musings

"It is not the critic that counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiently; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows in the end triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat or victory."

Theodore Roosevelt

"This is the only moment that is real."

Thich Nhat Hanh, from "Being Peace"

And where, praytell

does vision lie?

Within me?

within my experience?

my own sense of self-importance?

no....

My vision lies in letting go.

Freeing myself from self,

long enough to let the spirit speak from within.

to guide me,

direct me,

engulf me in a passion bigger than myself.

5.15.2011, 9:52 pm

"In the future opening ahead, the mornings are moored like boats."

Eugenio Montale

Sweet melancholy spririt

weighs me down

lithely -

not meanly or oppressively,

more like the

hand of a child on a balloon -

tentative,

tightly, for fear of losing,

but so easily

slips away

to fly....

fly high above

where words don't weep."

7.13.10, 8:10 pm

Gentle rain

intensifies

shifting broadly

to deep, streets of water

steady, mumbling, quenching,

dark sky intensifies -

the glow of street lamps

provide an echo

of the

world

streaming down.

7.12.10, 3:30 am

"The question is not what you look at, but how you look, and whether you see."

Henry David Thoreau

Three qualities necessary for progress: "great faith, great doubt, great effort."

taught by a Zen master to Orli Cotel, Sierra Club

"As swimmers dare to lie

face to the sky

and water bears them,

As hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

So would I learn to attain

freefall, and float,

into Creator Spirit's deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace."

Denise Levertov, "The Avowel"