Joyas Voladoras By: Brian Doyle

              It seems that everything I read in this class I never understand. I guess this is really an understatement because I always end up loving and understanding practically everything I read and go home to rave to my parents about it. I honestly thought the entire writing piece was a research essay. A really good one too I might add! It was so detailed and described well. There were a few parts that really spoke to me. I really liked the part when it’s talking about the Blue Whale’s heart. I never really understood how big a whale really is. For a human being to be able to walk through the heart of an animal seems so surreal to me. I have to admit I kind of want to try) without dying of course)! I also loved how the author described the magnificent colors the humming bird can have. It seems almost impossible to describe such beautiful colors, and yet he seemed to have been able to do it, to get me the reader to know exactly what color he was meaning really mesmerized me.

 I happen to love the last paragraph too. It seems to sum up some of the best things and worst things in life. The sentence “we are utterly open with no one in the end—not a mother and father, not wife or husband, lover, not child, not friend.” Is so brutally honest and made me almost rethink things. What is the point of putting yourself out there, making friends, going on dates, sharing the good things and the burdens in your life with others if in the end, “We live alone in the house of the heart.”?  Brian also seems to state the wonders in life. For example “a child’s apple breath”. To me the thought of smelling someone’s breath kind of sickens me. I’m just not in that point in my life where i know what a baby’s breath smells like. I guess the feeling different if it’s your child. The sentence that really got me was about the cats. “a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, The brush of your mother’s papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair, the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children.”  I know it’s a lot to take in. The part about the cat made me really.....sad. I don’t know what else to call it. I don’t even like cats, that’s why I don’t understand why I got upset. But again I guess it’s the reality that makes me so angry. The second part of the sentence gave me the worst vision. My mom was on her death bed and she was speaking her last words, taking her last breathes, her heart beating its last few beats, and her running her hand through my hair much like her own. My mom is my best friend. I don’t always tell her that, I get angry with her often too. But she is the most important woman figure I have in my life (duhh, I mean  she’s my mom) but a lot of people don’t even have a mom or don’t even have a good relationship.  Then the part about my dad. I feel that my dad and I are best friends. He was always around more than my mom. It’s not that my mom wasn’t around; she was just at work more. I have no idea what I would do without my wonderful parents!

Something worth Knowing!

There are many important lessons in life. I believe that life offers its biggest challenge its self. I also believe that it’s important to know how to communicate. What I mean is, In school you’re taught how to talk, read and write. But you cannot be taught to how to speak your feelings or read someone else’s. You are not taught to read “between the lines”, or write what you really feel. These skills you just need to find within yourself. Sometimes you need to just let your conscience take over. That’s what I’m doing as I write, right now. I speak my mind inside my head and my hands just follow. Sometimes what I write doesn’t even make any sense. But it’s important to know how to let your mind wonder but still get where you need to go. I don’t really know what I’m trying to get across while writing this tough. I guess you just need to……to…..wonder, and open up. This skill isn’t something you can be taught, it just happens.