--I’M STRAIGHT UP FIXED ON YOU

…One of the best things ever has to be waking up feeling good, happy, and not knowing why that is.

…One in thirty births in the US are twins.  The odds are pretty good.  Too bad they weren’t for me, but it worked out quite all right anyway.  

…”If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”  Frederick Douglas said that.  He had no idea how right he was.

…The junk of our lives might not be junk.  Maybe we just need the perspective of time to appreciate that what was thought to be trash was actually gold with the dirt not washed off.

…Dogs and children are sensitive issues for me.

…For a while there I was freaked out about running out of time.  Now I’m okay with it, either way.

…The only other mammal that cries tears are elephants.  That kind of makes me love elephants.

…Penguins are also pretty fascinating.  They work so hard and love in quirky ways.  They’re loyal and great parents.  What’s not to love about penguins?

…”I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”  That’s Martin Luther King, Jr., and I agree with him.

…I know exactly where I’m going, said me never.

…Sometimes.  Always.  Never.

…”Thank you for noticing” is something most people like hearing.  I know I do.

…Those times it happened, it was kind of like I lost a heart and there was nowhere for the blood to go.

…I’m sorry for taking my eye off the ball.  That’s you.  You’re the ball.

…Always I walk up the same steps.  I push open the door and end up with you.

…Maybe I actually like being mad at myself.

…The bad guys know everything, but they have pretty lousy outfits.

…I think everyone sees their childhood through different lenses, different perspectives, but sometimes the truth is universal and unavoidable.

…Lately I’ve been trying to determine if the moon and stars disagree.

…Lately I’ve been thinking about the idea of self-sabotage.  Apparently, we all do it on occasion, but I am the master at it.

…What’re we doing out here, just sitting when we could be dancing?

…When you break it down, it’s really about the people on the inside, those who’ve broken through your skin and swim inside you.

…Sometimes the right kind of No is better than the right kind of Yes, but not usually.

…Everybody hides.  Everybody needs.  Everybody bleeds.  Everybody loves. 

...As for me, I am going to ask better questions and listen harder.

--TELL ME IT'S OKAY


...Lately, I've been thinking about the past, how there is no holding back.  No point in wasting sorrow.

...So try this.  The next time a sunrise steals your breath, or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, stay that way.

...You got my number, you can call on me.  You get in trouble, you call fall on me.  You get mad, you can take it out on me... Put it all on me...

...The marble the Michelangelo’s David was carved from was a hunk of marble he found in the trash.  Just goes to show you, one man's junk is another man's treasure, or can be with a little fortitude and imagination.

...It's raining at a slant here.  The strange thing is it's just switched from left to right without my knowing it.  And somehow, out my window there is a cone of gnats swirling in a lazy rotation despite the wetness.

...Life is a series of doors.  Sometimes you get to choose the door you walk through and sometimes you don't, but you still have to walk through the door.  Still, what really matters is what you do once you've walked through. 

...Sometimes I can hear my bones laughing at me, but lately I've taken to laughing right back with them.  It's a lot more fun that way.  

...True love means there is no deal breaker.

...Life is a bit like Stockholm Syndrome, or it should be.

...Every dream is beaten back accordingly and I am fine with that.  They've all been nightmares anyway, and I have no interest in being rescued.  There's no agency in that.

...The lake is so greedy, bloated slate-black this time of year, like a rippled, liquid chalkboard.  It takes all the rain it's given without complaint.  At night she sleeps with one arm over her forehead and the other wrapped around my waist. 

...Those things that remind us what a privilege it is to feel anything as strongly and as messily as you did when you were young--those are the things to hold onto.

...I've spent so much of my time, going out of my mind.  Tried so hard to be amused, but what you cannot gain you lose.

...Sometimes the night cuts through me like a knife, but today all I see is sun, even if she's been playing Hide N Seek all morning.

..."Everything's going to be okay."  It's not always, but that's the one thing you most want to hear when things look bleak.

...Everything's going to be okay.  I just know it.

--I’VE STOLEN THE MOON FOR YOU, AND I WILL AGAIN

…A room without books is like a body without a soul.  That’s why I always do my best to stay out of the basement and the attic.

…If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

…I’ve lost a lot of stuff over the years.  Some of it I have searched for with a fierce intensity, and the rest of it I just let go.  Sometimes you let stuff go and you regret that you were so incredibly stupid to do such a thing, and then you want it back even more than you wanted it in the first place.

…The people that light you up, that make you feel alive--sometimes more than you even knew you could be—those are the ones to spend time with, as much as you can.  Truly. 

…The devil may care, but sometimes he doesn’t mind.  Sometimes he’s an indifferent sonofabitch without the agenda you think he has.

…Last week I saw two Hispanic girls, about six or seven, tops.  The less pretty one was very bossy and she tried showing the more pretty one how to dance.  They were cousins, or so I deduced.  It was quite entertaining to watch, and also completely adorable, the kind of adorable which can make an adult giggle and not stop.  After a while, bossy pants got her Cuz to figure out the steps and swings and timing, and they danced and danced, right there in the courtyard restaurant.  It was a little miracle.

…Sometimes I’m a handrail.  Sometimes a bucket.  Sometimes the bucket leaks, and sometimes it doesn’t.  It spills over.

…My idea of everything going smoothly on an airplane is (a) that I not die in a slow-motion fiery crash and (b) that none of the other passengers try to talk to me.

…I’ll be an annoying old man soon enough.  Maybe I am already.  You tell me.

…All things considered, I coping quite well, or at least that’s what my therapist says, though what does he know?

…To be a survivor, to be the one who gets to see how things all turned out—well, one pays an exorbitant price for that honor.

…Reasons for living never come cheap.

…It’s so lovely to celebrate the life of a person who is still here, to have a chance to shine our best light on them as they have shone their light on us, before the light goes out.

…Catastrophes can be expensive, in more ways than one.

…Willingness comes from pain, and prayer helps.  At least it seems to, but who knows?

…The idea is to start being kind to yourself if you can.  You breathe, you eat, you think a little.  You remember that God is present wherever people suffer and He’s here with us when we’re miserable.  And the way to not lose your mind is to do your best to take care of the suffering you can.

…Peace is joy at rest, and joy is peace at its feet. 

…There aren’t a lot of people like this, but my biggest mentor was the epitome of you saw what you got.  That’s so rare and refreshing that it can also be a little alchemical.  I’d like to see him right now.

…Joy comes in the morning when you open your eyes, but most times, even with our eyes open, we don‘t see it.

Rumi was such a smart dude—“Dance when you’re broken open.  Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off…”

…How rarely we get to float.  That’s because we’re usually afraid the wind will blow us away, which is why we carry all that extra weight.

…Anyone would understand if we gave up and settled.  But these are our lives.  So we try, we do the work of becoming saner and more authentic, which is hard enough without having people doubt us.

…People ask for things all the time.  That’s okay.  But when they ask, “Did you by any chance bring a spear,” the smart move might be to play deaf.

…Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be right?—it’s not Hamlet, but it’s a question that’s in the neighborhood.  Hmmm.

…Hitting first—someone or something—has always been the mark of evil.      

…Not everything is going to be okay.  Trust me on this.  Especially in January in Seattle.  January has to be the season of the witch—the time of darkness, rain, mold and reckoning after the wrap of a year when you subconsciously take stock in all that you did, or failed to do.  You get through January, and the rest is cake.

…The good news is we’re all doomed, which means you can give up your sense of control.

…I often remind myself that the stars are not all one color: There are orange stars, red stars, pale yellow stars.

  

…I don’t recommend it, but sometimes I can get a little lippy with God.  Like saying to Him, “Look, I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but my patience is beginning to wear a little thin,” or “What on earth were you thinking?”  Still, I wouldn’t put anything past God because She is one crafty mother.

…Darkness is our context.  Without it, no one would be able to see the light.

…For the last seven or so years since I’ve been writing full-time, I’ve been trying to get into this online magazine called Wigleaf.  It’s one of the best out there, and highly regarded.  Each year they put out a list of the 50 best stories of the year culled from tens of thousands and it’s a big deal to make the list.  I’ve been lucky to be on it several times.  Still, Wigleaf itself never actually accepted a story of mine, and each rejection I received from them was always incredibly kind and thoughtful, which kept my hopes up.  So finally, finally, I have a piece, “On Top of the World” up in their issue that just came out, as well as a strange postcard I wrote.  Here they are: http://wigleaf.com/

 …The world is not an easy place, but it’s a place of significance nonetheless.  There are wonders happening all over the world right this second, literally millions of wonders each second.  I mean, wow.  I try to remind myself when the news throws its black shroud at me.

  

…”What good will it do to do nothing?”—the answer to this question seems to be the real key.

…Some people are not like the others.  Some people stop you with their presence, like punctuation, they make you remember why you are here.

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