recommended

A refreshing vision our intimate connection with each other

and life itself.

~  by Gregory Boyle 

 

the art of dying - training for nonviolence

Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, 

so one must learn the art of dying in the training for nonviolence. 

Violence does not mean emancipation from fear, 

but discovering the means of combating the cause for fear. 

The votary of nonviolence has to cultivate the capacity for sacrifice 

of the highest type in order to be free from fear. 

He reckons not if he should lose his land, his wealth, his life. 

Whoever has not overcome all fear cannot practice nonviolence to perfection. 

~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

art by picasso

the chance of humming

A

man

standing on two logs in a river

might do all right floating with the current

while humming in the

now.

Though

if one log is tied to a camel,

who is also heading south along the bank - at the same pace -

all could still be well

with the 

world

unless the camel

thinks he forgot something, and

abruptly turns upstream,

then

uh-oh.

Most minds

do not live in the present

and can stick to a reasonable plan; most minds abruptly turn

and undermine the

chance

of

humming.

~ Rumi

translation by Daniel Ladinsky

from Love Poems from God

watercolor by Kim Novak

Love

...

Love is the strongest force the world possesses,
and yet it is the humblest imaginable

...

~ Mahatma Gandhi

mansion

So it came time
for me to cede myself
and I chose
the wind
to be delivered to

The wind was glad
and said it needed all
the body
it could get
to show its motions with

and wanted to know
willingly as I hoped it would
if it could do
something in return
to show its gratitude

When the tree of my bones
rises from the skin I said
come and whirlwinding
stroll my dust
around the plain

so I can see
how the ocotillo does
and how saguaro-wren is
and when you fall
with evening

fall with me here
where we can watch
the closing up of day
and think how morning breaks

~ A. R. Ammons

art by Jill Kuhn

 with thanks to Death Deconstructed