“There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over any encounter, and to extract is juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it…” -Mary Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
Month: February 2015
start from the beginning
I was born different, planted different,
a corn among asparagus
“I know how we’re perceived.
I know how people look at us.”
I made mistakes, ran from the law.
My mother loved me, sent me to a retreat
A light came, shone on me,
I realized I had a strength inside myself.
I stopped running. The bends
straightened, I saw a clearing far away.
I looked at children
I wanted to see their beginnings,
like where I was before,
how they will change.
Pride is precious jewel.
I owed something I wanted to return
to the children, to my mother.
note: quotations and ideas from a young man interviewed by and interviewing the president.
link:http://www.npr.org/2015/02/27/389306826/obama-to-ambitious-teen-you-have-this-strength-inside-yourself
kind of strength
“We are always putting the pieces together without knowing the picture ahead of time. I have been with many people in times of profound loss and grief when an unsuspected meaning begins to emerge from the fragments of their lives. Over time, this meaning has proven itself to be durable and trustworthy, even transformative. It is a kind of strength that never comes to those who deny their pain.”-Rachel Naomi Remen
note: excerpts from Kitchen Table Wisdom,VI Embracing Life, by Rachel Naomi Remen. She relates a story about the relationship of putting together a jigsaw puzzle and life.
a taste of wine
A day of marbles and a ball of rubber bands
bouncing and rolling on the floor
laughing children tobogganing on summer grass.
I watch the crescent moon surrounded by a thousand stars
wondering if you are listening to Chopin’s nocturnes
and dreaming.
The thoughts are far apart
and so dissimilar
is it time to blend the wines?
understanding
We ran to the river
flooded after the rain
full, swift, and dangerous.
We were young,gallant, naughty ,
and extravagant with laughter.
We knew when not to dare.
note:While browsing National Geographic online I came across an offer of a new book,
Life from Scratch, by Sasha Martin, to be released on March 3rd. Her story reminded me of my childhood.I requested Mrs. Abstract to order the book for me. The author has a youtube video to introducing the book.
link: http://youtu.be/o8nNDWKXM2o
Sasha Martin has a blog also :http://globaltableadventure.com/about/
what poverty means
“God sees all the many kinds of suffering in the world. The world tends to define poverty and riches simply in terms of economics. But poverty has many faces–weakness, dependence, or humiliation. Essentially, poverty is a lack of means to accomplish what one desires, be it lack of money, relationships, influence, power, intellectual ability, physical strength, freedom, or dignity. Scriptures promise that God will take care of such people, because they know they have to rely on God.”
-Richard Rohr
note: from:
Adapted from Gospel Call for Compassionate Action (Bias from the Bottom)in CAC Foundation Set (CD, MP3 download);
and Job and the Mystery of Suffering
(published by Crossroad Publishing Company), p. 126
a way to live
“I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can…I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude.”
-Oliver Sacks
note: Oliver Sacks wrote an article in the NY Times after finding out his ocular melanoma has metastasized to his liver.
what love means
“If anyone who loves me, will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our home with him…For when you have Christ you are rich and he is sufficient for you. He will provide for you and supply your every need…”-Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ
note: a prayer I meditate on everyday.
Ash Wednesday
“Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood,
For the straightforward path had been lost.”
-Dante, Canto 1, Divine Comedy
photo: on the door, Washington National Cathedral, Washington,D.C.
“make it work”
“Take the high road. No matter how much strife and consternation you face, no matter how much you want to shout and scream, take the high road. If you want to write an angry e-mail, write it but don’t send it. It’s based on my experience that whenever I have acted out in some manner, I have always regretted it. When I’ve taken the high road, I’ve never regretted it.”-Tim Gunn
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/tim-gunns-advice-for-making-it-work/?_r=0
note: photo taken when Mrs. Abstract and I visited Washington D.C. last November, 2014
edgarone2
simpleimages2 