Sisyphus et al.

Dear Kara,

My hope is that when you click on these images, they get big enough so that you can read the short section on Sisyphus from John O'Donohue's Anam Cara.

In a way, I feel like this post is a little lackluster, but in another way, I feel like this is kind of the original intent of Grizzly and Golden: to share things with one another like we would in our letters, but you know, on the Internet. 

Point being, I feel like this is something you've helped me to learn, to slow down enough to allow time for my spirit to catch up with me. And for that, I thank you again and again!

Much love from sunny Los Angeles.

p.s. I think it's important to note that I snapped this photo of the book while outside drinking a beer at 5:30pm on a weekday.

3/27/13

Dear Amelia,

I love all of this so much – the late California light on the page, your shock red fingernails (and their disciplined trim), that you’ve found a way to bring John O’Donohue back from the dusty shelf of my mind, where good suggestions have gone to rot, and the text itself.  Hurray for phrases like the balcony of the soul and Time was time for wonder.  Simply necessary, dangit!  Beautiful and true.

Whenever I have been overwhelmed in my life, stressed, anxious, or blue, it has always come down to spiritual exhaustion, which is so different than the elation of physical fatigue.   (I am thinking here of hiking so long your hips sing when you take your pack off, or working so hard your bones cry out with joy when you finally lie down in bed.) I want to say to every man, woman, and beast: rest when you are weary.  Cry when you are sad.  Paint your nails red when you feel fabulous (like Amelia, all the time).

In the spirit of embracing respite and its gifts, I give you Bear aging graceful and stubborn as a mountain:

With love,
Kara