And like a heat wave...July is upon us....

So I don't know if anyone is even going to read this considering my extended hiatus, but I will write out my thoughts anyway. Following the close of school I have been gathering numerous quotes and thoughts from various places, I think in an effort to explain my life in the words of others (who are oft more eloquent than I). Unfortunately, many of those gems were in a book I have long since returned to the library...but I would like to share those I have managed to record on scraps of paper or entomb in the vise-like recesses of my mind.

Is it cruel to give somebody the best day of their life just because they will never have it again?
This query was raised on an episode of "This American Life." At first blush it seemed to me that there is no way it could be cruel to show someone pure joy, even if it was only momentary. Upon further reflection, however, I have had pause to wonder whether it is not just better to spare someone the inevitable pain of never being able to achieve that high again. I have not come to a final conclusion on this one.

Ask directions from a genie in a bottle of Jim Beam and she lies to you.
This gem is from a recent country hit. Although I am not a big fan of the rest of this song, this line has stuck with me. It seems to me that I have a lot of good memories when I have attempted to seek the answer at the bottom of a glass...but I am pretty sure that I haven't woken up with any more clarity.

Thinking about letting go and actually loosening your grasp are two very different things.
This is from the episode of Felicity I watched this evening. All I can say is that this is becoming more and more apparent to me day by day.

And finally, although this journal is very public...I feel I should still treat it somewhat like a journal and so I will share these thoughts from my own personal journal...the one you don't all get to see:
{...}I think I am ready to close that chapter. Sometimes we can only give so much before we start to lose vital pieces of ourselves. There is a twinge of sadness as I think about recent history, but there is also a sense of accomplishment, of freshness, of beginning.
I share these thoughts not to publicly bare my innermost thoughts (although that is surely what I am doing) but rather to mark a significant point for me and to record my sense of being pulled in two directions--towards both the comfort of the past and the thrill of new horizons.