So tomorrow is my birthday and it's exciting, but I'm not that into big celebrations or whatever. So I was thinking and listening to music and this song came on:
And it kind of hit me that this is a pretty sad and scary song. (Also very poetic.) And so I thought for my birthday maybe I would ask all of you to make this song a little less true. Have more faith - in your religion, but also in the people around you. Dream. Fly. Have hope. And help each other out.
But I changed my mind. I don't want anybody to do this because some random girl on the internet told them kindness is magic, so be kind because it's her birthday. Do this because it's the right thing to do.
"We used to fill our days running just to pass time, now life's a race we're running just to survive."
I have so many random thoughts in my head right now and I don't know where to put them. Also, it's late-ish and I don't feel tired at all. Which is weird because I need sleep. Right now I'm listening to "All I Want is You" by Barry Louis Polisar. It's on Juno. Here are the lyrics:
"If I was a flower growing wild and free All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee. And if I was a tree growing tall and green All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves
If I was a flower growing wild and free All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee. And if I was a tree growing tall and green All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves
All I want is you, will you be my bride Take me by the hand and stand by my side All I want is you, will you stay with me? Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.
If you were a river in the mountains tall, The rumble of your water would be my call. If you were the winter, I know I'd be the snow Just as long as you were with me, when the cold winds blow.
All I want is you, will you be my bride Take me by the hand and stand by my side All I want is you, will you stay with me? Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.
If you were a wink, I'd be a nod If you were a seed, well I'd be a pod. If you were the floor, I'd wanna be the rug And if you were a kiss, I know I'd be a hug
All I want is you, will you be my bride Take me by the hand and stand by my side All I want is you, will you stay with me? Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.
If you were the wood, I'd be the fire. If you were the love, I'd be the desire. If you were a castle, I'd be your moat, And if you were an ocean, I'd learn to float.
All I want is you, will you be my bride Take me by the hand and stand by my side All I want is you, will you stay with me? Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea."
One of my favorite lines is "If you were a castle, I'd be your moat." There's so much symbolic meaning in that my English-loving brain can't breath. Think about it.... Yeah.
That is a line that I really like from a song that I really like.* I think there's a lot in the world to love and I think a lot of people miss out on that by being indifferent.
Guys. There is a lot on Earth that is just freaking gorgeous. The sky is blue, but the shade of blue varies and it can also be red, orange, pink, purple, etc. After it rains all of the colors can be seen in an arch. I know there's science behind rainbows, but what?! The leaves on trees also change colors and are ridiculously beautiful just because they can (and a little bit of science, but whatever). There's so much undiscovered stuff in oceans, and there's mountaintops that crazy people climb, and there's sand at beaches, but also in deserts, and there's rain forests, and there's suburbs, and there's farmland, and there's industrialized cities, and there's so many freaking animals that fly or swim or crawl, or walk, and there's platypuses! Like, what is that thing?
There's also like amazing things that can happen on our planet. We can eat food cooked in a box of heat in our homes. We can cook food over sticks and fire. We can hit something, strum something, blow air into something and have music come out. We can even do that with our own bodies. We can move our feet and hands in a way that rhythmically fit into that music. We can kick or throw a ball just because. We can swim and we can fly (in machines that probably should not be capable of that). We have balloons and we have sweaters and we have chocolate. This is some pretty amazing stuff.
But also, even more than stuff you can find on Earth if you pay attention, there are people.
I don't know if you know this, but if you counted up all the people who ever lived and all the people who are currently living, and all of the people who will some day live, you would have a lot of human beings.
Can I make a request? As people, let's do a better job at noticing people. I can love the Earth and I can love my ukulele and I can love music and I can love dancing and I can love platypuses. But if we're indifferent toward people, then we have failed at love.
And I think that is too sad a thing to let happen.
Grocery List (aka What Can I Survive on and Eat for an Entire Summer?):
-Rice cooker
-Rice
-Pot for cooking pasta in
-Noodles for pasta
-Sauce for pasta (marinara and alfredo)
-Frying pan
-Frozen peas
-Eggs
-Mashed potatoes
-Butter
So, remember when I was like, "lists and stuff!" and also, "that WWOOF thing would be awesome to do in my life?" Well, I still think it would be really cool. And I was talking to Maddi about it and we both agreed that that would be fantastic.
However, here's the thing. We're both pretty involved in school stuff right now. We just can't do that right now. BUT. We think it would be a really cool thing if over Thanksgiving break or something we went to Arizona and volunteered at a soup kitchen and somehow got to sleep/eat without spending lots of money. We've heard that maybe that's a thing that happens. Like a live-in soup kitchen? I don't know exactly how that would work, but I think that would be fantastic because I would get to see Arizona which I've only driven through and also I would get to volunteer at a soup kitchen, which is something I have wanted to do for a while.
So, dear readers, do you have any details about this? Because I need some details in order for this to be a thing...
Also, I would like to express some of my ideas about homeless people. I feel like there's this thing that people who are not homeless people look down on homeless people. And that makes me really upset. I have absolutely no idea how someone ends up living in the streets, but I would guess that it is not a pleasant experience and also a really hard thing to go through and also potentially an outcome of things outside of one's control and not one's choices and also not just one single cause, but a lot of things that added up until the person no longer has a home. And besides, being homeless means THAT A HUMAN BEING HAS NO SHELTER, something I learned in the sixth grade was a "bare necessity of life." How messed up is it that people look down on other people for anything, let alone for not have something necessary for living?
Something that my dad said once really made an impact on my life and how I (try) to see people. This is not actually a direct quote -> "I would rather err on the side of charity and give to someone who might end up wasting (insert whatever it is you're giving a person) than err on the side of selfishness and not give at all to a person who might desperately need (insert whatever it is you're giving a person)." He said it better, but you get the idea. I like helping people, not as much as I should, but still. And I really don't like that we have homeless people in our country, not because they're dirty or whatever, but because they are humans living in really sad conditions.
So, how about we stop looking at people as a circumstance and start looking at people as people.
