Terri Windling's Blog, page 225

"There is a bit [in Why Be Happy When You Could be Norm...

"There is a bit [in Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal?] where I talk about 'keeping the heart awake to love and beauty.' That's very difficult in our world, even when things are going well. It's not a world with much room for love and beauty. The daily news is [filled with] everything that goes wrong in our world, and everything horrible and unpleasant. I think that saturates your mind with negativity. I really think we need something to counteract that. I don't think it's Pollyanna or sentimental to focus on the ways we support one another on the micro level." 

- Jeanette Winterson (from "It is the Imagination that Counts")

Illustration by H.J. Ford (1860-1941)

"There are some people who live in a dream world, an...

 

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."  - Douglas Everett

I want to be the latter.

Illustration by Laurence Housman (1865-1959)

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and som...

"There are some people who live in a dream world, and some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."  - Douglas Everett

Illustration by Laurence Housman (1865-1959)

Our imagination flies; we are its shadow on the...

 

Our imagination flies;
we are its shadow
on the earth.

- Vladimir Nabokov

 

Images: "Green Willow" and "Seven Doves" by Warwick Goble (1862-1943) ; Nabokov quote via Jonathan Carroll

Tunes for a Monday Morning

Today's tunes come from two great American singers: rising young singer/songwriter  Sarah Jarosz, from Texas, and bluegrass legend Alison Krauss, from Illinois.

Above:

Jarosz and Krauss together (in 2011), performing Jarosz's song "Run Away" for Season 5 of  The Transatlantic Sessions, backed up by Jerry Douglas and the TS5 house band. The Transatlantic Sessions, for those who don't know, is a fabulous BBC series that has featured a wide range of folk musicians from the UK, Ireland, and North America.

Below:

Alison Krauss with members of her band, Union Station, performing "Jacob's Dream" (in 2008). The song, by Julie Lee and John Pennell, recounts a tragic 19th century story: The Lost Children of the Alleghenies. The video comes from Alison Krauss, A Hundred Miles or More: Live From the Tracking Room (recommended, a while back, by Jessica Wick).

Below, to end on a happier note:

Sarah Jarosz (in 2010) performing "Come on Up to the House" by Tom Waits. She's backed up by Alex Hargreaves on fiddle and Nathaniel Smith on cello.

"My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every d...

"My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life." - Miles Davis

"So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness conf...

"So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?" - R. M. Rilke (from Letters to a Young Poet)

Wise words indeed...from a man whose health was poor, and whose life was far from easy, and yet the art he made was nothing short of sublime.

Tilly cuddled beside Howard, February 27, 2012

Tilly cuddled beside Howard, February 27, 2012

"One of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sens...

"One of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sense of the slew of ordinary days. New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief."  - Colum McCann

Images above: The trees of Riverside Drive on the upper west side of Manhattan, at dusk.

"Life…we understand it differently at different stage...

"Life…we understand it differently at different stages. It's what is interesting about getting older, you realize your relationship with the past is always negotiable. There is a lot of freedom in that, because you realize you can go back to what you did such a long time ago. You can talk with the dead, talk with your lost self, your disappeared self, and you can visit those places again, and understand it differently. That makes a huge difference." - Jeanette Winterson

The tree pictures above were taken on 42nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The quote comes from an an interview with Winterson on the Lambda Literary site, which I highly recommend. (via Theodora Goss)