"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
even against the odds
I wrote a lot - and learned a lot - while I interned at Cosmopolitan UK nearly five years ago. Even though I did Fifty Shades-style workouts, made pasta like a pro and even got to see the Iceman in South Tyrol, this story is still the one I'm most proud of.
This year's London Marathon is on Sunday and I remember both my own race in 2011 and Anna and Vicky's incredible feat of running from Paris to London (eight marathons in eight days!) to celebrate life and raise awareness for a good cause with lots of fondness and pride.
Read their story here and make sure you scroll down to the bottom to see the video interview with Vicky and Anna (I am the silent interviewer....crying silent tears!)
I really love revisiting this story every now and then. You really are stronger than you think. And even when you think it's the end, it's really not. There's always a way forward.
nothing is more difficult for me than writing
Yesterday, Heather Rose won the Stella Prize for her magnificent novel The Museum of Modern Love. Her acceptance speech is also a glorious read - funny, humble and powerful. It resonated with me so much and has given me fresh courage to return to my work in progress. You can read the speech in full here.
unfold your own myth
"...don't be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, without complicated explanations,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.
Start walking towards Shams. Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you've grown,
lifting."
- Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks)
it's not just me (or you)
“Usually, writers will do anything to avoid writing. For instance, the previous sentence was written at one o’clock this afternoon. It is now a quarter to four. I have spent the past two hours and forty-five minutes sorting my neckties by width, looking up the word “paisley” in three dictionaries, attempting to find the town of that name on The New York Times Atlas of the World map of Scotland, sorting my reference books by width, trying to get the bookcase to stop wobbling by stuffing a matchbook cover under its corner, dialing the telephone number on the matchbook cover to see if I should take computer courses at night, looking at the computer ads in the newspaper and deciding to buy a computer because writing seems to be so difficult on my old Remington, reading an interesting article on sorghum farming in Uruguay that was in the newspaper next to the computer ads, cutting that and other interesting articles out of the newspaper, sorting—by width—all the interesting articles I’ve cut out of newspapers recently, fastening them neatly together with paper clips and making a very attractive paper clip necklace and bracelet set, which I will present to my girlfriend as soon as she comes home from the three-hour low-impact aerobic workout that I made her go to so I could have some time alone to write.”
— P. J. O’Rourke