaves

99. Oscar Wilde

100. looking at old, faded pictures of strangers and imagining their lives

neverland syndrome

Young and invincible and curious and free- we all possess the power to defy the pressing standards of this world and keep our youth despite what any combination of numbers and colons and letters and dashes may indicate. We are all created to marvel and wonder and bask in the splendor of the sunshine that washes our hands of the night, but too often we replace this thirst for truth with a need to live up to other people’s expectations. The best thing to do is not make sense and the best thing to be is ridiculous. To live a life in such a way that others can approve of, agree with, and understand is to sacrifice the divine sense of awe we were each born with.

The world will tell you that you aren’t moving fast enough, that your innocent thoughts and questions aren’t valid, that youre walking the wrong path--  tell them with a humbled heart and unwavering certainty that they’re missing the point, and the point is this: we must be kind to the child in us.

Make time to drink coffee and tea and take pictures of your cat and take the long way home and make time to stop on the side of the road by a field of sunflowers and take pictures of the tallest ones and make time to watch the lightning from your roof and get in your car without a destination and go to your favorite used bookstore and buy the first 3 books you see and make lists and check off each item and call your grandma and tell her you love her and go to museums and touch all the items that say ‘do not touch’ and hug a stranger and make your mark because these days are golden and these days are fleeting and it would be a shame to live with anything except pure and unabashed abandon.

grains of sanity,waves

grains of sanity,waves

of greatness

crashingbreakingcalling out to

every man who ever wondered what

the distance looks like in the

flesh(the world is

yours-j

u

m

p) 

chase the moon

You deserve a Thursday life and a Thursday life full of adventures beyond the ordained journey that is surviving- into the great intangible and almost mystifyingly unmarked enterprise that is thriving. On this very day you are breathing the same air as more strangers than your transient brain can even begin to imagine or understand and each of these extraordinary people have a reality that is very much their own, trying to find a place in the sea of facts and ideals and beliefs that make up the world around us—how incredibly humbling is it to know that your reality not only challenges that of your next door neighbor or of the barista who supplies your daily caffeine intake or the person who cut you off on the freeway this morning, but that it is this very miscommunication, this necessary disagreement, that makes our temporary world spin each day.

 I am only a person and I know no more than the rest of them, but my reality runs on the idea that there is no such thing as just a Tuesday and every day is remarkable if only for the fact that it is the only march third 2007 or November 11 1924 or july seventeenth twothousandanything that has ever and will ever exist. Let this moment serve as a reminder that the sun and the moon do their job with passion and excellence each day without fail simply so you and I can live our lives in their light—we are given an empty day full of potential each morning; it is our pressing task to make something of it.

I have lived before in routine and I hope to never return to a place where I allow myself to become satisfied with monotony and only mastering the art of getting by. Apathy and familiarity are the easiest of traps to yield to and sometimes all it takes is a moment of spontaneity to shake the tempting ideals that don’t belong in your life—don’t be afraid to chase the moon, don’t shy away from the other side of the bridge—wakeupanddosomething.

--(always remember to write in details that don’t seem to matter about days that don’t seem significant because those are the things that really make up your life)