Memento Mori. Remember that you must die!
And they'll bury you. For burying the dead is the right thing to do. All-embracing earth knows that. So does the forgetful mind.

When time doesn't heal the bereaved, it numbs them. To restore life within the living. Or at least to preserve it.

And thus, what has come for our predecessors is coming for us. We will have to perform our duty and pass on. Move on. Having cleaned up after ourselves. So that our heirs can mold a world after their own heart.

Meanwhile, we build. As a cope out. Or maybe because we know that's honorable. Giving instead of taking.

Creating as an act of worship. As a way to show our solidarity with the Creator. Because we long to see that it is good to have done, even when the deed is flawed.

And thus said the psalmist, "Teach us to number our days..."

Beget

When we have nothing else to do,
Let's take half of me and half of you;
Put them together for an end goal,
From two masterpieces a masterwhole.

There are times I feel like I'm lulling myself. That to keep living is a state of deep sleep. Ignorance of your short-comings, your lack and ultimate hopelessness. And I feel ashamed of all my endeavors. Like I've woken up from a dream and I can't believe I cared about its trivial plot.

How much sleep is too much? How much wakefulness is a vice?

Any semblance of optimism seems naivety. Belief and blindness merge in my eyes.

What I know pales in comparison to what I do know. Because unchecked cruelty weighs me down more than a thousand parted seas. I hold a grudge on Whom I don't blame. For his nonintervention.

The answer to some questions is their annulment. And nobody does that best than him. So I'll wait.

I'm not going to wrap this up in a positive note. Not today. This is my offering. The vulgar, naked truth of my unbelief. It's all I've got.

Carpe Diem

Among the grievances of earth,
Amidst mourning my losses,
Along the way to my lone grave,
I stopped to smell the roses.

I’m well aware that I am late,
I’m later than the others.
It’s only bound to be the case,
When one pursues what matters.

I get such satisfaction when I pay for little things. There's a part of me that wants to cry too. But for the most part I'm deeply grateful that I have the money to spend on anything at all. Probably because I'm sheltered as my parents pay for the real bills.
Let's hope I maintain this gusto in the future.

"I love paying rent when the rent's due."
- Tupac

And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally from hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next.


- The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

River — Leon Bridges

Been traveling these wide roads for so long
My heart's been far from you
Ten-thousand miles gone

Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there is blood on my hands
And my lips are unclean

In my darkness I remember
Momma's words reoccur to me
"Surrender to the good Lord
And he'll wipe your slate clean"

Take me to your river
I wanna go
Oh, go on
Take me to your river
I wanna know

Tip me in your smooth waters
I go in
As a man with many crimes
Come up for air
As my sins flow down the Jordan

Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there is blood on my hands
And my lips are unclean

Take me to your river
I wanna go
Go on
Take me to your river
I wanna know

I wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
I wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
Wanna know, wanna know, wanna know
Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go
Wanna know, wanna know, wanna know

Take me to your river
I wanna go
Lord, please let me know
Take me to your river
I wanna know

To whom it may concern:

When you live among the community, make sure to see, actually see, the living situations of your people.
When you wear relatively comfortable shoes and have a decent meal, remember that it's not the default living situation. Not just here in Ethiopia but all over the world. An overwhelming portion of the population lives in demoralizing poverty.

If we ''make'' it in life and become policy makers, public officials or land on some fortune, let's not forget this.

Hard work is only one ingredient of wealth. Perhaps it's the least important factor. The lady I saw the other day - weeding and planting with a baby on her back, in the scorching sun, on a busy street- works harder than these "self-made" billionaires. So do the women carrying literal sand all night (do you know how heavy sand is)?! So does the guy laying bricks and cobbling stones on the street.

We should know we are privileged: not to be crippled by guilt but to help out, or at least not to be insulting and out of touch.

Book quotes with similar vibes(from books I re-read like a maniac)

"I have only to glance over my shoulder for all those years to drop away and I see it behind me again, the ravine, rising all green and black through the saplings, a picture that will never leave me.

I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.

-The Secret History, Donna Tartt

"I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a
crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned,
about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years."

-The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Today put this saying into perspective.

Part 3 reflection on " Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers

Knowing God
As I mentioned before, I was reading the book of Hosea from the Bible before I started Redeeming Love, and something struck me deeply. In Hosea, God keeps telling His people that what He really wants is their hearts. He wants them to know Him. That exact message echoes throughout Redeeming Love.

God didn’t just want Sarah to be rescued from prostitution or to find a loving husband though those things were part of His plan. He wanted her to know Him. She had found temporary rest in a man’s love, even though that love was pure and meant to reflect God’s purpose of two becoming one. But she was still missing the main thing; putting God first.

So, God took her away for a while; not to punish her, but to speak to her heart. To bring her to a place where she could see that He alone is worthy of worship. He wanted her heart. And the verse that perfectly captures this is:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.”
— Hosea 2:14 (KJV)

This is what He does for all of us. He brings us into quiet, sometimes painful places, not to abandon us, but to finally speak to our hearts. To be known by us. And to be loved back.

Someday we'll be a part of the conversation. When we have more to contribute than our yearning.

Del Toro you beautiful, beautiful man!! It is the best thing ever when a director cherishes a work of art as much as you do, even more in this case, gives it the respect it deserves and pours his soul into it. Del Toro supremacy🧎🏽‍♂️

Every part of the process has to be emotion. What do I feel about it? Because if you feel about an image, then the audience will react to that image emotionally. I try to first think about that before I think about the aesthetics, and then they start informing each other...Every frame in the movie is a painting. Now you have to treat it like a painting, but unlike a painting, it also needs to move and employ the emotion and you have to move to the next one.

You appreciate every work of art even more when you understand the thought process, effort and emotions behind it, Oh, and spoiler alert for some of the images above🧍🏽‍♂️ I would've absolutely loved watching this in the cinema.

This is so true! Del Toro's love for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is literally palpable throughout the movie!❤️