Writings by Catherine Babbitt
Listening to a song, something about love being more painful than hate. I wondered if that was true? Is that my experience with love? Is love more painful than hate? I guess it depends on what you consider painful.
Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs. – Joan Didion Responsibility. Engagement of self and ego and pride and humility and every nook and cranny between all things we consider we want and wish for and need. We may run from responsibility. We…
If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. – Thomas Alva Edison What would the world look like if we all “did the things we [were] capable of doing?” That world would be a sight to see, don’t you think? I love this quote, find it inspiring,…
You are part and plenty, sunshine and illumination, warmth and radiant clarity. A vein of continuous vibrancy twining each limb, each muscle, each organ, each bone a million times over, cinching them together. A forever component that cannot break, will never wear, will always thrum gently, vigorously, persistently against my breastbone. Even in times of…
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. – Pablo Picasso I think dishes qualify. Or vacuuming. Or cleaning windows and folding clothes. Hell, cleaning clothes at all. Paying bills should be tacked onto the list, or replying to emails that really shouldn’t need a reply. Taking out the…
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. – Jack London Time, like small pebbles between our fingers, so easy to slip, slip, through our grasp. Even if we clamp down, there’s no stopping the pebbles,…
I blink, want to shutter my eyes, not sure what elseTo say. No words penetrate my mind. I’m uncomfortable.I need to let you go, but you refuse to release your grip,So I remain. Tender loss perambulates, quickens my heart,Entrenches me in grief, as if you died, but you sit before me.You demand something, a splint…
I remember the heat of him as he would Push up against me, Gin-fouled and Smelling of Camel Wides. “I love you, baby,” He would say. “You stink,” I would remark. He would give the bar-story of a Thousand words that would drip sour Onto my breasts, as he moved Closer to my lips. “Stop,…
I creep along the floral wallpapered hallway, the colors muted under the moonlight filtering in from the kitchen. The house is silent, nothing rustles, and I steady my steps as I move. Black-wood picture frames speckle the large print flowers and show the same faces in different places, some smiling, some with definite disdain for…
I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being. – Confucius A challenging journey, difficult at times, to “be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.” Most of us won’t traverse the path to our deep center. We will detour to another track, one we perceive…
I think I was a shy kid. I grew up without television. I had a dog, and we lived up in the White Mountains in summer, and I had no friends up there. And I would just go play hide-and-seek with my dog and probably had some imaginary friends. – Dan Brown Imaginary friends visited…
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it. – Albert Camus Courage doesn’t exit without fear, and, yet, sometimes fear is where all things stop and root into the earth, never to leave, never to breathe, never to shine. There would need to be justification for that, wouldn’t there? A…
