Selah // Something Witty

If you talk enough sense, then you'll lose your mind.

Date: 07.22.17 -- Day 46
Music: "I Found" (Mahogany Session) / Amber Run featuring London Contemporary Voices

This particular song haunts me.

Maybe it's the chapel or just the atmosphere, but this is just a lovely, lovely song. I found myself missing choir practice, which is strange because of my love/hate relationship with choir, but the arrangement of this song is beautiful as anything. If you're into acoustics, a cappella, or just striped down versions of songs, I cannot hype Mahogany Sessions   on Youtube enough. You might be surprised what musicians and singers have done a gig or two on there. Definitely worth a listen.

Life is funny. Sometimes in the humorous ha-ha jokes kind of way, and sometimes in the bitter laughter kind of way. This past week has definitely been the later. In these trying times, as my grandfather use to say. Sometimes I wish I could jump off this ride of life and catch my breath because there is only so much bitter laughter one can do before things get to be exhausting. And trying to find that balance in life, through the ups and downs of chaos, can be a pretty big challenge. Let's be honest, it just kind of flat out sucks.

I try to remember it's the little things that help sometimes. I made a few jars of overnight oats, experimenting with a consistency that I liked. The recipes are meant for flat oats, but of course, there were only steel-cut on hand. Sometimes you just got to roll with what you got. I like them. It's covered me for meals that I would have just skipped because the physically pain of standing and cooking was just too much. I have this tendency to not eat when I'm in pain; it's a bad habit I've trying to work on. So I'm going to count that as a win.

My father's hip surgery went well. Hopefully, it'll be his last. He's upbeat, hasn't had to shave for work in a minute, and is catching up on shows he missed. From the texts he has sent me and brief conversations, he's actually seems...happy? For a person who isn't necessarily the most jovial of people and just under the knife, he's doing well. So that's definitely a win.

My mother wants to go to Norway in a couple of years. She starts a new treatment to help with her lungs in about a month, so the hope is that in 2019 she'll be much better, and that my brothers and their families and I will hop on a plane and head for Norway. I'm excited because she's excited. She's making plans, trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel in what have been the roughest years of her illnesses. It's a big win.

My niece got her driver's permit. Two of my students got back from their family road trip safely. I got some new tea that tastes quite lovely. Some rain might be coming in, hopefully it'll help the fires up north. I still have two months before I need to head back to life in academia. All wins, big and small.

There is point where the pain of life seems never-ending like a continuous wave that never seems to fully crest. But there is happiness there, too. Maybe it's not constant. Maybe it's just moments. But it's those moments that shine the brightest. And as balancing life becomes more difficult, one must pull out those moments, those memories to get through the next trial. So I'm going to hold on to these wins, try to remember them when things get tough, and continue forward, one step at a time.