13: I’ve Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now
1. The word “end” is in endure but endure means not to end.
2. Is sage the mutant plural of age?
3. Animals only have one print to track but we have many, depending on what shoes we have on.
4. Drifting clouds like soapy suds / collect around the full moon drain / letting out the light.
5. “Here’s a song that has two names and they’re both right: Clouds and Both Sides Now. This song that talks about sides to things. In most cases there are both sides to things and in a lot of cases there are more than just both. His and a hers. His and theirs. But in this song there are only two sides to things… there’s reality and I guess what you might call fantasy. There’s enchantment and dis-enchantment, what we’re taught to believe things are and what they really are.” – Joni Mitchell 1967
6. The words are buried in the Dollar Store journal / where grief and relief exist together / Where salt and sugar both have their place / Where hurt deeply felt has less of a hold / and is not a theory but a theme that is lived… More HERE.
7. I frequently experience sonder: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. John Koenig. – Definition from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
8. Clouds sweep past my window like a clock unwinding, like the ghosts of lost loved-ones departing.
9. Imagination is having to live in a dead person’s future. Grief is wearing a dead person’s dress forever. -Victoria Chang, The Blue Dress
10. “This body of mine will disintegrate, but my actions will continue me. If you think I am only this body, then you have not truly seen me. When you look at my friends, you see my continuation. When you see someone walking with mindfulness and compassion, you know he is my continuation. I don’t see why we have to say “I will die,” because I can already see myself in you, in other people, and in future generations. Even when the cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is impossible for the cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death. I will continue, always.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
11. “January is a peaceful month, too cold to go anywhere so I sit in my spacious chair with a quilt around me, still in my pajamas at two in the afternoon, eating guacamole with tortilla chips and contributing nothing whatsoever to civilization or to the GNP, except for the occasional limerick. Christmas is gone and the illusion that childhood innocence can be recovered (it can’t) and we’re free of obligatory joyfulness and able to savor sadness again and relish our loneliness in this uncaring world, and the meals are penitential meals because my pants got too tight and my shirt wouldn’t button at the neck, so it’s time for celery and Ry-Krisp and herbal tea…” Garrison Keillor
12. If life is a dance, then let the soul lead.
13. If you have to scroll, scroll HERE!
________Thirteen Thursday
January 26th, 2022 11:10 am
Holy Moley, CR! Imagine my surprise AND DELIGHT when I clicked on #13 to find my one-post blog. I’m delighted and HONORED that your shared.
And thanks, too, for the Thich Nhat Hanh quote.
I’d say his vanishment is a terrible loss, but he hasn’t; won’t.
Peace. Out.
January 26th, 2022 8:04 pm
Thank you, Colleen, especially for the first and last of these. I’ve quoted you (and Snoopy) in my blog post today: https://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2022/01/words-from-colleen-and-snoopy.html
January 27th, 2022 10:00 am
#11 nailed January. We go from peppermint, sugar cookies, and eggnog to “celery and Ry-Krisp and herbal tea.”
January 27th, 2022 10:50 am
January is my least favorite month.
January 27th, 2022 11:07 am
Some really deep thoughts here!
January 27th, 2022 11:16 am
I love number 12. January has been more gloomy this year (cloudy). Our weather has been weird this winter. Not a flake of snow on the ground, which is sad.
January 27th, 2022 4:57 pm
#12 is what I needed to hear.