Sometimes quite literally...
Sorry it's been so quiet on here lately. I know there are some of you who basically rely on this blog to know I'm still alive and to keep up to date with what's going on with me. So, I haven't died. I've just started grad school. It's been a nutso couple of weeks. And they don't ease you into things. Everything just kind of hits you from day one, so I've been busy trying to find my sea-legs. Unfortunately this blog is one of the things I let slip when times get crazy. And not in any conscious decision, "okay, what can I drop?" kind of way either. In the falling asleep thinking, "oh right, I have a blog. I should post on that." kind of way.
Anyway, bear with me while I sort my life out. I will eventually find my stride and it will get easier (at least, that's what I've been told).
Thousand Ways
The Tallest Man on Earth
Oh, I have lived for ages
I'm a thousand turns of tides
I'm a thousand wakes of springtime
And a thousand infant cries
Oh, a thousand infant cries
I got sixteen hundred tigers now
All tied to silver strings
When they're put out in the pasture
Oh, the mighty heart will sing
Oh, the mighty heart will sing
But I'll always be blamed for the sun going down with a sigh
But I'm the light in the middle of every man's fog
I bend my arrows now in circles
And I shoot around the hill
If I don't get you in the morning
By the evening I sure will
By the evening I sure will
Because I'm the fire on the mountain
You have lit up in your dreams
But also water on the fountain
You could send myself on me
You could send myself on me
But I'll always be blamed for the sun going down with a sigh
But I'm the light in the middle of every man's fog
And, no, I never meant to say these words
But, yes, you ought to know
That the dark in what I've always been
It will not ever go
No, it will not ever go
So if I've lived a thousand years
A thousand turns of tides
Just a thousand leaves in autumn
And a thousand ways to try
Oh, a thousand
It's just a thousand
Ways to try
I felt like some new music tonight. I wanted something with a bit of an edge to it, but still soothing and calming. And then I remembered that a while back one of my friends posted a video of an artist that I had really enjoyed. So, I went off hunting through friends' blogs and, voilà, I had found The Tallest Man on Earth. I am in love with his voice. It has this beautiful raspy quality that is awesome. There is something about the musicality of the songs combined with his voice that is really working for me right now. It reminds me of my favourite kind of beaches, the kind that are in abundance out here on the east coast: rocky and with the promise of danger if a storm blew in.
Somehow finding new music just seemed to suit my day, which was full of new things. I went and registered at Acadia, so I am officially a new student. I met one of my fellow English grad students (there are only three of us total) and I had dinner with a couple who are friends of a friend, so I was meeting new people. Somehow it seemed fitting that I would come home and find some new music.
One day I will own a historic home.
I can't get over how gorgeous historic buildings are. I could spend so much time photographing them. The incredible details are so striking. Old buildings have something that just doesn't exist in new buildings: history. They tell stories. They somehow hold parts of each person involved in building and inhabiting them. They are a physical manifestation of countless memories. I almost feel like they are alive sometimes.
One of the perks of living out east is that history is much more present than it is out west. It's just a logical consequence of the way in which Canada was settled. I told Lycidas, my dear history-loving friend, that the east is steeped in history, and that you can't help but find it, even if you aren't looking for it. There is a connectedness with history that is tangible when you are out here that just doesn't exist in Alberta.
It might be an actual house, it might be an apartment in a historic building, but one day I will own a historic home.
