The Daily Cry

A Look Outside

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:08:00 +0000

"She walked to the porch, dropped the letter in an aluminum mailbox and pulled up the red flag. She had never been to Washington. One day, she wanted to take her boys. She wondered what the White House looked like up close. She wondered whether it had a mailbox."

{ link }

words: the washington post

image: en rosa radio

Under Glass

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:50:00 +0000

I don't know if this will make anyone cry but me, but for some reason the purity of it just astonished me.

Don't put what you love under glass. Just eat it.

"Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."

Maurice Sendak

{ link }

words: bobulate

image: bflv

Things My Son Should Know

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 13:56:00 +0000

Things My Son Should Know After I've Died

I was young once. I dug holes
near a canal and almost drowned.
I filled notebooks with words
as carefully as a hunter loads his shotgun.
I had a father also, and I came second to an addiction.
I spent a summer swallowing seeds
and nothing ever grew in my stomach.
Every woman I kissed,
I kissed as if I loved her.
My left and right hands were rivals.
After I hit puberty, I was kicked out of my parents’ house
at least twice a year. No matter when you receive this
there was music playing now.
Your grandfather isn’t
my father. I chose to do something with my life
that I knew I could fail at.
I spent my whole life walking
and hid such colorful wings.

Brian Trimboli

{ link }

words: brian trimboli
image: dianna mullet

Twenty-Seven Years

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 22:28:00 +0000

I'd put off watching this video for weeks, though many people sent it to me. I didn't think I was emotionally ready to handle it.

I watched it today. And I cried and I cried and I cried.

It was worth it.

It Gets Better

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:42:00 +0000

Dan Savage and his partner Terry tell queer high schoolers:

Don't end your life. It gets better.

A good reminder for all of us.

Two Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:59:00 +0000

"Please remember that the dream you have of finding a long-term romantic partner and having a baby is not just one dream. It’s two. The man dream and the baby dream are so intricately woven that you can be forgiven for thinking they’re one. It’s lovely if it is rolled up into one. It’s more than lovely. It’s convenient. It’s conventional. It’s economically advantageous. It’s hella good when it’s good.

But it isn’t what you have. So let’s see what you’ve got."

{ link }

words: dear sugar

image: i want this

Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:06:00 +0000

"There's something of a magic to the perspective that a post-relationship experience gives you. It profoundly changes your perspective on not just your own heart and decisions, but every single person in your life and the people who may enter it tomorrow. I mean, what's the fucking deal with hindsight, right? Could there be a more inconvenient educator?

Thing is, you just have to trust yourself, give yourself a break, and except that hindsight always wins and you'll never get it perfect and the people who are fucking up your world or undermining your foundations are in their own tailspin of it's own severity and you sit on a bench in front of something pretty, take a deep breath, and take in the fact that 'okay...so that fucking happened'.

And you're still standing, and he (or she) may not be, but you're still standing, and you have everything you went into the relationship with...it's just all shifted around and a little swollen here or there, but you know you like you and that's where you start. Or you don't like little bits of you and you start with the bits you like and you work on the ones you don't. A boy (or girl) comes along and likes lots of your bits. Wants to jump in the ring... help you on the bits you want help on.

All in all, this is life, I think. We move through lessons to the point at which a relationship (the forever one) is about learning them together in full. The lessons never stop though. We find perfection in the fact that imperfection is constant, and a way to live among it sans destruction becomes the symphony of true love."

DShan

{ link }

words: dshan
image: hey ho lets go n

Assume Love

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:49:00 +0000

"If he packed his bags and left right now, I'd still have snow to shovel. If I packed my bags and left right now, I'd still have snow to shovel, just somewhere else."

{ link }

words: assume love
image: away

Empty Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:26:00 +0000

"When the empty spaces show up - if we let them - that is exactly when our lives get quiet enough to make room for what is next."

{ link }

words: life after college
image: sergeyloie

I Identified With This One A Little Too Much

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:29:00 +0000

image: brooklyn mutt

Walking

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:23:00 +0000

I don't want to fetishize her youth, but this girl is a high school senior and a goddamn genius. This poem is an anthem.

words: zora howard

Shared by Ev`Yan.

Time to Ante Up

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:14:00 +0000

My friends are good.

Unexpectedly Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:36:00 +0000

{ link }

comic: cat and girl

Shared by Erin.

A Dog Save Dog World

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:16:00 +0000

video: youtube

Sent in by Meg.

Still to Come

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:23:00 +0000

"There are so many ways out, so many streets, so many houses, so many lives."

{ link }

words: she was
image: a little disaster

Ever Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:14:00 +0000

"Painting over this feels like surrender. And I’m not quite ready to wave the white flag."

{ link }

words: billy coffey
image: tracey ♥ jeffrey

Advice for Designers

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:26:00 +0000

At least ten things made me cry today. This was one of them.

It's been a good day.

"Success is generating an emotion. Failure is a million different things."

{ link }

words: frank chimero
image: beverly hsu

Shared by dear Michael.

Your Second Beating Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:51:00 +0000

At this point, it feels like cheating to link to Sugar. She writes a column every Thursday, and every Thursday her column makes me cry.

But this one had me crying by the second paragraph of her response and I didn't stop sobbing til it was done. And when I say 'sobbing' I don't mean dainty, lady-like tears at the corners of my eyes.

I mean that my shoulders shook and I sobbed.

"The unifying theme is resilience and faith. The unifying theme is being a warrior and a motherfucker. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig."

{ link }

words: dear sugar
image: jqn boulevard

For the Sake of Enduring Honesty

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:29:00 +0000

Today, I share a video and a poem. Not quite related.

"Here we've got robin's egg blue, less delicately known as concrete; here, a shade we'll call upchuck mustard, for the sake of enduring honesty."

{ link }

video: nicopolitan
words: i don't wash my hair

The First Rule: Break All The Rules

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:11:00 +0000

This post is a bit different from our usual tear-jerker fare, but it did bring on some unexpected sniffles. On the surface, it looks like just another 'Ten Ways to Blah-Dee-Blah Your Blah-Dee-Blah', but this one... this one's got something.

"Go for the gasps. (...) They are no more ready than you, and perhaps less. Jump in the sandbox now, and start playing full out. Find out just how ready you are."

{ link }

words: tara sophia mohr

image: perplexigirl

Happier

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Do not read this at work.

Do not read this at work unless your boss doesn't mind hiccuping, gasping, gurgling sobs from over the wall of your cube.

But this isn't only sad. I don't make you read things that are only sad. You know that by now.

"You hope the answer is going to be about slaying ten men and Satan, because you’re capable of that. But the answer is, you are going to go home and do the best you can to make a life out of what you've been given."

{ link }

words: finding your voice

image: luis argerich

Sent in by Laura.

On Parenting, Loss, and Taking Off Our Steel-toed Boots

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:11:00 +0000

I cannot stop linking to this woman. Everything she writes makes me feel.

"It’s what most of us have to give a few times over the course of our lives: to love with a mindfully clear sense of purpose, even when it feels outrageous to do so. Even when you’d rather put on your steel-toed boots and scream."

{ link }

words: dear sugar

image: te faire foutre

Always Go to the Funeral

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:32:00 +0000

"In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn't been good vs. evil. Most days my real battle is doing good vs. doing nothing."

{ link }

words: all things considered

image: i will live

How to Get Unstuck

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:46:00 +0000

Bawling.

In my cubicle.

I fucking love this woman.

"She had to want it more than she’d ever wanted anything. She had to grab like a drowning girl... she had to count the years and let them roll by, to grow up and then run as far as she could in the direction of her best and happiest dreams."

{ link }

words: dear sugar

image: restart my heart

On Being Your Mom With Depression

noreply@blogger.com (Laurie Stark) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:16:00 +0000

"This is something that parents aren’t supposed to say out loud. "

{ link }

words & image: moosh in indy

Sent in by Caroline.