Some Mraztastic Wedding Blessings

One of the excellent services provided by wordpress is that it shows you all the search terms people use to find your blog. Once, for example, someone came here after searching for “how to make a mold of a buttcheek”. Best. Search phrase. Ever. I can’t believe I had a post that sort of matched it.

At least once a day though, someone gets here after searching for “Jason Mraz wedding blessings” or “Gibran marriage quotes” or “Mraz wedding song” or something along those lines. As my public service for the week, here’s a little information to help those who want to include a little Jason Mraz, or Kahlil Gibran, when planning their nuptials.

If you are looking for the song Jason Mraz wrote for his sister’s wedding, it’s called God Rests in Reason, although some people have it tagged God Moves Through You. A live version is on Selections for Friends, or you can have a look through archive.org for other versions; I’ve posted the lyrics below. It’s a great song, even if his sister wound up divorced.

The lyrics from that song are based on the book The Prophet, “one of the beloved classics of our time,” according to the dust jacket, and dust jackets are never wrong. It was written by Kahlil Gibran, a poet, philosopher and artist, 1883-1931.

There are a lot of great lines in the book that could be used for a wedding ceremony, as evidenced by the episode of The Wonder Years where Karen has her hippie wedding with Ross Gellar and mom Norma reads this passage:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

And so on. To all of you planning your weddings: Enjoy the book, enjoy the music, enjoy your marriage, and enjoy a happy, healthy, highly Mrazturbationatory life together.

God Rests in Reason

you were born together
and together ye shall be forever
until death should scatter
it wouldn’t matter in the memory of God above
let the wind of heaven dance between you too
allow the space and time to bring you closer to everlasting love
cause God moves
what do you do
God moves through you

when love beckons
his ways are often hard and steep
when his wings unfold
ye yield to all he speaks
the soul it might be hidden there among his pinions
oh you may wear a wound that truly spoke to you
believe in all that voice and follow through
follow so on and on

what do you do when God moves through you
what do you do
say i do
i do

just remember love possesses nothing
nor would it ever be possessed
oh love is love sufficient unto love
and you can figure out the rest

your children will not be your children
they are the daughters and the son of a beginning
they’ll come through your womb but not be coming from you
they will be with you but do not belong to you
you may give them your love but not your thoughts
then they’ll arrive with their own hearts
they’re the coming of angels this blessed season
and then they’ll sing oh how God rests in reason
God rests in reason

so what do you do
ooh when God moves through you
what do you do
say i do
i do

think not you can direct the course of
love itself directs the course allowed
believe not God is in your heart, child
but rather you’re in the heart of God

what do you do
say i do
i do
i do

think not you can direct the course of
love itselfs directs the course allowed
believe not God is in your heart, child
but rather you’re in the heart of God

what do you do
ooh when God moves through you
remember God rests in reason
say i do
i do

Once More, With Mrazlicious Feeling

It’s Lisa’s Greatest Hits Week. This was one of my first posts and is still one of my favorites. It’s not easy trying to sum up the Jason Mraz experience just using words, but I think this comes tongue-tingling-ly close.

Mrazturbation: My Personal Portmanteau (2/28/2007)

It’s been a slow week, so let’s get back to the sex talk, yes?

To be honest, I don’t know where I first heard the word “mrazturbation”. I don’t think I came up with it, but I don’t want to deny it entirely, just in case somebody wants to give me credit.

My friends threw it around a lot in the early Jason Mraz? Who’s Jason Mraz? days, and my friend, Steve, started mrazturbation.com to share the love, and his Mraz-inspired cover art. From there it just morphed into the word we used to describe anything sexyhappy, or crazyartsy, or funnysmart.

For anyone who likes to play with language it’s a hot little word. Because it’s all about the wordplay, right? Nabokov was a genius at it, Dr. Seuss too. And if Jason decided to stop singing for whatever reason, I would be almost as happy if he just kept writing. His Karouac-meets-Calvin and Hobbes-translated-by-Gibran blogs can tame even the most beastly of bad days and put everything right again.

But back to the word of the day. I love the way it sounds, all full and sizzling in my mouth. It doesn’t roll off the tongue by any means, but creates friction with it, forcing you to use every little muscle in your mouth to get it up and out: Mr-azzz-tur-ba-tion.

The idea of a portmanteau is that two words bring their definitions together. They don’t lose their individual meanings, but rather combine them for even greater impact. So what do you get when you combine a smart and sensual curbside prophet with the practice of self-pleasure?

To me, Mrazturbation is the idea of bringing myself a little happiness by entering a Mraz-like state of hopefulness, kindness, sensuality, and intellect. It’s completing an act of selflessness, self-endulgence, or anything in between, depending on my mood. It’s finding one action a day that makes me happy to be me, that makes me think, “Life is really damn good. Bring on the cabana boys.”

Mrazturbation is a little bit of work to get both your mouth and your mind around, but the meaning is so spectacular, the two things melting so smooth and creamy in your soul, it’s like a spiritual fondue that you can dip into and come out that much zestier.

Snuggle me delicious,
Lisa

Jason Mraz, Bringing Literacy Back and Making It Sexy

Oh, Mraz. Dear, sweet, hungry-for-knowledge Mraz. Do you know what makes Jason Mraz so sexy? Other than the freckles and the talent and those long nails calling out for a back to scratch? Jason Mraz reads books. That’s hot.

More specifically, Jason Mraz reads real books, literature even! When he talks books and authors, he’s not dishing about the latest John Grisham or even the Reader’s Digest Jonathan Franzen. (The Corrections? Please.) No, our boy Mraz is laying down some Kahlil Gibran, some J.D. Salinger, some motherloving Stefan Fatsis!

I breathe a little easier knowing that there are readers like Mraz out there, and that he might influence other people to read real books. Sure, about 12 million of us read Harry Potter last month, and that’s an excellent place to start, but the evidence in my workplace is that people, even college-educated, white-collar, highly-paid people, are illiterate.

I work for a large, multi-national corporation that probably makes about $3 billion an hour, give or take a couple billion. Before I started this job I was intimidated by corporate America. I thought only truly clever, sharp people could succeed in the fast-paced world of big business. But really, the head managers here are the same dull, unimaginitive guys who copied my homework in high school and never figured out the difference between ‘to’ and ‘too’, or ‘their’ and ‘they’re’, or ‘yes, that’s a thoughtful and innovative idea’ and ‘you’re a complete ass who shouldn’t be allowed to handle a shopping cart, much less the personal account information of millions of customers’.

In the past few weeks I have received emails containing these sad little attempts at communication:

“I think we should fix the part where credit card is in there because it makes no since.”

“We decided not to do the project due to budget issues, so the questions from last week are mute.” 

And this exchange:
“There’s a placeholder in this document. Do you know what we’re going to put in there, or will that be determined after the next round of edits?”
“It’s a placeholder.”

That one about drove me to drink.

Is literacy really dead? Is it that difficult to teach people to write in full sentences and comprehend subject-verb agreement? Take up the fight, my friends. Read to a child, or a lonely old person. Read a banned book. Read a book that’s never been on any kind of best seller list. Write an entire email without resorting to text message shortcuts. The future of civilization may depend on it.

My tongue curls under my lips,
Lisa

Searching for the Prophet Mraz? Harry Potter? David Tennant? They’re All Right Here.

As much as I enjoy writing for my blog, I think I enjoy checking the stats even more. I mean, I like to see the number of visitors and openly admit to being a bit addicted to my minor rise in popularity over the last couple of weeks (line graphs are a very exciting visual when the right end of the line shoots way up into the blogosphere), but numbers don’t say nearly as much about who comes to the site as the other stats do.

I get a huge kick out of the list of search terms people use to find me. It’s like people are defining who they are and what’s important to them at a specific moment in time in just a few words. And let me tell you, there are some oddballs out there, but there are also people who have the same obsessions I do, and that’s always reassuring.

Here’s a little sample of the phrases that have linked this way and their related posts.

A whole fleet of Ron and Hermione ships have sailed my way, using phrases like:

• ron and hermione get together
• Ron Hermione Deathly Hallows Review
• he must have known you’d always want to come back
• harry potter deathly hallows RON AND HERMIONE
• deathly hallows kiss Ron

Read it: Harry Potter Icons – Dan, Rupert and Emma
Or: Ode to Harry and Ron a.k.a. Y Tu Hermione Tambien

There are also the anti-Epiloguers who seem to be looking for like-minded commentary:

• I didn’t like the Harry Potter epilogue
• alternate endings to harry potter
• bad epilogue harry potter
• 19 years later harry potter i hate it

Please see: Harry Potter and the Epilogue of Controversy

Or just general Harry Potter reviews and spoilers (you people haven’t finished it yet?):

• how does deathly hallows end
• snape and lily in love
• colin creevy dead
• review deathly hallows redemption

Argue with me: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – With Spoilers
Or just follow along: Deathly Hallows: Comments
Or get nostalgic: Colin Creevy Likes to Rock

I thought my Jason Mraz/Kahlil Gibran post would start to taper off in popularity after the biggest wedding day ever, 7/7/07, but marriage season continues with well-wishers hunting for things like:

• the prophet khalil gibran wedding
• kahlil gibran marriage
• Mraz wedding blessings for sister

Plan your vows and toasts here: Jason Mraz/Kahlil Gibran Wedding Blessings

Some of you want to know some odd things about Jason Mraz, and I’m happy to say I know very little about his personal life, although these searches do make me wonder what you’ve heard and why “baby” comes up so often. Meh, things that are none of my business:

• does jason mraz have kids
• jason mraz who does he live with
• Jason Mraz is divorced

Um… I got nothin. Sorry. Read this one just for fun: My “Mraz Does Broadway” Fantasy

Then there are my fellow geeks with their sci-fi fetishes, desparately seeking:

• david tennant in glasses (the glasses angle intrigues me because it comes up at least once a day)
• David Tenant hot wallpaper
• doctor who tennant sexy icons

Drool a bit here: David Tennant Sexes Up Posh Nosh
Raise you blood pressure: Mraz and Tennant: Geeky Lovers, Undercover
Jump on the adorkable bandwagon: Can Mraz and Tennant Blog in Harmony?
Light a few candles: Dangerously Goofy. Boyishly Suave. Totally Foxy.

But it’s always the one or two random inquiries that make me giggle and wonder who these people are… and why I have posts that match their desires:

• macgyver baby name (With thanks to dad-to-be Steve: Selected Mraztastic Baby Names For a Friend)
• butt cheek painting (There’s no excuse for this one: The Idol Worth Watching – down in the P.S.)

Happy Googling.

Throw Yourself a Mraztastic Wedding

It must be wedding season because my post on the Mraz/Gibran wedding blessings is getting hit like crazy. Well good luck to all you happy couples. I’d like to think that any marriage that starts with the Prophet and the Curbside Prophet is bound to be a happy, healthy, sexy one, but hey, an open bar and some comfortable shoes couldn’t hurt either. You’d be suprised just how many things can be fixed with a bottle of rum and some flip flops.

Jason Mraz/Kahlil Gibran Wedding Blessings

One of the excellent services provided by wordpress is that it shows you all the search terms people use to find your blog. Yesterday, for example, someone came here after searching for “how to make a mold of a buttcheek”. Best. Search phrase. Ever. I can’t believe I had a post that sort of matched it.

At least once a day though, someone gets here after searching for “Jason Mraz wedding blessings” or “Gibran marriage quotes” or “Mraz wedding song” or something along those lines. As my public service for the week, here’s a little information to help those who want to include a little Jason Mraz, or Kahlil Gibran, when planning their nuptials.

If you are looking for the song Jason Mraz wrote for his sister’s wedding, it’s called “God Rests in Reason”, although some people have it tagged “God Moves Through You”. A live version is on Selections for Friends, or you can have a look through archive.org for other versions; I’ve posted the lyrics below. It’s a great song, even if his sister wound up divorced.

The lyrics from that song are based on the book The Prophet, “one of the beloved classics of our time,” according to the dust jacket, and dust jackets are never wrong. It was written by Kahlil Gibran, a poet, philosopher, and artist, 1883-1931.

There are a lot of great lines in the book that could be used for a wedding ceremony, as evidenced by the episode of The Wonder Years where Karen has her hippie wedding with Ross Gellar and mom Norma reads this passage:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

And so on. To all of you planning your weddings: Enjoy the book, enjoy the music, enjoy your marriage, and enjoy a happy, healthy, highly Mrazturbationatory life together.

God Rests in Reason

you were born together
and together ye shall be forever
until death should scatter
it wouldn’t matter in the memory of God above
let the wind of heaven dance between you too
allow the space and time to bring you closer to everlasting love
cause God moves
what do you do
God moves through you

when love beckons
his ways are often hard and steep
when his wings unfold
ye yield to all he speaks
the soul it might be hidden there among his pinions
oh you may wear a wound that truly spoke to you
believe in all that voice and follow through
follow so on and on

what do you do when God moves through you
what do you do
say i do
i do

just remember love possesses nothing
nor would it ever be possessed
oh love is love sufficient unto love
and you can figure out the rest

your children will not be your children
they are the daughters and the son of a beginning
they’ll come through your womb but not be coming from you
they will be with you but do not belong to you
you may give them your love but not your thoughts
then they’ll arrive with their own hearts
they’re the coming of angels this blessed season
and then they’ll sing oh how God rests in reason
God rests in reason

so what do you do
ooh when God moves through you
what do you do
say i do
i do

think not you can direct the course of
love itself directs the course allowed
believe not God is in your heart, child
but rather you’re in the heart of God

what do you do
say i do
i do
i do

think not you can direct the course of
love itselfs directs the course allowed
believe not God is in your heart, child
but rather you’re in the heart of God

what do you do
ooh when God moves through you
remember God rests in reason
say i do
i do

Marriage Blessings From Jason Mraz

When my friend, Steve, got married a couple of years ago, Jason Mraz made a short video greeting, wishing him a happy marriage and a fondue pot. This caused me to run out and get him one at the previously blogged about chocolate mecca in Harvard Square, L.A. Burdick. (A chocolate fondue pot is still a fondue pot, and this one came with tasty chocolate… obviously. I really should get paid to plug their stuff, but it’s so damn good I’m happy to do it for free.)

The Prophet Mraz hasn’t personally blessed today’s wedding – that of my friend, Kerry (see the Kerry’s Cooking Blog link to your right) and her lovely finace, Sean (who has no blog that I know of) – but I’ll send the happy couple a few words of Mrazian wisdom on love and eternal happiness on Jason’s behalf, because I’m sure he wishes them well in the sense that he wishes the best for all people who are willing to give the difficult and sometimes painful love and committment thing a try.

Jason wrote God Rests in Reason for his sister’s wedding, and the punch line when he plays it live is that she got divorced just a few months later. The song lives on though, so maybe her failed marriage served a higher purpose, by giving brides and grooms everywhere this beautiful piece of matrimonial music. These are a just few of my favorite lines, influenced by Kahlil Gibran’s book, The Prophet.

just remember love possesses nothing
nor would it ever be possessed
oh love is love sufficient unto love
and you can figure out the rest

your children will not be your children
they are the daughters and the son of a beginning
they’ll come through your womb but not be coming from you
they will be with you but do not belong to you
you may give them your love but not your thoughts
then they’ll arrive with their own hearts
they’re the coming of angels this blessed season
and then they’ll sing oh how God rests in reason
God rests in reason

Congratulations guys. Hope the honeymoon is sizzling.

Mrazturbation, My Personal Portmanteau

It’s been a slow week, so let’s get back to the sex talk, yes? 

To be honest, I don’t know where I first heard the word “mrazturbation”. I don’t think I came up with it, but I don’t want to deny it entirely, just in case somebody wants to give me credit.

My friends threw it around a lot in the early Jason Mraz? Who’s Jason Mraz? days, and my friend, Steve, started mrazturbation.com to share the love, and his Mraz-inspired cover art. From there it just morphed into the word, with many variations, we used for anything sexyhappy, or crazyartsy, or funnysmart.

For anyone who likes to play with language it’s a hot little word. Because it’s all about the wordplay, right? Nabokov was a genius at it, Dr. Seuss too. And if Jason decided to stop singing for whatever reason, I would be almost as happy if he just kept writing. I love his Karouac-meets-Calvin and Hobbes-translated-by-Gibran blogs.

But back to the word of the day. I love the way it sounds, all full and sizzling in my mouth. It doesn’t roll off the tongue by any means, but creates friction with it, forcing you to use every little muscle in your mouth to get it up and out: Mr-azzz-tur-ba-tion.

The idea of a portmanteau is that two words bring their definitions together. They don’t lose their individual meanings, but rather combine them for even greater impact. So what do you get when you combine a smart and sensual curbside prophet with the practice of self-pleasure?

To me, Mrazturbation is the idea of bringing myself pleasure by entering a Mraz-like state of hopefulness, happiness, kindness, sensuality and intellect. It’s completing an act of selflessness, self-endulgence, or anything in between, depending on my mood. It’s finding one action a day that makes me happy to be me, that makes me think, “Life is really damn good. Bring on the cabana boys.”

Mrazturbation is a little bit of work to get both your mouth and your mind around, but the meaning is so spectacular, the two things melting so smooth and creamy in your soul, it’s like a spiritual fondue that you can dip into and come out just that much zestier.

Snuggle me delicious,
Lisa