29/08/2024 - 12:45 P.M.
28/08/2024 - 4:59 P.M.
28/08/2024 - 4:37 P.M.
22/08/2024 - 11:35 A.M.
09/08/2024 - 1:18 P. M.
Benjamin, Who Came From Who Knows Where
What shall I do?
When I pick up the broom
he leaves the room.
When I fuss with kindling he
runs for the yard.
Then he's back, and we
hug for a long time.
In his low-to-the-ground chest
I can hear his heart slowing down.
Then I rub his shoulders and
kiss his feet
and fondle his long hound ears.
Benny, I say,
don't worry. I also know the way
the old life haunts the new.
– Mary Oliver, Dog Songs
10/07/2024 - 12:37 P. M.
What I understood on the other side of my decision, on the gulf, was that there was no such thing as ruining yourself. There are ways to be wounded and ways to survive those wounds, but no one can survive denying their own needs. To be a crane-wife is unsustainable.
– CJ Hauser, "The Crane Wife"
07/07/2024 - 1:46 P.M.
Mencius said, 'To try to achieve anything is like digging a well. You can dig a hole nine fathoms deep, but if you fail to reach the source of water, it is just an abandoned well.'
– Mencius
04/07/2024 - 6:20 P.M.
Yet the greatest waste of life lies in postponement: it robs us of each day in turn, and snatches away the present by promising the future. The greatest impediment to living is expectancy, which relies on tomorrow and wastes today. You map out fortune's hand but let slip what's in your own hand. What are you aiming at? What's your goal? All that's to come lies in uncertainty: live right now.
– Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
03/07/2024 - 8:24 P.M.
Kao Tzu said, 'Human nature is like the ch'i willow. Dutifulness is like cups and bowls. To make morality out of human nature is like making cups and bowls out of the willow.'
'Can you,' said Mencius, 'make cups and bowls by following the nature of the willow? Or must you mutilate the willow before you can make it into cups and bowls? If you have to mutilate the willow to make it into cups and bowls, must you, then, also mutilate a man to make him moral? Surely it will be these words of yours men in the world will follow in bringing disaster upon morality.'
– Mencius
20/05/2024 - 9:22 A.M.
09/05/2024 - 10:12 A.M.
09/05/2024 - 9:58 A.M.
Have faith in God and remember that He will in His own way and in His own time complete what we so poorly attempt. Often we do not achieve for others the good that we intend; but we achieve something, something that goes on from our effort. Good is an overflow. Where we generously and sincerely intend it, we are engaged in a work of creation which may be mysterious even to ourselves — and because it is mysterious we may be afraid of it. But this should not make us draw back. God can always show us, if we will, a higher and a better way; and we can only learn to love by loving. Remember that all our failures are ultimately failures in love. Imperfect love must not be condemned and rejected, but made perfect. The way is always forward, never back.
– Iris Murdoch, The Bell