There is a risk involved in everything
Every time you share a smile
Every time you shed a tear
You are opening yourself up to hurt.

Some people tread slowly through life,
Avoiding the closeness risk brings,
Side-stepping the things they can't understand
Turning away from those who care too much,
Those who care stay too long,
Those who hold too tightly.

There is never an easy way to love
You can not approach it cautiously
It will not wait for you to arm yourself.
It does not care if you turn away
It is everywhere, it is everything.

Love is the greatest of all risks.
It is not reliable, it is not cautious,
It is not sympathetic
It is unprejudiced and unmerciliess.
It strikes the strongest of mind,
And brings them to their knees in one blow.

Even in the best of times, love hurts.
It hurts to need, it hurts to belong,
It hurts to be the other part of someone else,
Without either of your consent.
But, from the moment it overtakes you,
It hurts worse to be all alone.
The risk of love never depletes;
It grows stronger and more dangerous with time.
But, it's in the total surrender of all defense,
That we, no matter weak or strong,
No matter willing or captive,
No matter what, we truly experience love.

Despite the many things love is not,
Outweighing it all are the things that love is.
Love is surrender without a loss.
It is a gift without the cost.
It consumes your every thought & desire,
Every breath you take.
It is the fire that fuels you
To do more than pass through life;
It urges you, instead, to live.

No matter the outcome, having felt love,
You will never be the same.
It may scar your heart & soul
And Leave you only memories of forever.
Or, it may cause every day of your life
To feel like there is no need for tomorrow.
But, love is worth it. It is worth the risk...
For in all of life,
Love is truly the only risk worth taking.

The Air That I Breathe

"When you listen to the song, you'd think this is a show stopper, and lyrically, you'd think I wrote it probably for the most beautiful woman that ever existed in the world. And in fact, The air that I breathe was written for quite an ugly person actually, I mean ugly outside, physically outside. She wasn't a great looking girl, but she was a terrific person inside. She was warm and kind and... This person was the person who gave me shelter in Los Angeles, when I didn't have any place to stay. I had no money, I had no Green Card, I couldn't work, I could have been a homeless. I sat down with Mike Hazlewood, and I said "Mike, this is what's happened to me, and this is the person." And I think Mike came up with [the line] "the air that I breathe." More than my story, it was because we lived in LA, and for the first time in our lives, we were introduced by smog. And every time we woke up, we'd look at the Hollywood Hills, and there was like a yellow monster up there. And I think that was his reason for coming up with [the line] "the air that I breathe". My reason was a love story, his was ecology or whatever you want to call it, you know. But it worked."

Albert Hammond

Titus 3:10

Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

Top 50 Faves

Lifehouse- Everything
Elton John- Your Song
Madonna- Crazy For You
David Crowder Band- Obsession
Jars Of Clay- Worlds Apart
The Hollies- The Air That I Breathe
Billy Joel- Vienna
Bonnie Raitt- I Can’t Make You Love Me
Coldplay- Don’t Panic
Dashboard Confessional- So Impossible
Death Cab For Cutie- Soul Meets Body
John Lennon- Watching The Wheels
Fleetwood Mac- Landslide
Rilo Kiley- A Better Son/ Daughter
The Beach Boys- Wouldn’t It Be Nice
The Verve Pipe- Bittersweet Symphony
Tears for Fears- Head Over Heels
Bob Dylan- Times They Are A Changing
Don McLean- American Pie
Richard Marx- Right Here Waiting
Travis- The Weight
Beatles- A Day In Life
Carpenters- Close To You
The Beach Boys- God Only Knows
George Harrison- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Belle & Sebastian- Lazy Line Painter Jane
Better Than Ezra- Closer
Aimee Mann- Wise Up
Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit
Breathe- Hands To Heaven
Radiohead- Creep
Amel Larrieux- Make Me Whole
Bee Gees- Too Much Heaven
Frank Sinatra- All The Way
Dashboard Confessional- Hands Down
Leslie Cheung- Bygone Love
Bright Eyes- First Day Of My Life
Counting Crows- Accidentally In Love
Beatles- All You Need Is Love
Celine Dion- It's All Coming Back To Me Now
Death Cab For Cutie- Marching Bands Of Manhattan
John Lennon- Beautiful Boy
DC Talk- In The Light
Azure Ray- November
Five For Fighting- Superman
James Ingram- So This Is Love
John Denver- Leaving On A Jetplane
John Mayer- Comfortable
Josh Groban & Charlotte Church- The Prayer
Remy Zero- Fair

Greys Anatomy

Maybe we like the pain. Maybe we're wired that way. Because without it, I don't know; maybe we just wouldn't feel real. What's that saying? Why do I keep hitting myself with a hammer? Because it feels so good when I stop.

The World At Large

Ice-age heat wave, can't complain.
If the world's at large, why should I remain?
Walked away to another plan.
Gonna find another place, maybe one I can stand.
I move on to another day, to a whole new town with a whole new way.
Went to the porch to have a thought.
Got to the the door and again, I couldn't stop.
You don't know where and you don't know when.
But you still got your words and you got your friends.
Walk along to another day.
Work a little harder, work another way.

I like songs about drifters - books about the same.
They both seem to make me feel a little less insane.
Walked on off to another spot.
I still haven't got anywhere that I want.
Did I want love? Did I need to know?
Why does it always feel like I'm caught in an undertow?

I know that starting over is not what life's all about.
But my thoughts were so loud, I couldn't hear my mouth.

modest mouse

What Sarah Said

And it came to me then
That every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth
I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

Because there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
Then the nurse comes around and everyone lifts their head
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said
That love is watching someone die

death cab for cutie

Peace & Beauty

"My closest experience with profound human suffering was that earthquake and fire. But we were not burned out, ruined, or bereft of family and friends. I never went to war, too young for the First and too old for the Second. The great events of the world have been tragic pageants, not personal involvements. My world has been a world too few people are lucky enough to live in- one of peace and beauty. I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate."

Ansel Adams

Carl Sandberg

I never heard a mocking bird in Kentucky
Spilling its heart in the morning.

I never saw the snow on Chimborazo
It's a high white Mexican hat, I hear.

I never had supper with Abe Lincoln
Nor a dish of soup with Jim Hill.

...But I've been around.

The Only Gift That I Need

You'll be leaving for the winter
But I look and see that it's true
It's the right thing for you
But it's tough to be moved with the holiday spirit
And to tell you the truth
I have big plans for christmas
And high hopes for you

I want you here by my side
Cold nights and fires and white wine
And dreams of holidays to come
But I'll wait for spring to bring you to me
The only gift that I need

dashboard confessional

A Red Piece of Cloth

That day you used a piece of red cloth
to blindfold my eyes and cover up the sky
You asked me what I had seen
I said I saw happiness

This feeling really made me comfortable
made me forget I had no place to live
You asked where I wanted to go
I said I want to walk your road

I couldn’t see you, and I couldn’t see the road
You grabbed both me hands and wouldn’t let go
You asked what I was thinking
I said I want to let you be my master

I have a feeling that you aren’t made of iron
but you seem to be as forceful as iron
I felt that you had blood on your body
because your hands were so warm

I had a feeling this wasn’t a wilderness
though I couldn’t see it was already dry and cracked
I felt that I wanted to drink some water
but you used a kiss to block off my mouth

I don’t want to leave and I don’t want to cry
Because my body is already withered and dry
I want to always accompany you this way
Because I know your suffering best

© Cui Jian

Superman

Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home
I'll never see

It may sound absurd
but don't be naive
Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed
but won't you conceed
Even heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me

I Hope You Dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'

Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.

Notes from the Underground

"Love is God's mystery and should be hidden from outsiders' eyes, whatever happens. This makes it holier, better. The husband and the wife respect each other more, and a great deal is founded on respect. And if there has been love, if they were married for love, why should love cease? Isn't it possible to keep it alive? It is a rare case when it's impossible. Besides, if the husband happens to be a kind and honest man, how can love pass? It's true, the feeling of the early married days will pass, but the love that will come afterwards will be still better. Man and wife will grow close in spirit; they'll have no secrets from each other. And when children start coming, the hardest times will seem happy, so long as there is love and courage. Work goes like a song, and even if you have to deny yourself a piece of bread once in a while for the children's sake, life's full of joy all the same. After all they'll love you for it afterwards; so that you're really saving for your own future.

The children start growing up, and you feel that you are setting an example for them; that even when you die, they'll carry your thoughts and feelings inside them all their lives, for you've bequeathed them your image, and they will grow up in your likeness. So you see, this is a great duty, and how can the mother and father help but grow closer? Some people say it is a hardship to have c hildren. But who says so? It's a joy from heaven! Do you love babies, Liza? I love them terribly. You know- imagine a pink little boy suckling your breast. What husband's heart could turn against his wife, seeing her with his child? The baby, rosy, plump, spreads out his arms and legs, luxuriating in your warmth; his little hands and feet are firm like ripe apples, the nails clean and tiny, so tiny they are comical to see, and the eyes look at you as though he already understands everything. And when he suckles, he tug at your breast with his little hand, playing. His father will com over, and the baby will turn from the breast, bend backward, look at him and laugh- as if it were God knows how funny- then start suckling again. Or else, when the teeth begin to come, he'll take a nip at his mother's breast and look at her out of the corner of his eye; 'See, i bit you!' Isn't this the greatest happiness in the world when the three of them, the husband, wife, and child are together? For such moments, a lot can be forgiven. No, Liza, I suppose one has to learn how to live himself before accusing others!"

fyodor dostoevsky

The Whispering Gallery

She's turning away, about to step
out of the concave cuddle of Italian tiles
before walking through the grand

doorway to cross 42nd Street
to glance up at The Glory of Commerce
as she hails a yellow taxicab
when he whispers, I love you, Harriet.

Did he say something to himself,
something he swore he'd never think
again? Or, was she now limestone
like Minerva, a half-revealed secret,
her breasts insinuating the same
domed wisdom? Maybe his mind

was already heading home to Hoboken—
his body facing hers—his unsure feet
rushing to make a connection
with Sinatra's ghost
amongst a trainload of love cries
from the Rustic Cabin to Caesar's Palace.
Hugged there under the curved grandeur,
she says, I love you, too, Johnny.

-Yusef Komunyakaa

"The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginning, but not its end."

Blue Like Jazz

"I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze. I am early in my story, but I believe I will stretch out into eternity, and in heaven I will reflect upon these early days, these days when it seemed God was down a dirt road, walking toward me. Years ago He was a swinging speck in the distance; now He is close enough I can hear His singing. Soon I will see the lines on His face."

Donald Miller

Charlie Chaplin

"The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury."

Charlie Brown

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."