For small creatures such as we
the vastness is bearable only through love.
~Carl Sagan

Ever since I found this quote last night I can’t stop thinking about it.

By the vastness, Carl Sagan is referring to our universe and it’s enormity. We live in this big world, in this even bigger galaxy that seems to have no end.

We’re on this planet, we don’t know why we’re here, how we got here, or what is really going on. But if you stop and think about it, he’s right. The vastness in our world that is comforted through love.

I had to actually stop and realize this tonight while I was running errands. I was tired, hungry, and going from store to store, just trying to get through this. All I wanted was to go home and lay in bed. But in that moment I wasn’t really seeing what was in front of me.

Everyone else is doing the same thing. And it’s not like I can avoid my stupid errands. So it occurred to me in the aisle at Rite Aid. Why not do them with more love?

So, I was really nice to the guy at the check out counter — and deliberately nice. I mean, wouldn’t he — and wouldn’t all of us most of the time — rather be doing something else, or better yet, receiving more love for what we are already doing? Even when I was writing and working from home (my dream) it was not one big party. It was just life. I think that realizing everyone wants to be doing something else (or heck, can never be truly satisfied for long) makes you love everyone more.

I chatted the checker up at Whole Foods Paycheck next. I realized these exchanges can be loving too. I may not have someone I can write lovey dovey texts to or say “I love you” to late at night, but I do have people I love in my life.

Then, at home, I went on Facebook (wait, was that what I’d rather be doing?!?!) and liked a friends status cause it was funny and I knew it would make him feel good — and LOVED. Then, one friend called me and the friend I “Liked” called five minutes later.

I feel like when you put loving feelings like that out there — other people can feel them too. I have to remind myself, sometimes, what I believe: that we are all connected by one mind. I picture it as a giant brain made of jello. I know people don’t think about it in their every day lives, but there is proof of this (except for the jello part).

I mean, Carl Sagan is not a dumbass!

This YouTube video is really funny to watch after watching the latest Modern Family video on Hulu (where Phil gets autotuned).

This is a nice response from one viewer on YouTube:

photo via by racheocity

“We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness.’”

~from the movie Shall We Dance

photo taken at the SRF gardens in Encinitas

There is something so comforting about warm pajamas taken out of the dryer and putting them on to go to bed. I’ve been looking at my clothes lately and appreciating them– and everything– more. Or at least I’m trying.

I have worn hand-me-down clothes for the last few years. It’s so strange now that I have gainful employment that I could actually redo my wardrobe.

Maybe this is the old man in me, but I kind of like my tattered pjs from 2001. They’re like an old sofa. My old t-shirts too. You never know when you need an old t-shirt, right?

I can’t really believe how much I have right now. You’d think I’d struck it rich. I was VERY close to losing it all and having to move back to my parent’s house.

When I’m at my apartment I’m mostly in my bedroom with my roommate’s bed, her comforter, her dressers and lamps. I don’t have much of my old stuff here. But my stuff used to occupy a two bedroom house.

I loved my old place, but I’ve never been too attached to stuff. I remember when I was there talking to this guy in the coffee shop who had like five cars and a boat and a house he couldn’t sell and how stuck he felt. More stuff is NOT the answer.

But I DO miss decorating. And I did bring my 16 houseplants with me to San Diego (they live on a table in the kitchen.). It’s so much fun to make things pretty. I’ll have a pretty place again.

Well-behaved houseplants. Each one has a story (I’m serious).

chair photo by Hallenser

If there is one thing I know, it’s weather.

I also know a lot about Utah. I grew up in a little mountain town that was very beautiful, but infiltrated with Mormons.

This absolutely priceless video shows you Utah at its best. Not only are people driving like total shitheads, the guys filming seem to be excited about all the accidents on their street. This, my friends, is what happens when people need entertainment because they are not allowed to drink or have sex before marriage:

(and when freezing rain hits the road, followed immediately by snow — Watch the whole thing. The video starts out slow but picks up with 3 curb hits, 1 360, about 5 accidents, 3 cars in yards, and a partridge in a pear tree).

(note to Southern Californians, this is a steep mountain road. Snow is fun!)

Look for amusing stories… you find them.

Look for reasons to be sad… you find them too
(and reasons to be cranky, pissy, upset, etc).

Look for people (and things) you love… you find them.

Look for reasons to complain… you find them.
Or they find you.

Look for reasons to live… you find them.
Any day, from any angle.

And don’t just look once. Look every day.
You’ll find what you’re looking for — be it happiness, sadness, whateverness.

We don’t know the truth about this world. Reality might be vastly different than what we see. So, we might as well enjoy it here — because good creates more good. It takes a lot more effort and energy to be sad than to be happy.

Sometimes the questions are complicated
and the answers are simple.

~Dr. Seuss

photo by Kitty Gallannaugh, by Moyan_Brenn, by Beverly & Pack, by Carsten Schertzer, by ZeroOne

Oh my god. Finance guy is GONE!

His desk is completely void. No computer. No chair. Nothing. Maybe he teleported somewhere?

Maybe he went here:

And that is Monday.

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
~Bill Moyers

photo via http://famoustourisms.com/2011/05/galapagos-islands-a-haven-for-flora-and-fauna/

Rule #1 of having a corporate job:

Work as slooooooowly as possible.

Try Googling “things that move slowly” and look what comes up:

Three-toed sloth.

Wait, really? There is a thing called a “three-toed sloth?!”

Why haven’t I hard this before?

I think that is my reason to live for the entire month of January. Let’s hashtag it, ya’ll #threetoedsloth #insanelycute.

From wikipedia: “The three-toed sloths are tree-living mammals from South and Central America. There are four living species of three-toed sloths. These are the Brown-throated Sloth, the Maned Sloth, the Pale-throated Sloth, and the Pygmy Three-toed Sloth.”

How fucking cute is that? Oh woops, I just used the f-word…

photo via http://www.arkive.org/brown-throated-three-toed-sloth/bradypus-variegatus/image-G75265.html

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Would it be inappropriate at work to put a photo of Keith Urban on my desktop?

Just sayin’

What about Keith Urban and a puppy?

Even better.

The way to love anything is to realize it may be lost.

~Gilbert Keith Chesterton

photo by Kitty Gallannaugh