happy new year.

little red squares of mexicali

mia & jonah is quite nice.

i think i found something great here...you can download joe pug's lovely "hymn 101" free. here's an article on "all songs considered."
the lyrics to the whole song are good. a taste:

and you've come
to know me stubborn as a butcher
and you've come
to know me thankless as a guest
will you recognize my face
when god's awful grace
strips me of my jacket and my vest
and reveals all the treasure in my chest
"Hymn 101" - Joe Pug

am i the last on this bandwagon? "fools" is a great song by the dodos.

break has been so nice so far--time to read, reflect, have unhurried talks with friends, sit in the warm sunshine of the gnomes' kitchen, cook, write, watch movies and just be.

i picked up anne lamott's traveling mercies the other day and was reading a few old favorites. i like her wry humor and her tell it like it is-ness...she doesn't really try to sugarcoat it...any of it--life, relationships, faith. sometimes it's so honest it's cutting. there's one essay in this collection called "sister" about the slow process of her decision to get her hair done in twisty dreadlocks by a beautiful african american woman at her church. she talks about a longstanding hatred and shame of her frizzy red hair, because even into adulthood people asked if she'd stuck her finger in a light socket.

one of the things that made her decide to do it was a conversation with her friend pammy in a macy's dressing room. her friend was undergoing chemotherapy and wearing a wig to cover her baldness. anne describes trying on a dress that she thought her boyfriend would like, but she asked her friend if it made her look big in the hips. pammy answers, "annie, you just don't have that kind of time." she talks about this defining moment in relation to worries about the stupid things that don't matter--like what other people think of your crazy ass hair. i love it. fear, looking stupid, being out of our element, avoiding risk. can't that one line sort of sum up pivotal moments where you finally realize you have to stop being dumb and just live? "annie, you just don't have that kind of time."

i also started reading dan allendar's to be told, which is really, really...really good. it is hitting on some of the things i've been thinking about lately along the lines of story...what makes a good story, a good life. its about how we find the names God has given us. i'm still chewing on it a bit...

happy new year, friends. time to get out and enjoy the day.