"

Let’s just say, hypothetically, that two roads diverged in the woods and you took the path less traveled. Part of you is just going, “Look at that path! Over there, it’s much better. Everyone is traveling on it. It’s paved, and there’s like a Starbucks every 40 yards. This is wrong. In this one, there’s nettles and Robert Frost’s body—somebody should have moved that—it just feels weird. And not only does your mind tell you this, it is on that other path, it is behaving as though it is on that path. It is doing the opposite of what you are doing. And for your entire life, you will be doing, on some level, the opposite—not only of what you were doing—but of what you think you are. That is just going to go on. What you do with all your heart, you will do the opposite of. And what you need to do is to honor that, to understand it, to unearth it, to listen to this other voice.

You have, which is a rare thing, that ability and the responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself, to at least give it the floor, because it is the key—not only to consciousness-but to real growth. To accept duality is to earn identity. And identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is not just who you are. It is a process that you must be active in. It’s not just parroting your parents or the thoughts of your learned teachers. It is now more than ever about understanding yourself so you can become yourself.

"
  • me: im so tired, i could collapse into bed and sleep for a year..
  • me: gets in bed
  • me: how was earth created
  • me: who made microwaves
  • me: how does the internet even work
  • me: i'm hungry
  • me: feels bad about something i did 4 years ago
  • me: remembers 73 unfinished tasks
  • me: too tired to sleep

Choose kindness; make the extra effort to be kind & to affirm kindness in others. 


Go out of your way to offer and acknowledge kindness. It costs nothing but a few seconds to smile or say a nice word that makes someone smile. You brighten and add value to that person’s day and your own being is lightened as well. 

"It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind. With Americans, it is a national trait, as native to us as the roller-coaster or the jukebox. It is no simple longing for the home town or the country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known."

Carson McCullers

- from the essay Look Homeward, Americans (Vogue, December 1, 1940)

Vasily Kandinsky - Black Lines (Schwarze Linien), December 1913
[Click through for the Guggenheim page] 

Vasily Kandinsky - Black Lines (Schwarze Linien), December 1913

[Click through for the Guggenheim page] 

effingmondays:

Cities & Typography, Gokhun Guneyhan

i’m having serious skylar astin feels over here. that is all.

Saw my beautiful and talented cousin’s senior design show tonight! Her work is amazing and you should check her out @ brianamacarthur.com.

Saw my beautiful and talented cousin’s senior design show tonight! Her work is amazing and you should check her out @ brianamacarthur.com.

talesofan8thgradeteacher:

literature-and-ramblings:

Can’t stop, won’t stop,

ALL THE EXCITEMENT. 8th grade and 8th grade teacher  me are happy dancing right now.

In two hours!!

Do Good Today: Kiva.org

image

I first learned about Kiva.org while I was student teaching in high school economics last year. Kiva gives microloans to individuals or groups who are deemed “too risky” or rejected by traditional banks for loans. So as we covered our unit on borrowing and lending in the classroom, my students were assigned the task of becoming “lenders” by using whatever content-related criteria and parameters set out to choose an individual to whom they thought would be a reliable person to loan money. Somewhere in that process I decided “this is a great (and reputable) cause so, why not?” and gave $25 to see what happened. I chose a woman who ran the only grocery in her small Mexican neighborhood, so that she could buy more stock and expand her store. It’s been about 14 months and this morning I had an email from Kiva saying that she had paid back her loan in full (get it, girl!). There was $25 in my account and, having decided from the beginning that when my money was paid back I would roll it over into another loan, this morning I got to read through more stories and choose another individual to lend to. Yay!

All that being said, I would urge you to find a way to do good for someone today. If you should choose to do good through Kiva then please follow this link because, through the referral program, a generous Kiva sponsor will give us both $25 to lend to other individuals who are looking to get out of poverty, receive an education, or support a family. Then you choose whom to give to and what to do after that. :)

<3, E

I am not paid, endorsed by, or otherwise associated with Kiva. I’m just a person who wants to think a little less about myself and more about the world around me. 

When I’m at dinner with my friends and they run through the list of who is engaged or married from high school

myfriendsaremarried:

and I’m like…
image
April 25th! This is also one of my favorite lines in Miss Congeniality!

April 25th! This is also one of my favorite lines in Miss Congeniality!

Today&#8217;s Lunch: Orecchiette Pasta with English Peas &amp; Lager Parmesan Sauce
The original recipe is from The Beeroness. I played around with the quantities (more peas, more parmesan, and no extra water after I cooked &amp; drained my pasta) and used Stella Artois instead of a pale ale because it was what I had on hand. 
It was delicious! 

Today’s Lunch: Orecchiette Pasta with English Peas & Lager Parmesan Sauce

The original recipe is from The Beeroness. I played around with the quantities (more peas, more parmesan, and no extra water after I cooked & drained my pasta) and used Stella Artois instead of a pale ale because it was what I had on hand. 

It was delicious!