Garland

Arwen Lynch, Professional Joy Seeker and Tarot reader, shared this quote in a recent newsletter and I loved it, so like she always says about seeking joy, I'm passing it on.

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord [or your preferred deity/energy - jmk] for letting you have the ride.

-- Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Don't worry about finding bliss. Just seek joy y'all. Pass it on.

Garland

Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with their experience.

-- attributed to Mark Twain but doubtful

Garland

The Guest House  

This being human is a guest house. 
Every morning a new arrival.  

A joy, a depression, a meanness, 
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.  

Welcome and entertain them all! 
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, 
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, 
still, treat each guest honourably. 
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.  

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, 
meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.  

Be grateful for whoever comes, 
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

-- Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks

Garland

We do not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, 
but by making the darkness conscious.

-- Carl Jung

Garland

...Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt, crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;...

-- from Write it on your heart, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Springtime

First a howling blizzard woke us,

Then the rain came down to soak us,

And now before the eye can focus -

Crocus.

-- Lilja Rogers

Garland

With Whom is no Variableness, Neither Shadow of Turning

It fortifies my soul to know

That, though I perish, Truth is so:

That, howsoe'er I stray and range,

Whate'er I do, Thou dost not change.

I steadier step when I recall

That, if I slip, Thou dost not fall.

-- Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861)

I found a newspaper cutting of this in my late father's wallet. I like it.

Live a good life

Live a good life.

If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care

how devout you have been,

but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by.

If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them.

If there are no gods, then you will be gone,

but will have lived a noble life that will live on

in the memories of your loved ones.

-- Marcus Aurelius

Roi lives on in our memories.

Roi Ankhara Kwabena

23/7/1956 - 9/1/2008

Garland

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

-- from Anthem by Leonard Cohen

Garland

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

-- Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words)

Remembering Roi

Roi Ankhkara Kwabena
23 July 1956 - 9 January 2008

There's a wonderful video by Maximilian Forte of Zero Anthropology, of Roi's powerful poem Obeah Man* -

"Deep Obeah". Enjoy!

*from Whether or Not (text) and Y42K (spoken word)

Garland

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

-- Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

Garland

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence...

-- from Autumn by Thomas Hood (1798-1845)

Garland

The whole world lives within a safeguarding... nothing is ever alone for a single moment.

-- Rumi

Garland

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.

-- Blaise Pascal

Garland

It is wisdom to know others; it is enlightenment to know one's self.

-- Lao Tzu