richharris2

[richharris2]

This is my debut novel that I deposited at the National Library yesterday.

#writing #author #books #love #john lennon #good reads

[richharris2]

A real Viking ship

#vikings #norway

[richharris2]

Santorini dreams

#santorini #aegean #flowers #greece #passion

[richharris2]

Thinking aloud about love

It’s funny, you only fall in love like really deeply I think a few times, maybe in life, maybe once, if you’re super lucky or not, I don’t know. But if either of you in that situation isn’t sort of willing to demand of the other person their love. I mean you may love each other so deeply but if you don’t express it or you don’t take decisions to make it part of your real life then it just lapses and it just dies. And it’s kinda super tragic that but I guess that’s just life, it’s just another part of life. Trying to figure out whether you want somebody. If you try and force them, to demand your love even when you’re convinced that they want your love it doesn’t seem to work that well. So, I don’t know, it’s all very strange, all very strange, when you think you can be so certain and yet it’s not really that certain after all, mainly because of circumstances.

[richharris2]

A letter I wrote to my lovely fundamentalist cousin

Darling S.. I am happy that you have great solace in your faith. But I'm sorry to say that in fact you cannot prove that there is a god. Any healing can really be explained in psychological or physiological terms. Unless you actually have a miracle to show me. Miracles are notoriously difficult to prove. Please don't think that my wonder and awe at the miracle of the universe is not very deep. And Jesus was a man with so much beautiful philosophy to listen to incredibly carefully. But the facts are we know very little about him. The book of the bible was written decades after his life. It is not video news. I'm about getting the best and most sensible approach to life with kindness, compassion and love. I really don't need any make believe at all to do that. A lot of the fundamentalist churches and even the larger ones ask their followers to throw away common sense. You can be a wonderful and kind person without believing everything that people interpret is gospel. I don't expect or want you to question your own beliefs but sometimes it is a useful process to go through. My approach really is one of love and awe without resorting to blind faith. There is enough goodness and amazement in the reality. Hugs xoxo

[richharris2]

A beautiful David Bowie tribute from @dollychops

[richharris2]

That neck

Her neck Lay unbitten With passion But in my dream It had succumbed Many times To the soft pressure Of my lips And gentle nibble Of my desires Leaning into me With ever increasing Softness and welcome. Ah, that neck Of my dream.

[richharris2]

Throwback Thursday.. Maybe I really should have been gay? (Taken with Instagram)

[richharris2]

[richharris2]

My Ana

Never did an artist dream there could be one so fair who could paint you anyway My Ana of the golden hair Every angel in every realm  wishes for your lack of guile your innocence heaven sent My Ana of the winning smile Pristine queen of my nights lovely goddess of my days I will cherish them with you My Ana of the loving ways

There is magic in your touch there is healing in your tears how could I ever tire of this My Ana of a thousand years

[richharris2]

Amor

In the careful gold of sleepless, written sighs, nothing stays but time, I have your sky up here -

space chimes in hidden blue, the light arrives a bird, a whistling, bristling thing, thriving on waterdrops.

You are my remembrance of sweetness I took home from the shivering mountain where my heart was born.

[richharris2]

How do you fall in love with words? It seems perhaps innate, that part of your brain that processes thought and language and craves expression. An encouraging word or a magical book read as a child that tips you into that love affair forever with words. Whatever it is, however it happened I'm very grateful to be so enamoured.

[richharris2]

Factual Friday

My grandfather was a police officer, then a detective.  I have many friends who are in law enforcement.  I find it incredibly distasteful when persons blog or reblog broadly stroked anti-law enforcement posts.

ie All cops are bad.

I saw a reblog on my dash where the OP stated s/he worked in a mental health facility that cared for mentally ill violent children (21 yo and younger).  The long and short of their “argument” was because they can work with violent offenders without the need to use lethal force, law enforcement should be able to as well.

First, let me commend the OP for working with the mentally ill/special needs/violent kids.  It’s not a job I would ever want.   Ever.

But let’s be clear, here.  Comparing that job to what law enforcement does day in and day out believing that because s/he can survive without ever needing to use lethal force, and therefore, neither should anyone in law enforcement is the logical fallacy we like to call, ironically, Texas sharpshooter.  

I doubt, with a high degree of confidence, that s/he ever are called to break up or thwart a bombing/terrorist attack.  I would also doubt, with that same degree of confidence, that s/he ever has to wonder if any of the patients/clients are armed with a weapon, such as, but not limited to a knife or a firearm.  Because s/he works with violent offenders does not in anyway make his/her job similar to the danger faced by law enforcement.  

The “all cops are bad”, “fuck the police” mentality that is so rampantly paraded around social media is ill-conceived and uneducated at best, but mostly just disgusting, despicable, and distasteful. 

Fencing in an entire population of persons and labeling them as “bad” because a few are, in fact, reprehensible, is just fatuous. 

The same persons saying “all cops are evil” are the same folks who find themselves superior to the likes of Donald Trump (who believes “all Mexicans are drug dealers” and basically that “all Muslims are terrorist”), when in fact, they are nearly as close to slithering on their bellies as “The Donald” himself.

Going forward, I will, unabashedly, and with great fervor, unfollow any person who makes broad stroke comments about a group of folks based on the actions of a few.  It just doesn’t sit in my craw very well.  You want to criticize the guilty party, by all means, rant away.  But if you flippantly make a “All XXXX are bad” like post, I will remove you from my life.

And that, my friends, is the fact for this Friday.

[richharris2]

23 Emotions people feel, but can’t explain

Sonder: The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.

Opia: The ambiguous intensity of Looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.

Monachopsis: The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.

Énouement: The bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.

Vellichor: The strange wistfulness of used bookshops.

Rubatosis: The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.

Kenopsia: The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

Mauerbauertraurigkeit: The inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like.

Jouska: A hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.

Chrysalism: The amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.

Vemödalen: The frustration of photographic something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist.

Anecdoche: A conversation in which everyone is talking, but nobody is listening

Ellipsism: A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.

Kuebiko: A state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence.

Lachesism: The desire to be struck by disaster – to survive a plane crash, or to lose everything in a fire.

Exulansis: The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it.

Adronitis: Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone.

Rückkehrunruhe: The feeling of returning home after an immersive trip only to find it fading rapidly from your awareness.

Nodus Tollens: The realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore.

Onism: The frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time.

Liberosis: The desire to care less about things.

Altschmerz: Weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had – the same boring flaws and anxieties that you’ve been gnawing on for years.

Occhiolism: The awareness of the smallness of your perspective.

[richharris2]

Beachy kinda day. That's Gus. He came down for a beer.

[richharris2]

One day, one rhyme- Day 685 'Iris'

Iris watches the sun rise up Over the calm blue sea Atop the cliffs where she’ll remain For all eternity. The boats go out, the boats come in, Each day always the same And Iris sits above it all As if with a board game. Does Iris never tire of this So repetitious state? I query this, she in return Asks me with her to wait. And so I waited by her side Watching the game play out And what I saw from where I sat Has removed any doubt. The scene so great, my focus small However did I strive At each time I saw just one part Of an enormous hive. When I tired of that single part Another caught my eye, And so on, and so forth across The sea, into the sky. Since then, I’ve thought about my life A change in me, it starts. And when I feel I’ve seen it all I know there’s other parts. Iris has opened up my mind. I’m glad to call her friend, And I could have sat with Iris Until my time would end.

[richharris2]

We sat watching the afternoon evolve from that bench above the shoreline. There was fever in the water and calm in our quiet observations. Some coastlines offer up their very souls in an hour or two of maritime madness. In this case a feeding frenzy of every coastal bird upon a shoal of fish no doubt in a mad struggle for survival. And here, we two sat above marvelling at that sea and who knows exactly what else was being marvelled at in the quiet conversation which just added to the very real but complete madness of the situation. The birth of an odd friendship. One that did not need defining that day.