DIY Guide to Killing Off All Boredom

Go outside. Scream your name into The Void. Sit in the sun and feel godlike. Go swim somewhere illegal. Cook a nine-course meal for your friends. Get drunk and cry. Throw up on public property and shout about Tolstoy. Ride a train. Ride a bus. Tell someone off. Smash something important. Climb a tree and read a book. WRITE a book. Be sweet to a baby and let them know that all big people aren’t a) dead inside, b) bored, or c) afraid of adventure. Make your own everything. Stay up all night and walk around the city alone. Learn that you can be a patriot for the land while still hating the government (be a patriot for the deserts, the plains, the mountains, the buffalo, for Woody Guthrie and Frederick Douglass, for 250 years of good books). Find the best genius, which is the genius that speaks plainly. Grow something from a seed. Talk to a dog. Go visit a friend and throw your knife into a river. Sing. Sleep in. Quit your job. Make a zine. Start a war within yourself. Break a law. Destroy all uncandid thought. Open your heart to the sky. Live.

- Adam Gnade, from The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad

Do yourself a favor and buy this zine.

(via rustbeltjessie / wearepioneerspress)

Social Health

Truth: Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter make my blood pressure rise. Tumblr lets it fall. Even when posting breaking news, philosophical dilemmas, and angst-ridden tales of unrequited love, Tumblr users, on the whole, do it thoughtfully. It’s beautiful to be here amongst so many “thinking people.”

Of course, unthinking people prowl here, too. The other social media sites don’t have a lock on stupid. The difference is that Tumblr more readily allows me to follow blogs and tags which are not overtly materialistic, crass, or shallow. Subjects which annoy me are certainly here, but they’re not on my dashboard. 

Anonymity contributes to the sense of calm as well. Posting freely without worrying what a potential employer, ex-boyfriend, or neighbor will think? Priceless. 

I’ll continue to use Facebook as a virtual yearbook in run-ups to family and high school reunions, but I’ll largely avoid its drama and insincerity. My Pinterest will hold some nice recipes and a handful of craft projects I might someday tackle, but I won’t linger so as to avoid the onslaught of “you must have this right now even though you never knew you wanted one” pins. Twitter remains a fascinating place during newsworthy events, but I’ll limit my time there to keep from falling for its “fast-paced, beat ‘em to the story whether the facts are correct or not” frenzy.

My real attention will be here at Tumblr. Cheers to calm.

“One of us had loved the other more perfectly, had watched the other more closely, and one of us listened and the other hadn’t, and one of us held on to the ambition of the one idea far longer than was reasonable, whereas the other, passing a garbage can one night, had casually thrown it away.”

— Nicole Krauss, Great House

(via lovechildofvenus)

(Source: larmoyante)

“When your soul awakens, you begin to truly inherit your life. You leave the kingdom of fake surfaces, repetitive talk and weary roles and slip deeper into the true adventure of who you are and who you are called to become. The greatest friend of the soul is the unknown. Yet we are afraid of the unknown because it lies outside our vision and our control. We avoid it or quell it by filtering it through our protective barriers of domestication and control. The normal way never leads home.”

— John O’Donohue (via lovechildofvenus)

(Source: significances)

Turn the Chair Around

Every time I click to follow someone new on Tumblr, I feel like I’m hitting the big red button on the Voice. Turn the chair around. Winner. Selected. Follow! Congratulations, new friend. YOU are worthy of appearing on my dashboard.