humility and curiosity in support a meaningful life

 

The first is humility. Humility amounts to an understanding 

that the world is not divided into good and bad people, 

but rather it is made up of all manner of individuals, 

each broken in their own way, each caught up in the common

 human struggle and each having the capacity to do both terrible

 and beautiful things. 

If we truly comprehend and acknowledge that we are all imperfect creatures, 

we find that we become more tolerant and accepting of others’ shortcomings

 and the world appears less dissonant, 

less isolating, less threatening.

The other quality is curiosity. If we look with curiosity at people

 who do not share our values, they become interesting rather than threatening. 

As I’ve grown older I’ve learnt that the world and the people in it

 are surprisingly interesting, and that the more you look and listen,

 the more interesting they become. Cultivating a questioning mind, 

of which conversation is the chief instrument, enriches our relationship

 with the world. Having a conversation with someone I may disagree

 with is, I have come to find, a great,

 life embracing pleasure.

~ Nick Cave

with thanks to The Marginalian 

by Maria Popova

Up those stone steps I climb

...

Up those stone steps I climb
Hail this joyful day's return

Into its great shadowed vault I go

Hail the Pentecostal morn

...

The reading is from Luke 24

Where Christ returns to his loved ones

I look at the stone apostles

Think that it's alright for some

...

And I wish that I was made of stone

So that I would not have to see

A beauty impossible to define

A beauty impossible to believe

...

A beauty impossible to endure

The blood imparted in little sips

The smell of you still on my hands

As I bring the cup up to my lips

...

No God up in the sky

No devil beneath the sea

Could do the job that you did, baby

Of bringing me to my knees

...

Outside I sit on the stone steps

With nothing much to do

Forlorn and exhausted, baby

By the absence of you

...

~ Nick Cave

.

It's up in the morning and on the downs

.

It's up in the morning and on the downs

Little white clouds like gambolling lambs

And I am breathless over you

And the red-breasted robin beats his wings

His throat it trembles when he sings

For he is helpless before you

The happy hooded bluebells bow

And bend their heads all a-down

Heavied by the early morning dew

At the whispering stream, at the bubbling brook

The fishes leap up to take a look

For they are breathless over you

Still your hands

And still your heart

Still your face comes shining through

And all the morning glows anew

Still your mind

Still your soul

For still, the fare of love is true

And I am breathless without you

The wind circles among the trees

And it bangs about the new-made leaves

For it is breathless without you

The fox chases the rabbit round

The rabbit hides beneath the ground

For he is defenseless without you

The sky of daytime dies away

And all the earthly things they stop to play

For we are all breathless without you

I listen to my juddering bones

The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs

And I am breathless without you

Still your hands

And still your heart

For still your face comes shining through

And all the morning glows anew

Still your soul

Still your mind

Still, the fire of love is true

And I am breathless without you

~  Nick Cave

.

 
        .