Let no one enter your inner kingdom unless they come with love.

-Ajame

http://youtu.be/x7XqTNEf9cg

It seems that all my bridges have been burnt
But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works
It's not the long walk home that will change this heart
But the welcome I receive with the restart

Darkness is a harsh term don't you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see
Darkness is a harsh term don't you think?
And yet it dominates the things I've seen

http://youtu.be/CLUWYVJzEOg

I wanna have friends that I can trust,
that love me for the man I’ve become not the man I was.
I wanna have friends that will let me be
all alone when being alone is all that I need.

I wanna fit in to the perfect space,
feel natural and safe in a volatile place.
And I wanna grow old without the pain,
give my body back to the earth and not complain.
Will you understand …when I am to old of a man?
And will you forget when we have paid our debt
who did we borrow from? Who did we borrow from?

Okay part two now clear the house.
The party’s over take the shouting and the people, get out.
I have some business and a promise that I have to hold to.
I do not care what you assume or what the people tell you.
Will you understand, when I am too old of a man?
Will you forget when we have paid our debt,
who did we borrow from, who did borrow from?

I wanna have pride like my mother has,
And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad.

And I wanna have friends that I can trust,
that love me for the man I’ll become and not the man that I was.

by Julia Hartwig

Make some room for yourself, human animal.
Even a dog jostles about on his master's lap to
improve his position. And when he needs space he
runs forward, without paying attention to commands
or calls.
If you didn't manage to receive freedom as a gift,
demand it as courageously as bread and meat.
Make some room for yourself, human pride and
dignity.
The Czech writer Hrabal said:
I have as much freedom as I take.

"True love makes the imperfect to perfect .... otherwise love is not true....."

- unknown

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." 

- Maria Robinson

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

- Frederick Buechner

by Jack Ridl

Here in the time between snow
and the bud of the rhododendron,
we watch the robins, look into

the gray, and narrow our view
to the patches of wild grasses
coming green. The pile of ashes

in the fireplace, haphazard sticks
on the paths and gardens, leaves
tangled in the ivy and periwinkle

lie in wait against our will. This
drawing near of renewal, of stems
and blossoms, the hesitant return

of the anarchy of mud and seed
says not yet to the blood's crawl.
When the deer along the stream

look back at us, we know again
we have left them. We pull
a blanket over us when we sleep.

As if living in a prayer, we say
amen to the late arrival of red,
the stun of green, the muted yellow

at the end of every twig. We will
lift up our eyes unto the trees hoping
to discover a gnarled nest within

the branches' negative space. And
we will watch for a fox sparrow
rustling in the dead leaves underneath.

by Thomas A. Clark

Awake the mind's hopeless so
At a quarter to six I rise
And run 2 or 3 miles in
The pristine air of a dark
And windy winter morning
With a light rain falling
And no sound but the pad
Of my sneakers on the asphalt
And the calls of the owls in
The cypress trees on Mesa Road

And when I get back you're
Still asleep under the warm covers
Because love is here to stay
It's another day and we're both still alive

"Awake, thou wintry earth - Fling off thy sadness! Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth Your ancient gladness!"

Suspicion often creates what it suspects.

- C. S. Lewis

We are what we believe we are.

- CS Lewis

Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others...

- CS Lewis

http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html

“Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.”

― C.S. Lewis

by Maxine Kumin for Victor

Some things never change: the velvet flock
of the turf, the baselines smoothed to suede,
the ancient smell of peanuts, the harsh smack
the ball makes burrowing into the catcher's mitt.

Here in the Grapefruit League's trellised shade
you catch Pie Traynor's lofting rightfield foul
all over again. You're ten in Fenway Park
and wait past suppertime for him to autograph it

then race for home all goosebumps in the dark
to roll the keepsake ball in paraffin,
soften your secondhand glove with neat's-foot oil
and wrap your Louisville Slugger with friction tape.

The Texas Leaguers, whatever league you're in
still tantalize, the way they waver and drop.
Carl Hubbell's magical screwball is still
give or take sixty years unhittable.

Sunset comes late but comes, inexorable.
What lingers is the slender hook of hope.

http://youtu.be/UU9fCqnMlgU

by Carl Dennis

Art and life, I wouldn't want to confuse them.
But it's hard to hear this quartet
Without comparing it to a conversation
Of the quiet kind, where no one tries to outtalk
The other participants, where each is eager instead
To share in the task of moving the theme along
From the opening statement to the final bar.

A conversation that isn't likely to flourish
When sales technicians come trolling for customers,
Office-holders for votes, preachers for converts.
Many good people among such talkers,
But none engaged like the voices of the quartet
In resisting the plots time hatches to make them unequal,
To set them at odds, to pull them asunder.

I love the movement where the cello is occupied
With repeating a single phrase while the others
Strike out on their own, three separate journeys
That seem to suggest each prefers, after all,
The pain and pleasure of playing solo. But no.
Each near the end swerves back to the path
Their friend has been plodding, and he receives them
As if he never once suspected their loyalty.

Would I be moved if I thought the music
Belonged to a world remote from this one,
If it didn't seem instead to be making the point
That conversation like this is available
At moments sufficiently free and self-forgetful?

And at other moments, maybe there's still a chance
To participate in the silence of listeners
Who are glad for what they manage to bring to the music
And for what they manage to take away.

I will admit that I was less than excited when the wife cued this one up on Netflix. Having been raised in the rolling open fields of Los Angeles, I have a decent appreciation for horses and cowboys but I am not INTO horses (or cowboys . .  uhh . . . err . . .). 10 Minutes in and I was HOOKED!

This is not a movie about horses and cowboys - it is a movie about the human condition. I plan on buying it and watching it over and over.

I believe this movie might make you a better person if you let it. I also think that if I can learn to treat people the way Buck treats horses, my life would not only be happier but possibly more lucrative as well.



http://youtu.be/IShjmWYuHZ0

Hell is a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity & advancement & where everyone has a grievance. 

- CS Lewis

"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger." 

- Buddha

Servings: 6
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins

1 ready-made pizza crust (such as Boboli)
1/2 cup prepared ranch salad dressing divided
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large vidalia, or other sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 tomato, thinly sliced
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
ground black pepper to taste

Yield: 1

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Spread 1/4 cup ranch dressing over the pizza crust; sprinkle with garlic powder.
- Bake the crust in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion in the oil until translucent; season with salt. Once cooked, drain onions and pat dry.
- Mix three cheeses in a bowl and set aside
- Remove pizza crust from oven. Spread remaining 1/4 cup of ranch dressing on crust.
- (Do the following all "to taste"): Add the cooked onions, tomato slices, cheese blend, and black pepper over the baked crust.
- Return to preheated oven and bake until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted, 12 to 15 minutes. Allow pizza to cool for 5 minutes before cutting to serve.

Servings: 6
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins

2 russet potatoes , cut into 1-inch cubes
2 sweet potatoes , cut into 1-inch cubes
1 sweet yellow onion thinly sliced
1/3 cup olive oil
1 (1-ounce) package onion soup mix

Yield: 1

- Preheat an oven to 450 degrees F
- Combine russet potato, sweet potato and sliced onion in a zip-lock bag. Add olive oil and toss to coat
- Spread out into a 9x13-inch baking dish and dust with onion soup mix, tossing to coat evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven until potatoes are tender and golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes.