Chuck

“The best thing I can offer this world is not my force or energy, but a well-tended spirit, a wise and brave soul. My regrets: how many years I bruised people with my fragmented anxious presence, how many moments of connection I missed - too busy, too tired, too frantic and strung out on the drug of efficiency.”
― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

“When at last with limbs intertwined
They enjoy the flower of their youth
And the body anticipates already the pleasure to come
And they have reached the oint at which Venus
Sows seed in the field of womankind,
They tighten against each other avidly
Mingling the saliva in their mouths
And, pressing lips against teeth,
Each inhales the breath of the other-
In vain, since nothing can detach from her body,
He cannot penetrate it with his entire body,
Losing himself in that body.”
― Lucretius, On the Nature of Things/The Discourses/The Meditations

“I propose a new calendar: not one autumn but twelve, a hundred. The autumn when the birches are yellow but still have their leaves; when the beeches are green but the birch leaves have fallen; when the oaks tint to the color of ripe apricots and the beeches yellow; when the oaks turn a cigar brown and the beeches curl up into crispy copper rolls. And so on: I’ve missed a few. But to call it all just “autumn”!”
― Daniel Mason, North Woods

“We form these elaborate fantasies of romantic partnerships, Romeos and Majnus who we’ll spend our days and nights with in a passion of rose petals and fireworks, while discounting our non-romantic relationships (if such distinctions can even be made), often more enduring and authentic. We discard them as soon as some man comes along, flashing his teeth and brandishing his penis. But it’s always the friends in the end, isn’t it, who remain to pick up the pieces when the men have gone, leaving destruction in their wake? Still, only the romantic partner is taken seriously. Friends and family will not gather, ever, to celebrate my partnership with Naima—there will be no anniversaries or acknowledgments, no congratulatory cards, no celebratory ceremonies. And yet, it is this slow burning love of female friendship that actually keeps the world turning.”
― Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, The Centre