At peace

Today's a good day. I'm not smoking, my mind is in a good place, and I got a great night's sleep. Nothing more is needed. Thank you, God.

Thinking of Suzanne, and smiling

"Anam Cara" in Gaelic means "soul-friend", a lovingly stern companion to whom you can, in stringent honesty, unburden your heart as you move toward enlightenment. What a beautiful concept, and how very much like the Irish to put the poetry into a definition of marriage.

A mindfulness reminder...

When I'm anxious it's because I'm living in the future. When I'm depressed it's because I'm living in the past. ~ Shaena Strubing

A morning prayer

On Waking

I give thanks for arriving
Safely in a new dawn,
For the gift of eyes
To see the world,
The gift of mind
To feel at home
In my life,
The waves of possibility
Breaking on the shore of dawn,
The harvest of the past
That awaits my hunger,
And all the furtherings
This new day will bring.

-- from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, by John O'Donohue

From a Celtic poet

"Music is what language would love to be if it could". - John O'Donohue

Forgive some sinner...

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."— H. L. Mencken

Oddly, I first heard this on one of the episodes of Season 5 of "The Wire".

Compassion

"Compassion is our mandate. It is, and must be, the purpose for which we all live."

— Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

Success

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To give of one’s self; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - This is to have succeeded."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Entertaining??

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."—Aristotle (via ageofreason)

Sure, buy it a drink, maybe even dinner, but don’t take it home with you.

Be earth now...

"Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins

The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like
withered leaves.

Through the empty branches the sky
remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under the sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you."

Rainer Maria Rilke

From the Book of Hours II, 1

Election 2012

Donald Trump reportedly told George Stephanopolous that he’s considering running for president in 2012 and that he’ll make a decision by next June.

And yesterday, it was reported that Sarah Palin has opined that if she runs in 2012 she will be able to beat Barack Obama.

Voters now are eager to hear of the plans of other potential candidates, most especially Peter Pan, Sasquatch, and the reclusive Amelia Earhart

Being Present

"Nature offers us a thousand simple pleasers- Plays of light and color, fragrance in the air, the sun’s warmth on skin and muscle, the audible rhythm of life’s stir and push- for the price of merely paying attention. What joy! But how unwilling or unable many of us are to pay this price in an age when manufactured sources of stimulation and pleasure are everywhere at hand. For me, enjoying nature’s pleasures takes conscious choice, a choice to slow down to seed time or rock time, to still the clamoring ego, to set aside plans and busyness, and to simply to be present in my body, to offer myself up."

— Lorraine Anderson

Stories

"The universe is made of stories,
not atoms.

— Muriel Rukeyser, Poet (1913 - 1980)

"We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you thought."

— John Steinbeck

"Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."

— Mary Oliver

Sharing our authentic stories, and really listening to someone else's story, are topics that have been central to a number of discussions and teachings that I’ve been exposed to in the past few months. Story, so it seems, is the irreducible core element of our humanity.

Did ya ever……

……have a day when you accomplished absolutely nothing of what you set out to do that morning? Aaarrrggghhh!. Didn’t even sit down to work until nearly noon - after the gym and a doctor’s appointment. I had hoped to do some writing today, plus dash off an email to someone I’ve been feeling the impulse to connect with. But did I do any of that? Nah! Floated around Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook; read some blog posts on my Google Reader, and generally was a slug. In my defense, I’ve had a low-level headache all day. Could that be a weather-related thing, you know, this windy, low pressure thing that’s going on?

Look to this day...

"Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can."

—

Dalai Lama

The Voices

"The rich and happy can choose to keep silent,
no need to bid for attention.
But the desperate must reveal themselves,
must say: I am blind
or: I am going blind
or: It’s not good for me here on Earth
or: My child is sick
or: I’m not holding it together…

But when is that really enough?
So, lest people pass them by like objects,
sometimes they sing.

And sometimes their songs are beautiful"

—

Rainer Maria Rilke

Book of Images

12th Step, perhaps...

"…….Ladies and gentlemen, who would dare attempt to analyze a phenomenon, diagram a wonder, or parse a miracle? The answer is: only a fool. And I trust that tonight I have not been such a fool. All I have tried to do is tell you where I have been these past 16 years and some things I have come to believe because of my journeyings.

This coming Sunday, in the churches of many of us, there will be read that portion of the Gospel of Matthew which recounts the time when John the Baptist was languishing in the prison of Herod, and, hearing of the works of his cousin Jesus, he sent two of his disciples to say to Him, “Art thou He who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Christ did as He so often did. He did not answer them directly, but wanted John to decide for himself. And so He said to the disciples: “Go and report to John what you have heard and what you have seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Back in my childhood catechism days, I was taught that the “poor” in this instance did not mean only the poor in a material sense, but also meant the “poor in spirit,” those who burned with an inner hunger and an inner thirst; and that the word “gospel” meant quite literally “the good news. “

More than 16 years ago, four men — my boss, my physician, my pastor, and the one friend I had left — working singly and together, maneuvered me into A.A. Tonight, if they were to ask me, “Tell us, what did you find?” I would say to them what I now say to you: “I can tell you only what I have heard and seen: It seems the blind do see, the lame do walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, and over and over again, in the middle of the longest day or the darkest night, the poor in spirit have the good news told to them.”

God grant that it may always be so."

— Excerpt from the pamphlet: “A Member’s Eye View of AA”

...all are responsible

Once more, Gandhi leads us.

Compare, too, the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel while sharing his thoughts on American involvement in Viet Nam:

“It became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty while all are responsible.”

Today....

Enjoy!

It’s a great day today, with bright sunshine and warm (for the season) temperatures. Getting up at 4:30 was a bit hard, but some coffee and morning prayers got me on track. After a good workout (weights today), mindfulness creating music and a hot cup of tea carried me to work. And then the cherry on top of my morning - today’s my last in the office for this week. Tomorrow early I’m heading for the Poconos for a workshop with Carrie Newcomer titled: Writing Mindfully: Exploring the Sacred Ordinary, and the weather is supposed to be terrific in the mountains this weekend. Work to do, late Fall bright and brisk days, time for rest and growing among stimulating people in a place that nourishes the spirit.

May each of you also be nourished, and even healed, with a day that’s what you need - and more.

Religion

"It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion — its message becomes meaningless."

— Abraham Joshua Heschel
God In Search Of Man

First Steps

The idea that “person” in the Constitution should be interpreted to include corporate “persons’ is sophistry for which my brother and sister attorneys should be held to account. Get corporate money out of the electoral process. Then, with appropriate apologies to Shakespeare: “First, let’s remove (a saner word) all the lobbyists.

All are equal...and welcome

This poster has been placed at every school in the Toronto District.

What an appealing idea. Sic semper “American exceptionalism”.

Hope

"Hope is like a road in the country. There was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."

— – Lin Yutang, Chinese author and inventor

To Waiting

You spend so much of your time
expecting to become
someone else
always someone
who will be different
someone to whom a moment
whatever moment it may be
at last has come
and who has been
met and transformed
into no longer being you
and so has forgotten you

meanwhile in your life
you hardly notice
the world around you
lights changing
sirens dying along the buildings
your eyes intent
on a sight you do not see yet
not yet there
as long as you
are only yourself

with whom as you
recall you were
never happy
to be left alone for long

—W.S. Merwin, “Present Company.” Courtesy of Whiskey River.

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Bobby leads still...

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

— Robert F. Kennedy