Ira Glass ... American public radio personality and wise man

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
Extract from Ira Glass on Storytelling, part 3 of 4

However, the actual quote was found over on the lovely Leonie’s Blog.

The Father of the Bride

I admire this man so much ...  and for so many reasons.

I admire him because, along with his delicious wife, he created one of the most beautiful souls that I am privileged to know.
I admire him because he had a terrible stroke last year and fought back so hard, with so much grace and humour, that he managed to fly over to England from Australia, and walk that beautiful daughter of his down the aisle. No one imagined it possible at one point.

I admire him because, even today, he retains this charisma that leaves you sure he will continue to fight his way along that road called recovery.

I feel so very lucky I was there to witness it all and capture this moment during the wedding of Clare and Chris.


Instead of a ‘quite a few’ wedding photographs, there are 100s of this truly exquisite Australian/Brit wedding.  Finishing up this week ...

 

Courage ...

‘I was told the Holocaust happened because the world was silent. So obviously I cannot stay silent when horrible things are being done in my name.’
Yonatan Shapira is the grandson of a woman who was killed in the Holocaust.  In the link above, he explains why he will be on the Gaza Flotilla.

I was moved to tears by Yonatan’s very simple quiet calm explanation.

Internationally acclaimed poet, Alice Walker, has written this essay on why she is sailing to Gaza on the Freedom Flotilla.

The world is finally watching, and I hope to God that no one is murdered this time.

Rumi

“Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
Of anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”
~Rumi

I liked this too much not to note it somewhere.