I wish I were clever and insightful.

And perhaps I will be soon, once I'm used to this blogging phenomenon and, not to mention, when I'm struck by real insight / cleverness. . . Until then, an update + pictures on the details of my VERY GLAMOROUS lifestyle.

To be expanded upon soon, but this quote captures a lot of the way that I've been feeling lately.

"Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness andjoy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality of sadnessthat pervades all the moments of our life. It seems that there is nosuch thing as clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happymoments of our existence we sense a tinge of sadness. In everysuccess, there is a fear of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is atear. In every embrace, there is loneliness. In every friendship,distance. And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge ofsurrounding darkness. Joy and sadness are as close to each other asthe splendid colored leaves of a New England fall to the soberness ofthe barren trees. When you touch the hand of a returning friend, youalready know that he will have to leave you again. When you are movedby the quiet vastness of the sun-covered ocean, you miss the friendwho cannot see the same. Joy and sadness are born at the same time,both arising from such deep places in your heart that you can't findwords to capture your complex emotions. But this intimate experiencein which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point usbeyond the limits of our existences. It can do so by making us lookforward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled withperfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us."- Henri Nouwen