Today We Escape

I love the way Nazario Graziano's collages capture those pure, youthful emotions that we all have felt and still feel. There's this innocent joy that's present in his work, and it's beautiful.

To buy prints or check out more of his work, visit: 
http://www.society6.com/studio/nazariograziano/store

A Weekend of Beautiful Things

Somehow, when I drop a letter in this little yellow tube, it is transported to far away places. I like to think it's magic... or owls.

Few forms of communication are more meaningful than receiving hand-written letters from friends.

After two months of cereal and fruit for breakfast, this greasy sandwich was beautiful, indeed.

You are being watched...

... by angels...

... and dogs.

There are buildings that stand, impossibly balanced, blazing blue on blue,

and children dream of conquering savage seas, sailing far beyond the horizon.

New Old

Free

Yesterday I was sitting on a bench in the city where I usually have lunch. The bench is on one of the main streets in Barcelona, Passeig De Gracia. Being on such a street, there are usually great opportunities for people watching and it’s as nice a place as any to have my daily bocadillo. Yesterday was windy. I sat alone on the bench, and the chill sea-wind bitterly pierced my cardigan. I sat, listening to a lonesome song about lost love, enjoying the moment, but a little off put by the cold.

            Then I saw a girl walking up the sidewalk with a sign in her hands. “Free hugs,” it read. As she passed me she noticed me on the bench. She smiled. I smiled. Her eyes seem to ask if I wanted a hug. What could I do but nod? I stood and we embraced for a moment. Then she turned and kept walking up the busy street, and I sat back down on my bench. I sat back down and couldn’t help but smile.

            There is a certain cliché corniness to the “free hugs” signs, but there is still something so truly fresh and life-giving about them. When you see one, you have to smile, and if you humble yourself and receive one, you realize the true power of the human embrace. To be held, for just a moment, by another person, another heart throbbing with life, is more powerful than we admit.

            I sat down, I forgot about the cold wind whipping by, and I smiled. I just smiled.

The Sacred Family

Tonight I saw the holy place

with eerie spires 

silent reminders

to skyward turn my weary face.

I was walking far from home...

where the prayers run like weeds along the road.

Not long ago I, with some friends, spent a good deal of time wandering aimlessly through the boonies of bologna. Here's a brief memory of our walk.


Walking Far From Home from Denny Moody on Vimeo.

Music: Iron&Wine - Walking Far From Home

Sunday Beauty

Today I walked to the edge of town where a great labyrinth grew from the dirt...

 and i lost myself in its many weaving paths and dark corners...

but i saw an angel, and she led me out...

and then I found a great letter, collapsed, like language meant nothing and we could speak with our minds and our smiles...

 and then i walked home, using my newfound telepathy as best I could.

Valencia Yarn Bombing

There was once a boy who lived in a dark city. When his eyes could no longer bear the sight of his grey surroundings he set off to color the stone skin of the town. On every steel chain and iron barricade he gently wrapped brightly colored yarn around the rough and cold material, until on every street, in every corner of the city, there was a small fire of life, like a flower in Guernica. 

I am...

... 

Vicarious Vision #1

I've decided to try to post a photo every day while I'm here in Barcelona, just to give you a taste of the things I randomly see and find beautiful, to give you my eyes for a moment, to give you a vicarious vision.

Here's what i saw today:

a few hasty words scribbled on a train ride

It’s raining outside. And inside. But I’d rather be walking in the rain than sleeping in it. And my mind is like A Million Little Pieces, but none of it is fiction, except the thoughts that will never be. And “is there time to follow just one desire?” And I’m sorry, with red eyes I’m sorry for things said and unsaid.  Am I strong enough?  And I might get kicked off the train, but that’s the least of my concerns. And i’m falling back into my old high school-overdramatized-emo-poetry-wannabe-romantic style of writing, but I don’t care. I don’t. And maybe, like Max, I’ll make it back home, but it won’t be without playing, without fighting with a few Wild Things first, without scraping my knee and getting lost and probably getting hurt.

Meet Cal...

 my new trendy calculator from the Chinese bazaar across the street.

An Italian Weekend

This weekend I went to visit one of my dearest friends, Julianna, who is studying in Florence. We ate well under her motto of "No carb left behind", we saw many beautiful things, and we got lost, so very, very lost.

To get a passionate and wonderfully written taste of her life in Florence go to:

http://mansionofbeautifulthoughts.blogspot.com/

Figueres & Tarragona

One of my favorite things about Spain is that there is a seemingly limitless number of quaint and fantastic towns waiting to be discovered only a few euro and a couple hours away. Last weekend I visited Figueres, home to the Dali museum. This weekend I spent a day exploring the warm seaside town of Terragona, a city of Roman heritage and the home of some incredibly un-ruined ruins.

Figueres...

Tarragona...