dripping with passion

i have a goal to read 25 books in 2011. so far i have read 3 so i am certainly a bit behind. i've been asking almost everyone for book suggestions. so, dear reader, if you have a favourite book that you think i absolutely can't miss, please let me know! there's nothing quite like being carried away by words; not being able to put the pages down, gripped in another world that makes you think about the one you're in. here are some passages from my most recent reads, both of which i loved and recommend highly. i wanted to write these words down somewhere because i forget so easily the good experiences i have had with books. "all those afternoons were the same, but we never got used to them. as far as we could see, the miles of copper-red grass were drenched in sunlight that was stronger and fiercer than at any other time of the day. the blond cornfields were red gold, the haystacks turned rosy and threw long shadows. the whole prairie was like the bush that burned wit...

i just discovered these emboldening thoughts from steve jobs's 2005 commencement speech at stanford: again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. you can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. you have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference. sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. don't lose faith…your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. if you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. as with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it ju...

warning: this is a long, introspective post that is intended mostly for a) personal therapeutic reasons and b) people who amazingly have an express interest in the drawn-out inner workings of my mind+heart (i.e. my parents). and also for the sake of keeping this blog, which has become a sort of life record, real and representative. so - proceed knowingly or disregard. yesterday i came across this little anecdote in an awesome talk by elder wirthlin - "some feel as though the world is their oyster; others feel as though they are the oyster itself, plucked form the ocean, cracked open, and robbed of all that is precious to them." i'm overgeneralizing here, and being a little dramatic (oh, i just must), but yes! i relate. eight months ago i felt like i was exuberantly holding the world - my own enchanting, exciting little oyster - in my hot hands; now i feel like i actually am that oyster, but devoid of its charm and gleam, now dull and battered. i think i am an exceptional...

there are some definite perks to being technically unemployed. my mission companion/dear friend brianna came to town and i was able to spend two days, mid-week, just playing with her. on wednesday i showed her my city and on thursday she showed me her homeland (she is from santa rosa, which is about an hour north of san francisco). it was so great. it was brianna’s spring break and she drove out to ca with two of her friends from utah state. it was fun to show them the city. the next day i was introduced to the wonders of the sonoma coast, and i absolutely fell in love – it was gorgeous. we ate clam chowder at bodega bay and then beach hopped up the shore. it was a perfect day – especially because we got spotty sunshine after a morning downpour. yes, although my no-job situation genuinely seems to get harder everyday, i’m positive i will (one day soon) really miss funemployment.

tuesday night i danced down market street with a gold paper crown on my head, belting songs from “the little mermaid” with all my soul. and ever since i have had those catchy tunes perpetually stuck in my head!! best $15 i have maybe ever spent was on “the little mermaid” singalong at the castro theater (rivaled only by the “sound of music” equivalent in november). we all got a “goodie bag” as we filed into the gorgeous, intricate, rich old theater and the excitement and anticipation mounted. inside our bags were: a golden crown so we could all look like king tritan, a plastic dinglehopper with which to brush our hair, a pearl necklace to be fancy like ariel, a little bottle of bubbles to make the under-the-sea thing even more real, a glow stick to mimic ursela’s glowing shell containing ariel’s angel voice, and a party popper to celebrate with when prince eric finally gets the memo to “kiss the girl”! we had quite a crowd cheering, sneering, screaming and belting it out. but...

"it is of less consequence to prevent him from dying than to teach him how to live. to live is not to breathe, but to act; it is to make use of our organs, of our senses, of our faculties, of every element of our nature which makes us sensible of our existence. the man who has lived most is not he who has numbered the most years, but he who has had the keenest sense of life. men have been buried at the age of a hundred who died at the moment of birth. they would have gained by going to their graves in their youth, if up to that time they had really lived." -rousseau's parenting advice. my overarching goal of mortality: have the keenest sense of life.

i have discovered some of my new favourite spots in the bay the past couple of weeks. i did not take these pictures (except for an obvious few). i have been trying to see things completely through my own eyeballs rather than through a camera lens. also, i am kind of amazed at how i can’t find really good pictures on google. so imagine these places about 5x cooler than what you see. here’s what i have to share - some very neat places in space and some wonderful places in time… -i had a decision to make last week and i needed a good place to think, so i decided to go check out the wave organ at the marina just as the sun had set. there is a spit of land that extends out from the yacht clubs and at the end there is a fascinating structure – someone has engineered pipes in a way that the waves of the bay make music. apparently the best time for listening is at high tide, so when i went i couldn’t hear much, but it was worth going just for the ambiance and the views – the city glimmerin...