Mixtape Challenge: Living Like Weasels (Side Two) - Plug Into the Pulse

 Side 2: Plug Into that Pulse

Remember Annie Dilliard? We mentioned her essay, “Living Like Weasels” on Side One. Her essay continues…

“The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse. This is yielding, not fighting.”

We are creatures of purpose. We just need to find that purpose. As the Avett Brothers sing in the opening song of this Side 2, “Decide what to be and go be it.”

 Need encouraged, well Jimmy Cliff has it right. “You Can Get It If You Really Want.”

 What is “It?”

 Maybe you’ll paint a masterpiece. Maybe you’ll take a trip, or speak when you have something to say. Maybe you’ll find happiness and stay there.

 We can be Better People. We can help people for no reason. Just to help.

 So, you’re not where you want to be? Then know when to move on. When to get going.

 Just don’t stop, and don’t let anyone else stop you.

 Be a weasel. “A weasel doesn’t “attack” anything; a weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity.”

 Find that single necessity, plug into that pulse, and yield to something better.

 Peace.

Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2LoZBIqMOAaPtmOusesw3r?si=7ab64e57f219489e

Mixtape Challenge: Living Like Weasels

Note: As part of our Facebook Group: Playlist Pandemonium, we are doing monthly Mixtape Challenges where different participants get a topic and 60 minutes to fill with the songs of their choice. I am taking the January prompt – Resolutions. The mixtape can be found on Spotify under my account. I will also share it on the Facebook platform.

 Side 1: We Could, You Know…

 Dear Listener,

 “We could, you know. We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience – even silence – by choice.” Annie Dilliard wrote this line in a personal essay entitled “Living Like Weasels” that appeared in The Fourth Genre edition that we studied in my Creative Nonfiction course at Northern Illinois University circa 2003. It’s the sort of line that rings in my head this time of year, once the giant lighted ball has descended from the sky (I didn’t even see it this year), and we can add another number that will either fit between or as the second bookend of years on our tombstone. But it’s not about the first and the last dates, is it? It’s the charge we put into the string of dates between the start and finish. We reside in the blistering highs and the heartbreaking lows, either swallowed by monotony or embraced by purpose.

 “We could, you know. We can live any we want.”

 So do it! You have this year. 2023. If you’re at the bottom of the hill, begin to climb. Are you carrying the weight of depression? Addiction? Seek help and accept it when offered.

 Need to indulge? Eat It, just like Weird Al encourages. Want to lose weight? Go the Distance!

 It won’t be easy. You’ll reach for that drink when you shouldn’t. Son of a Bitch! Don’t get too lost in chasing the dollar, the grass likely isn’t greener on the other side. Check Your Head and make Changes. Real changes, where they are needed.

 And remember, It’ll Be Better!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3dSMtN86t7HVFEgCzZCUIs?si=920dc7b428354651