Illuminate

Josh Groban's new CD, Illuminate, came out on Monday. I don't even have words to express how excited I was about this release. I've been a serious Groban fan for years now and in my opinion his CDs just keep getting better. This one is no exception. I bought it the day it was released and have been listening to it as much as possible since then. It is truly beautiful. And moving. I mean beautiful and moving in the way that I find Anne Michaels' writing beautiful and moving. It connects on some deep level to the soul and somehow expresses things that I barely even knew I felt. There is a sense that somehow these songs can express things about yourself that you could never articulate and in doing so can heal you or comfort you. It is one of those surreal experiences where art can capture and understand you better than you understand yourself. And that is something I search for in literature and art and music. To be quite honest, I feel like words are inadequate to express how much a adore this album.

Inspired by both the title of the CD and the fact that the accumulation of snow has steadily been increasing all day, today's picture is a bit Christmasy. I adore light. I've probably talked about this before, but it is something that I could talk about for a very long time. One of my favourite parts of Christmas is the lights. I'm partial to the plain white lights over the coloured lights, but any lights will do really. When the snow starts to fly I immediately get excited for Christmas lights. The campus coffee shop has Christmas decorations (including lights) up now, and it makes me so happy every time I walk into the SAC. These are a couple of bulbs on my parents' tree about two years ago.