Books I’ve Read & Places I’ve Loved: February 2017
Originally published on February 26th, 2017
"Books I've Read & Places I've Loved" is a series where I talk about, yup, the books I've read and the places I've loved in a particular month (my titling skills are exquisite as we all know ;-)).
We've made it to the end of February! If your month was anything like mine, it wasn't necessarily busy, but it felt long. This is around the time of year where I tend to feel stuck and want to do something new and exciting. I went through the typical period of wanting to cut my hair, but instead of deciding against it I just went ahead and did it and now I have roughly seven inches less of hair than I did at the beginning of the month. Even though this month felt extremely long, I was able to find some ways to make it feel exciting through the books I read and the unordinary places that I visited. I hope you all had a great February, and that March will be wonderful as well!
BOOKS I'VE READ:
milk and honey by rupi kaur
After writing my last poem, I went looking for some poetry collections to read to gather some more inspiration. I wasn't able to relate to everything that is written about in this book, but I still found it extraordinary. Sometimes extraordinarily heartbreaking, but still extraordinary. One of my favorite poems is one called "grounded" and it reads: "most importantly love/ like it's the only thing you know how/ at the end of the day all this/ means nothing/ this page/ where you're sitting/ your degree/ your job/ the money/ nothing even matters/ except love and human connection/ who you loved/ and how deeply you loved them/ how you touched the people around you/ and how much you gave them" This book is split into four chapters: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. The last chapter was definitely my favorite, but I found my self underlining phrases all the way through. I highly, highly, highly recommend it.
Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou
This little book is a collection of quotes from Maya Angelou's essays, poems, books, and interviews. It's not long, only a little over 100 pages. I read in on a Tuesday evening when I didn't have much homework and was feeling a little anxious and just a little off. I've had this book since I was fourteen, but had only read the first section. I'm guessing I stopped reading it around the time I moved and never picked up again until now, two moves later. Over half of it is now underlined, and there are small green post-it notes scattered around the pages to mark quotes I loved to much to only underline. I have a feeling that this will be a book that I will often return to.
PLACES I'VE LOVED:
A Nursery Somewhere I'd Never Heard Of
This nursery was soooo wonderful to visit. I love flowers, and being surrounded by them on every side was really lovely. Being there made me want to buy all the seeds and start my own garden, but then I remembered that I'm not the best gardener and may end up killing all the plants in the process, so I decided against it. It was still so nice to be around flowers and the coy fish in a small pond were pretty cool too.
The Petco Near My House
So... I didn't get a picture, but this place was most definitely a favorite of mine this month. One of my best friends came to visit me last week, and while she was here we walked to the Starbucks near my house, and then across the street to the Petco. We walked around looking for fish, which we unfortunately did not find. Eventually, I bought some guinea pig treats (because why not), and then we talked to the cashier for a few minutes. She was really nice, too. It was a simple place, and it's a simple story, but it all really made my night.