great interspecies connection!

o hi sweet little tenders.  so remember that time last autumn when i talked about bambi?  well.  this happened:

this was pretty great

so just in case you were wondering about autumn and whether or not it's the best - here's your proof.  also, if you were questioning life and it's endless enchantment - look no further.  it is - literally - at your fingertips.

UPDATE:
then this happened last weekend:

great again

great question!

stumbled upon this today.
how often are we asked to divulge our worst memory, our most painful, our most heart rending?
what a joyful thing, to ask of strangers:  what is your favourite memory?
the below video was done in new york, but if you google "fifty people, one question", you'll see that this is being done all over the world.
so i ask of you, little tenders - what is your favourite memory?
post it here, or email it to me, or even make your own video and send it my way.
i will post them all.

you are loved.
you are safe.
you will be someone's favourite memory!

great revolution!

this revolutionary does not need to be spoken for. would that we were all so brave. just watch.

great art!

well well well.  hey, do you folks like art? yeah, me too. what about reclaimed art? yup, i love that too. see? we're all connected.

let's say you are in a sally ann.  you're looking for a really great oversized denim shirt in the boys section.  you don't find one, but in the process of searching, you come across a huge painting of wild horses galloping through a dusty field.  you look at this old, discarded painting and you think: how can i make this better?  you think: what are these horses running toward? better yet, what are these horses running from?


you buy this painting, you take it home and you begin to paint not one UFO, but several, in the sky.  now these horses have a purpose.  survival.

one of my nearest and dearest, kamikaze cox [of blog fame make it even better], is having an art show.  over the next few weeks, cafe pyrus will be hanging her beautiful and haunting reclaimed art.

so go eat some meat-free, dairy-free and probably wheat-free food, drink some coffee and peruse these wonders of the world!  GO GO GO.  life is short, little tenders!

great lists!

this kid has got it all right

o hello my little tender ones.  it's been so long, hasn't it? well, your faithful narrator has been through a bit of a whirlwind, but i'm back to talk about more things that are great!  there is still joy.  when there is nothing else, there is the ever-present possibility for joy! life is so very short. it is heartbreaking and astounding and the point is to feel everything, isn't it?  it's what we do.  what a thing to marvel at.

so. let's get started, shall we?

let's talk about something that i have a personal obsession with: list-making. this fella has always got a handful of little post-it notes and recycled tear-ups in her back pocket of to-do's, don't-forgets, here's-a-thoughts and read-this's.

for example, i just emptied out my pocket and here i have a list of authors to read [lydia davis and amy hempel] as well as a little grocery list of red wine vinegar, PAY TUITION [not available at grocers, but certainly list-worthy. yikes!], graham crackers [for melting peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate chips on. healthy life choices. don't mind if i do] and coffee.  now, i've just made myself a nice little cup of coffee only to discover that my cream has gone the way of the irish elk.  that is to say, brother, it's way gone.  so, do i add cream to my list?  no.  i re-write the list.  nothing fills me with a greater sense of purpose than writing a fresh new list to crumple up into the safe pit of fabric where my spheroidal ass will keep it warm and protected from the elements.  an added-to list gives one more things to stroke off.  what satisfaction!  what accomplishment!

but i've stumbled upon a new challenge.  it's called the list of 100. you can do this for anything.  you could do the list of 100 things to do before you die, or 100 things you've already done and you're still not dead, 100 things you want to say out loud, 100 people you want to touch with your hand, 100 animals you'd like to rub faces with.  the potential is limitless.  just like joy.  limitless!

it's also an excellent tool for getting those atrophied creative veins pumping again.  sit down and write a list 100 anything.  100 character ideas, 100 plots, 100 story titles, 100 opening or closing sentences.

now you may come to a bit of stalemate in the process of writing your list of 100.  you may feel that some of what you're tossing in is inane, pointless, dull as dishwater even [am i martha stewart?].  don't let that stop you.  the idea is that you work through this and come up with things that you otherwise wouldn't have.

just like i always say, my little tender ones:  i get naked, you get naked.  so. here's the beginning of my list.  in an effort to get myself writing again, i figured i should start with some titles to get me thinking.

hopefully one of these little babies will spearhead a great story that will land me in an issue of mcsweeney's!

on that note, let me leave you with one more list of to-do's:

- feel everything
- love, love, love

great yes!

"at the side of the everlasting why, there is a yes! and a yes! and a yes!" -e.m. forster [a room with a view]

my sweet ones.
say yes.
life is short.
take the risk.

great laugh!

laughter: the reactive force.
laughter: the performatory showing.
laughter: the cathartic chopping.
laughter: the audible expression or appearance of excitement, an inward feeling of joy or humor. 

Robert Provine [profesor de psicología y ayudante de dirección del programa de neurociencia de la universidad de maryland!] suggests that laughter is one of the first forms of communication by we humans and that laughter evolved into talking.  what a remarkable curse and blessing. 

laughter stems from the limbic system in our formidable and unhinged brains.  the limbic system deals with functions that pertain to our ability to thrive.  that is to say, it's a form of survival.  to laugh is to live, little tenders.

we humans are not the only livers-and-breathers to laugh.  our furry foreparents, current cousins and long-distance twice-removed tenders are also great laughers.  blessed be they who open their traps and howl at the great humours and joys of life.

laughter is an act of vulnerability.  an open mouth and revealed neck is a great risk in the animal kingdom.  it's a great risk in our weighty little kingdom too.  it's a kill shot.  but honey, ain't we precious.  don't we just love to see an exposed neck full and strained from the horn of laughter?  doesn't this release, this vibrating sing-song of pure, unsullied joy make you feel like you're a part of something magical?  because you are!

so laugh.
my sweet tenders, if there is nothing else in this world, let there be laughter.
let there be a great howling amongst us.
let there be joy!

great people!

green beer is for suckers, guys.

chin up, feet forward.

fists to yourselves, please.

keep grinning, little tender ones.

sing a song, make a toast, kiss your neighbour.

try not to be a douche bag on the day reserved for my glorious people.

here are some famous quotes by irish people:
"that's my breakfast lunch and dinner right there." - colin farrell in reference to the vagina [sheath or scabbard, whaaaaaaaat?].

i'll stop there.  i can't imagine continuing after that little gem.

may we all be alive this time next year!

take the great risk!

you will die.
the inevitability of this is certain. our knowledge of this is irrefutable. it keeps us - more often than not - careful, safe, aware. it can keep us, even more often than this, scared.  sounds boring, does it not?

what we do not understand is our capacity to live.
what we can guarantee, however, is that we are - every day - given an opportunity to be something to someone, something to anything. in this life, today, right now, this moment.

our capacity to live is almost inconceivable to us.
we do it without thinking.
is that not incredible to you?
you are existing right now with no awareness of it at all.
why are you not totally freaking out?
why are you not screaming in fits of joy at this discovery?

would that i could get into your brains, my little tenders.
crawl in, just at the slope in your ear [pinna!] and whisper to you that behind the mud and the smoke there is one thing you need; one thing you crave; one thing that you should strive for every day, every moment, right now.
and that is connection.
the rest of it doesn't matter.
the rest of it is just details, semantics, distractions, abuses, bullshit.
open your eyes, open your hands, open whatever opens.
let something in.
it doesn't matter how that part manifests for you.
connect.
can't you see that someone is trying to get through to you?

my father, in his great bewilderment, had written that he wanted to be found.
he wanted it so badly that he wrote it six times over.
find me!
find me!
find me!
find me!
find me!
find me!
he wrote asking for us to take the risk.
take the risk.

do you understand?
take the risk, you beautiful, exciting people!
you are alive and existing.
connect with one another.
there is time.
take the risk.
we will be here.