Impressionists

“Youth is materialistic. Now I know that great men have no other function in life than to help us to see beyond appearances: to relieve us of some of the burden of matter-to ‘unburden’ ourselves, as the Hindus would say.”-Jean Renoir, from his book, Renoir, My Father

Mrs. Abstract and I just saw the movie, Renoir, and our friend, Margarita, sent me the book, Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir, which I just started reading.

hope

she loves me, she loves me not

how to learn

“The Inner Game approach to learning is based on a fundamental and powerful principle of change. I call it ‘law of awareness’. In simplest form, this law states that if you want to change something, first increase your awareness of the way it is. In a more concise form:Awareness itself is curative. Whatever helps to increase awareness of what is will promote learning; whatever hides or distorts awareness of what is will block or distort learning.”-W.Timothy Galley, The Inner Game of GOLF

what the ice says

“The ice-cap itself was a siren singing me back to Greenland, its walls of blue sapphire and sheer immensity always beguiling. Part jewel, part eye, part lighthouse, part recumbent monolith,the ice is a bright spot on the upper tier of the globe where the world’s purse strings have been pulled tight, nudging the tops of three continents together. “-Gretel Ehrlich, This Cold Heaven, Seven Seasons in Greenland

moment of arrival

You have experienced life at its highest

and its lowest

are you surprised that you can love so much

and suffer so much?

You can extend happiness to everything

-a pair of running shoes, sounds

of sonnets read, laughter while flying kite,

shrimp on the grill, a chain saw.

You have arrived at the moment

that you have created

your mind filled with clarity

-a river joining the sea.

before the time comes

“They say that life passes before your eyes when you die. If I’m going to squeeze the last drop of humanness out of this life, I hope it also passes through my heart.”- David Blistein, David’s Inferno, My Journey through the Dark Wood of Depression

like a river

“May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing it and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Tightening grip

Pain from falls is pain

pain of loss is sadness

losing a friend binds all losses

a rope of mourning and grief

tightening stages, a morning fog

that never seems to fade.

Even the angels cry.

why question

“Why should you mock anybody’s endurance or their means of survival? You, who’ve never faced death or even danger?”- Shirley Hazzard

note: from The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

ouch!