Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracles aimed for me

i just finished reading jonathan safran foer's extremely loud and incredibly close. while i was anxious to keep reading, i didn't want it to end. what a gifted writer JSF is! there are some lovely passages that i am certain will stay with me through time:

She had fallen in love so many times that she began to suspect she was not falling in love at all, but doing something much more ordinary.

JSF does something that i only previously admired barbara kingsolver for, which is the ability to shift voices and keep them believable and distinct. the main narrator is a nine year old boy, oskar schell, on the search of his life in post-9/11 new york city. his actions are interspersed with letters from his grandfather and his grandmother, respectively. he uses images (not just the literary kind) of doorknobs and such to accompany the words and i am amazed at the effects on me.

i cried tears of happiness and joy and love and amazement and sadness when i finished.

you should find out why.

i'm going to begin again.

every day i write the list

due to my buddy V, i've been collecting a list of things (people, moments, revelations) that my personal radar toward positive thinking. this is a list of 1000. and now several of us (us being me and some very great people who happen to be my friends) have founded a community blog called 1000 beautiful things. we deposit one entry at a time to add to our individual growing lists.

this way we get to share our lists with each other, bringing small smiles and knowing nods to the table.

i invite anyone that reads the bleeding heart show to take a look.

(and if you're interested in joining in, throw a comment my way and i'm glad to add to you to the author list.)

you don't have to be there to catch me. i won't fall.

no real writing happening these days as i'm spending my time traveling (jackson, new orleans) and baking!

the beauty to the left is vanilla cake filled with pumpkin pie and topped with cardamom-spiced vanilla buttercream icing.

those babies sure were pretty to put together.