Categories
Musings

What of the wretched hollow, the endless in between…

Ever since I first heard this song from Imogen Heap’s album, “Ellipse”, I felt like there’s a greater truth within the words that’s waiting for me to find it and apply to my own life.

To me, the song speaks to my own life-long endeavors in their very undefined state and asking me if I’m doing anything about them in the midst of pain and imperfection. I’ve heard often that those life moments that define you actually happen between those big moments. It’s the sum of our lives that make us who we are, not just what we do in a fleeting moment in time. We can all act or pretend once in a while, but can we do it all the time?

However, when I first heard this song, what really struck me was how this spoke to my single life and how I was (and if I’m honest, still am) letting the pains of my past get in the way of living in the now. More specifically, this song forces me to ask the question of where I stand in the world of relationships and if I’m waiting for time to heal all the scars from a lifetime of seeing and experiencing broken relationships within my family and among friends. I’m pretty sure I’ve told myself that one day I’ll magically be ready for marriage and “being an adult.” But while I wait to heal and come to some very undefined place of readiness, I’m still living life; things don’t stop moving because I’m not ready for them to forge ahead.

So what am I going to do? Am I just going to wait it out, here in the wretched hollow, the endless in between?

Wait It Out by Imogen Heap

Where do we go from here?
How do we carry on?
I can’t get beyond the questions.
Clambering for the scraps
in the shatter of us collapsed.
It cuts me with every could-have-been.

Pain on pain on play, repeating
With the backup makeshift life in waiting.

Everybody says time heals everything.
But what of the wretched hollow?
The endless in-between?
Are we just going to wait it out?

There’s nothing to see here now,
turning the sign around;
We’re closed to the Earth ’til further notice.
A Stumbling cliche case,
crumbled and puffy faced.
Dead in the stare of a thousand miles.

All I want, only one street-level miracle.
I’ll be a an out-and-out, born again from none more cynical.

Everybody says time heals everything.
But what of the wretched hollow?
The endless in-between?
Are we just going to wait it out?

And sit here cold?
Well, We’ll be long gone by then.
And lackluster in dust we lay
Around old magazines.
Fluorescent lighting sets the scene
for all we could and should be being
in the one life that we’ve got.

(Ah, Ah, Ah)

In the one life that we’ve got.

Everybody says that time heals everything.
But what of the wretched hollow?
The endless in-between?

Are we just going to wait it out? sit Here?
Just going to Wait it out? Sit here cold?
Just going to sweat it out?
Wait it out.

Categories
Photos

Dragonflies

I took these back in June when I went down to New Orleans to celebrate a friend’s birthday. During one of our excursions, my trusty camera and I caught these dragonflies in a moment of stillness. They are beautiful creatures.

Categories
Photos

Old Stove

 

 

I moved into a new house in August. At 50 years old, it has tons of character. I hope to be as hip as this place when I turn 50. It screams retro in most rooms. One item in particular was the stove. I have a feeling it is almost as old as the house itself. While beautiful and big at 40″ wide and having 2 ovens, I needed to replace it with something that would consistently turn the burners on and had oven doors that would open. I took a couple pictures of it before having it hauled away by Sears.

Categories
Musings

Communication and the Lack Thereof

This week I relearned the hard truth that communication issues, whether in the form of misunderstandings or lack of actual questions or answers, has very real impact in our lives. Assumptions are made by each party in any conversation; one that the communicator assumes the listener understands, and two that the listener gets what the other person is trying to say. Too often, though, we find we’re not very good at saying what we meant to say. Nor are we always consistent about getting clarification. I wonder how different my life would be if I just asked one more question or used another word to explain something.

A friend has once said that 90% of the world’s problems are caused by bad communication. While this isn’t based on any definitive research, it’s very true that if we took the extra minute to be clear, life wouldn’t be so challenging sometimes.

Categories
Photos

Candlelight reflections

Categories
Poems

frustration

a sad tear falls
i look through the blur
i see nothing
with my bloodshot eyes
from nights of endless despair
wondering inside
if my life will get better
my hopes have not matched Yours
and my soul aches
my dreams cannot be lived
and i try harder to achieve
Your will seems no longer mine
i need to know why
i say yes i hear no
frustration fills me
why is the hurt so real
when will it go away
i ask how come me
i hear just be patient and wait
engrossed in rage
controlled by the love
i blindly depend on
with no conscious thought
through the tears

February 20 1996

Categories
Musings

It’s National Poetry Month?

A good friend of mine in Tennessee tells me it’s National Poetry Month. That sounds like a request for me to dust off some of my old works and find a couple to post here on my blog over the coming weeks. Get ready for some teen angst driven emotions to pour out. And maybe a more rare emotionally driven writing from my 20’s.

Categories
Musings

Hello March 2010

How did 1/6th of the year already pass by? A lot has happened, but I feel like there isn’t much to show for it in my personal life. What have I really done? How have I been challenged to change? I recently revisited my last post about being more intentional and am finding it’s a difficult task. From things as simple as being diligent about working out to being better about keeping in touch with friends, life is harder than it seems.

I have a number of entries started and in “draft” status. Perhaps March will be a month when I release a couple of them to the world.