‘It seems to me we’re all just beginners at love’ (with apologies to Raymond Carver)
One of the more beautiful passages of writing I’ve read recently:
Outside in the backyard, one of the dogs began to bark. The leaves of the aspen that leaned past the window ticked against the glass. The afternoon sun was like a presence in this room, the spacious light of ease and generosity. We could have been anywhere, somewhere enchanted. We raised our glasses again and grinned at each other like children who had agreed on something forbidden.
~ From Raymond Carver’s
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”
When you’re a carillonneur….
When you’re a carillonneur you’re either up-and-coming, or you’re renown.
‘War is indiscriminate in our time’
“We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.” ~ Howard Zinn
Will it be already too late?
The French poet Aragon said “By the time we learn to live, it is already too late.”
New tax plan to promote equality, justice and peace!
Reuters says “White House to roll out tax cut plan mid-2020” — Filthy rich to pay fair share and society’s ills to be addressed …. Hahahahahahaha
Why don’t we do something about it?
So the beekeeping INDUSTRY is suing the EPA for approving an INSECTICIDE that has been shown to be harmful to bees and has possibly resulted in the 40% decrease in bee colonies beekeepers across the country have reported between April 2018 and April 2019. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY????? And am I the only one who sees it? The government needs oversight so we can ensure they stop harming us!!!!
A favorite:
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ~ E.B. White
… there is only one human heart.
“I have never met any human being in all my travels—and I have traveled extensively, including time spent with Native American peoples, with Australian Aborigines, and with the Maoris of New Zealand—that gave me the slightest doubt that in our heart of hearts we are all one. Not just similar—one; there is only one human heart.” ~ David Steindl-Rast, Timeless Visions, Healing Voices (again with thanks to Pace e Bene’s daily quotation email)
The emerging and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence….
“The emerging and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence has nothing to do with any tradition—no matter how ancient or impressive—it has nothing to do with time. It happens completely on its own when a human being questions, wonders, listens and looks without getting stuck in fear. When self-concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open.” ~ Toni Packer
Do you write to change the world?
“You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even but a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” ~ James Baldwin
Are we really free to do what we want?
Why do we tend to let ourselves do only the things we think we’re good at, trained at, educated in, experienced with, experts at?
How do we do let go of this constraint? Why don’t we do it more often? And what happens when we do?
Which is to say: Don’t restrict yourself to doing only what you’re good at. Try doing something you yearn to do. Something that excites you. Something you may think you’re not good at but you’ve always wanted to try.
You’re never too small to make a difference
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, just think of sleeping with a mosquito in the room.” ~ Tenzin Gyatzo, 14th Dalai Lama
Also, from @SwissMiss: The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world: Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.
On Listening Completely
“When people talk, listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out, know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
Can we bring peace to the world?
“There is no time left for anything but to make peacework a dimension of our every waking activity.” ~ Elise Boulding
“War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited. Love will overflow every sanctuary given it. Truth will grow where the fertilizer that nourished it is also truth. Faith will be its own reward.” ~ Alice Walker
Daily nonviolence quotation
I love my daily nonviolence quotations I get in my inbox from Pace e Bene.
“(Nonviolence) has been marginalized because it is one of the rare truly revolutionary ideas, an idea that seeks to completely change the nature of society, a threat to the established order. And it has always been treated as something profoundly dangerous.” ~ Mark Kurlansky, Nonviolence
Let’s go for a swim
I stopped by the International Friendship Park but no one was there. The park, ironically, is just over the border fence with Mexico in Imperial Beach, San Diego, California. Just over the fence, which most could easily swim around, is the Monumental Plaza de Toros de Tijuana, or the Bullring by the Sea. According to their website Access to Friendship Park within the US federal patrol zone is available weekly on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 2 pm. The US side is supervised by Border Patrol agents and visitors should be prepared to show ID! (Sounds friendly! And internationally so!) Continue reading “Let’s go for a swim”
