Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe
And to love you
All I need is the air that I breathe

the air that i breathe - the hollies

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meloncholy and the infinite sadness - no! summer is coming.

electronic state of mind



listening to all my music over again. i bought this cd many years ago because of the sleek intriguing cover. it is brilliant and one of my favourite cds because it makes me feel like being on holiday.

specifically in the city. in montreal.

very listenable electronica. listen to all the track samples. they have an album out may 8th. yay.

hindsight: okay, i like pocket symphony. feels like drinking wine and staring at stars through a skylight on the 90th floor.

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emotions swing between the basement level and the roof. however now, emotions must not come into play. now is the time of just doing quickly.

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Today's My Utmost for His Highest Devotion speaks to me deeply and personally in my current struggle.

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Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place . . . —Revelation 4:1

A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, "Friend, come up even higher." There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move. But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.

Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.

Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually. Have you heard God say, "Come up higher," not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?

"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . . ?" (Genesis 18:17 ). God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.

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Surging through the darkness over the moonlight strand,
Electricity in the air.
Twisting all through the night on the terrace,
Now that summer's here.
I know you are almost in love with me,
I can see it in your eyes.
Strange light shimmering over the sea tonight,
And it almost blows my mind
And as I look to the stars

ash. girl from mars. 1977

summer is a state of mind. summer is 1998 with you looking across the canteen.

pretend it's like, writing a song, being a song. in denim flares and a jane birkin fringe.

source

Friday Love

Dear Mingyao,

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving"

P. Neruda, Love Sonnet XVII

and

"Don't go far off, not even for a day, because--
because--I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep."

P. Neruda, Love Sonnet XLV

Love,
Mei

Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale

chet baker's you're mine, you from the album baby breeze is the most beautiful song - "you're mine, you...you belong to me you. i will never free you. you're here with me to stay...you are mine completely, love me stronger, sweetly, i need you night and day..."

more than fifty green tea bags and i'm still too slow! hurry hurry!

eureka moments are better than chocolate. they're like air. but the moments of frustration sinks you so low you want smash something. life and death. like a drug. i ought' to be less melodramatic and emotional and remember those people i admire who get things done with a sensible head and deliberate actions.

hurry, you!

school is difficult.

can't give up.

work at it.

pages and pages of awesomeness





...with ech work that one raises out of oneself, one creates space for some new strength..." p. 78

Dairies of a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke

i want to let you read the whole book! but i can only scan some pages. rilke! he is wonderful to read. after reading several passages i always feel like affected like an after-run sensation - bolder, refreshed, enlightened and inspired. toilet-reading got extended a bit.

run. but not away.

Not an empty pod

Sunday's My Upmost for His Highest message, so apt.

March 11, 2007

Obedience to the "Heavenly Vision"
LISTEN:
READ:

I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision —Acts 26:19

If we lose "the heavenly vision" God has given us, we alone are responsible— not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to "the heavenly vision" is to give our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory. This can be accomplished only when we make a determination to continually remember God’s vision. But the acid test is obedience to the vision in the details of our everyday life— sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour, not just during times of personal prayer or public meetings.

"Though it tarries, wait for it . . ." ( Habakkuk 2:3 ). We cannot bring the vision to fulfillment through our own efforts, but must live under its inspiration until it fulfills itself. We try to be so practical that we forget the vision. At the very beginning we saw the vision but did not wait for it. We rushed off to do our practical work, and once the vision was fulfilled we could no longer even see it. Waiting for a vision that "tarries" is the true test of our faithfulness to God. It is at the risk of our own soul’s welfare that we get caught up in practical busy-work, only to miss the fulfillment of the vision.

Watch for the storms of God. The only way God plants His saints is through the whirlwind of His storms. Will you be proven to be an empty pod with no seed inside? That will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of the vision you have seen. Let God send you out through His storm, and don’t go until He does. If you select your own spot to be planted, you will prove yourself to be an unproductive, empty pod. However, if you allow God to plant you, you will "bear much fruit" ( John 15:8 ).

It is essential that we live and "walk in the light" of God’s vision for us ( 1 John 1:7 ).

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Happy Birthday Mingyao!

in brief: live 8 2006 concert dvd box set/audrey hepburn treasures collectible/the shins new cd/borders discount/tangs island shop cafe lunch/strawberry milkshake/the new handphone and wifi/green.

Music with Mingyao



Who else is feeling ambivalent about Air's latest album? Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie were both delightful to listen to - the essential spacey sounds of the band were apparent but different and unique in the different albums. I remember sitting in the car listening to the first two tracks (venus, cherry blossom girl) of Talkie Walkie with hui for the first time and we were both blown away. hmm...whilst Pocket Symphony is a good album, it doesn't bring something new to the duo's sound. Whist some people feel that the album is a removal of excesses to the bare essence of what air is, i'm not convinced - it sounds too similar to strains of Talkie Walkie and it doesn't take my breath away. I hope i will get something more out of it the more i listen to it.

Last night we were disappointed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Esplanade, part of the Mosaic Music Festival (looking through the Arts Festival highlights, we both agree that the Mosaic Festival has brought in all the exciting acts, rendering the music section of the Arts Festival a tad bland). First, the band wasn't as tight as expected - too casual for a concert, like playing in a lounge, mingyao says. Then there was a guest singer, Freda Payne, who nearly killed us with her singing. Jazz verteren maybe - honestly we'd never heard of her her before this and we wish we never heard her - her renditions of 'ain't got that thing' and the other sweet favourites were too throathy and 'hard' in her singing - like a cabaret singer! mingyao aptly describes - it was physically very painful to hear her - the supposedly natural singing that should come with jazz felt very tired.

Byron Stripling

saved the night. That man was awesome! A hundred points for showmanship. The band picked up and became tighter immediately when he came on to sing and play his trumpet and lead the band. The trumpet sounds were crisp, sharp and very fluid. Byron Stripling had such energy and presence it resonated throughout the hall and you could feel how happy everybody was to listen to him. He told the audience a story of how Louie Armstrong could afford to buy a mansion but later decided not to because he wanted to stay in his old neighbourhood and he realised how the best things are free - then he broke into a very uplifting version of 'what a wonderful world' - man, i will never listen to that song in the same way again. Apparently he is the conductor of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and is a lead singer with the Count Basie Orchestra. MICA! Please bring them in!

Another great moment in the night was when one of the tenor saxaphonists had a solo and when he sang - so emotional i could cry - he puts his voice into his playing, i said. - a musician's instrument is his voice, mingyao confirms. The lighting of the stage was beautiful - loved it when they switched to the yellow and white lights - felt like light flooding through a loft.

the urge to push the body beyond bearable limits is sometimes very strong when you need to rid yourself of all the head pounding temperaments surging at the skin of your throats reaching to burst, that are really an extra burden and if it is near two in the morning and you cannot really strap on your running shoes and do it, a gargling, unstoppable ramble of the mind helps. but the mind has commas, and that is the problem.

but love, i think, and comrades, soothe the fall.

onward march, a girl with passion, devoid of distractions.

Absolutely Romantic

When two lovers meet in Mayfair, so the legends tell,
Songbirds sing; winter turns to spring.
Every winding street in Mayfair falls beneath the spell.
I know such enchantment can be, 'cos it happened one evening to me:

That certain night, the night we met,
There was magic abroad in the air,
There were angels dining at the Ritz,
And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.
I may be right, I may be wrong,
But I'm perfectly willing to swear
That when you turned and smiled at me
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.

The moon that lingered over London town,
Poor puzzled moon, he wore a frown.
How could he know we two were so in love?
The whole darn world seemed upside down

The streets of town were paved with stars;
It was such a romantic affair.
And, as we kissed and said 'goodnight',
A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square

Vile Bodies, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, perennial favourite. the song's a movie on it's own.

we had sushi - japanese food is the current choice of indulgence it seems - and he looks great and manly in his pink tailored shirt, methinks.

Dreamgirls is a nice film but it is not particularly awesome. It felt more like a showcase that didn't dig deep into the struggles they tried to showcase. Beyonce is pretty to look at. The other day, Blood Diamond was fabulous. I watched it with the sibs. It was well crafted without any trace of pretension and the tension in the plot and the acting was solid - heart was on a cliff and fists were clenched several times - leonardo di caprio is anchored right up there with his great acting in this show and The Departed (he's redeemed himself from Aviator, but then again more fault was with the plot and direction than leo i suppose). Jude Law has not yet redeemed himself from Alfie. Try harder!

Air has a new album out on the 6th of March! It's called Pocket Symphony and I wonder how it's like.