Monday, December 29, 2008

"We Alone" by Alice Walker



We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know,
and if your chain is gold
so much the worse for you.






Feathers, shells,
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:
To love what is plentiful
as much as
what is scarce.


From: Anything We Love Can Be Saved by Alice Walker

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Sunday, December 21, 2008

...How the Light Gets In



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

Leonard Cohen

Image sent in to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3077437.stm
by Dougie Johnston

Saturday, December 20, 2008

"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver


You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves….
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination,
Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
Over and over announcing your place
In the family of things.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

For Our World

We need to stop.

Just stop.

Stop for a moment…

Before anybody

Says or does anything

That may hurt anyone else.

We need to be silent.

Just silent.

Silent for a moment…

Before we forever lose

The blessing of songs

That grow in our hearts.

We need to notice.

Just notice.

Notice for a moment…

Before the future slips away

Into ashes and dust of humility.

Stop, be silent, and notice…

In so many ways, we are the same.

Our differences are unique treasures.

We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts

To nurture, to offer, to accept.

We need to be.

Just be.

Be for a moment…

Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,

Like children and lambs,

Never judging or vengeful

Like the judging and vengeful.

And now, let us pray,

Differently, yet together,

Before there is no earth, no life,

No chance for peace.


By Mattie J.T. Stepanek

His picture follows:

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

"We each must become like fishermen...


"We each must become like fishermen, and go out onto the dark ocean of
mind, and let your nets down into that sea.

"And what you're after is not some behemoth that will tear through your
nets, foul them, and drag you and your little boat into the abyss. Nor are
what we looking for a bunch of sardines, that can slip through your net
and disappear, ideas like 'have you ever noticed that your little finger
exactly fits your nostril' and stuff like that.

"What we are looking for are middle-sized ideas that are not so small that
they are trivial, and not so large that they are incomprehensible, but
middle-sized ideas that we can wrestle into our boat and take back to the
folks on shore, and have fish dinner.

"And everyone of us, this is what we should be looking for. It's not for
your elucidation, it's not part of your self-directed psychotherapy; you are
an explorer, and you represent our species.

"And the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because
our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in
crisis because of the absence of consciousness.

"And so, to whatever degree, any one of us can bring back a small piece
of the picture, and contribute it to the building of the new paradigm.
Then we participate in the redemption of the human spirit."

- Terence McKenna

Image by Julie Paschkis - http://www.juliepaschkis.com/