“Grief isn’t meant to be silenced, to live in the body and be carried alone.”
-Suleika Jaouad
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted
note: I finished reading Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad.
Books I am reading: War and Peace, Matrix by Lauren Groff, The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery and The best American Poetry 2021, Tracy K.Smith, guest editor and David Lehman, series editor.
“What does being ‘true to yourself’ really mean? To Aristotle, it means realizing your potential, and so it is never too late to start to become’true to yourself.’ The English word ‘realize’ has two meanings—becoming conscious of, and turning into reality —and Aristotle’s idea involves both.”
-Edith Hall
Aristotle’s Way
How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life
note: One of my moments of the day. I start reading the book, Aristotle Way, How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall.
“We often struggle with the question of our own life:does it have a purpose? Is there meaning to it? All through our life Christ is calling us. God works through our natural faculties and circumstances of life. If our course of life is to be changed, it must be from within.”-John Henry Newman
“I think we’re creative all day long. And we have to have an appointment to have that work out on the page.”
-Mary Oliver
Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills—
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.
Then he wants to use himself and things
So that they stand in the glow of ripeness.
It doesn’t matter whether he knows what he serves:
Who serves best doesn’t always understand.
-Czeslaw Milosz
note: A poem by Czeslaw Milosz quoted by Parker J. Palmer in his book On the Brink of Everything, the book I’m currently reading.
“In Japan there is a kind of reverence for the art of mending. In the context of the tea ceremony there is no such thing as failure or success in the way we are accustomed to using those words. A broken bowl would be valued precisely because of the exquisite nature of how it was repaired, a distinctly Japanese tradition of kintsugi, meaning to “to patch with gold”. Often, we try to repair broken things in such a way as to conceal the repair and make it “good as new.” But the tea masters understood that by repairing the broken bowl with the distinct beauty of radiant gold, they could create an alternative to “good as new” and instead employ a “better than new” aesthetic. They understood that a conspicuous, artful repair actually adds value. Because after mending, the bowl’s unique fault lines were transformed into little rivers of gold that post repair were even more special because the bowl could then resemble nothing but itself. Here lies that radical physical transformation from useless to priceless, from failure to success. All of the fumbling and awkward moments you will go through, all of the failed attempts, all of the near misses, all of the spontaneous curiosity will eventually start to steer you in exactly the right direction.”
-Teresita Fernández, sculptor
quoted by Maria Popova in Brain Pickings
“To set on a pilgrimage is to throw down a challenge to everyday life…The naked glitter of a sacred mountain stirs the imagination; the adventure of self conquest has begun…. pilgrimage is always an inward journey— …You needn’t don a hairshirt for obstacles enough will erupt. But by attending to them now—openness, attentiveness, and responsiveness are the essence of pilgrimage—you will be able to surmount them by yielding to them in the way that life always requires that we yield to it.
Dawn is breaking. It’s time to head out.”
by Huston Smith, from his Foreword to the Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau
Psalm 51:19
“My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.”
note: I found this plant or weeds growing between the cracks of the concrete walkway.
. . . Prayer is a way of connecting with our source. It is about being centered, grounded, mindful of the holy, the presence of the sacred and the precious. . . . Prayer can help us to connect with the poor with open eyes and hearts. It is prayer that can allow us to educate with patience, love and understanding. It is prayer that can enable us to move to a simpler lifestyle. And it is prayer that will allow us to do this with conviction and joy.
And whether or not we pray is as obvious as whether or not we have put our clothes on. For example, the compulsive, frantic, angry, cynical, unintegrated rambling from project to project—even from peace project to peace project—may speak of good intentions, but also of an uneasy and untended inner life. It is possible . . . to do much harm because we have not taken the time to pray. . . .”
-Jack Jezreel
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
“I’m wearing googles and a face mask. Dad was super-bossy about what we had to bring with us-proper Arctic gear, Puggle-and now with the broken-glass air I’m glad.” (Her name is Ruby but her father calls her Puggle. She is 10 years old and deaf).
“I stop talking because I’m a fail, I’m frightened when I talk with my mouth-voice…It’s like I’m not there anymore. When I talk with my mouth-voice I disappear.”-Rosamond Lupton, Quality of Silence.
The book, Quality of Silence by Rosamond Lupton, is a thriller and a love story.
note: I look up puggle in the internet. Puggle is a baby echidna but baby platypus is also called puggle.
Other names for baby animals ,courtesy of:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/48847/11-lesser-known-names-baby-animals
Baby Hare: Leveret
Baby hawk: Eyas
Baby Jellyfish: Ephyra
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