le bon mot du jour: alchemy

through love. all pain will turn to medicine.

- Jalaluddin Rumi

tatramajjhattata.

Eagle Poem


To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadly growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.


- Joy Harjo
from In Mad Love and War


photo made available for artistic consideration by lorne sykora

le bon mot du jour: wear your truth. beautifully.

"I often think of beauty in a song (a thing that disappears as soon as you hear it) or in a fleeting view of a landscape, which renews itself (we hope), or of the kinds of objects that sometimes become even more beautiful as they age and begin to show signs of wear and tear. My friend C says the same thing sometimes happens with people--some of them grow into their faces, for example, looking merely childlike when young, and not that interesting, but becoming more themselves as they begin to show some age. They're not really beautiful when young, at least not deeply."

-excerpted from "Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne

photo made available for artistic consideration by:Chris Willis

le bon mot du jour: where?

Where's the spirit that awakens you?
Where's the spirit that wants you to search, find out?
There's a passage in the Psalms,

"Yismach lev m'vakshei Hashem"

[Joyful are those who seek God, not those who found God.]


[ ... ]


Where are you, God? Where are you hiding?

So they tell the Hasidic story of the two kids who were playing hide and seek and one kid hid and then he started crying. So they said, "What's the matter?"

"No one's looking for me."

Now you know how God feels. We're not looking.

I don't know what God is, the being of God, but I know it's a shattering experience. It opens you to the world. It takes you out of your narcissistic ego trip and says, look, see the other. Show strength through compassion, through love, not through violence.


- Rabbi David Hartman

as presented in the transcript of
"Opening up Windows"
radio broadcast of "On Being" with
Krista Tippett

wherever you stand, be the soul of that place.

be mindful of them.

Miracle

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in —

Their shoulders numb, the ache and stoop deeplocked
In their backs, the stretcher handles
Slippery with sweat. And no let up

Until he’s strapped on tight, made tiltable
And raised to the tiled roof, then lowered for healing.
Be mindful of them as they stand and wait

For the burn of the paid-out ropes to cool,
Their slight light-headedness and incredulity
To pass, those ones who had known him all along.

- Seamus Heaney
in Human Chain

life is often like that.

some days, i ride along
so hyper-aware of everything around me.
scent of morning traffic.
slant of sun.
wind direction.
i am so unconsciously processing
it always astounds me when
unsubtle and loud
i sense something
HUGE
approaching


it's always too late as i
brace myself for the inevitable to come
certain catastrophe
encroaching

and
THEN
with
nerves
jangling
i realize
that
HUGE SEMI TRUCK
or passenger bus
is headed
MY WAY
as only


a
shadow

a giggly relief:
it's good to know,
life is often like that.








photo made available for artistic consideration by:: brevityness