This post is coming to you a day late as I was celebrating the marriage of some beautiful dudes in Chicago yesterday. That, and I needed to get a specific street shot for my little vid below. I love weddings and, oh man, I loved this one. What a gift to witness such a radical act. They happen so often at this age that sometimes I forget what they are until I show up and the priest busts out a homily on love so acute that I have to buy a Gatorade after the ceremony.
I’ve walked around with my 15-year-old, pink Canon PowerShot and a few limes in my pocket for the past two weeks, drumming up a music video for this song I can’t stop listening to from The Slaps. A fine way to spend a revelatory April. I believe I’ll keep making little ditties like this for the next few rounds. If you have a 2-3 minute song from a band that not a lot of people know about. Send it my way. I may use it or I may just listen to it. Either way, a win.
WHAT HITS
I read, and am now re-reading, A Buddhist Grief Observed by Guy Newland in which he reflects on his wife’s death through a Buddhist lens. I’m trying to stir up the spiritual part of me first thing in the day and this has been a sound kick-off book to turn these early mornings into a practice. It isn’t incredibly well-known and it isn’t a best-seller. This rocks. He argues against some Buddhist ideas on Karma and death that have frustrated me in the past. It’s simple and quiet. If you’re in the throes of grief, it is not a brutal read but a comforting one. He wrote it because he wanted to and he isn’t trying to prove anything. Buddhists are suffering experts. I always forget this. Don’t let me forget this. He references two quotes on the first page. One from The Buddha and one from C.S Lewis’ A Grief Observed. “Don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.”
A DRIP on love, on waking up too late. Featuring “Nothing About Immortality” by The Slaps.
WHAT’S UP, EMMA?
Man, I’m so excited to introduce you to Emma. This dude and I have known each other since college and in the last year have picked back up where we left off. I remember calling her a wise, old owl in college. Do you remember that, Emma? Likely, it was an annoying thing to hear at 20. But she is. The last few weeks I have flat said, “Emma, I need advice on X.” The word vulnerability is thrown around a lot in a way that feels false. Emma knows how to use it, the word and the act, and has taught me time and time again to move through it with curiosity and be brave enough to express it with resolution.
1. What is something strange, cool, or funny that happened to you recently?
2. What advice would you give yourself one year ago?
Start anew, baby. See you there.
Anything by The Dip! My new obsession lately.