You Are the Blood

I just downloaded this beautiful song from the Castanets (Sufjan has a much longer version that's also good). Hope you like it.



You are the blood
Flowing through my fingers
All through the soil
Up in those trees

You are electricity
And you are light
You are sound itself
And you are flight

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Just thinking about this Frost poem--thought I'd share it:

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold

Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

My Dad

I've thought about starting a series of posts on people who have had a tremendous influence in my life (and/or people who I just plain adore) for a while now. What better time to start than (a few hours after) Father's Day, and with my dear daddy?



This will soon turn into a brag fest. Sorry!

Here are a few things I appreciate about my dad:
1) He's one of the wisest, godliest, kindest people I know.
2) I can talk to him about everything under the sun: theology, music history, linguistics, philosophy, travel, faith crises, psychology, art, medical stuff, literature, and boys--haha. I think he's the most learned person I know, and just easy to talk to. Good combo.
3) He might be the most generous person I know, but doesn't let his left hand know what his right hand is giving.
4) He adores my mom. They have weekly date nights, which is pretty sweet.
5) All my friends say they come to parties at my house to see me, but I know they're actually coming to talk to my dad, because he's so cool. I'm ok with that. I would probably do the same thing in their situation.
6) He's really hard-working: he spends time studying/writing/practicing an instrument every night after work. It's inspiring.
7) He can be hammy--like in big groups of people, just act silly, cracking corny jokes, etc. ;)
8) He makes a killer scavenger hunt, and always has--rhyming riddles and everything.
9) He's a lifelong learner--right now he's listening to a course on the French Revolution from the "Great Courses" series and reading a book on modern art, and taking piano lessons. A true Renaissance man.
10) He knows what's really important: the heart.

Fun facts about my dad:
1) So far, his descendants are 2 sons, 6 daughters and 1 grandson, 2 granddaughters, and 2 granddogs.
2) He's lived on a hippie farm.
3) He's a P.P. (published poet) :)
4) He played lute in the wedding of the owner of Best Buy's daughter, back in the 70s.
5) He brews beer for fun, with George Koontz.

Three things

I ran into my old RUF intern last week at the Greek Festival--Catherine, I forget her last name. We stopped each other to say hi but didn't really get the chance to catch up on each others lives. The last time I'd seen her she was engaged and getting married in the next few months. I was coming out of my first real breakup when we had lunch together a couple times my junior year at Clemson. I'll never forget afternoon at Moe's when she revealed to me the three things Steven Speaks, our campus minister, had told her were necessary to make a relationship work: repentance, forgiveness, and love of other people. Three years later, I'm pretty sure that wisdom is true. Maybe you could condense the three into two: humility and love. But the repentance/forgiveness aspect of a relationship is so beautiful--the constant change and growth, the perpetual emergence of something good, the graciousness it takes both to accept criticism and forgive your debtor, even when it is your best friend.

Boa Sorte/Good Luck

VANESSA DA MATA & BEN HARPER "Boa Sorte (Good Luck)"
Uploaded by Discograph

I heard this song driving through Portugal last year and fell in love with it. Singing are Vanessa da Mata, from Brazil, and our own Ben Harper. Hope you like it!

Cate the Hobo

My "home away from home"

spring is here!

my favorites

Today I decided I wanted to study for my two tests tomorrow OUTSIDE, because, for the first time in five days, it wasn't raining in Greenville, SC! The only problem was that it was too cold and windy to lie on my belly in the sun. So, partly inspired by watching others' outdoorsiness in the Banff Mountain Film Festival over the weekend, I decided to set up my little tent I got for my 17th dream-come-true surprise campout birthday party, and study outside. And, I immediately became the hobo of the Raff household, with my parents coming by saying "knock, knock." I think I'm ok with the fact that I'm still a fifth grader at heart!

I might sleep outside in it tonight!

Isn't it ironic

This article just amazes me. Mick Jagger's ex-wife is being sued for not rewarding the Austrian man who found and returned her platinum ring, worth $254,000, last year. Irony #1) Bianca Jagger is a human rights activist but too stingy to give the guy a tip. Irony #2) She's a human rights activist but owns a ring that costs more than the it would to feed Ethiopia, or for America to fund Doctors Without Borders in Honduras. Irony #3) As a compromise to not giving the Austrian his fair share, she offered to donate the majority of the five percent expected of her to Amnesty International. But she'll keep the ring for herself. And #4) She makes me feel really good about myself. :)