thank you, and keep going.

i don't want to be one of those annoying people who always thinks that in announcing her current reading selection (or in this case, several-months-ago-now-re-reading-selection), everyone will drop their sue grafton book of the moment for my recommendation, but i don't want to hold this one back. i don't know if anyone even reads this, actually, other than zack and michele. and anna (thanks!). but i don't think you (that's the universal 'you') should spend any more time not having read this book by my friend shauna.

i totally didn't want to read it at first - i spent time actively avoiding it, in fact - because i had read some of her other stuff when i was in highschool and it was all 'celebrate this' and 'be happy about that' and i was afraid that i wouldn't be okay because i don't feel like celebrating all of the time. i was wrong. i mean, there are the calls to celebration and to rejoicing, but they act as reminders for people like me to get off our cynical asses and drink champagne or spend an extra three minutes sitting by the ocean, just breathing in.

especially these first few days of march. for me, for my friends in chicago, for laurie.



"I don’t want to wait anymore. I choose to believe
that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this
day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big
moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered
like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny
moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we
grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of
life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it,
because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think
I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour,
every conversation, every meal, every meeting."
-shauna niequist