Loose Leaf Notes

1. I got a card from a friend that said “Merrycrisis!”

2. Coffee is like pot. I like the nostalgic smell and the idea of it more than I like to partake.

3. The sun has always been my psychedelic of choice. Read Sun Dosed HERE.

4. I don’t like zoom. It’s reminds me of the Brady Bunch on Hollywood Squares.

5. Ben & Jerry’s Unveils New Colin Kaepernick Flavor ‘Change the Whirled’ -The 33-year-old former NFL quarterback is a vegan, and his “Change the Whirled” flavor will be too: It’s a non-dairy “frozen desert,” with a sunflower butter base that’s filled with caramel, fudge chips, graham cracker and chocolate cookie swirls

6. On Tuesday I got the vacuum cleaner out of the pantry. On Wednesday I emptied it and shook out the filter. On Thursday I untangled the cord. On Friday I vacuumed. “That’s a nice week’s work for a poet,” Joe said.

7. I rarely use the term “I believe” but frequently say, “I think.”

8. “The Trump presidency: End of an error.” -Seen on Facebook

9. I drink the sun/ from the bottom of a cup /reflected off my glasses /with light laced mandalas /It only takes a sip / to be under its influence / immersed in its starburst / from tea drenched darkness – Read Sun Dosed in its entirety HERE. 

10. “Giving is a kind of art form and something that must be practiced, where we must risk giving too much or too little or, as we have all experienced, the wrong thing altogether. This understanding applies not only to tangible gifts to others, but also the way we give our creative gifts to the world.” –David Whyte, from A Gift in Its Season: The Seven Vulnerabilities of Giving 

11. “I think a lot of people can relate to the experience of suddenly having your routine, your control, your purpose taken away from you due to a crisis out of your control…Hopefully it allows your identity to evolve a little bit. You know, ideally, it’s a moment of realizing that these things that you do are part of who you are, but they aren’t all of who you are. I guess it can either leave you with no sense of worth or purpose or the realization that the things we thought defined us are not the core of who we are. The core of who we are is something more human, something frustratingly less quantifiable and tangible…There’s got to be something we are underneath our paychecks and our daily routines and our, you know, our Instagram pages. There’s just got to be. And, you know, having those things taken away can mean you’re staring into the void, and it can be kind of terrifying and destabilizing. But there’s something else inside that’s truly who we are…I guess a big thing now I’ve kind of carried with me through the tougher moments is that we don’t have any control. And so, if you don’t have any control, then maybe everything you have is a gift, you know? If you’re not responsible for the bad things that happen, maybe you’re not responsible for any of the good things or any of the things. And so, yeah, maybe everything is a gift…”  Riz Ahmed on Terri Gross

12. We Went to the Drive-in and Christmas Lights Were Showing: I quickly figured out that I got the best pictures by shaking the camera as I clicked. See HERE.

13. Best Christmas tree ever HERE. 

__________Thirteen Thursday