A Life of Wonder

I had this book, I think it was just called “the universe,” which I used to read for hours as a kid. I remember being fascinated with Saturn, wondering about the frozen ice on Mars and trying to understand just how big Jupiter really is. I recently came across this amazing little site about the scale of the universe, which I think you’ll enjoy.

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Her mind wasn’t in New York when she passed me. I don’t even know if she noticed the cars.

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A pamphlet came to me in the mail. It did not come to me actually. It was not addressed to me. The post master rolled it up and shoved it into the little metal square where I collect mail rather than my neighbors little metal square where it was addressed. I flipped through and discovered an interview with a writer. I don’t recall his name, and his name doesn’t seem important to me right now. What is important is what he said. “Don’t start writing when you know what you want to say, if you do, that’s propaganda. Write to discover your meaning.”

His words resonated with me. I spend my day near my computer or my phone pursuing objectives. I do not want to pursue objectives in my writing. I want to discover something there I did not know. I want to follow what I discover to a place that is not my own. And through it, wake up elsewhere…Maybe I’ll recognize the sites and the sounds, but I want the feelings to be different—so much rawer than my own—a part of my life I recognize but can not claim.

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Amitabha, originally uploaded by h.koppdelaney.

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” – Tom Robbins

We decided before we do. The mind has to be clear for the decision to be made. Even before we know, we know. What have you decided?

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how to pray the japanese way, originally uploaded by Jesslee Cuizon.

Did you pray as a child? The words sound different when said when you were young. Did you pray as a child? The music of prayer heard in the inner ear means something as a child; as we grow, the music grows, and expands, from ear to heart from heart to song. It’s not the words that create meaning for us, it’s their sound in the ear, their memory that expands as we grow, the song of prayer.

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Street art, oh no, originally uploaded by Dani Ka.

It’s good to want. Want and not have. It’s good to want, it keeps you honest.

I read today a sentence of Rilke that was more meaningful than an entire book i was reading. He managed to capture in it the essence of a feeling, an entire summer, within one perfectly crafted line.

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I’m Still a Child, originally uploaded by Ben Heine.

After childhood is over, we’re left to figure out what it means. I know people say we’re always a child, or we’re a child at heart; not really. There’s a moment when you realize that this period of your life called childhood has actually ended. What remains are these experiences without any boundaries that continue, every day, to call to you. How, or if, you answer them informs your relationship with the past. I don’t know why but I’m just now realizing the impact of what’s calling to me. So, what’s calling to you?

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Thoughtful, she said., originally uploaded by ot.

When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have
Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment
Is my strategy. When I had
No lover I courted my sleep.

samurai song – robert pinsky

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Fourth on Lake Austin, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves …
Don’t search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.

rainer maria rilke

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