tell me about the sunsets in sweden and the laws of eden...

I don't think anything hurts so bad as to be separated from someone you love. Tonight my heart hurts for people who live far from me and who I cannot hug or go to breakfast with or be obnoxiously loud together.

Here are two poems for you tonight that I would share with you if you were here with me sipping tea at 11:21pm on Thursday night...

The first is by Hafiz, and it is beautiful.

I Have Learned So Much


I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim
A Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of itself
With me

That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel
Or even pure
Soul.

Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me

Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.



And this one is written by Lawrence Raab. I hope you can hear my voice in it.

Since You Asked

Since you asked, let's make it dinner
at your house - a celebration
for no reason, which is always
the best occasion. Are you worried
there won't be enough space, enough food?

But in a poem we can do anything we want.
Look how easy it is to add on room, to multiply
the wine and chickens. And while we're at it
let's take those trees that died last winter
and bring them back to life.

Things should look pulled together,
and we could use the shade - so even now
they shudder and unfold their bright new leaves.
And now the guests are arriving - everyone
you expected, then others as well:

friends who never became your friends,
the women you didn't marry, all their children.
And the dead - I didn't tell you
but they're always included in these gatherings -
hesitant and shy they hang back at first

among th blossoming trees.
You have only to say their names,
ask them inside. Everyone will find a place
at your table. What more can I do?
The glasses are filled, the children are quiet.

My friend, it must be time for you to speak.

those LA lights never shine quite as bright as in the movies, do you still want to go...

Today i took a road trip through the country with some friends...we became tourists in our own province. Taking in the museums and towns we would normally never take the time to pull off the highway for. But today we did, and it was beautiful. A gopher museum, an abandoned rail car, and old blue church on a hill...today was full of beautiful randomness with my friends.

However, I took two moments to myself today. One while the girls were eating supper in Subway. It was raining outside, but was still so warm. I took a stroll in the rain down the street, just listening and smelling and watching and not thinking. It was so restful and beautiful. I love the way rain just carefully settles things into their place.

Later I made us stop on the side of the road by a field of hay bales. I jumped the barbed wire and climbed on top of one. I just stood there for a while watching the sunset against the clouds, watching the other few vehicles on the road whiz past, watching my friends chat in the van. I stood there and smelled the humid alfalfa and felt the hay under my feet and breathed in everything I could about that moment. It was also beautiful.

I will remember this tomorrow when I am working, when i will need it to sustain me.

There's a perfume burning in the air, bits of beauty everywhere...

Two great moments this weekend. First, I was talking with Jamie about life and other things. I got to thinking about how I used to think that I had to always be following where god wanted me to be. Always worried if this next decision will steer me off the path that has been laid for me. More and more though I've let go of that idea. I had a moment this weekend where I finally came around to completely, 100% feel comfortable in a theory that has been flying around in my head for the past few years...if you do what you love and make your own path, God will follow.


Another great moment this weekend...

I was playing in the backyard with my nephew this weekend and he says to me, "Auntie Bri, all over the world people speak a different language, right? But they all have the same laugh"

the streetlights all burn out...

It is 6:43.
It is already 19 degrees.
It's supposed to get up to 34 today.
I am running out the door to go work outside all day in this record breaking heat.

Sick.