Source: mennyfox55
Tag: darkness
Lightning. Hit me.
At times the truth shines so brilliantly that we perceive it as clear as day. Our nature and habit then draw a veil over our perception, and we return to a darkness almost as dense as before. We are like those who, though beholding frequent flashes of lightning, still find themselves in the thickest darkness of the night. On some the lightning flashes in rapid succession, and they seem to be in continuous light, and their night is as clear as the day… By others only once during the whole night is a flash of lightning perceived… There are some to whom the flashes of lightning appear with varying intervals; others are in the condition of men, whose darkness is illumined not by lightning, but by some kind of crystal or similar stone, or other substances that possess the property of shining during the night; and to them even this small amount of light is not continuous, but now it shines and now it vanishes, as if it were “the flame of the rotating sword.” The degrees in the perfection of men vary according to these distinctions.
~ Moses Maimonides, a twelfth-century Jewish philosopher and astronomer in the The Guide for the Perplexed
Credits: Quote – Brainpickings. Photo: Andrew S. Gray (via Madame Scherzo)
I do not dare breathe / Or move
The moon drops one or two feathers into the field.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.
There they are, the moon’s young, trying
Their wings. […]
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Or move.
I listen.
The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,
And I lean toward mine.
— James Wright, Beginning, Above the River: The Complete Poems
Credits: Photo: HJK Photography with Under the Harvest Moon; Quotes: nemophilies
I fought the wolves of patience
[…]
I fought the wolves of patience
just to let it lie down.
See these waters they’ll pull you up,
Oh if you’re bolder than the darkness.
My my, let these songs be an instrument to cut,
Oh spaces ‘tween the happiness and the hardness […]
What we found
Down these roads that wander as lost as the heart,
Is a chance to breathe again, a chance for a fresh start…
~ Ben Howard, These Waters
Sources:
- Ben Howard music video: These Waters
- GIF from Giphy – David Guetta Animated Gif
Friend
I have no idea how he knows when I need him.
We can go weeks without speaking,
and then, when my blue moods threaten to turn black,
he will show up and tell me my moods are:
azure,
indigo,
cerulean,
cobalt,
periwinkle–
and suddenly the blue will not seem so dark,
more like the color of a noon-bright sky.
He brings the sun.
— David Levithan, The Realm of Possibility
Notes:
- Credits: Poem – thesensualstarfish; Photo – Cerulean Circles
- Post inspired by Brain Pickings’ share: David Whyte on True Meaning of Friendship
The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life: a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble: of overwork, of too much emphasis on a professional identity, of forgetting who will be there when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most average existence. […] But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend or sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.
~ David Whyte, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words