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Quoted
As a girl, I was not sure how to be. I said things I did not mean. I said things I did not understand … As a woman, I still have moments of being outside of myself. But as a woman, I know now to ask what they mean, to try to understand, to not only be the help I need, but to ask for it as well. – Cleo Wade (via her Instagram)
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… I Know What I’m Doing and Other Lies I Tell Myself by Jen Kirkman. I’ve been on a personal essay collection kick lately, and I picked this one up because I enjoy Kirkman’s standup. It is less comedic than I expected. That’s not to say that it isn’t darkly funny. It’s funny in the way that I am often funny: through self-effacement and a recognition of both the absurdity and the disastrousness of life. I’ve been most struck, though, by Kirkman’s brutal honesty. It’s a resonating book for me, even though I’m not in the same life space she is, and sometimes those are the most gratifying resonances to…
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Read This
Required Reading. It is hot and life is hectic. Take thirty seconds to read this tiny poem by Sandi Pray, originally published in tinywords issue 16.1 in June, and breathe. I have a sister-friend for whom this is true. I have my own version of this. I think we all do. seed catalog the colours of a winter daydream
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Quoted
People think you have to know what you want to do with your life by the time you’re 19. Wrong! Or that you have to be in a significant relationship in your twenties. Wrong! It’s all just nonsense. — Tilda Swinton
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I shared his piece in Stanford Medicine, “Before I go,” several months ago. I suggest you read it now if you haven’t already. When Breath Becomes Air is just as moving as I expected it to be, but I was surprised by the genuine lyricism of his writing. I’m only about halfway through, and I’ve already been brought to tears multiple times. It’s the kind of book that I struggle to put down. It’s the kind of book I know I will read over and over, returning to it for guidance and challenge. Watching… Hawaii Five-0. The remake. It’s gooooood. Listening… I’ve…
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Read This
Required Reading. I really mean that. Jennifer Aniston’s essay on Huffington Post blew up on the internet last week for good reason. She confronts the rampant body shaming of females in the press, the problems with “bump watch” tabloids, the utter ridiculousness of focusing on celebrity gossip given all of the other things that have been going on in the world lately, and what the hell it means to be a woman, famous or not, in a world that passively accepts what are often toxic views of womanhood. I want to scream this part from the rooftops: “Here’s where I come out on this topic: we are complete with or…
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Quoted
If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? – Albert Einstein
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Reading Watching Listening
Reading… The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It has been many many years since I first read this novel. It keeps popping up in my online readings and real life discussions, though, so I thought perhaps it was time to break it back out. In my opinion, it has one of the all-time greatest opening sentences: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” Watching… Chicago Med. I caved. I’m watching it. I don’t know if I am as invested as I am in Fire and PD, but give me a couple more episodes and I may just…
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Read This
Required Reading. After the last week, after the last weeks, and months, and years, this poem strikes at my soul. Plum Jam Alisa Gordaneer Everything is different this year but jam still needs to be made because red plums are thudding onto grass. We celebrate, marking summers. The year we added lemon. The year it didn’t jell and we poured it over ice cream until we couldn’t eat. You send the children out with pails, and their arms strain against ripeness. Last year they were too small, pushed plums into their own mouths. This year, everything too much to contain: garden overgrown, trees weighed down, wasps drunk. Bees drowsy with…
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Quoted
I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. — Joan Didion