I will be the answer At the end of the line I will be there for you While you take the time In the burning of uncertainty I will be your solid ground I will hold the balance If you can't look down
If it takes my whole life I won't break, I won't bend It will all be worth it Worth it in the end Cause I can only tell you what I know That I need you in my life When the stars have all gone out You'll still be burning so bright
Cast me gently Into morning For the night has been unkind Take me to a Place so holy That I can wash this from my mind The memory of choosing not to fight
If it takes my whole life I won't break, I won't bend It will all be worth it Worth it in the end 'Cause I can only tell you what I know That I need you in my life When the stars have all burned out You'll still be burning so bright
Cast me gently Into morning For the night has been unkind
When deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive...
Forgiveness does not change the past. But it does enlarge the future
-Mary Karen Read
Who is Mary Karen Read?
Mary Karen Read is just one of the 32 people who were shot dead at two locations on the Virginia Tech university campus in 2007. At least 30 of them were killed by 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui.
Mary Karen Read, a 19-year-old freshman majoring in interdisciplinary studies, was best known for her smile. It even earned her an award.
"She actually won 'Best Smile' for the band superlatives during senior year," said Jessica Berrios, 19, a former classmate at Annandale High School in Virginia. "She always had a smile on her face, and she was always giggling, especially with her best friends. Even during times of stress, she always had a smile on her face."
Ms. Berrios said Ms. Read played clarinet and wanted to become an elementary school teacher. She also loved baking. "I loved it when she baked cookies because they were heavenly," Ms. Berrios said.
Amy Mathis, another former classmate, called Ms. Read "a warm and friendly person," who stood out in a class of about 500 students.
"She was always inclusive. She was a beautiful person that way," said Ms. Mathis, a freshman at the University of Richmond. "She never really meant to exclude anyone. She was always that girl you could talk to even if you hadn't talked to her in a while. That was one of her best traits and it separated her from a lot of people. She never really put up a wall."
Ms. Mathis said the news of Ms. Read's death shook everyone in her town.
"When it happened to her it seemed to happen to the whole Annandale community," she said. "She was, I think, one of the more pivotal people in our class, a strong representative of who we were."
A poem was posted at the top of a Facebook page created in her memory -- and of course, it revolved around her award-winning smile.
"Mary was a beautiful person/Her smile made the sun's beauty envious She was a great friend/a gorgeous angel/and she is in heaven/watching over us."
I got this from Ping Medina's blog Strawberry Shortcake: How to Love a Woman (and All You Will Ever Need To Know) [Jan. 14th, 2009|11:45 am]
From page 100 of Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood", my 2nd favorite book from the author. :)
“… So I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I was still in elementary school at that time — fifth or sixth grade — but I made up my mind once and for all.”
“Wow,” I said. “And did your search pay off?”
“That’s the hard part,” said Midori. She watched the rising smoke for a while, thinking. “I guess I’ve been waiting so long I’m looking for perfection. That makes it tough.“
“Waiting for the perfect love?”
“No, even I know better than that. I’m looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you’re doing and run out and buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don’t want it anymore and throw it out the window. That’s what I’m looking for.”
“I’m not sure that has anything to do with love,” I said with some amazement.
“It does,” she said. “You just don’t know it. There are times in a girl’s life when things like that are incredibly important.”
“Things like throwing strawberry shortcake out the window?”
“Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. ‘Now I see, Midori. What a fool I’ve been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for strawberry shortcake. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I’ll go out and buy you something else. What would you like? Chocolate mousse? Cheesecake?’”
“So then what.”
“So then I’d give him all the love he deserves for what he’s done.”
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Back then I had the perfect selfishness in mind. I figured people had to work so hard to deserve someone. I kinda admit I'm guilty of making lives miserable.
But now that I'm 23 and gravity has pulled me enough, I think I am now the girl who'll ask for nothing, not even a strawberry shortcake. And even if I ask for one, I want it for sharing.
And its amazing that even if I'm already the opposite, things still doesn't fit.