The Saturated Palette

Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts

Monday, October 31, 2011

An evening with Anne and a cup of peppermint tea.

I took a few weeks off from reading after I consumed the last words of Jane Eyre and then let breath enter my body again. It was a game changer, that book. I feel like I need to apologize to those Bronte sisters for ignoring them for so many years. They don’t get the recognition they deserve, maybe that’s why they were so dark and twisty.
Although, I don’t think I’d be friends with Jane Eyre, she’s so serious and ruled by reason. I’d roll my eyes at her a lot. But, Anne Shirley, now we could be the most darling friends, of this I’m sure.
And this is why.
“I’d like to add some beauty to life,” said Anne dreamily. I don’t exactly want to make people KNOW more… though I know that IS the noblest ambition… but I’d love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me… to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn’t been born.” “I think you’re fulfilling that ambition every day,” said Gilbert admiringly.
Me too, Anne. Thanks for getting me.
And that is when I put my Kindle down and took a sip of tea. I might have to put that on a giant canvas.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

a true creative

Last night, after a fun splashy bath, we built towers on the floor of their bedroom. Not your average tower, but the mixed media variety. Every single kind of block we have, we threw them all in a pile and began construction. And as soon as that little boy of mine decided it was ready, he’d knock it down. Normally, I encourage this behavior because his I-just-knocked-the-tower-down-laugh is a treasure, but I heard myself saying, “Hey, we’re trying to build something here.”

That’s when it hit me, “no seriously, we’re trying to build something here.”

Like, in life.

Every day, every moment, all the challenges, the victories, the affirmations, the questions, the dreams, the lost sleep, every time we give until we have nothing left, and every second we keep going, keep living. It’s all about what we’re building.

A story. A legacy.

“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. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

-Steve Jobs [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs, a true creative.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

from the pages…

I know there is poor and hideous suffering and I’ve seen the hungry and the guns that go to war. I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for early light dappled through the leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives. Why would the world need more anger, more outrage? How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us? Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn’t rescue the suffering. The converse does. The brave who focus on all the good things and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest light to all the world. When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows.

- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Drink this in, but ever so slowly. It’s deep and rich and strong.

Beauty is everywhere. Are you looking?