April 2012
18 posts
“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.”
—J. Krishnamurti
“Does it break my heart, of course, every moment of every day, into more pieces than my heart was made of, I never thought of myself as quiet. I never thought about things at all. The distance that wedged itself between me and my happiness wasn’t the world, it wasn’t the bombs and burning buildings, it was me, my thinking, the cancer of never letting go, is ignorance bliss, I don’t know, but it’s...
A broken hallelujah.
I’ve been thinking about feeling. How I’m so afraid of it. How I can be overcome by it in one fleeting moment. I can feel it welling up inside me. It leaks from my eyes. I think it has passed but it hasn’t. I watched a life escape… I imagined the joy, but felt the sting. My brain tells me to go on. My heart continues to shut down. I think that must be the greatest...
I
No, no, there is no going back. Less and less you are that possibility you were. More and more you have become those lives and deaths that have belonged to you. You have become a sort of grave containing much that was and is no more in time, beloved then, now, and always. And so you have become a sort of tree standing over a grave. Now more than ever you can be generous toward each day that...
“[Like you, I took the true path to be
half fog, half rumor beneath my feet.]...”
– Thomas Centolella, from “Mentor”, in Views from along the Middle Way
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
John Wesley, in a sermon on poverty and the rights of the poor, talks about the early church and says, “…neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common…And great grace was upon them all; neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices...
I need it.
I’ve always loved nature. Today I realized why. I need it. I need the sun. I need it right where it is-at its exact angle-to keep me alive. I need it to shine to bring me peace. I need it to hide behind the clouds to remind me that I shouldn’t always be comfortable. I need sunrises and sunsets to remind me that both beginnings and ends can be beautiful. I need the wind. I need the...
“The heart and the mind has the shortest distance but has the longest journey.”
– TS Eliot
“Love is not written on paper, for paper can be erased. Nor it is etched on...”
– Jalal Ad-Din Rumi
“Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But...”
– Elizabeth Barret Browning
“Deep in my heart, I’m concealing things that I’m longing to say....”
– Evita
I was bored today. So naturally, I did some...
I am an extremist for love.
“But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice:...
“And how often I’ve wanted to escape to a wilderness where a human hand has...”
– Linda Hogan, Dwellings
Let me be full, Let me be empty.
I haven’t been doing a lot of writing in the past month, but I’ve been doing a lot of running. And I’m tired of running. Running from being empty. Running on empty. I’ve had trouble joining John Wesley in saying this line. “Let me be full”-I can ask God to let me be that any day of the week, but “Let me be empty”? I’m not so sure. Empty...
“The tragedy of love is indifference.”
– W. Somerset Maugham, from The Trembling of a Leaf (via growing-orbits) 