Faith begins as an experiment and ends as an experience. 

---William Ralph Inge

Rahhhce Cookin

My younger sister and I went to the same college in Rhode Island, which had a large number of students from New England.

It also had a large number of students who loved country music.  Mostly they were from Connecticut.

I don't understand this but it doesn't matter because it was there that I was exposed, sometimes held hostage to, listening to a lot of country music.  And I got a tiny bit hooked, not in the way that I went out and got Garth Brooks posters, but in the way that I'd find myself humming tunes or hearing a song and being, "I know this one!"   With a country accent.  While playing air fiddle. 

Years after graduating, I heard my little sister humming this and I was like, "Is that the song about rice cookin in the microwave?" 
And we both started singing it and then burst out laughing that we'd both been converted to this awesome music while at a college in Rhode Island.  What are the chances? 

I woke up this morning in slow mood (like, slow to like this day) and then started singing this and then put it on and danced with my daughter to it and then decided that it takes so little to love a day, sometimes it's just Rahhhhce cookin in the microwave.    

 

Commencement Season

A friend sent me a link to David Foster Wallace's commencement speech given at Kenyon College in 2005.
It's called This Is Water.  Twice in the next two days I found it in my inbox through another friend and a list serv.  Getting something three times warrants attention, so I listened to it while doing dishes.
It is very good. 

When it ended, I saw the many links to commencement speeches and I listened to one more.
This is the one I loved.

Both speeches seem to touch on this Plutarch quote, used by Rowling:

What we achieve inwardly, will change outward reality.  

It is 20 minutes of worthwhile listening.  

Thank you.

Found myself humming this song this morning.  It's probably not a coincidence. 
Probably nothing is.

the secret

Nothing More, by Brian Andreas

the power of Intention

I stumbled across a place where people write out their intentions of the day, or the afternoon, or the hour.

Here are some that I'm borrowing:

My intent is to embrace uncertainty, where all my miracles are.

I intend to feel Peace and Love within my heart and stop worrying about how things will go.

I intend to be fully who I am, and not be held by fear.

I intend to hear my heart speaking, and then to trust it's wisdom.

These are so much better than what I had scribbled on my To-Do List for the day. 

19 Varieties of Gazelle

A beautiful poem:

Prayer in My Boot

by Naomi Shihab Nye