Acceptance, when it comes arrives in waves; listen with your chest. You will feel a pendulum swing within you, favoring one direction or another. And that is your answer. The answer is always inside your chest. The right choice weighs more. That’s how you know. It causes you to lean in its direction.
~ Augusten Burroughs, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas
Quote (via Make Believe Boutique)
I didn’t know if there was anything like a God. I didn’t care. But it was mostly clear to me we were not just castaways in some tohubohu bearing an ensign of meaning only for those desperate enough to concoct one: I felt mostly certain more was going on than met the eye—despite not having a real clue just what that “more” might entail. My assuredness on these matters owed less to faith than it did to experience, for I’d been hearing echoes of the uncanny since early childhood.
— Ayad Akhtar, Homeland Elegies: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company, September 15, 2020)
Photo: DK, Daybreak. December 20, 2020. 6:23 am. 28° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford CT
One of my favourite things about in person conversation…..watching someone become more and more comfortable making eye contact with you. You’re watching a soul unfold, like a flower.
Photo: “Cleome” on Morning Walk. 6:10 am. July 16, 2020. Hollow Tree Ridge Road, CT
The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is the source of all movement.
Thus the Master travels all day
without leaving home.
However splendid the views,
she stays serenely in herself.
Why should the lord of the country
flit about like a fool?
If you let yourself be blown to and fro,
you lose touch with your root.
If you let restlessness move you,
you lose touch with who you are.
– Lao-Tzu, from “Tao Te Ching” translation by S. Mitchell
Notes:
It is time to just go into a cocoon
and spin your soul.
~ Sheila Heti, How Should a Person Be?: A Novel
Photo: Chelsea
When up close, each thing reveals its shimmer. And it’s the unexpected closeness that holds everything together. The light spreads across my dog’s face, her eyes so devoted to wherever I want to go.
Can I be this devoted to the pull of life?
~ Mark Nepo, from “Speechless” in Things That Join the Sea and the Sky: Field Notes on Living
Photograph by Kris Vanderveken (via Newthom)
Most of us live in this paradox: we are trailing glimpses of insight, knowing why we are here, and not knowing. We both remember, and forget. We are imbued with wonder, and sometimes consumed with loss. From childhood on, we seek our purpose in a thousand ways…The purpose of life is not to maintain personal comfort; it’s to grow the soul…”The work” does not need to be grand, only fitting. It is guided by asking ourselves over and over: What is the next right thing?
~Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers: A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These
Notes: Quote – Thank you Make Believe Boutique. Photo: Marta Bevacqua
Into the mug of morning
pour yourself, warm
and dark, your aromatic
presence hugging the hand-formed
divide between inside and out.
Ease from empty into full
until, brim-level, you
rise an swirl, a steamy
mist rejoining its source.
~Sharon Sharp
Notes: Photo: mennyfox55. Poem: Thank you Make Believe Boutique
In silence which is active, the Inner Light begins to glow – a tiny spark. For the flame to be kindled and to grow, subtle argument and the clamour of our emotions must be stilled
The word born of silence must be received in silence.
~ Pierre Lacout, Quaker Faith & Practise (2.12) in Twelve Quakers and Worship
Notes:
“I can tell you that solitude
Is not all exaltation, inner space
Where the soul breathes and work can be done.
Solitude exposes the nerve,
Raises up ghosts.
The past, never at rest, flows through it.”
— May Sarton, from “Gestalt at Sixty: Part 1″, in A Durable Fire: Poems
Notes:
I tripped into David Ramirez and this tune on Billions, Year 3, Episode 6 – “The Third Ortolan”. He’s an American singer-songwriter from Houston, TX, currently based in Austin.
“The best damn songwriter you don’t know yet”. – Paste Magazine
“Soulful, stirring, heartbreaking. David makes you hang on the turn of every phrase”. – The Civil Wars
“He knows no luxury. He wants no satisfaction. All he needs is an acoustic guitar and the words in his mouth to tell the true stories of a wandering man. But to see him live, with only that acoustic guitar in hand, spitting those words into rings of fire, is to experience something real…something that cannot be reproduced.” – Rudyard’s British Pub
Notes: Find David Ramirez’s Album “We Not Going Anywhere” on itunes and Amazon. Find his website here: davidramirezmusic.com.
Come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an angle to the iron way!
~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or The Whale (Modern Library, 1992, originally published by Harper & Brothers, 1851)
Photo: sebastião-salgado, Southern Right Whale, Patagonia, Argentina (via see more)
There is in the soul a desire
for not thinking.
For being still.
~ Raymond Carver, from “Radio Waves,” in All of Us: The Collected Poems
– – –
the body remains at home
tending to the housekeeping. It sweeps
and sweeps while the soul sits on a
riverbank somewhere, looking at clouds
The soul, it seems, has kept the best
memories: a silver dress that
knew how to dance, a kiss from mama,
and the one good year. Or maybe two…
~ Eleanor Lerman, from “A Myth Sitting by a River”
Notes:
Josh Farrow is an Illinois-born kid who played punk rock music as a teenager, eventually headed to Nashville in his early 20s to chase after his future wife — pulling triple-duty as lead singer, songwriter and ringleader. He is inspired by the New Orleans funk of Allen Touissant and the Chicago blues of his hometown — chasing down success on his own terms, bringing with him a sound that’s smoky, soulful, and signature.
“Before You Leave,” was a finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition.
This old house feels empty
There’s nothing I can hear
But the sad and silent echo
Of better years
I feel something breathe
In this dead and hollow room
It’s just this heavy old heart
That’s hanging on you
So before you leave
Darling, won’t you le me down easy?
Before you go
Won’t you help me ease my achin’ bones?
So before you leave
Darling, please, won’t you take what’s left of me
Living like it’s dark out
And the breeze is running cold
It’s moving through me like a haunting ghost
A photograph by the beside, it’s all that’s left I own
It’s a picture of a woman and all I’ve known.
So before you leave
Darling, won’t you let me down easy?
Before you go
Won’t you help me ease my achin’ bones?
So before you leave
Darling, please, I’m begging
won’t you take what’s left of me
~ Josh Farrow, from “Before you Leave (Atwood Magazine, Oct 26, 2016)
‘What did you mean by saying that you were psychic?’
‘What did you think I meant?’
‘Spiritualism?’ ‘Infantilism.’ ‘That’s what I think.’
‘Of course.’
I could just make out his face in the light from the doorway. He could see more of mine, because I had swung round during that last exchange. ‘You haven’t really answered my question.’
‘Your first reaction is the characteristic one of your contrasuggestible century: to disbelieve, to disprove. I see this very clearly underneath your politeness. You are like a porcupine. When that animal has its spines erect, it cannot eat. If you do not eat, you will starve. And your prickles will die with the rest of your body.’
~ John Fowles, The Magus
Notes:
Rayman is a walking juxtaposition — his raspy voice and eerily enticing lyrics demand a listener’s attention, while he himself prefers to keep his head down and let the music speak for itself. Little is known of the rising genre-melting artist, who fuses R&B swagger with hip-hop grit all while spinning compelling stories much like a country artist can — and the mystique is intentional…
Ben Lovett/Keyboardist/Vocalist from Mumford & Sons: “I came back from a tour a year or so ago and… there was music blaring out and the whole office was vibing. They were dancing around, singing along, and I felt like I had just been completely left out of the party and that was quite rare. If that’s happening normally it’s some classic hit, but it was something I had never heard before. It was Allan Rayman, obviously. I immediately got infected with the bug, went into my office, sat down and listened to what was Hotel Allan front and back and was completely blown away.”
~ Lindsey Havens, Billboard.com: Rising Artist Allan Rayman Discusses His Rule-Breaking Artistic Vision & More in First-Ever Interview
Lyrics from Tennessee:
…Well, this boy, he needs no company
This life is sharp like Pittsburgh steel…
It may be tough, don’t follow me
This boy, he needs no company
No company needed (Don’t need it)
I find comfort on my own thought…
Notes: OnestoWatch.com – 10 Reasons Why Allan Rayman Is The Most Mysterious Man in Music
There was a beautiful forest close…a place I would go to periodically for a hike. I tended to go there when it felt like the world was crashing down around me, when I felt overwhelmed. The woods were my escape, my get-away place of sanity. Walking under the shade of tall trees and listening to the sound of running water from rivers and waterfalls, I always had the same thought: I feel so whole when I am here. Why don’t I do this more often?
I know what makes me feel more. Why isn’t this an everyday practice for me?
In these days, it seems like we are living on the brink. Pomp and bluster seem to rule the day. There is conflict here, at home and around the world. Our very home, this tiny third rock from the sun, is in real danger.
One of the truths we know is that we live in an enchanted universe. The up-there and down-here mingle, the earthly and the heavenly mirror each other. We have no choice but to continue to redeem the world, to save the world from our own selves. We are, ironically, the cause of the breaking and just might be the channel of healing. To make the world whole, we ourselves have to become healed, become whole. Our well-being and the world being well are linked together.
To tend to our own inner lives is not selfishness; it is wisdom, it is essential, and it is unavoidable. […]
We are so attentive to our devices, making sure they are charged. Do we show the same care and concern for our hearts? Do we wait until we are running on fumes? How lovely and wise to make sure that the recharging is not through being a “weekend warrior” or even once-every-few-years vacations (both are lovely), but rather a matter of daily practice. […]
Let us, you and I, friends, find what sustains our soul. Let us find what nurtures our heart, who nurtures our heart, where our heart is nurtured.
Let us go there
daily
And make a habit of it.
If we may paraphrase the great Rumi:
Out beyond the realms of this faith
and that faithof no-faith
There is a field of goodness and beautywhere hearts our nourished
With each breath
I’ll meet you there
~ Omid Safi, excerpts from Tending Our Inner Life to Make the World Whole (onbeing.org, May 18, 2017)
Notes:
Zereeseis Player, age 12: “They taught me how to be respectful, they taught me how to listen, they’ve taught me not to be disobedient to others, and treat people like they want to be treated.”
Farrah Akbar, age 8: “I would say, if you’ve never seen a horse or touched a horse, just touch it. Because if you touch it, then you’ll feel the soul.”
At equine-therapy programs like Compton Jr. Posse in Los Angeles, inner-city adolescents find a refuge from drugs and street-gang culture by developing equestrian skills and learning to regard the knowing gazes of 1,000-plus-pound horses and guide their beguiling power. In return for striving in school, the program’s participants, ranging in age from 8 to 18, are taught to ride horses, groom them and clean their stables. These experiences keep them within the horse’s “personal circle.” Horses have a profound effect on humans. “Whether they have a physical handicap or an emotional handicap or a mental handicap, when you’re around a horse,” Akbar says, “the energy is so powerful that it tunes the body up…
Something extraordinary occurs when we’re in the presence of a fellow sentient being. When we let go of language’s tacit conceptual constraints and judgments, we allow ourselves a kind of time travel toward our own inner animal. Science is revealing the ways that the physiology of our psychology can be found across species: the common neuronal structures and attendant nerve wirings that we share in varying measures with a startling array of both vertebrates and invertebrates, including fellow primates, elephants, whales, parrots, bees and fruit flies. Animal therapy makes us aware of this cross-species interconnectivity on the purest, subconscious level…It has been established that the tactile element alone in animal therapy releases endorphins, so called feel-good hormones that counteract the trauma hormones of adrenaline and cortisol.
…therapists involved in such programs speculate that their benefits actually derive from shutting down for a time some of our brain’s higher and sometimes cacophonous cognitive functions…Rather than augmenting higher-level consciousness, a substance like psilocybin actually shuts down our brain’s ego center, which, under duress, can confer crippling fear, guilt and insecurity, and instead allows people access to their unfettered emotions and sense of childlike wonder. Allows them, in other words, a mind-altering walk in the wood with no names…
“He looked down,” Martin recalls, “and she just gave him a little lick, and suddenly I couldn’t stop him from crying. Just that connection set free all of this stuff inside of him. She was the catalyst. There’s that ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ thing that happens. That’s real.”
~ Charles Siebert, excerpts from Why Close Encounters With Animals Soothe Us (NY Times, May 18, 2017)
There are moments when,
whatever the posture of the body,
the soul is on its knees.
— Victor Hugo, from Les Miserables, Chapter IV. A Heart beneath a Stone
Live & Learn 