strength

strength, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We each are stronger than we can imagine.

Frail, too. Breakable in the simplest of ways.

But oh, how strong we can be when strength is needed.

third chakra

Anahata, under further exam, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.

-- Neil Gaiman

we deserve no praise for doing what we ought

winter shoreline, originally uploaded by McBeth.

light

yep, my new flashlight works, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.

-- François de la Rochefoucauld

bah humbug

warm head, cold heart?, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Linus: You're so crabby all the time you've forgotten how to smile!
Lucy: Who's forgotten how to smile?
Linus: You have! Let's see you smile. I'll bet you can't!

Lucy tries to smile

There! See? A smile goes up, not down! You've forgotten how to smile! See?

Linus leaves

Lucy: How humiliating!