should be writing

I'm 99% certain I already posted this song, and I was going to just reblog it. But Tumblr search fails again. So I'm making a new post. Maybe it will bring the older post out of hiding.

From the Wikipedia article:

Waulking songs (Scottish Gaelic: Òrain Luaidh) are Scottish folk songs, traditionally sung in the Gaelic language by women while fulling (waulking) cloth. This practice involved a group of women, who traditionally prepared cloth, rhythmically beating newly woven tweed or tartan cloth against a table or similar surface to lightly felt it and shrink it to better repel water. Simple, beat-driven songs were used to accompany the work.

This song has been translated to English. It makes me cry happy tears every time I listen to it, thinking about all the generations of humans (going back to at least the old stone age) who have spun fibers and made cloth to keep us all warm and safe -- everything from winter coats to ships' sails.

Lyrics:

White the sheep that gave the wool, Green the pastures where they fed. Blue and scarlet side by side -- Bless the warp and bless the thread.

May the charm of lasting life Be upon your flocks in full. From the hill where they rest May they rise both whole and well.

Bless the man who wears this cloth. May he wounded never be. From the bitter cold and frost, May this cloth protection be.

Bless the children warmed within. Three times three our love enfold. Peace and plenty may they find. May they grow both wise and bold.

Now is waulked the web we've spun. Winter's storms may rage in vain. Bless the work by which we've won Comfort from the wind and rain.

#I don't have space in my thesis to write about this but I'm gonna have to write a paper or sth because damn

not to be massively self-interested but the fics i truly love the most & i think about all the time are my own. i write things i wanna read & the stories i want to think about so. yeah.

but more seriously, i've read a Lot of fic over the years & honestly the ones that stick with me are the ones that my friends write. i see & hear them in those stories & i love my friends, i love reading their words. there's nothing better in all the world than that. im sure there are more but here is a selection:

turning sun into sugar, spinning straw into gold by @gohandinhand

warrior nun Canon divergent from the end of 2x02; what if they didn’t get called back to the fight, but had to find a new place to hide away, train, and fall in love? AKA a thinly veiled excuse to write a love letter to the pnw - They’re different here, again, off-duty and alone together through the rapidly shortening afternoons. In Switzerland they’d had this only for stolen moments, cradled in the refuge of a dark bedroom. Here, nestled in the safety of the trees and a sky shuttered with clouds, the intimacy of the night bleeds forward into the day.

I Think I Like You (Maybe More Than I Should) by @emilyjunk

mean girls Cady’s junior year of college, she finds herself sitting in a film elective next to world’s hottest girl, Regina George. But when she panics and accidentally tells her ex-boyfriend Aaron that Regina is her girlfriend, she’s thrust into a situation she didn’t expect, and Regina won’t let her forget it. A Fake Dating AU

let me be a little less liminal by @whatwordsmiss

kpdh Set after the IDOL awards, the Honmoon decides to give Rumi another shot at a perfect life—no matter how many times it takes to get it right. But as Rumi gets lost within the spinning fractals of realities, her girls (her girls) fight against fate to save her.   or: the AU AU

bite risk by @polytrixaf

kpdh known affectionately as the “rabies rumi” fic. i promise she doesn’t actually get rabies.

short fuse if you light my fire by lescousinsdangereux

tags by @gohandinhand