That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that can still ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.

~ Leonard Cohen

On the Theory of the Big Bang as the Origin of the Universe

I.

What banged?

II.

Before banging

how did it get there?

III.

When it got there

where was it?

~ Wendel Berry

from 'The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci'

.

I cannot forbear to mention among these precepts a new device for study which, although it may seem but trivial and almost ludicrous, is nevertheless extremely useful in arousing the mind to various inventions. And this is, when you look at a wall spotted with stains, or with a mixture of stones, if you have to devise some scene, you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes, beautified with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and hills in varied arrangement; or again you may see battles and figures in action; or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects, which you could reduce to complete and well drawn forms. And these appear on such walls confusedly, like the sound of bells in whose jangle you may find any name or word you choose to imagine.
.

~ translated by Jean Paul Richter

"oh please, oh please come out and play."

We have not come here to take prisoners

But to surrender ever more deeply
to freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
to hold ourselves hostage from love. Run, my dear,
from anything that may not strengthen
your precious budding wings,

Run like hell, my dear,
from anyone likely to put a sharp knife
into the sacred, tender vision
of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
those aspects of obedience
that stand outside of our house
and shout to our reason
"oh please, oh please
come out and play."

For we have not come here to take prisoners,
or to confine our wondrous spirits,
But to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom,
and Light!

~ Hafiz

Spring paints the countryside.
Cypress trees grow even more beautiful,
but let's stay inside.

Lock the door.
Come to me naked.
No one's here.


~ Rumi

since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom

lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
-the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other:then
laugh,leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis



~ e.e.cummings




.

When I'm with you we stay up all night

When I'm with you
we stay up all night

When you're not here
I can't get to sleep

Thank god for these two insomnias
and the difference between them.

~ Rumi

A Blessing of Angels

May the angels in their beauty bless you.

May they turn toward you streams of blessing. 

May the Angel of Awakening stir your heart

To come alive to the eternal within you,

To all the invitations that quietly surround you. 

May the Angel of Healing turn your wounds

Into sources of refreshment. 

May the Angel of the Imagination enable you

To stand on the true thresholds,

At ease with your ambivalence

And drawn in new directions

Through the glow of your contradictions. 

May the Angel of Compassion open your eyes

To the unseen suffering around you. 

May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places

Where your life is domesticated and safe,

Take you to the territories of true otherness

Where all that is awkward in you

Can fall into its own rhythm. 

May the Angel of Eros introduce you

To the beauty of your senses

To celebrate your inheritance

As a temple of the holy spirit. 

May the Angel of Justice disturb you

To take the side of the poor and the wronged. 

May the Angel of Encouragement confirm you

In worth and self-respect,

That you may live with the dignity

That presides in your soul. 

May the Angel of Death arrive only 

When your life is complete

And you have brought every given gift

To the threshold where its infinity can shine. 

May all the Angels be your sheltering

And joyful guardians.

~ John O'Donohue

The Gardener

...
No, my friends, I shall never be an
ascetic, whatever you may say.
I shall never be an ascetic if she
does not take the vow with me.
It is my firm resolve that if I
cannot find a shady shelter and a
companion for my penance, I shall
never become an ascetic.
...
No, my friends, I shall never leave
my hearth and home, and retire into
the forest's solitude, if rings no merry
laughter in its echoing shade and if
the end of no saffron mantle flutters
in the wind; if its silence is not
deepened by soft whispers.
I shall never be an ascetic.
...
~ Rabindranath Tagore


.

from the Tao Teh Ching

...

There was something
formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
...

Solitary. Unchanging.

Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.
...
It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.
...
The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great
Man is great.
These are the four great powers.
...
Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe.
The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.
...

~ Lao-tzu

from Don Quixote

...
"It seems to me," said Sancho, "that the knights who did all these things were driven to them... but... why should you go mad? What lady has rejected you?
"That is exactly it," replied Don Quixote, "that's just how beautifully I've worked it all out - because for a knight errant to go mad for good reason, how much is that worth? My idea is to become a lunatic for no reason at all."
...
~ Miguel de Cervantes

.

An Embarrassment

...

"Do you want to ask

the blessing?"

...

"No If you do,

go ahead."

...

He went ahead:

his prayer dressed up

...

in Sunday clothes

rose a few feet

...

and dropped with a soft

thump.

...

If a lonely soul

did ever cry out

...

in company its true

outcry to God,

...

it would be as though

at a sedate party

...

a man suddenly removed his clothes

...

and took his wife

passionately into his arms.

...

~ Wendell Berry

.

No man can be said to be perfectly happy

...

No man can be said to be perfectly happy 

that runs the risk of disappointment;

which is the case of every man 

that fears or hopes for anything.

...

~ Seneca

.

The body

...

The body

is a single creature, whole,

its life is one, never less than one, or more,

so is its world, and so 

are two bodies in their love for one another

one. In ignorance of this

we talk ourselves to death.

...

~ Wendell Berry

.

Give it Time

The river is of the earth

And it is free. It is rigorously

Embanked and bound,
And yet is free.  “To hell

With restraint,” it says.

“I have got to be going.”

It will grind out its dams.

It will go over or around them.

They will become pieces
 ...
~ Wendell Berry