Peace Love and Happiness,
Rachel Gabrielle
12.28.2008
Ben Affleck's Film about the DRC
If you know me at all; then you know that this is something very heart wrenching and important to me.
YAY Ben Affleck for supporting UNHRC in their struggle to provide homes and hope for women and other survivors of this conflict. =D
If that video doesn't work click http://www.youtube.com/v/4GYjZszsCDQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" valhttp://www.youtube.com/v/4GYjZszsCDQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl">here . Love you!
Peace Love and Happiness,
Rachel Gabrielle
12.27.2008
i've learned that calling my mom at 6:30am is the best way to get her to say yes to things. when she hasn't had coffee and makes crucial errors in the argument.
me: thoughts on dying my hair pink? mom: what? me: any thoughts on dying my hair pink? mom: you're in michigan; not berkeley me: exactly. if i were in berekeley it'd be like 'oh hey another girl with pink hair' but in michigan it's like "HEY!! THAT GIRL HAS PINK HAIR!" mom: well there are plenty of other things you could do for attention me: yes. there are PLENTY of far less safe ways for me to seek attention. ftw mom: [quickly] ok dye your hair then. Ahahaha. and now i have permission to dye my hair.
12.26.2008
from a friend a while ago...
she said: this is worth reading slowly; it made her cry.
I say this is worth rereading a million times; until the words become engrained in your memory and imprinted in the way you live and think.
"When all the words have been written and all the phrases have been spoken, the great mystery of life will still remain. We may map the terrains of our lives, measure the farthest reaches of the universe, but no amount of searching will ever reveal for certain whether we are all children of chance or part of a great design.
And who among us would have it otherwise? Who would wish to take the mystery out of the experience of looking into a newborn infant's eyes? Who would not feel in violation of something great if we had knowledge of what has departed when we stare into the face of one who has died? These are the events that make us human, that define the distance between us and the stars.
Still, this life is not easy. Much of its mystery is darkness. Tragedies occur; sufferings are visited upon the innocent. To live we must take the lives of other species; to survive we must leave some of our brothers and sisters by the side of the road. We are prisoners of time, victims of biology, hostages of our own capacity to dream.
At times it all seems too much, impossible to accept.
We must stand against this. The world is a great and mysterious place, and it contains within it all the possibilities our hearts can conceive. If we incline our hearts toward the darkness, we will see darkness. If we incline them toward the light, we will see the light.
Life is but a dream we renew each day. It is up to us to infuse this dream with light, and to cultivate, as best we are able, the ways and habits of love.
Those of great heart have always known this. They have understood that, as honorable as it is to see wrong and try to correct it, a life well lived must somehow celebrate the promise that life provides. The darkness at the limits of our knowledge- the darkness that sometimes seems to surround us - is merely a way to make us reach beyond certainty, to make our lives a witness to hope, a testimony to possibility, an urge toward the best and the most honorable impulses that our hearts can conceive.
It is not hard. There is in each of us, no matter how humble, a capacity for love. Even if our lives had not taken the course we had envisioned, even if we are less than the shape of our dreams, we are part of the human family. Somewhere, in the insequential corners of our lives, is the opportunity for love.
If I am blind, I can run my hand across the back of a shell and celebrate beauty, if I have no legs, I can sit in quiet wonder before the relentless murmurs of the sea. If I am wounded in spirit, I can reach out my hand to those who are hurting. If I am lonely, I can go among those who are desperate for love. There is no tragedy or injustice so great, no life so small and inconsequential, that we cannot bear witness to the light in the quiet acts and hidden moments of our days.
And who can say which of these acts and moments will make a difference? The universe is a vast and magical membrane of meaning stretching across time and space, and it is not given to us to know her secret and her ways. Perhaps we were placed here to meet the challenge of a single moment; perhaps the touch we make will cause the touch that changed the world.
When we come to the end of our journey, and the issues that so concerned us recede from us like the day before the coming night, it will be these small touches - the child we have helped, the garden we have planted, the meal we have prepared when we were too weary to do so - that will become our legacy to the universe.
If we have played our part well, offering love where it was needed, strength and caring where it was lacking; if we have tended the earth and its creatures with a sense of humble stewardship, we will have done enough. We may pass quietly, and rest gently in the knowledge that we have left the world a little warmer, a little kinder, a little richer in love. Though our moment was brief and our part small, somewhere, in the fullness of time, our acts will bear fruit, and the earth will raise up a bit of goodness in our memory.
It is a small legacy, perhaps, but a legacy nonetheless. Somewhere, between a baby's cry and the distant brightness of a star, the mystery was alive for a moment. It was our privilege to feel its presence, and to have the chance to pass it on."
-Kent Nerburn (from Simple Truths)
12.18.2008
Trip to el Dentista
I went to the dentist today to have my cavity that's in the front of my teeth fixed. I was super nervous if you didn't know that already.
I was being a big baby. And getting all worked up over nothing.
It went well. He was super fast, did a good job, and it only hurt a little.
The dental hygienist was really nice. I liked her.
And he even fixed my other tooth that had spots on it, he drilled them away, which was nice of him since he didn't charge.
So... if you're ever in the rockford area, I know a great dentist.
Oh, and my mouth being numb for an hour afterwards was just annoying, but that went away now.
In other news, a to-do list::
<b>wrap presents.<br>
take stuff to the attic<br>
work out<br>
read<br>
watch Dexter<Br>
sleeeeep<br>
Peace Love and Happiness,
Rachel Gabrielle
12.17.2008
12.15.2008
sunshine.
there's so much more sunshine here than in Holland. It's nice. Becuase even though its effing freezing out, it's sunny.
I watched five episodes of Dexter yesterday. Annnd I'll probably watch a whole bunch more today. I wish I had more productive things to do. // i should help my dad and Jan get the living room in order, but that's apparently not happening. I'm a lazy bum. eww.
I got the CUTEST coat to match the boots my dad had gotten me.
Annnd... i don't really have much to say... Updating just b/c I felt it was neccessary. Really, i'm going to go away now and... either watch Dexter, or Gilmore Girls.
12.11.2008
a-f-r-i-c-a
i'm going to do the Post Conflict Transformation semester in Uganda / Rwanda in Spring of 2010. Then, I'm going to attend SIT (which is the company / program that I'm planning on studying abroad through) Graduate School and attain a MA in Art and Theatre for Social Change. Yes. That's what I want in my life.
I'm excited about his plan. It's a good plan. A very very good plan. =D
kate nash inspired
my hair smells familiar,
after dye conditioner.
i wish i was british,
so i could recite this poem,
and it would sound like it does in my head,
like Kate Nash Pistachio Nut.
I want to ride the wave of your inhalent,
like Imogen says.
I'm pretty sure she's also british.
i want to live in london and have an accent.
and come back to the states
where everyone will remark on my perfect diction.
i want to drink egg nog until i get sick,
spin on the merry go round with you.
have toes in socks that don't get cold,
and boots that never slip.
i want my internet to load faster,
and my pscyh final to be over.
my mouth tastes like dairy
and i don't like cow juice.
shoulders need rubbing
and i need cuddles, kisses, hugs, dreams, and goodbyes
my moods aren't predictable anymore,
they swing like a child on a playground,
flying up high and kicking,
bending at the knees and pushing up
to reach that very last bit at the top.
scared of that point where the chains go slack,
that moment where all control is lost,
where your bum jumps up off the seat,
and you free fall back down
but just barely.
my moods are like that.
two down, one to go
finals are almost over. And now that it's after wednesday tons of people are leaving to go home. It's going to be a quiet and desolate place around here pretty soon.
today i was kind of grumpy; but i think that mostly has to do with the fact that i had such a great day yesterday and that I didn't take a shower. gross i know. but it really just didn't seem worth it when i got up late to go to starbucks with the girls / got back to study / after stage management / at any other point during the day. i did wash my hair though; when dying it. it's auburn brown now; which is an awfully fancy way to say dark reddish brown. it froze on my walk home.
kelly made me the most beautiful necklace for christmas; it's a bunch of multi colored and differently shaped beads in a rainbow pattern with a brass dove that hangs from it.
i just went upstairs to yell at my housemates who were making a ruckus, completely faking being bitchy at them, and they were sharing a corona and hanging out, so I talked for a minute, and now Sara is on her phone interview with london! I enjoy that we refer to it as calling london, interviewing with london, etc instead of whatever the theatre co. in London's name is. I hope she does well.
i got hannah montana socks at meijer today. annd cute earings. and eyeliner. it's been a good girly day.
annnd i'm going to go look up things about study abroad now, b/c it's five am and I don't feel like sleeping yet.
12.09.2008
I wonder where they take all that snow that's in the back of that truck...
things i like about winter:
- doing well on finals
- glittens. cute ones.
- snowmen; snowballs; throwing snow
- icicles
- silence
- white innocence
- boots!
- sticky snow sticking to barren tree branches
- using the phrase 'barren tree branches' or just 'barren branches' - it has all the perfect alliteration i could ever want
- spending time inside with hot cocoa; reading, or just being under my covers. my comforter is so comforting.
There are probably more things; but i'll save them for a day when i'm not liking winter so well. I have the insatiable urge to blog well. To write things that are meaningful and insightful and witty and clever and worth reading at all.
I also just adjusted everything so that now all I do is post blogs to posterous and they end up every where else; but if I need to keep something secret it can go on just xanga still. And if i want to post just photos from somewhere random then it can just end up on tumblr. I think it's a decent plan. And as much as i love vi.sualize.us i'm going to not do that one anymore. Hopefully this is a good blogging plan. Have I ever mentioned that while I love organizing things on the computer / online, i often forget what my organizing system was, and thus fuck it all up.
I love listening to Kate Nash. Her British accent makes me smile. I feel the urge to type grammatically correct and apply the knowledge that I have from so long of English training to capitalizing the first person I and using my words effectively. It's my new goal for blogging / typing on the computer in general. I don't think that I'm going to get over my inappropriate use of semi-colons for a while though.
That truck full of snow drove by again. I'm really wondering where they take it... maybe somewhere down by the football field?
I'm not sure why I got up from here in the first place; but I was gone for about half an hour now. I wrapped presents! I love christmas time. So much. I love giving presents, and everyone being full of Christmas Spirits. Yay! (Yes I am just this corny and sickening most of the time.)
Also-- I had a cup of coffee with my final at 9am. And now, at almost 12, I'm so caffienated it's obscene. I'm disappointed that the spellchecker doesn't work when typing a posterous blog, becuase that will not contribute to the appearance of good grammer on my blog. Oh well. I think I'm going to head to lunch pretty soon here. We'll see.
Thanks for reading. Love you!
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