On the Juke: The 1975 - "I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it"

Released  February 26, 2016, The 1975 brought it again with their album, "I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it". I personally can't get enough of it; I find myself picking a favorite and then moving on to the next song and thinking, "Oh, no. Wait. No. This one's so good though." But, if I had to pick a favorite for right now it would have to be "The Ballad of Me and My Brain." It's on repeat. On excessive repeat. I hope I don't tire of it.

I'm in a course at Biola called Vision, Voice. and Practice which is a collaborative class between Art and Writing students. It has two professors, one art and one writing, teaching the class. At the beginning of the semester each student picks a particular week where they present their "Song of the Day." Tomorrow, March 15, is my day. And, guess what I just picked and am so stoked about? Yeah. Exactly.

"The Ballad of Me and My Brain" encompasses, I believe, a certain feeling many artists get once in a while, or even maybe for a long while. The feeling that, "I'm completely mad", "I've completely lost my brain", "Did I even have a brain at all?" etc. It's that writers block, low place where you try to force creativity, but nothing comes. You search and search for some sort of genius, don't find it, and resort to a depressive state of, "I'm not meant to be a creator. I make trash. What am I doing? I should change my life course. I should just do something practical. Blah, blah blah."

But I love Matt's last line; it seems to recollect where his creativity comes from; where each story, each song, stems. It releases the urge to force beauty out of a brain, and allows the heart and the soul to work instead.

Forget my brain. Remember my pain.

I suggest you go and give this album a listen. Or two listens. How about a few listens. Just listen? Go on. Give it a go. You won't regret it.

Bless up,

Olivia

Photo courtesy of The 1975 : http://the1975.com/

QOTD: Henry David Thoreau - Friends at a Distance

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; 
they make the latitudes and longitudes."

Henry David Thoreau

A Longing, A Prayer

I'm in a course this semester called Theology of Marriage and Relationships. To begin, we first looked at the Trinity and how that Trinitarian relationship should be the model for our own relationships, whether that be friendships, dating relationship, familial relationships, marriage relationships, etc.. After this section, I reflected on not only our topic but also topics buzzing around current American culture. Then, I took a few minutes and breathed out a short prayer onto my notebook. It is a good reminder for me and I hope it may do the same for you.

I don't want just friends, I want

DEAR friends,

who I would choose to love with a love like the One,

the Three,

who first loved in a bond of unity pointing to the OTHER.

"equal in our humanity,

distinct in our personhood"

Let my love, then, not be

SELFISH

or

SELF SEEKING.

Let it have the strength of the SPIRIT to

keep reaching out.

Sustain my love, Oh God.

Sustain your heart in me.

Guide me so that I may

love well

and

love like YOU.

Press on Saints,

Olivia

It's Complicated - Link to Story

Remember that story I wrote... or re-wrote about a couple weeks back? The one about Biola's dating culture? Well, as promised, here is the link to the actual, published story. So if you couldn't get your hands on a physical magazine, here it is, in all its web-form glory.

It's Complicated - The Point Magazine

Poetry Hour: Entry 8 - "Pilgrimage"

As circumstance and the Lord's good hand would have it, I find myself with a few friends working in film these days. They are all so passionate about it and from that passion they achieve much. They're talented and hardworking; I commend their drive alongside their successes.

Recently, one of my film friends asked me to write for him. He had a quote by Thomas Merton which inspired a short film he was creating. He wanted something poetic to be voiced over it, so he asked me to do the job. He sent me an email explaining why he liked the quote so much and how it applied to his perfectionist work ethic. I took his email, and the quote, and just ran with it. This is the result.  

Pilgrimage

Often,

amidst the waves of

where we

Are

and

where we

Want to Be,

we enter,

suddenly,

a place of

Honesty.

A place where

every part has to be

Flawless;

has to be

Excellent.

Stars are never good enough.

It's the Moon we want.

We carry a

heavy perfection.

And with it

we find

we're floating,

motionless in this

subconscious realm;

in this

Fear of Failing.

Will the

Art

be lost again?

Will we lose

Ourselves

again?

“What are we to gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery…”

It's hard to listen to your

Soul

when you're only thinking about

The Moon.

So now.

Now in this place of honesty;

in this Soul-Gap between who we

expect ourselves to be

and

who we really are,

we realize

it's a beautiful Abyss.

It becomes

a beautiful

Reconciliation,

acknowledging

the distance of

Moon

and the reality of the

Soul.

There.

As we float we realize

the fear of failing must be

tossed away

into the

ocean-space in between.

Only there,

with the weight of it

lifted,

we may sail on.

When the short film is completed, I hope to post it here. What's really cool is that my friend Jessica is the subject being filmed and one of my professors is actually voicing this poem over the shots. How neat is that?! That's pretty neat. And maybe once it's finished I'll think of a proper title for the poem.

For now, I urge you: Listen well -- To your soul when it's crying out for you to slow down. To your mind when it's running too fast to comprehend your thoughts. And let go -- Of that tiresome need to be perfect. Of that one-track-mindedness that keeps you from seeing the beauty around you, the beauty that you're trying to rush out of, the beauty that calls out to you from within you and around you. Pause a moment. Breathe a moment. Reflect and move forward.

Sail on Saints,

Olivia