something to look forward to...

barring any surprises, like, oh, a baby showing up early, we will be seeing the flipping Flaming Lips in Elenore Tinsley Park in early June! this is rad for a few reasons:

a) we like them.

b) one of our first musical commonalities discovered on the set of the short film where we met was this band, specifically the album 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots'

3) I'm staring across into the library at the wall art husband made of the robot/Yoshimi image from the album, long before I met him.

cuatro) their shows are supposed to be an absolute blast, and I've never been before.

so here're two songs that have me pumped up today. Wayne Coyne's not the best singer in the world and their studio songs are definitely cleaner, but I love the energy of these.

the yeah yeah yeah song on Letterman!




and this is the song that I imagined we would have danced to at our wedding, if we'd done that sort of thing. I plan to hold my sweaty, pregnant belly with one hand and wrap the other one around husband when they sing this (I'm just going to assume they will. please, lips??). how fun does this concert look?!:

happy day. :)


I'm not regular about reading my various meditation books AT ALL, but picked one up this morning and thought this was a very appropriate thought for this week in the wake of Jenny B.'s death, the death of a peer of M's office manager, etc.

The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. - Virginia Woolf

Anguish is undoubtedly more familiar to us than the beauty of laughter. We feel anguish over our failings, we feel anguish over our losses; we feel anguish over the attempts to succeed that beckon to us.
Anguish comes of fear. And we so hope to avoid it. However, it seasons us; it enriches us even while it momentarily diminishes us. It is a major contributor to the sum and substance of our lives. The anguish we experience prepares us to help others face their own particular anguish.
Our laughter, too, must be savored and shared. And laughter builds more laughter. Laughter lends a perspective to our anguish. Life is made richer, fuller, by the ebb and flow, the laughter and the anguish in concert.
If only we could remember, when the anguish is present, that it is making our spirits whole. That it, along with laughter, is a healer of the soul. That it lifts our load at the same time that it burdens us. That it prepares us to receive life's other gifts.

I saw that my SIL posted these words of Jesus on facebook... they really are comforting, and whenever I hear or read them they are a salve for my brain, heart, and spirit:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. - John 14:27