Good Read

I'd like to recommend the book "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer to those of you who enjoy a book that you need to read 5+ times in order to get every bit, dog ear page after page to re-read moments that you loved, and cry---then laugh---then wonder---then laugh again (while crying). It's deep. Real deep.

A few quotes that I dog-eared I've shared below. I'm excited to see what else Foer will come out with.

"Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living"

"You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness."

"It's the tragedy of loving, you can't love anything more than something you miss."

"Just because you're an atheist, that doesn't mean you wouldn't love for things to have reasons for why they are."

"I felt suddenly shy. I was not used to shy. I was used to shame. Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want."

"Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn't have to invent a thing."

"The secret was a hole in the middle of me that every happy thing fell into."

"I tried the key in all the doors, even though he said he didn't recognize it. It's not that I didn't trust him, becuase I did. It's that at the end of my search I wanted to be able to say: I don't know how I could have tried harder."

Life is Beautiful

Photo Credit: Leighann Kowalsky, All Rights Reserved

Alright, so. Here's my little list of reasons why life is spontaneous and wonderful, and when you choose to, it can really light things up at the best (worst?) times. Two violently beautiful events have occured so far this morning, and its only 11:23am.

Twiddling thumbs, on hold waiting for the Bank in the United Kingdom to pull me off hold and help me! My phone is ringing off the hook, and I just need one simple exchange rate number to get me back on track "doing" for the day. Elevator music is singing softly in my ear. Then I hear those first two notes....Recognition overcomes instantaneously. My favorite Debussy song starts playing in my ear, whispering sweetly too me how life certainly has a sense of humor. I feel my shoulders loosen up a bit and I close my eyes, melting into the piano notes ringing through the phone line. Love it.

This song seems to find itself in my life quite often - it's last visitation was close if not equally as romantic. Prepping for a master class with Keith Saunders, director of Harlem Ballet Theater, vastly out of my league in the studio at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and the pianist lays down those first two notes. Shoulders relax, eyes close, life is beautiful.

I rant.

OK- so I think I've solved this whole 'massive influx of young divorces' thing. If you'd like to give me a million dollars for my wisdom, my bank details are as follows.

Average marital age is between 18-25 years.

In the last few months, experience has led me to believe that each individual goes through a certain change in their life, aroundabout the age of 25. (give or take maturity). Quarter Life Crisis? Yes, hello! Well if people are getting married at 18? What happens when they change at 25, and your partner changes at 25, and the people you've become don't like each other any more? Or even if you marry at 27, but your buddy hasn't yet grown into the person they'll be the rest of their life, and when he does at 28, you hate him?

I believe that in order to love someone purely and endlessly, you must not necessarily love yourself, but know yourself. An awareness of flaws, beliefs and ideas. Know your weaknesses, and I'm not even saying you have to embrace them! Just know.