To Have a Fever and Blackened Fingers...

This quote by Wings of Desire's character angel Damiel is totally my favorite moment in the movie and it's easy to see why:

“ It's great to live by the spirit, to testify day by day for eternity, only what's spiritual in people's minds. But sometimes I'm fed up with my spiritual existence. Instead of forever hovering above I'd like to feel a weight grow in me to end the infinity and to tie me to earth. I'd like, at each step, each gust of wind, to be able to say "Now." Now and now" and no longer "forever" and "for eternity." To sit at an empty place at a card table and be greeted, even by a nod. Every time we participated, it was a pretense. Wrestling with one, allowing a hip to be put out in pretense, catching a fish in pretense, in pretense sitting at tables, drinking and eating in pretense. Having lambs roasted and wine served in the tents out there in the desert, only in pretense. No, I don't have to beget a child or plant a tree but it would be rather nice coming home after a long day to feed the cat, like Philip Marlowe, to have a fever and blackened fingers from the newspaper, to be excited not only by the mind but, at last, by a meal, by the line of a neck by an ear. To lie! Through one's teeth. As you're walking, to feel your bones moving along. At last to guess, instead of always knowing. ”


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Tricks, Tactics & Technics

I'm thankful for a) having a brother and b) for my brother's not so easy personality type. See, I'm not married and I don't have a live-in boyfriend but I still get to learn the essential skill of how to live with a man on a pretty much daily basis. Having tried so many different tricks, tactics and technics already, I know how to get things done my way while still staying on the friendliest of terms. I can truly say I've mastered the skill better than I could have hoped for by this time, and I swear I'm better at it than my mom already. Looks like I'm definately not lying when I say I love to learn all sorts of things, ha!.. Knowledge is power, people.

"There is no knowledge that is not power" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friedrich Nietzsche

Firstly, I need to say that for the most part I'm only drawn to authors who share the same sentiments as I do - it has always helped me better understand myself, as if seeing me with someone else's eyes and being able to judge what this person is really worth. Thus my favorite philosopher has been and remains the legendary Friedrich Nietzsche. I've just finished reading his book La Gaya Scienza a few days ago, and having read this work of his just further made me think of him as my little hero. I'm thankful to this world for bringing Nietzsche into it.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science - 341: The greatest weight.

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence — even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again — and you with it, speck of dust!" — Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!" If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you; the question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight! Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

No Need to Pretend to Be Busy

When you spend over a week gathering papers from various places and paying your duties where due in order to file documents to be processed at your local tax inspectorate, then wait 6 days, they turn you down and tell you you need to start the whole process all over again, you're supposed to be upset. I'm, surprisingly, not. I mean, it's all fine... At least I have stuff to add to my schedule. It's all about being positive, I'm telling you. This all should be over eventually, sooner than later. I'm learning in the process, thank you.

"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm..." - Audrey Hepburn

If It Wasn't for Bad Luck, I Wouldn't Have No Luck at All

Okay, I was pissed off at first, I must admit. Didn't quite get on my own thankful bandwagon right away, BUT I am thankful now. So, the deal is, for some unknown reason Vichy has had a problem with filling pharmacy shelfs with my usual Oligo25 facial cream... I kept checking on it almost daily and was starting to get irritated at its seeming sudden disappearance from Russian market. I was pissed to have to look out for a new cream, but not having much other choice I ended up trying their Aqualia Antiox, and I LOVED it. In fact, loved it even more than the one I used before. So, thanks for disappearing, Oligo!

P.S. Isn't the saying in the title of this post is just so true? I have it proving itself to me pretty much my entire life.

Just Fine

Even if I could, I wouldn't change my life, 'cause really, my life's just fine. And I am still thankful for this relatevely new realization.

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true" - Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens

Flashing Lights

To me, this video is everything that is wrong with this world, in 4 minutes. Because everything starts within a human mind, and my mind is no exception. This would have to be my most favorite music + video combination too. I love the message in the song and I love the visual presentation. If you remember the two previous music videos (Save Room and T.O.N.Y.) I was thankful for, you can probably see how all three are similar. I'm thankful 'Flashing Lights' serves as a great reminder of the things I need to never forget about. Let me share one good Will Rogers quote with you while I'm at it too:

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like."

P.S. I'm afraid, if you don't see it the way I do and ask me what the heck I'm talking about, I wouldn't be able to explain.

Bad Romance

Sometimes it feels so good to be out of something soon enough. It was over long time ago basically, but only now do I fully understand what the hell really happened. And even though the new realizations make me feel a little disgusted and I find it all so sickening that it literary makes me feel sick to my stomach, I am thankful I was wise enough to get out of it fairly quickly and not bury myself in it even further.

Never let someone be your priority while you remain their option. - Authur Unknown

V for...

Ridiculous thing to be thankful for, but I can't help it - so frickin' thankful I'm not a virgin. Okay, sorry if I disspointed someone or hurt someone's feelings, but, in my case, being one used to ruin my life in all possible and impossible ways, what a struggle it used to be!.. I'm not even kidding. Certain amount of years later (definately not disclosing any more exact info on the subject, ha) I am still happy I was freed of the burden. To give my probably shocked readers a little more insight on the whole thing, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes, by Bette Davis:

"From the age of six, I have known that I was sexy. And let me tell you it has been hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it."

Time Heals Everything?

They say time heals everything... It's not easy to judge how true the saying is when you haven't lived enough (those who have don't really use computers, I believe), but one thing is certain - time does teach you how to cope with hurts. With each new time it gets esier both to let go and get back on your feet. If back in the day I used to think I couldn't make it, now I always know I can. Knowing this is helpful in itself, and I am thankful for it.

"The best words of encouragement your mind would yield to, are those spoken to it by you" - Leussa Adrienne

Quotes

I'm really into collecting and using various quotes. In my opinion, a good quote can lift your mood instantly, can inspire you, can make you think and sometimes even change your mindset, and if you use it in writing it can really help bring out the idea of your writing work. So I'm thankful for the whole idea of quoting in general.

Do What You Can

Yesterday as I was getting ready to turn in for the night I realized something had changed, it's like I could feel something had happened inside of my mind - some sort of a 'switch'. It came as a big and an extremely pleasant surprise to understand that this thing was my new approach to something very important to me in life - traveling. Even if I didn't always want to admit it, I almost always thought of traveling as a way to escape from one life situation or another (and it usually ended up with me somewhat successfully escaping from one such situation but getting right into the next troublesome thing). I'm still not sure when exactly it happened or what really caused this "switch", but I suddenly stopped feeling the need to run away... "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" - something one of my buddies, Ben, once said (it's a Theodore Roosevelt quote) and something I'm very thankful for hearing. I knew I had to give it a try and it looks like it's working? Wow.

Life Lessons, Expectations and Familiar Situations

"Experience is what you get when you do not get what you want"

I really like this quote by unknown author. It's just true. We may strive for something, do our best at achieving things, but maybe sometimes what we think we want is just not meant to happen, or maybe just not in the way we expect it to happen. It gets frustrating, true that, but what you get in the end is priceless - you get experience and a chance to do better next time around. I'm thankful for the things that went in the opposite direction from my expectations - when faced with a similar situation now, I'm not scared, I know I'll figure out what to do.

Morning. Conversation. Barcelona

Sometimes one little conversation can change so much: you suddenly have an all new approach to old things. You might not even notice or understand its impact at first, but sooner or later, reflecting back on the chat or even a single phrase, you realize how meaningful it actually was and how much sense it made. I'm thankful for this conversation I had with a friend on a sunny morning in Barcelona in August - somehow I got reminded I was capable of so many things, and ever since then I never once hesitated to give something I thought I wasn't qualified for enough a try.

"One must learn by doing the thing: for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try" - Sophocles

The Power of Gratitude

I really like collecting quotes that inspire me, they're so useful when you or a close friend of yours need a quick pick me up or a reminder that all's goign to be fine. I'm thankful to my friend for sharing the following quote by Melody Beattie, that I wholeheartedly agree with, and I'm thankful for the power of gratitude itself:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, and confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."