From whence came Her Fearful Symmetry

THE TYGER

by William Blake

TYGER, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

I love both of Audrey Niffinegger's novels, and am in awe of her ability to weave such gorgeous and unique stories. I'm always curious as to what inspires her tales. What, possibly simple, thought blossoms into an entire novel that grips the hearts of its readers from the first chapter? According to an interview my Mom heard, Blake's poem The Tyger inspired Her Fearful Symmetry. A poem whose theme revolves around what it means to live in a world with an undeniable existence of evil and violence, and how a being can be both beautiful and horrible all at once. For those of you who've read Her Fearful Symmetry, I'm sure you'll be able to see the connections, and know which character(s) possess this fearful symmetry.

Fill in the Blank Friday

1. If I could get away somewhere for the weekend I would go to Sydney, obviously, and I would bring my mother and I would make sure Jamie was in the city, too. Magic would clearly be involved since it would take the entire weekend just to get half-way across the world, and I would want ample time to show Mom the sights, eat some mussels and drink entirely too many flat whites. I like when magic is involved.

2. Something I often rant about is everything! True story: I'm a ranter, but my main topics are people's stupid life choices, bad drivers and work drama.

3. One item I need to have in my fridge at all time is milk. I drink a lot of milk and always have some in my fridge. Yogurt, broccoli and apples are on this list as well.

4. My "life-saving" product is either volumizing mousse or mascara...but mascara probably wins because I will not leave the house without it on, and if I was stranded on a desert island I would want to have a few tubes with me.

5. A friend is someone who knows the real you, the good, the bad and the ugly, and loves, appreciates and respects you despite it all. You can fight with a true friend, be brutally honest, and know that at the end of the day that person is still there for you no matter what.

6. If I could write my own blank it would be "If I could be a character in any novel, I would be _____"

7. My favorite kind of art is oil on canvas. I'm a sucker for Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. I love the way layers of oil paints look on canvas and the depth that comes from it. I also love water colors. Both art forms can have a rather romantic feel to them, which is probably why I love them.

A few inches off of the top

Well folks, I finally gave into the urge that has been plaguing me for a couple of months: I chopped off my hair!

I've been quietly toying around with the idea of cutting my hair into more of a pixie and when the day of my hair appointment came, I was more than ready. I've had short hair since high school, and as much as I've enjoyed my bob these past few years, I was craving a cropped 'do again.

This picture isn't the greatest, and I'll work on getting a better one up, but if nothing else you can see that my hair's shorter and you can also see the new color. I have the best hairdresser and I always give her free reign with my color. I've been a bit anti-blonde lately, but she convinced me that the blonde and red would be great for summer, and would also show off the choppy style best.

And, as always, she was right!

"This country immerses you, wraps its stories round you, makes you care about them"

I have a confession: my heart aches when I look at pictures from Australia, both mine and other people's. Sometimes it's the kind of ache that comes from too much happiness crammed into a short amount of time, but sometimes it's an unsettled, unfinished business kind of ache. Sometimes it's a fleeting feeling, but other times it feels as if it starts in my chest and radiates out to the tips of my fingers and toes, consuming every inch of my body for hours at a time.


This sounds dramatic, doesn't it? And perhaps it is, but it's the truth. I've talked about my flair for drama, for feeling emotions deeply, and that more than applies to this subject.


I still haven't started composing my posts about my trip because I haven't been ready to fully invest myself in reliving my life-altering adventure. I feel silly as I type that because it was just a 2 week vacation, right? A vacation that I was really only taking because I wanted to see my best friend. A vacation to a country that was hardly even a blip on my radar for the first 24 years of my life. So why get so worked up? Because something about the entirity of the experience, from traveling alone to going against my control-freak nature in order to embrace whatever came my way, changed me. I'm more my true self now than I was when I left Denver on April 9th. The people who know me best, the ones who can read me like an open book, can vouch for this. I am different; not any better or worse, just changed.


Australia changed me. And, I like the new me, but I still long for the country and the people and the culture that felt so much like home to me.

quote about AUS by Annamaria Weldon

Length and Width

I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
-Diane Ackerman-

To be defined by love.

I'm late to the game in finding Meg Fee's beautiful blog, the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell, but nonetheless, found it I did. And it is beautiful. She has a way with words that I only dream of and her soul-searching posts capture the essence of what so many of us twenty-somethings are going through.

She also has a love of quotes that matches my own.
In reading through her blog, I came across this quote by Zelda Fitzgerald:

I don't want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.

Normally a quote about love and life would instantly pull at me, but not this one. And, my reaction when I read it caught me off guard: I don't like this. I don't want to live incidentally in a world that is consumed first and foremost by love. I want to live. And love. I want to love my life and the pieces that make it a whole, but I don't want it to be controlled by love, whether that be the searching of love, the finding or the maintaining. I want the two to go hand-in-hand, and above all, I want to live my life in whatever way makes me the happiest. I want love, but I don't want to be defined by that love.

I want to be defined by me.

Fill in the Blank Friday

I feel like it's been a while since I played along with Lauren's Friday blanks, but to be perfectly honest I cannot remember exactly when the last time was...before I left for Australia, maybe? No matter, I'm playing today and encourage you all to link up as well!

Happy Friday!

1. People always tell me I look like my mother, even though I see more of my father in my face. My personality is pretty much all Debby, but I physically look more like my father.
(I've never been told I look like a celebrity, by the way)

2. Friends don't let friends make big decisions without first discussing the pros and cons; they don't let friends walk around with food in their teeth or things in their hair.

3. A sunny day is perfect for drinking coffee on the patio, going for a long walk or hike, reading at the park, grabbing a glass of wine and then wandering around Old Town with the girls.

4. My favorite accessory is a fun pair of earrings. I love earrings, and because I have short hair they are usually visible.

5. If I could afford it I would quit my job, pay off whatever officials I needed to in order to get the residency required to live in Australia, move into a killer flat with Jamie, call it my home base and then travel the world. Yep, sounds like an awesome life plan to me.

6. The cure for boredom is to go for a long drive or walk, and to get just a little lost, both in direction and in your thoughts. A good book works, too. As does spontaneous wine nights with friends.

7. I am currently "in like" with If I Die Young by The Band Perry because it references my favorite Tennyson poem, with the idea of a pixie-ish cut (I may chop off my hair this arvo!), Twinings Lady Grey tea, long walks when it's sprinkling outside, avocado and tomatoes on toasted sourdough, etc, etc...